Understanding School Refusal: Supporting Students with School Phobia
Before we begin, it’s important to clarify that the term’ school refusal’ is not a helpful one. Usually, it is not a child’s conscious decision to ‘refuse’ to attend, but more that they simply feel un …
Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional Speech and Language Therapy
Online Therapy from Mable is a More Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional Speech and Language Therapy Budget is often the most crucial factor when deciding how to allocate your funds. For many sch …
How to help a child overcome social anxiety
In the UK, 5 children in a class of 30 are now likely to have a mental health problem, the Children’s Society reports. The research portrays the stark reality facing many schools across the nation. Ov …
Grounding activities to help support yourself and your students in times of stress
Writing as a creative arts therapist for Mable’s online counselling service, I’ve noticed that the children and young people I work with are requesting practical grounding activities for self-regulati …
Top-tips to start using Makaton signing in your classroom
As a speech and language therapist and qualified early years teacher, if I were to choose a communication tool that enhanced the learning environment for all children, it would be Makaton. Let me set …
Why is my child so angry? The lockdown effect.
Are you at home in lockdown and wondering how on earth other families you know on social media are spending their days blissfully baking cakes, colouring rainbows and smiling in the sunshine? Well the …
5 things teachers ask me about Auditory Memory
Difficulties with Auditory memory can have a significant impact on a pupil’s ability to attend and learn at the same rate as the rest of their class. I have worked as a speech and language therapist f …
A Guide to Vocabulary Teaching: Part 2
The second part in a series of 3 blogs about vocabulary teaching: the ‘how’ and the ‘who’ How? – how do we begin to teach children the vocabulary needed to engage in all aspects of the curriculum? Who …
The Forgotten Children Scandal – A Review
On the 18th July 2018, the House of Commons Education Committee put together their review of alternative provisions (APs) in the UK and the difficulties around providing education for children not in …
Everything you Need to Know about Oracy and Dialogic Teaching
In this blog series, I will give you everything you need to know about Oracy and Dialogic teaching. I work with children at Key Stage 2 so I will explain what is meant by dialogic teaching and cover p …