Interventions

At Ash Grove we pride ourselves on the early identification of children who have barriers to learning.  

The interventions that we put in place stem from careful analysis of pupils’ progress and identification of areas requiring support.  Staff deliver specific programmes which include baseline assessment, ongoing monitoring and overall evaluation of the intervention. 

Curriculum Provision

We deliver focused interventions to support children with meeting age-related expectations: 

Little Wandle additional phonics interventions

Individual 'Keep-up' sessions are delivered daily to those children in EYFS and KS1 who need additional input after the main teaching session of the Little Wandle systematic synthetic phonics programme has been delivered.  These 'Keep-up' sessions ensure that all children are ready to move on at the same pace within the main lesson.

The 'Rapid Catch-up' programme is delivered to children in Year 2 and above who are not reading at the expected level for their age. It mirrors the main phonics programme but has been created to help children catch up quickly, so has a faster pace. By the end of the Rapid Catch-up programme, children should be reading with enough fluency and accuracy to access the curriculum in class, and to read with enjoyment and understanding.

Precision Teaching

This is a short, daily one-to-one intervention for children from Reception to Year 6, designed to secure understanding of basic skills, such as phonemes, spellings and times tables facts.  It takes a systematic approach involving repetition and 'over-learning', and incorporates ongoing assessment to accurately determine next steps.

Timely interventions

These take place when and with whoever needs them, and are part of our quality-first mastery approach to teaching maths.  They are short-burst, same-day additional sessions for those children who may need to secure their conceptual understanding before moving on to the next small step.

 

Social, Emotional and Mental Health Interventions

We provide a range of SEMH interventions, through a tiered approach, to support children who need some additional help managing their friendships, mental health or emotional well-being:

Informal check-ins and 'chill out' spaces

Daily or regular check-ins with trusted adults can help children to regulate their emotions and engage with their peers and their learning in a more positive way.  These may take place on arrival at school, or before or after break times, depending on the individual needs of the child.  The provision of 'chill out' spaces for children who become emotionally overwhelmed further supports self-regulation and their ability to manage difficult emotions, with the prime aim of helping them return to class quickly, calmly and ready to learn.

Nurture sessions

These one-to-one sessions take place in a calm, quiet space, therefore giving the children the time and opportunity to speak freely about their worries and concerns.   They are helped to develop coping strategies to support them in the wider school environment.

Socially Speaking 

A social skills programme for children in KS2 who may need support in developing and maintaining relationships.  It promotes self-esteem, improves listening and language skills, supports expressive skills, and improves confidence. The intervention is delivered over twelve sessions to a small group of children.

Friendship Terrace  

This is a series of sessions designed to teach friendship skills. It is based on ten stories about characters who live on 'Friendship Terrace'.

This programme helps primary aged children to recognise 'Friendship blockers' and 'Friendship builders' and teaches them to use strategies to support them to engage appropriately and therefore develop more positive relationships.   This intervention can be delivered in a small group or with individual children.

Lego Therapy

Lego-based therapy (LeGoff et al 2014) is an evidence based approach that aims to develop social communication skills, such as sharing, turn-taking, following rules, using names and problem-solving. 

Children work in groups of three with each participant having a distinct role to build a Lego model collaboratively: 

  • 'Engineers' use the Lego instructions and ask the 'Supplier' for the specific pieces of Lego needed
  • 'Suppliers' give the 'Builder' the pieces
  • 'Builders' follow the building instructions from the 'Engineer' in order to construct the model. 

Next Step Cards

Next Step is a tool that helps young people to communicate on their own terms, in their own environment.

Created by both young people and mental health experts, the colourful toolkit provides the perfect platform to enable safe and structured conversations with young people who may be struggling with their emotional health and wellbeing. 

How does it work?

Next Step is a set of 52 unique cards, with each card representing a particular mood, thought, action or goal. In a one-to-one scenario, Next Step will take you and a young person on a journey, encouraging them to discuss their thoughts and feelings and empowering them to set their own goals.

Angry Arnold

The Angry Arnold intervention is delivered to a group of children in Key Stage 1 as part of our work to support children’s emotional health and well-being.  Sessions cover a range of themes, including recognising anger in themselves and knowing their triggers for this, and exploring positive ways to cope with these difficult feelings.

Control My Thunder

Control My Thunder is the Key Stage 2 intervention aimed at supporting older children to recognise the triggers for their anger and understand and identify more positive ways to manage and deal with these emotions.  Sessions are delivered to a small group of KS2 children once a week for up to 8 weeks.

Transition

A bespoke programme for a small group, to discuss scenarios and solutions when moving between key stages, moving to a new school, or transitioning to high school.

Education Mental Health Practitioner

Holly Bardsley is our Education Mental Health Practitioner, part of our NHS Mental Health Support Team.  Holly works in school on a regular basis alongside staff to identify children who may need additional help to manage anxiety or low mood.  She then delivers interventions, in groups or 1-1, which allow children to understand and articulate how they are feeling, recognise that they can take back control of how they manage this, and put strategies and achievable goals in place to help them feel more confident in the future.

 

SEND

We offer a wide range of specialist or bespoke interventions to support children with specific additional needs.  Some of these include:

Wellcomm

WellComm is an intervention designed to help school to identify children, up to the age of  six years old, who are experiencing delays with speech and language and to support their development through a range of play based actives.

Time to Talk

A programme to develop communication and social interaction skills in reception and KS1 children. The programme is designed for small groups and will take place two to three times per week. It focuses on activities which develop the "rules" of interaction and teaches a range of skills including: eye contact, turn taking, sharing, greetings, emotional literacy, giving and following instructions, listening and paying attention, and play skills. 

Talk Boost (ICAN)

Talk Boost is an evidence-based intervention which supports language delay in Reception and KS1 children. It enables them to make significant progress with their language and communication skills. 

Motor Skills United

A programme to develop the core skills which underpin all areas of motor development. Activities cover skills such as hand eye co-ordination; core stability, balance, spatial awareness and auditory/visual sequencing. 

Sensory Circuits

A sensory motor skills programme for children, which provides regular controlled input to specific sensory motor systems whilst promoting physical, social and emotional development. Delivered to a small group of children on a daily basis, for up to twenty minutes per day.