Selwyn Primary School  

School Description

SaLT and Literacy support in mainstream secondary school 

Selwyn Primary School in Plaistow, East London, is a mainstream school with funded provision for Deaf and hearing impaired students. The school lies in the heart of a culturally rich community with the majority of pupils coming from Bangladeshi, Indian or Pakistani backgrounds. Approximately one fifth of the students at Selwyn have SEN, including deafness, autism, Down’s Syndrome, SEMH, and speech, language and communication needs.  

Selwyn make the most of the interdisciplinary offering from Words First and have Speech and Language Therapy provision 4 days a week, as well as weekly input from our Play Therapist and Counsellor. They also arrange specialist assessment from our dyslexia and educational psychology teams when needed for individual pupils. 

Selwyn’s SENDCo, Katy Elliott, describes her experience working with the Words First team:  

We find the team to be very approachable, professional and get a sense that each Words First professional really cares for the wellbeing of the child. We appreciate that the WF team makes an effort to be part of school-life and essentially part of 'Team Selwyn'. To give you examples of the impact they have, our Play Therapist assists pupils to manage their emotions better, using strategies learnt in sessions to carry over into the classroom and has enabled children to work through their past difficulties in a safe and secure way. The Speech and Language Therapist has taught pupils about Deaf identity and has very positive and useful parent interactions. Heena has gone above and beyond for our pupils with speech, language and communication needs, often seeking second opinions or referrals to external professionals. Her expertise has been invaluable.

The children are always extremely willing to go to their counselling sessions and we have really appreciated how involved the counsellor is with information sharing and staff wellbeing too. We have received great training from the WFs dyslexia therapists, as well as in depth assessments and thorough reports for some pupils from them and the Educational Psychologist.

Katy - Selwyn Primary School Principal

More Information

Katy says Words First are Impactful, Professional, ,Passionate.