Swindon Speech & Language Therapists praised for their work with Children’s Centres and Early Years settings.
Speech and Language Therapists, Janet Hunt, Sarah Woodhams, and Alex Stewart in Swindon have been praised for their work supporting children’s communication in the Shine a Light 2011 Hello campaign awards.
Run by The Communication Trust and Pearson Assessment, the Shine a Light awards are the flagship initiative of the Hello campaign (national year of communication). At the awards ceremony on Wednesday 23rd November, hosted by Vanessa Feltz, the therapists, also known as the ‘training for talking’ team’ were highly commended in the Team of the Year category.
Janet Hunt, Speech and Language Therapist, said: “It is fantastic news to be highly commended for our work in the Shine a Light awards. We are really proud of our achievements in our work to offer training and support to staff in Children’s Centres and other early year’s settings. Over 360 different professionals have attended at least one of our workshops, and the Children’s Workforce in Swindon is becoming better skilled as a result. This is having an impact on children’s speech and language development. More children are starting school with the communication skills they need to do well. Swindon has narrowed the gap between the lowest 20% in the EYFS profile and the rest, from 33.2% (2009) to 29.6% (2010) and this trend looks set to continue. We have also met over 500 parents at drop-in sessions, and offered advice about reducing the use of bottles, dummies and TV, and increasing activities like singing, looking at books and playing.”
Shine a Light was designed to honour individuals, teams, projects, communication friendly settings and communities that have demonstrated excellence in supporting the needs of all children and young people’s communication, including those with speech, language and
communication needs (SLCN).
Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, said: “Well done to the Swindon ‘Training for Talking’ Team, for being highly commended for their exceptional work supporting children’s communication skills. The judging panel were impressed with their hard work and dedication. We will be sharing their examples to improve practice in 2012, as part of the ongoing legacy of the Hello campaign.”
Chris Hall, Managing Director of Pearson Assessment who sponsored the Shine a Light awards, said: “The Shine a Light awards have truly shown the outstanding practice being carried out by dedicated teams like ‘Training for Talking’. We have been very impressed with their work and congratulate them on all their achievements.
“Working with The Communication Trust to host these awards and being part of the national Hello campaign has been an incredible experience, which has tapped into our company ethos to support professionals and make a difference to their day to day practice. We hope the success of the year and all the outstanding practice, which has shone through these awards, continues into 2012 and beyond.”
40 judges representing some of the biggest voices in speech, language and communication were involved in Shine a Light. This included Dame Claire Tickell, who recently led a Government review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, Professor Neil Mercer from the University of Cambridge, Professor Geoff Lindsay of the University of Warwick, and Jean Gross, England’s Communication Champion for children.
Hello is a campaign to make children and young people’s communication development a priority in homes, nurseries and schools across the country. Applications came in from a range of settings, professionals and individuals, who work directly with children or who are responsible for commissioning children’s services, as well as parents and young people.
As part of the campaign, the Swindon Speech and Language Therapists ran a competition asking children to create a poster about what communication means to them. These were displayed at the Shine a Light Awards in London and will also feature around Children’s Locality Team offices in Swindon. The fantastic winning entries from children in Grange Junior School and St Mary’s Catholic Primary school will be presented with their certificates and prizes during December. Sarah Woodhams, Speech and Language Therapist said: “The competition was a great opportunity to raise awareness of what communication, and difficulties with this, means to children. We were very impressed with the entries and look forward to sharing the messages on their posters with the children’s workforce”.
To find out more about the winners and runners up of Shine a Light, visit www.hello.org.uk
For information on Shine a Light and for interview request, please contact Lynne Milford, Press and PR Officer for The Communication Trust on 0207 8432564 or email lmilford@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk