Page 17 - link magazine

Learning different ways to communicate

Lydiard Park students using musical instruments rather than pens for a day
Year 7 students at Lydiard Park using natural and human percussion
Academy put down their pens on 7 instruments.
October to get stuck into a national “There was a lot of team activity
literacy initiative conceived by the involved to work out how to convey
Communication Trust. what they meant without being
No Pens Day Wednesday able to write things down. Students
encouraged schools to focus on also had to examine everyday life
speaking and listening activities by situations and think about what
developing and enhancing speech, would happen if they didn’t have
language and communication skills. the ability to write.
Project organiser Vicky Buchalik “It’s important for young people
said: “During the course of the day to learn good verbal and non-verbal
students were set a variety of tasks communication skills for their
including story telling, drama skills, future development.
and making music, tone and rhyme www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk
Police apology makes
national news

An innocent discussion by founda-
tion stage children at Haydonleigh
Primary School with local police
officers on the sound a patrol car Building Confidence
makes hit the national headlines in
late September. Realising Potential
The PCSOs were on a meet and
greet with the youngest children
as part of the school’s ‘people who
help us’ topic and teachers asked
the youngsters whether the siren
was a woo woo or neh nah. The

officers obligingly set off the siren
several times to assist with the
debate before a vote was held.
PCSO Emma Harryman later “Aspire helped me much more than
explained why the siren had just getting an A in my GCSE Maths,
sounded so much on the North they helped me get where I am today.”
Swindon Neighbourhood Police Joshua Snowdon, Law Student at the University of Essex
Team Facebook page, apologising
for the concern some people may
have felt about it.
BBC Radio Wiltshire were quick to
follow it up with a live interview on
25 September which in turn sparked
national media attention.
The vote was decisive in favour of
the woo-woo noise. • English, Maths and Science • 11+ training and preparation
Headteacher Frances Billenge said: • Fully Qualified Teachers • Free assessment and first lesson
“We are all just amazed how the • Ofsted registered • Boost your child’s confidence
story took off from an explanation Tel: 07925 193321 | www.aspireeducationcentres.co.uk
on Facebook. We were inundated
with enquiries by national media.”
swindonlink.com n November 2015 17