We are on a wonderful Makaton journey which has led to us sharing our passion for Makaton within our local community. This journey began with our two dedicated staff members, Joanne and Johan, attending training and sharing their interest in further developing our children’s communication skills. They have led this journey; inspiring and supporting our staff and families with their enthusiasm.
We began using signs of the week, and staff quickly embraced signing and the enjoyment it brought to the children and families of our establishment. We also post our sign of the week and Makaton song of the month on our seesaw app and twitter page to promote family engagement.
We have visuals and signs displayed around our establishment as well as our sign of the week.
Families watch and learn the signs and join in together. The positive feedback we have received from parents has been encouraging and as a team we have observed the positive impact upon our children’s communication skills. The children started to spontaneously sign to one another, helping each other understand. We introduced sign along sessions with our parents, so that children could demonstrate their learning and express the enjoyment it brings. Makaton has strengthened the children’s communication, confidence and self-esteem.
Our sign along sessions have become a big family event. In September 2019 we received our Makaton Friendly award and quickly got to work on how we would like to celebrate. We invited Dave Benson Philips, and on the 12th December 2019 he spent the morning with us singing Christmas songs and watching our fabulous children sign and sing. All of our families joined us in this event. Dave was energetic and expressed how overwhelmed he was watching our children sign and sing. Dave joined us for our Christmas family market, enjoying some warm soup and the company of staff and our families.
The children are so proud of their achievements and love learning new signs and songs. Makaton is embedded within Castlemilk Family Learning Centre and as a team, we are also very proud. We are now focusing on raising further awareness within our education sector and sharing our good practice.
We are delighted Makaton is being talked about and used in and around our community. This is due to the commitment of our staff, children and families’ and their enthusiasm.
As our Makaton Tutor Karen said, we are “riding a Makaton wave."
To view our story on the Makaton website please click here
20 Ardencraig Road,Glasgow,G45 0HSPhone: 0141 634 2007E-mail: headteacher@castlemilk-nursery.glasgow.sch.uk