Here we are at week 5 and our first communication newsletter for the year! The team have certainly hit the ground running. We have new and old members in our team this year consisting of teachers and teacher aides. For those of you who are new to our school community, the Communication Team looks at improving the use of Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) within our school. Our school predominately uses PODD and Proloquo2Go to support our students with complex communication needs, however our staff will model any device that is assigned to specific student as their voice. Each of our classrooms is equipped with a device with Proloquo2Go and two PODD books to model communication/language daily.

As a team, last year we went through the process of creating a new Group PODD for each staff member in the school. The PODDs have general everyday vocabulary but also vocabulary specific to our school and wider community such as our school rules or local places that students may go. The team is SUPER EXCITED to announce that the new Group PODDs have arrived!!!!

During our last staff meeting we asked staff to complete a survey which identified ours school’s strengths in modelling and providing access to AAC and areas that need to be focused on. These areas will be included in the school’s action plan to achieve throughout the year so we can better support our students with complex communication needs.

Our school also has a core word of the week focus (see attached photo). These are core words from PODD or Proloquo2Go that we model during the week to our students. These are also words that you can model at home to your child to reinforce their learning. You could model the word when travelling to a place (eg. shops), reading a story, cooking, watching a program on the television. The possibilities are endless.

Our team is looking forward to the challenges ahead in 2024 and making our school more communication accessible for all.