Cookery Books

Our Star Room team are skilled practitioners who deliver 1:1 and small group sessions in:

• Talkabout
• Life Skills
• Zones of Regulation
• Lego Therapy
• Friends for Life
• Drawing and Talking
• Precision Teaching
• Listening Skills
• Toe by Toe
• Black Sheep narrative work
• Speech & Language
• Outdoor Learning
• Social Stories
• Numicon
• Phonics
• Self esteem and resilience

Our transition package has changed and adapted in order to stay COVID-19 safe. Virtual tours of the school are now available on our website and Zoom calls can be booked with our SENco. Please also see the following links:

Virtual Tour

The Star Room is designed to be a calm and quiet environment where children can work on the acquisition of specific skills in a surrounding in which they feel both safe and comfortable. Learning is developed through a range of activities including multi-sensory learning, play and relaxation. The students in the Star Room will also have access to all the facilities offered by Abbey Park Federation Middle School. Low Arousal EnvironmentThe Star Room and Discovery Rooms are designed to be low-arousal environments with calm, neutral-coloured

walls and limited displays to ensure our pupils have the best learning environments possible.

Work Stations

Each pupil’s specific learning space is personalised. The Star Room has desks with moveable screens, so each pupil can have access to a workstation.

The Quiet Room

The Quiet Room is used by the pupils for relaxation as well as a safe place to calm down. The LED star floor, mood light, weighted blanket, weighted toy dog and scent diffuser offer a sensory haven for many of the pupils in the Star Room.

Sensory Profiles and Sensory Diets

Each Star Room pupil has a sensory profile, designed and worked on by the Star Room team. This profile is built up over time with input from our Star Room pupils, parents, outside professionals who work with our children and our own expert team.

Our Star Room, Discovery Room and Learning Zones are run by our expert and dedicated team:

This is a pivotal part of the curriculum for all our Star Room pupils. Our Star Room pupils are explicitly taught about the range of emotions that they may feel and how their body responds to these emotions. It is integral to the teaching in the Star Room and The Discovery Room.

Zones of Regulation

The ‘Zones of Regulation Model’ is the primary vehicle of supporting pupils to understand their own bodies response to emotion. The heart of this support system is to recognise that it is ok to feel a range of emotions and that even positive emotions can lead to individuals becoming out of control.

Videos, photos and real life situations are used to support and model emotions. As well as a range of ‘tools’ that can be used to support pupils when they feel emotions that send them out of control. An important part of this process is adults modelling when they feel an emotion and modelling to the pupils how they use their own set of ‘tools’ to regulate themselves.

The Star Room curriculum is designed to provide excellent opportunities to support pupils with their social communication and interaction skills. Every opportunity is taken to help support each pupil when interacting with their peers and adults.

Talkabout

Our base team is highly skilled in delivering Talkabout interventions – a speech and language approach that is widely used as a support system for individuals with ASD. Our Star Room pupils and our team, also receive expert input and training from our specialist Speech and Language therapist, who regularly visits the setting to work with both pupils and staff.

Lego Therapy

Using and constructing items from Lego greatly benefits all the pupils in The Star Room. The pupils are encouraged to listen to others, ask questions, develop a sensitivity to others and share items by building models collaboratively. The pupils are then supported to transfer these communications skills in other social situations.

Social Stories

Many of our Star Room pupils need support to understand other people’s thoughts, body language and emotions. Time is spent supporting and teaching our Star Room pupils to navigate through these complex social situations. This process is then used to support our Star Room pupils when social challenges arise.

Speech & Language

Many of our Star Room pupils benefit from having personalised targets given by our trained S&L therapist that are either delivered in small group or 1:1 sessions.

We offer a specialist, individually tailored curriculum that meets the learning and developmental needs of each child.

We provide this within an integrated setting, where each young person can learn alongside their peers at a pace which suits their needs.

Our Star Room children have the opportunity to engage in learning in our mainstream setting, supported by a specialist teacher, or teaching assistant or working independently as appropriate for each child.

The amount of time that each child will spend in The Star Room or The Discovery Room is child-specific and is continually reviewed.

Star Room Learning within Mainstream

Mainstream staff are also supported by our specialist team to provide an Autism-friendly learning environment in all classrooms and across the school environment.

Staff and students make full use of language support systems such as Communicate In Print, IT resources such as iPads, laptops and Smart Boards to support teaching and learning.

Star Room Learning within The Star Room and Discovery Room

Our Star Room pupils have an individualised curriculum designed to support their needs which might include;

• Social communication and interaction,
• Emotional regulation,
• Sensory processing skills,
• Focus and attention
• Life preparation skills
• Experiences which include organisational and memory support skills.

The Star Room uses specialist approaches to teaching and learning such as; Zones of Regulation, Talkabout, Lego Therapy to name but a few. However, we tailor the learning style used to meet individual needs.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Abbey Park Schools Federation we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

How will RWI be taught?

In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ and ‘write’ all of the sounds in Set 1 and then taught how to blend these into words. Fred the frog helps the children to blend the sounds together which is then used to help children read. The teachers will often use the phrase ‘fred talk’ to sound out words.

The children take part in lessons every day progressing to reading books by the end of the Summer term. They also learn how to spell red words (words that cannot be sounded out) and 3/4 letter words during these lessons.

All children are assessed regularly by our RWI lead teacher so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.

Parent video: How to say the sounds

Parent video: Introduction to Daily Read Write Inc. Phonics Lessons