Preston Park Primary School CLLICT Presentation Our CLLICT Journey This project has been a journey for the Early Years Team, pupils and parents in Preston Park School. It has involved a lot of time and hard work by everyone. We would like to thank those people who contributed to its success. Jenni Hume Kerry McFarlane

Starting the Journey Our aims were to: Target a small group of children who have English as an additional language. Use ICT equipment outdoors to improve the development of their communication skills. What we did: Adults observed and monitored the progress of the target children. Planned for the effective use of the ICT equipment. Recorded the children’s progress by developing profiles. Liaised with parents about their children’s progress e.g. outdoor documentation display. We all started with the same aims and did similar things at the beginning of the journey. For example, we targeted children, used the equipment outdoors, observed and monitored children for their profiles.

Nursery’s Journey Nursery am Nursery pm We chose 8 children in nursery who were EAL and lacked confidence in communication skills. Languages spoken within the group are Romanian, Tamil, Kurdish, Polish, Farsi and Twi. These children had limited or no English spoken at the beginning of this project.

How are you? You’re a good girl. Sharing the journey! “Chawani to galak bashi” How are you? You’re a good girl. Ello! Ello! Baba Noor is talking on the phone to her Dad in Kurdish. Meeting with the parents to tell them about the exciting new project we will be doing with their children . We started by meeting the parents whose children were in the project. Parents were able to view what their child were learning and make comments. Learning became a cycle, from school to home and back again. Noor’s Dad replied in Kurdish on the outdoor display.

Planned Nursery Topics Our main topic was on Pets/Animals Visit to the animals: chickens, rabbits & goats A trip to the Vets using ICT equipment Read “The Three Billy Goat Gruff” Story Role-play the book using the ICT equipment Visit to the goats to enact the story Create a display on the story The children listened to the “The Three Billy Goat Gruff” story read in English. They also had it read to them by classroom assistants and parents in other languages, such as Turkish Polish and Tamil. The children visited the school goats: Toffee, Fudge and Candy. They role-played the story using the ICT equipment. Then they revisited the goats with the equipment to enact the story

Small steps Here we have the morning children using the ICT equipment during a free-flow session. Timotei speaks Romanian and has little to no English. He likes making noises using the microphone. Noor speaks Kurdish and she is playing independently with the equipment. She does not like sharing her toys. She has tantrums if anyone comes near her whilst she is engrossed in her play. Vithuna is sensitive and worried about situations. She speaks Tamil but lacks confidence in speaking English. She is at the vets with her unwell ladybug. She shows the plasters on the spots to the vet. She communicates using signs and gestures. Nizaankhan speaks Tamil and English. However he is shy and quiet. He is engrossed with the camera, taking photographs and video clips. He enjoys sharing his experiences and showing others.

Small steps The Nursery children are experimenting with the equipment outside in the nursery garden and quad. Olga speaks Polish and no English. She was reluctant to speak in to the echo bot. She did not like using the equipment, until the end of the project. Maxwell likes hiding in the caterpillar and using the torch. Atta is beeping at the beetle. Ryan was more interested in the chicken than the voice changer. (Ryan's Story) He speaks Tamil and English at home but elected not to speak in the nursery. When visiting the animals in the quad, he was more interested in the pot chicken, hippo and plastic snake. He grouped them together and played with the snakes mouth as though talking to the chicken and hippo. Later he took a soft toy goat home with the camera. He introduced his toy goat to his dinosaurs at home. The next day he came in to the nursery with his mother and shared his goat story with us. Ryan was talking!.

‘Tinkle, tinkle, little star’ Big strides ‘Tinkle, tinkle, little star’ “Amma, Amma” “Me and friend” Urhhhhh Urhhhh! The Nursery children are beginning to enjoy using the equipment and communicating with each other. Nizaankhan and Vithuna are using the walkie talkies. They are speaking in Tamil. Noor and Timotei are singing Twinkle,twinkle little star on the Karaoke machine. Atta and Maxwell are talking about being friends with each other on the headsets. Olga and Ryan are making noises with the voice changers. The children are all gaining in confidence.

Racing ahead Trip, trap, trip, trap! The children are playing in a group. They are using the Bee-bots and voice changers to act out “The Three Billy Goats Gruff’’. The nursery children have listened to the story of The Three Billy Goat Gruff. They are looking at the ICT equipment to see what to use for their story. They are beginning to work as a group. Timotei wanted to be the troll and started to say “trip trap” through the voice changer. Vithuna wanted to be the little billy goat. Noor did not want to join in the game. Nizaankhan had decided he was going to be the big daddy goat and he was waiting for the rest of them to get started.

… the winners! This is their story of “The Three Billy Goat Gruff”

Reception’s Journey… Children from Reception We chose to target 8 children from Reception. The children were all EAL and lacked confidence in language and communication skills. The children spoke a range of languages such as Gujarati, Arabic, Polish and Romanian. At the start of the project we assessed the children’s Communication, Language and Literacy and Personal, Social and Emotional skills. Nearly all of the children had limited or no English and lacked in confidence.

…trudging along Rules We will turn the equipment off. If it doesn’t work we will put it in the battery box. We can share the equipment with our friends. We will treat the toys nicely. To begin we introduced the toys to the target children. This gave them a chance to become familiar with the equipment in a small group. Next we attempted to get the target children to model how to use the equipment to the rest of the class. Each class made a set of rules to ensure that all the children in reception shared and played fairly with the equipment.

…spinning and turning Childs play At the start of the project the children engaged in a lot of free play. This enabled all of the children to become familiar with the equipment and gave the target children the opportunity to become ICT experts. The staff observed child-initiated play and formulated ideas for planning the following week.

What next??? Talking partners Writing partners Racing bee-bots Head-lamps in dark spaces Karaoke challenge Over the duration of the project we attempted to plan for effective use of the equipment but still encouraged child-initiated play. Some of the ideas we had were using the voice changers to play talking partners and the writing boards as writing partners, this encouraged interaction between the children. We made a mini-beast den, the children used the head lamps to see in the dark. This was a comfortable and private space for the children to express themselves.

Bishesh’s Journey I like to play with my Bee-bot alone. I’ll stand back and watch these boys play. Look at us all playing together! Bishesh enjoys playing with the equipment, his favourite is the remote control bugs. Whilst other children invent games and play together, Bishesh’s lack of confidence means he prefers to play alone or watch from afar. After a few sessions he approaches other children. The toys are a good ice-breaker allowing him to take part silently. Towards the end of the project he gained more confidence and social skills and began to talk to his friends.

Ghanshyam’s Journey I love my new toy! I like to video the buildings And now I like to video my friends At the beginning of the project Ghanshyam enjoyed using the video camera. He was shy, timid and didn’t interact with other children. When given the video camera he videoed the floor and the buildings. Later his confidence grew and he started videoing his friends. When the video is played back you can hear him talking and interacting with his friends.

I’ll show you how to work the camera! Mohammed’s Journey I’m an ICT expert! I’ll show you how to work the camera! Say cheese! Mohammed preferred to play with the same equipment, this was the video camera. Over the duration of the project he became an experts. Mohammed liked to use the video camera. First he filmed his friends, later he was confident enough to teach other children.

Ghanshyam’s Journey Earlier I talked about watching Ghanshyam’s film and hearing him talk to his friend for the first time. Here is a small clip that shows this.

Mohammed’s Journey This is Mohammed’s journey through film.

Evaluation of ICT Equipment Winners Losers Karaoke Machine Clear/White Mats Voice Changer Traffic light Play phone Bee Bots Camera I-Bugs Sing along CD player Talktime postcards Walkies Talkies Batteries Headsets Echo bot Torches We asked the children which pieces of equipment they liked to play with the most. The staff also discussed what they observed worked and did not work.

The Impact of our Journey Staff gained confidence in ICT, whilst the project gave others time to focus on children’s needs. Staff learnt from each other and used each others skills and experiences. Staff had shared aims and worked together as a team to have a successful outcome. The effective use of ICT equipment is now embedded in the planning to insure it has a purpose Through documenting the children’s progress in the outdoor environment, the teachers and parents have become partners in the children’s learning Children have gained confidence especially in Communication, Language and Literacy and the use of ICT equipment. However, it has had an impact across all the areas These are some of the findings that impacted on the staff, children and parents. I’d like to pay particular attention to how the staff have worked together as a team, parents have become involved for the benefit of their children.

Where to next? To show the presentation to parents at the induction meeting To continue the project in Early years and extend the use of ICT equipment to year 1 To promote the CLLICT project to the staff and parents on the school website To develop a documentation wall starting at the beginning of the year showing childrens` progress To encourage parents to involve their children with ICT tasks using Fronter To trial the use of PDAs for assessment in Early years This shows where we intend to take the project in the future. We have already promoted the project on the school website and have had positive feedback. We would now like to encourage more parental involvement and this could be done through Fronter. Fronter is an interactive online system where parents can be kept updated with their childrens’ progress. We hope you enjoyed our presentation. Any questions?