Supporting speech language and communication (slc) at North Borough Junior School

Speech, language and communication are essential life skills. They are linked to learning, attainment, behaviour, social and emotional development, and mental wellbeing.

The Balanced System® is used in Kent to help everyone work together to support pupils’ speech, language and communication, and this includes us working in a more joined up-way with the speech and language therapy service.

We have an allocated link speech and language therapist from the NHS who we meet with regularly to help us plan and improve our support for speech, language and communication across the school. They also work with individual pupils or groups as needed. Our link therapist is Donna Taylor and your child may see them in class or around school.

What is The Balanced System?

The Balanced System® is a whole system strategic approach to supporting children and people with a whole range of needs, that has primarily come out of work in the area of speech, language and communication but has evolved to be used to consider other therapy areas for children and young people, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, CAMHS, holistic SEND support and most recently tests of concept with some adult populations.

This page outlines the core framework. For more detailed information, publications and downloads please follow this link.

The Balanced System® Scheme for Schools and Settings is a complimentary school or setting accreditation scheme that facilitates schools, settings or child minders to use the Balanced System framework to develop and evaluate their support for the children and young people they support.

Marie Gascoigne has been developing the Balanced System® framework for approaching 20 years. It is used by a whole range of stakeholders, including commissioners from all disciplines and providers, particularly of therapy services.

The Five Strand Outcome Areas

The Five Strand Outcomes areas each with outcomes at a universal, targeted and specialist level, provide the High Level Outcomes Framework that a system working in this way should aim to be achieve.

Our school is committed to achieving the following outcomes, known as the ‘Five Strands’ of the Balanced System®:

Family support: Parents have the confidence, knowledge, and skills to support their child's speech, language and communication; and pupils can make pro-active choices about their support.
Environment: classrooms and other places in school are set up to help pupils to understand and express themselves effectively.
Workforce development: our staff know how to support pupils with their speech, language and communication.
Identification: speech, language and communication needs are identified early and effectively.
Intervention: pupils get the help they need to make progress with their speech, language and communication.

In each strand, there are three levels of support:

Universal Support: Helps all pupils with speech, language and communication. For example, staff using visual aids to enhance understanding in class.
Targeted Support: Assists pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) or those at risk. For example, pre-teaching vocabulary and small language groups.
Specialist Support: For more complex SLCN requiring individualised approaches. For example, therapy for a child with a complex speech sound disorder.

Pupils may need support at several levels simultaneously, and this can change over time. For instance, specialist support might be helpful at certain points, but pupils will also receive universal and targeted support.

Current focus:

Our current focus is to develop Parental understanding of how to help their children at home so we can work together to provide holistic support to our children. In addition, we are working to ensure all staff have a full understanding of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and ensuring our classroom support is consistent.

More Information:

For more information about the Balanced System® in schools and how speech and language therapy services are working, visit KELSI.

Concerns about your child's speech, language and communication skills:

If you have any concerns about your child’s speech, language or communication skills, please speak to your child’s class teacher first. We will then work together to agree on the next steps.

If necessary, we may discuss your child’s needs with our link therapist and develop a plan. You will be kept informed about any plans to support your child.

An important principle of the Balanced System® is ensuring that what matters most to you and your child is central to agreeing on outcomes and setting targets.

Useful websites for parents:

Speech, language, and communication needs - Kent County Council (general information about SLCN in Kent including how to access support)
The Pod - KCHFT – (information and resources including workshops delivered by Kent speech and language therapists
Home - Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives (national charity, lots of information on typical development, resources and advice translated into different languages)
SLCN - Afasic (national charity – information and resources)
RADLD - Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder - RADLD
Parent Portal - Speech and Language Link (information about development and activities to support including for teenagers)
Words for Life | National Literacy Trust | Words for Life (parent advice to support language, literacy and communication for up to 12 years)
Zone In | Words for Life (Tips on boosting reading, writing, speaking and listening skills for young people age 14+)
The Balanced System® in Kent for Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) – KELSI (information aimed at schools and professionals, but may be of interest to parents wanting to understand how the Balanced System works in more detail)

Balanced System Scheme for Schools Accreditation

Our school has taken up an opportunity to work towards a nationally recognised ‘Balanced System ®: Scheme for Schools and Settings’ accreditation, created by Better Communication CIC and endorsed by NAPLIC and Afasic.

We are working to develop our provision for speech, language and communication needs across the whole school with the support of a local mentor. To achieve accreditation, we will provide impact evidence to show the difference we are making for pupils and their families.

Among other evidence, we will capture staff, pupil and family voice to show the lived experience of how speech, language and communication needs are being supported across the school and how this is making a difference.

North Borough Junior School