Oldham is one of nine areas taking part in the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) initiative
Beal Vale Primary School has celebrated the success of the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme with a special event led by headteacher Adil Rashid and his dedicated team.
The event brought together educators, practitioners, health professionals and parents — who work every day to give our children the very best start in life — to recognise the remarkable progress being made in supporting children’s early language and communication.
The ELSEC programme places specialist teams in schools and early years settings to support speech and language needs, particularly for children with SEND.
The Department for Education and NHS England are funding nine ELSEC pathfinders, one per Department for Education region, and Oldham is one of the pioneering areas leading on this work.
The programme brings specialist teams into schools and early years settings to help children find their voices and flourish both in the classroom and at home with early assessment and intervention to prevent serious needs later.
Beal Vale, which is part of the Crompton House Multi-Academy Trust allowing them to collaborate closely with other schools and benefit from shared expertise, identified early language as an area where children needed additional support.
The school motto is Learning is for Life – Enjoy the Journey, and this belief in learning as a lifelong journey was a key reason why Mr Rashid and his team chose to be one of 10 schools in the borough to be part of the ELSEC pilot in Oldham.
Carrigan Hoyle and Jake Davies joined the celebration with their sons, Silas and Theo, sharing their delight that the brothers are now speaking with growing confidence.
Mr Rashid said: “Our motto is Learning for Life, and we wanted to equip staff to support our children to make progress academically and also socially and emotionally.
“Our children with communication and language needs have made masses of progress, and individual needs have been picked up. The legacy of this is that staff and pupils have been so well equipped, the impact of this will last forever and I am so incredibly proud.
“We have noticed three things as a result of this programme – children are more confident, in speaking with their peers, they are putting their hands up and engaging in lessons and are able to share their learning with others.”
A key tool to be trialled in Oldham has been the WellComm assessment, used to measure and identify children’s speech and language skills. I asked if I could come in on a Saturday morning
