St Jude's Church of England Primary School

ELSA - Emotional Literacy Support

ELSA provides dedicated emotional support for children, helping them develop confidence, resilience, and the skills to understand and manage their feelings.

Many of our pupils face daily barriers to their learning and this dedicated space and adult supports their ability to share and regulate in times of need. 

ELSA Resources 

TEACCH

TEACCH is a structured teaching approach designed to support learners, particularly with ASD. It focuses on creating predictable routines, using visual supports, and organising the learning environment to help children understand expectations, develop independence, and succeed with confidence.

Colourful Semantics

We use Colourful Semantics to support children in developing strong sentence structure, vocabulary and understanding. This approach uses colour-coded cues to help pupils organise their ideas, build sentences and improve their speaking and writing. It is particularly effective for children who need additional support with language development, but benefits all learners by making sentence construction clear, visual and engaging.

Outdoor Sensory Space

Our outdoor sensory space provides a calm, stimulating environment where children can explore, relax and regulate their emotions. Designed to support wellbeing and sensory development, the space includes a range of textures, sounds, colours and natural elements that encourage curiosity and calm. It is used by all children, including those who benefit from sensory breaks or quieter moments during playtime. 

Early Reading/Optima

Using Optima, we prioritise early reading so that every child becomes a confident and fluent reader. Our Early Reading Intervention programme provides targeted support for children who need additional help with phonics, decoding, fluency or comprehension. Using regular, evidence-based sessions delivered by trained staff, we ensure pupils receive the precise teaching they need to catch up quickly. Progress is closely monitored so that children build strong foundations and develop a love of reading from the very beginning of their learning journey.

Access & Inclusion

Our Access and Inclusion Lead, Naomi Palmer, works within the wider team to ensure that every child and their family receive support in and out of school in order to succeed.

Naomi oversees attendance, supports secondary transitions and has an in-depth understanding of how parents can seek support for housing and visa applications. She works closely with staff and external agencies to remove barriers to learning. Through early identification, targeted interventions and ongoing guidance, our Access and Inclusion Lead promotes equality of opportunity so that all pupils feel valued, included and able to thrive.

Makaton

We use Makaton to support communication and ensure that all children can express themselves and be understood. Makaton combines signs, symbols and speech to help develop language, understanding and interaction. Staff use Makaton across the school day—in lessons, routines and social times—to promote inclusion and give pupils a consistent, accessible way to communicate. This approach benefits children with speech, language and communication needs, while also enriching communication for the whole school community.

Makaton Resources