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Belfast

Within my setting there is children from the age of 3 in our Pre-prep department until 11 in P7. Currently this year we have 132 pupils across all age groups.

I work 1-1 with a child who has special needs.

There is 8 teachers across the school with 10 classroom assistants working either 1-1 with a child or as a general classroom assistant.

Around my setting there is a park called Drumglass Park. It is very scenic with picnic benches, a bathroom facility, gates and fences surrounding the park and a playground for children with wheelchair adaptations. There is lots of open grass areas for children to run around, play football, have a picnic, walk their dog(s).

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Lisburn Road, Belfast

Along the Lisburn Road, you will find a vast variety of shops, cafes, restaurants, libraries, health care facilities, a hospital etc. It is only a short walk from my setting and very easy access for everyone.

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Kith and Kin Financial Wellbeing 'Women and Money' session. This free group session will cover topics around finances tailored specifically to support women. Kith and Kin work to support and empower financial health for women. The session will last one hour and is delivered by a Financial Advisor, a Menopause Consultant and a Family Law Solicitor.

Join us in the library to learn more, booking is not essential, speak to a member of staff for more details.

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Kith and Kin Financial Wellbeing 'Women and Money' session. This free group session will cover topics around finances tailored specifically to support women. Kith and Kin work to support and empower financial health for women. The session will last one hour and is delivered by a Financial Advisor, a Menopause Consultant and a Family Law Solicitor.

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The library in particular is only a 5-10 min walk which an extraordinary amount of books for all age. They have a separate room for children where they can find all types of books. The librarians are lovely and very attentive. They will help you if need. They have wheelchair access as well for those who need it. One of the many librarians who work there will make a visit to our Pre-prep to P2 students once a month usually to read stories and educate on why going to a library is important.

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Children come from all over the world to come to school in NI. Ensuring that they feel included, we ensure to display tasks, timetables, use emotion cards so they can easily express their feelings around the school in different languages so they can understand and be able to communicate with staff and peers appropriately. We also included singing and dancing which allows massive development as they can begin to learn English through movement and fun! It ensures that that child can understand what is being taught in the classroom. We use a visual timetable with pictures that is big and colourful to provide a structure for the day. It can be a great struggle but if we can provide the children with different strategies to ensure inclusion and understanding then we will!

Dr. Lynell Burmark who is an educational consultant talked about visual literacy as: “Unless our words, concepts, ideas are hooked onto an image, they will go in one ear, sail through the brain, and go out the other ear. Words are processed by our short-term memory, where we can only retain about seven bits of information.” (Edmentum, 2023)

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Boullier, M. and Blair, M. (2018). Adverse Childhood Experiences. Paediatrics and Child Health, [online] 28(3), pp.132–137. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paed.2017.12.008.

Edmentum (2023). The Importance of Visual Aids for ELLs. [online] edmentum-com. Available at: https://www.edmentum.com/intl/articles/visual-aids-for-ells/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2025].

Educational, B. (2022). 10 Steps to settling new children (and parents) at your nursery setting. [online] Blossom Educational. Available at: https://blossomeducational.com/blog/10-steps-to-settling-new-children-and-parents-at-nursery/ [Accessed 2 Apr. 2025].

Erin (2021). 8 Must Have Visual Supports - You Aut-A Know. [online] You Aut-A Know. Available at: https://youaut-aknow.com/8-must-have-visual-supports [Accessed 17 Apr. 2025].

Flex Language Services (2016). Translation, Interpretation and Tuition Services | FLEX Language Services. [online] Flex Language Services. Available at: https://www.flexlanguageservices.com [Accessed 10 Apr. 2025].

Hawthorne, H. (2021). Adverse Childhood Experiences | Guidance on ACEs for Schools. [online] The Hub | High Speed Training. Available at: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/adverse-childhood-experiences/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2024].

jon.oshea (2020). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - how can schools support children and young people who live in difficult circumstances? - Estyn. [online] Estyn. Available at: https://estyn.gov.wales/blog/adverse-childhood-experiences-aces-how-can-schools-support-children-and-young-people-who-live-in-difficult-circumstances/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].

Kernaghan, D. (2015). Feels like Home: Exploring the Experiences of Newcomer Pupils in Primary Schools in Northern Ireland. [online] Barnardo’s, p.43. Available at: https://www.barnardos.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/Feels%20like%20Home%20-%20Experiences%20of%20newcomer%20pupils%20in%20primary%20schools%20in%20Northern%20Ireland%202015.pdf [Accessed 19 Mar. 2025].

Libraries NI (2024). Lisburn Road Library. [online] Librariesni.org.uk. Available at: https://www.librariesni.org.uk/libraries/greater-belfast/lisburn-road-library/ [Accessed 1 Apr. 2025].

NSPCC (2022). Promoting healthy relationships in schools. [online] NSPCC Learning. Available at: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection-schools/promoting-healthy-relationships [Accessed 29 Mar. 2025].

RISE NI (2025). RISE NI (Regional Integrated Support for Education in N.Ireland) | Southern Health & Social Care Trust. [online] southerntrust.hscni.net. Available at: https://southerntrust.hscni.net/service/riseni/.

Rossographer (2012). The Lisburn Road, Belfast © Rossographer. [online] @geograph_bi. Available at: https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2760705 [Accessed 12 Apr. 2025].

Sinclair, L. (2024). Settling in Sessions: take the stress out of starting nursery. Available at: https://www.grandiruk.com/blog/settling-in-sessions/#:~:text=Settling%20in%20sessions%20are%20sessions,officially%20begin%20a%20full%20day. [Accessed 17 Mar. 2025].

Srinivas, S. (2023). Celebrating Culture. [online] The Horizon Sun. Available at: https://thehorizonsun.com/features/2023/02/13/celebrating-culture/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2025].

UNICEF (2023). Children with Disabilities. [online] www.unicef.org. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/disabilities [Accessed 28 Feb. 2025].

Yelp (2025). Drumglass Park photos. [online] Yelp. Available at: https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz_photos/drumglass-park-belfast?select=jN0tjo-BUMdgpEAtaXfkRw [Accessed 17 Apr. 2025].

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It is very important to children with English as a second language to feel included. Within our school we will celebrate and teach about different cultures. This allows for them children to openly talk about their beliefs, religion and how they celebrate within their culture. For example, we celebrate Chinese New Year which teaches the children about the Chinese culture. It allows for children to speak about the different foods they eat, the money envelopes for example and grow all their peers learning to further develop their knowledge. Allowing these children with English as a second language, allows for them to communicate where they can and improve their English through the use of props, videos and conversations.

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Within this link you will find different ways we as staff and parents/guardians can support children with English as a second language.

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IES (Newcomer Support) offers advice and support for teachers who are working with newcomer pupils from preschool to post primary level.

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Within my setting we have a range of Special Educational Needs/ Additional Needs from Autism to Epilepsy, Dyslexia, Down Syndrome and many more. As we are a mainstream school we adapt to the needs of these individuals to ensure they get the upmost quality care and education. Inclusion is so important. Children with additional needs in a mainstream school can sometimes be frustrating but with proper teaching and education, the other children can develop their understanding of why they have additional needs. Some of the relationships formed within my setting are amazing due to the understanding that not everybody is the same.

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The Polka Dot Project: Understanding Special Needs Children

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We use visual timetables, active circuits, quiet times to support their needs of overstimulation, tiredness. We support inclusion very highly in my setting, allowing the children to be involved in everything they can. We hold a school show and sports day every year which we encourage very highly that the children regardless of their ability, are included with the rest of their peers. This could mean simply adapting the race on sports day to their ability without taking away from the other children. During the school show, we ensure the dancing and singing is of ability to ensure the children can be included. The children with special/ additional needs love this time of the year with all the dancing and singing.

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children with additional needs in mainstream school

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UNICEF strives to make sure that families and children with disabilities may get all the help and resources they require in their local communities. They support laws and policies that are inclusive of people with disabilities as well as sufficient funding to implement them (UNICEF, 2023).

All students deserve to attend the same schools and be in the same classrooms as part of inclusive education. It entails genuine educational possibilities for typically excluded students, including minority language speakers and children with disabilities. The distinctive contributions that students from all backgrounds make to the classroom are valued in inclusive systems, which also enable various groups to develop alongside one another for the good of all (UNICEF, 2023).

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Fifteen per cent of the world's population - at least one billion people - have some form of disability, whether present at birth or acquired later in life. Nearly 240 million of them are children.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines living with a disability as having a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment that - in interaction with the environment - hinders one's participation in society on an equal basis with others.

Children and adolescents with disabilities are a highly diverse group with wide-ranging life experiences. They live in every community, and are born with or acquire distinct impairments that, in relation to their surroundings, lead to functional difficulties - like seeing, walking, communicating, caring for oneself or making friends.

But the extent to which children with disabilities are able to function, participate in society and lead fulfilling lives depends on the extent to which they are accommodated and included. No matter their story, every child has every right to thrive.

Discrimination against children with disabilities

Yet, children with disabilities are among the most marginalized people in every society.

A range of barriers limits their ability to function in daily life, access social services (like education and health care) and engage in their communities. These include:

Physical barriers - for example, buildings, transportation, toilets and playgrounds that cannot be accessed by wheelchair users

Communication and information barriers - such as textbooks unavailable in Braille, or public health announcements delivered without sign language interpretation

Attitudinal barriers - like stereotyping, low expectations, pity, condescension, harassment and bullying

Each of these is rooted in stigma and discrimination that reflect negative perceptions of disability associated with ableism: a system of beliefs, norms and practices that devalues people with disabilities.

Some children with disabilities face other forms of discrimination that compound their deprivation. Worldwide, this is especially the case for girls; children who are poor, Black, Indigenous, or LGBTQI+; and those who belong to ethnic minorities, migrant communities or other marginalized groups. Children with severe or multiple disabilities also tend to have a particularly hard time getting their needs met.

For every child, every right

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted in 2006 in response to the severe human rights violations experienced by people with disabilities worldwide. The CRPD obligates Governments to take concrete measures to promote their full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Despite international commitments, children with disabilities remain largely invisible in research and programmes meant to build more equitable, inclusive societies. This invisibility is both a cause and a consequence of their exclusion.

Children with disabilities often work hard to accommodate themselves to an inaccessible world that excludes them. But they are not problems that need to be fixed or changed. Disability is part of the diversity of human experience: Functional limitations manifest in the life cycle of every one of us. The extent to which children with disabilities are able to lead happy lives depends on our own willingness to confront barriers to change.

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Every child has the right to live in an inclusive world.

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Within my setting we have integration periods where the child who is joining the school will come for a few hours across a few days to allow them to become friends with their peers, understand how the classroom runs, what way things work, where places are etc. This will last a few weeks. In our Pre-prep department the whole class is split in two and they will do half days in their groups alternating morning and afternoon slots to gently settle them in and get used to be away from parents, allowing for the adaptation to being in a school setting and joining in with other children. They will do this over about 4 weeks and then they will do alternate full days in their groups. Furthermore they will then join together for school from 9-12. And then after a few weeks they will come from 9-2. This happens over a period of weeks to allow for awareness of a new environment, making new friends, building a rapore with their teachers and understanding their new routine. Some children settle in well but others tend to get quite upset being away from parents/guardians.

In a blog written by Lauren Sinclair who works within Grandir Nurseries, talks about how settling in periods are vital to allow children to get to know their teacher, and for the teachers/key workers can learn lots about the child. When starting a new setting, it can be very scary so these settling in periods allow for understanding of a new routine, getting used to being away from home and their parents (Sinclair, 2024).

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A buddy system is a tactic that we have implemented to encourage friendships with older students but also peers in our class. In our Prep-prep to P2, we have P6 buddies who come at break and lunch to play with the children, show them fun games, encourage independence to make friends and to just overall support them. The P6 pupils are involved in the buddy system until just after Christmas while the P7 are completing their SEAG exam. After this exam its finished, the P7's take over and come to the younger classes. When a child comes into the school after the starting time, we set a 'buddy' within the class to show them the outlay of the setting, support them in class, guide them to make new friends, and to make them included so they don't feel alone. This buddy system allows newcomer pupils and even existing pupils to never feel alone and ensure inclusion is in place.

Barnardos' carried out research within schools about newcomer pupils where they interviewed a range of teachers and pupils about how they felt in terms of new pupils and the strategies they used to support this. Within this research "teachers reported that they tended
to mix newcomer pupils with other students as this aided integration and also helped language development". This shows to us that inclusion is vital and these buddy systems and other strategies will work when implemented (Kernaghan, 2015).

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According to Boullier and Blair, 2018, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) have been acknowledged as potentially traumatic events which can have a very negative effect which can last a short or long period of time on their health and well-being. This can include abuse, neglect, maltreatment and other forms that their environment becomes a harmful place to be.

Within my setting, we ensure to have a great rapore with our parents in order to ensure the child is in a safe, nurturing environment. In order to do that we set up meetings throughout the year to continuously assess triggers, management in the classroom and generally keep up to date with the progress and if anything has changed. A blog post by Jon O'Shea commented on this by saying that schools should first focus on ensuring trusting, positive and open relationships with families as well as providing calm, supportive and nurturing environments for the children so they feel safe and relaxed (jon.oshea, 2020).

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Adverse Childhood Experiences: Guidance for Schools

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Education professionals should be aware of the possible impacts of adverse childhood experiences. Find guidance on how schools can support children here.

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We have a buddy system in place which you can see in the Newcomer Families section and can read more about. It's a great way for the child to develop relationships with peers and have a support system in place.

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Within our Safeguarding Policy we have procedures in place. There is a step by step process in case anything occurs. This ensures that children, staff and families are protected. We provide contact numbers to outside agencies such as the local Children's Services gateway Team, Regional Emergency Social Work Service and the PSNI Central Referral Unit. We outline the staff designated for child protection and who everybody is. In class time we cover a topic called PDMU also known as Personal Development and Mutual Understanding. Within this time we cover many aspects of friendly behaviour, kind words, how to control ourselves etc which promotes positive behaviour throughout the school. Children with ACE's could get triggered easily so during this class time we cover how to support children in the best way possible. The NSPCC help cover topics within PDMU to ensure children get the best outcome (NSPCC, 2022).

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Above is a link to translation, interpretation and tuition services. Within Belfast, parents and children can use Flex Languages Services to communicate more thoroughly. The Education Authority speak very highly of them in terms of the extent they go to ensure language barriers isn't an issue.

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Within our Pre-school and KS1 areas in school, we use RISE NI for continuous development for the children. One of their team will come in every month or so to work with an individual time for a few hours. They are an intervention service to support the development of fundamental skills ie speech and language, motor skills development and many more! There is a link above explaining more on what they do as a service and how they support children within schools.

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RISE NI is a regional early intervention service which supports children in pre-school educational and mainstream primary school settings by working closely with parents and education staff to help children develop the foundation skills for learning i.e. speech, language, communication, sensory-motor, visual perception, social, emotional and behaviour skills.

The SHSCT RISE NI team consists of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, clinical psychologist, behaviour therapists, dietitian and therapy assistants.

Our Aim

'To reduce underachievement and improve life chances of children and young people by enhancing their educational development and fostering their health, wellbeing and social inclusion through the integrated delivery of the support and services necessary to ensure that every child has the best start in life' (Hain, 2006)

Who do we support?

For children in mainstream Foundation and Key Stage 1, RISE offer a wide range of 'universal and targeted' levels of support including teacher & parent training workshops, whole class and small group programmes.

RISE supports a small number of children at the specialist level. Specialist support is for children with persistent needs, who haven't improved with strategies that have been tried by school and assessment by RISE is indicated to help understand these needs.

Children referred for specialist assessment must have at least two areas of need that the team can assess and support e.g.

language and motor skills

Social, emotional and behavioural

Speech, language and communication

Sensory processing, fine motor and visual perceptual

Gross motor

What do we do?

Consultation / liaison with Education staff

Training / information to Education staff, parents and carers

Targeted whole class / group programmes

Multidisciplinary assessment

Advice

Short-term individual or group support

Signposting and onward referral when appropriate

Getting Ready to Learn

Starting school is a very exciting step in a child's life year may be stressful for some children and their parents. This leaflet aims to reassure and inform you of some simple and fun everyday activities to support your child so that they can start school healthy ,happy, active, curious and sociable.
RISE NI have developed a short leaflet of strategies to help support your child back to school. RISE NI have created this short video clip to help parents support their child's return to school, to help cope with any worries or fears children may have going back into their classrooms. For More information Contact RISE NI SHSCT 028 375 64293 rise.ni@southerntrust.hscni.net
Understanding Childhood Worry & Anxiety

Please watch this short video clip to help parents to support their child with feelings of anxiety or worries.

Accessing the service

Referrals accepted from schools through consultation process.

Resources

RISE NI Directory of Services 2023/24
RISE NI Regional Training Directory 2019-2020 ​
Contacts

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RISE NI (Regional Integrated Support for Education in N.Ireland)

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RISE NI is a regional early intervention service which supports children in pre-school educational and mainstream primary school settings by working closely with parents and education staff to help children develop the foundation skills for learning i.e. speech, language, communication, sensory-motor, visual perception, social, emotional and behaviour skills.