Southfield School: Teaching SEND children with now>press>play

Southfield School in Bradford caters for a wide range of students with complex and individual needs. Since 2016, now>press>play has been a valued part of their SEND teaching curriculum.

We were delighted to receive this case study sharing how the school uses now>press>play and how the resource has helped one pupil in particular, who is highly sensitive to sound.

How we use now>press>play

We use the pink headphones to develop resilience to sound, listening skills and interaction skills. We also teach how to look after equipment. We introduce the headphones through silent discos which all students enjoy! Later in the year, we repeat a story linked to our topic.

How now>press>play helps our SEND pupils

A has learned to tolerate and enjoy the pink headphones which is a massive achievement considering she is highly sensitive to sound. These photos illustrate how A has progressed from using the headphones in a silent disco for specific songs only, to listening to a complex story linked to our topic.

Sometimes A does not want to wear headphones but will stay with the group as she enjoys the social environment. Staff have learned that even a tiny crackle on the headphones is upsetting to A and they support her to ask for different ones. The biggest impact from these sessions is how A is now resilient enough to stay with the group for the plenary; at the start of the year she could not tolerate listening to talking or discussing for sustained periods.

Another fantastic outcome is the bond she has developed with C. She seeks out his company and they have lots of laughs together after listening to the story.

A group of primary school children wave their arms as they use Now Press Play in their school hall. Two teachers use it alongside them.

We think this is a wonderful story about how now>press>play has supported Southfield and how it has helped A to develop on her learning journey.

The school has also created their own resource to support the use of now>press>play for teaching SEND pupils, by using symbols to explain the story before they do an Experience.

Below is an example of some of the symbols used for our EYFS Minibeasts Experience.

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To help make the vocabulary from our Experiences more accessible, we provide colourful Word Mats alongside all of our EYFS-level Experiences. Find out more here.

A Now Press Play EYFS Word Mat from our Space Experience, showing key words from the topic alongside hand-drawn pictures. Space, telescope, spaceship, alien, Earth, The Moon, Mars, Saturn, astronaut, red rock, dust storm, bouncing, spacesuit, helmet.
The Word Mat follow-on resource from our EYFS Space Experience.

We look forward to hearing more about the impact now>press>play has on the Southfield students’ development in the future.