The awards, orgnanised by the Communication Trust, celebrate best practice and excellence by individuals, projects and organisations supporting children and young people’s communication.
As part of Haven 2000 Nursery’s communication development strategy, its staff use a signing system called Makaton. This visual speech aide, which was developed for children with special educational needs, can also be helpful if English is not the child’s first language or they are simply too young to speak. The signing system is used by children’s TV star Mr Tumble on the BBC.
‘We are extremely proud to have our work recognised with this award, but more importantly we have seen the benefits to the children and their families’, said Maria Riley, nursery manager of the family-run nursery, which was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Ms Riley added, ‘All of our children have an individual language development plan helping to support speech and good communication between the children and the staff and of course with each other.
‘We have several children for whom English is not their first language, so signing is very helpful. We also encourage them to teach us some of their language and customs.’
The Shine a Light awards were launched last year as part of the Communication Trust’s ‘Hello’ campaign to mark the national year of communication.
Anne Fox, director of the Communication Trust, said, ‘Communication is a vital skill for everyone to learn and the quality and range of applications we received this year show how much this is valued across society.’
