What is RICE?
Renfrewshire’s Inclusive Communication Environments (RICE) is an approach which is delivered jointly by Renfrewshire Educational Psychology Service and Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership. The aim is to develop the capacity of all educational establishments to support and develop the language and communication skills of all children and young people.
RICE Key Indicators
There are 3 key indicators which form the basis of supportive practice:
- A physical environment that enhances and promotes opportunities for speech, language, and communication for all pupils.
- Adult communication (verbal and non-verbal) that promotes interaction and responds to individual needs.
- The use of supportive learning strategies to develop language and communication skills and promote participation from all learners.
These indicators are all strengthened by an establishment being able to demonstrate ongoing development (e.g., training, further reading) to meet the speech, language and communication needs of all pupils.
How does my establishment get involved?
To streamline the delivery of whole establishment initiatives from Renfrewshire Educational Psychology Service, RICE will be supported through the RNRA training and Core Group structure. This will allow your link Educational Psychologist to support your progress towards developing an Inclusive Communication Environment by delivering training and coaching support in Core Group meetings. RICE is now embedded within certain nurture principles which relate to the RICE Key Indicators:
- The environment offers a safe base (links to Key Indicator 1).
- Language is a vital means of communication (links to Key Indicator 2).
- Learning is understood developmentally (links to Key Indicator 3).
Your action planning and development of change ideas will continue to take place through the RNRA planning templates. Changes across other nurture principles may also reflect how an establishment is working to support children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs. Your RNRA accreditation submissions should reflect the changes you have made using this framework.
The framework can be accessed by all practitioners in Renfrewshire here:
We have also recently adapted the CIRCLE Inclusive Environment Scale to support early learning and childcare centres in their self-evaluation. This can be used alongside Up, Up and Away and the CIRCLE resources for primary and secondary as appropriate.
Renfrewshire CIRCLE Inclusive Early Learning Environment Scale v3
