Rainbow II - Junior Class

Here we provide the necessary specialist support, and a highly differentiated curriculum which takes into consideration both the abilities, learning styles and, above all, the specific nature of the language/literacy/numeracy difficulties of the junior-aged child.

With inclusion our ultimate goal, the time table is structure so that Rainbow II children can integrate for non-academic subjects during afternoon sessions. Here they are accompanied by their learning-support assistant who facilitates this integration. Where a child is particularly able in a subject, arrangements may be made for him or her to join a mainstream class for that subject.  For more information on the mainstream school please click here. 

Speech and Language Provision

All children continue to receive individual speech and language therapy sessions from the Rainbow Centre speech and language therapist who liaises very closely with teaching and support staff. As appropriate, children also attend group sessions on the Social Use of Language, Phonological Awareness & Literacy, and Narrative. Their support staff also attend so that they are aware of the skills being targeted and can help the children generalise these to other educational settings.

A Theme-Based Spiral Curriculum

Teaching and learning in Rainbow II follows a language–focused curriculum where opportunities for language learning are optimised throughout the school day. This way each child’s speech, language and communication targets can be incorporated into both scholastic and recreational activities, thus increasing the likelihood that language- learning is consolidated and generalised to new situations, people and settings. This is possible due to the level of specialist knowledge, high adult-child ratio, and the work ethos whereby all unit staff are actively involved in the setting of linguistic and cognitive targets for each child.
 
Particular emphasis is placed on talk in Rainbow II and opportunities for this are built into the curriculum. Often the experiences of children with expressive speech or language difficulties in this regard have not been very happy, and some children become reluctant to express ideas for fear of ridicule by their peers. Rainbow II has a high adult: child ratio where the children are given many opportunities to engage in conversations supported by staff who are aware of, and sensitive to, their difficulties; staff who also recognise the importance of listening.  Many Rainbow children also have some degree of difficulty with the social use of language so fostering opportunities for peer: peer conversation is equally important.

Why Content-Themes?

The language–focused curriculum described above is based on the areas of learning and programmes of study set out at Key Stage 2 in the National Curriculum. Like Bruner (1978), however, we believe firmly that learning must be through discovery and enquiry where interest in  what is being taught will  be the ‘best stimulus to learning”. To facilitate this, we organise these areas of learning into content themes rather than deliver them as discrete units such as the ‘Literacy Hour or the Numeracy Hour’.

This type of learning experience is very effective in ensuring that learning does not take place in a void as the children can see the relevance of what they are being asked to learn.  An example of a content –theme recently carried out by Rainbow II children is ‘Accommodation in our Area’. It involved ICT and map reading through a search on Google Earth; maths was required to calculate the number and proportion of different types of houses/flats the children had seen on their field trip; the drawing of graphs involved scientific enquiry, while literacy was promoted through the writing and reading of short descriptions to attach to   the photographs the children had taken for their classroom display.  

Why A Spiral Curriculum?

As a direct result of their language-learning difficulties, children who join Rainbow II often have gaps in their knowledge base which slows up subsequent progress. For example, unlike his mainstream peers, a child may not have learned to blend  individual sounds together fluently in his reading as, at that stage, he was still uncertain of the relationship between letters and sounds;  another child may not have fully grasped the meaning of certain maths vocabulary so essential to understanding even simple mathematical problems.

Through a spiral curriculum basic concepts are revisited and re-examined regularly. Here, with staff  aware of each child’s current level of ability, they can scaffold learning so that the child is stretched and challenged to expand and build on his or her understanding, each time  reaching greater depth and sophistication.

The Hidden Curriculum

This refers to a range of social norms and values which pupils acquire consciously or unconsciously that are not taught directly through the curriculum. As Meighan (1981) suggests, during their time at school, children ‘are picking-up an approach to living and an attitude to learning’ which, we believe, will have life-long implications.  For example, the attitude of Rainbow staff will influence not only how our children react to making mistakes, but also the tolerance and support they are likely to offer their peers when in a similar situation. The specific way we handle any disruptive behaviours, should they arise in class, will not only affect feelings of self-worth in the ‘offending’ child, but also send  a message to all the children regarding respect for others.

As staff of Rainbow we are all very conscious of the impact we can have on the feelings of trust, confidence and self-esteem of our pupils with speech, language and communication difficulties; feelings which play such an important role in successful learning.

Occupational Therapy Provision

Private arrangements can be made with the experienced independent occupational therapist who visits the Centre each week during term time. Programmes of work are then incorporated by staff into the curriculum.