The Communication Friendly schools group has been discussing what makes good communication and why it is important to everyone in our school. We looked at different ways of communicating and discussed what types of communication we commonly used in our lives. We spoke about the importance of visuals to help those in our school who find reading tricky, we then went on a tour of the school identifying areas that should be labelled with visuals and took staff pictures to put a picture of every member of staff on their door. The group completed East Ayrshire’s communication buddy training and learned about the OWL strategy when talking with others. We discussed what good and not so good communication looked like and how we would communicate with those who needed a buddy in the playground. Lastly, we discussed setting up a buddy bench for the playground to help those who need someone to talk to at playtimes and lunchtimes.

Pupils within the group were experimenting with different communication styles. They then discussed what worked well and what did not and how we can make sure we use these strategies in and around school.