Early identification and support for speech and language development needs with WellComm

Holy Trinity Primary School, located in Belfast, is committed to fostering a nurturing learning environment for its pupils. With a diverse population of pupils, the school recognises the importance of early identification and support for speech and language development needs. Lorraine Murphy, Assessment Co-ordinator, explains below how the school has been successfully utilising GL Assessment’s WellComm toolkit for this purpose.

Our school has been using WellComm, a complete speech and language toolkit from GL Assessment, for around 10 years with our P1 pupils. We administer the assessment as a baseline when they enter P1, and again at the end of the year to track and monitor their progress. This tool has been invaluable for us in identifying and supporting children with speech and language development needs.

Key outcomes:

  1. 1

    Administer WellComm individually with each pupil in as little as 15 minutes

  2. 2

    Use the Online Report Wizard to track results and monitor progress

  3. 3

    Use the ‘Big Book of Ideas’ for tailored activities to meet specific needs

This tool has been invaluable for us in identifying and supporting children with speech and language development needs.

Lorraine Murphy, Assessment Coordinator, Holy Trinity Primary School, Belfast

Ease of administration

WellComm is administered individually with each pupil and takes around 15 minutes. The results are presented in a traffic light system (red, amber, and green), making it easy to understand and identify those individuals and areas that require immediate intervention.

The Report Wizard is a secure online tool that enables us to quickly and accurately calculate scores, which improves the accuracy of scoring over scoring by hand. We also use the Report Wizard to track our results and monitor the progress of each child and class. This feature has streamlined our process and provided us with clear, actionable insights.

The ‘Big Book of Ideas’

One of the standout features of the WellComm toolkit is the ‘Big Book of Ideas’. This resource provides teachers with tailored activities to meet each child’s specific needs. During our parent-teacher meetings, we often share these ideas and activities so that parents can work on them at home, ensuring consistent support for the child.

Overall, WellComm has been a cornerstone of our approach to early years education, helping us to provide targeted support and track the development of our pupils effectively.

 

Holy Trinity Primary School is one of our Advocate Partners.

WellComm has been a cornerstone of our approach to early years education, helping us to provide targeted support and track the development of our pupils effectively.

Lorraine Murphy, Assessment Coordinator, Holy Trinity Primary School, Belfast

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