School Feedback

“I have taught Nursery children for more than twenty years and am determined that each and every child gets the very best start in their education.

Over my career I have noticed that children’s difficulties have become more complex and that speech and language difficulties, immature levels of concentration and behaviour difficulties have become more prevalent.  Most of the children who enter nursery seem to be capable, highly motivated and articulate: willing to challenge themselves, to develop new relationships and to embrace the exciting world that they find themselves in.

Some, happily the minority, have limited language, immature articulation, struggle to concentrate and find leaving their primary parent/ carer a sad experience. They find it difficult to adhere to a routine, to follow instructions or to develop friendships.

These children are at risk of poor ‘attachment’ to school.  They can continue to resist developing a relationship with their school and an open attitude to learning

The first year we introduced Johansen Alpha I observed all the children in the group and chose those who displayed poor levels of self esteem, poor listening skills, poor concentration or poor/difficult patterns of behaviour. In subsequent years we also used information from pre-entry home visits

We started in groups of 7, sitting in the cloakroom with quiet peg board etc games to play with whilst listening.  After a short while we decided that the children really should just concentrate on using their ears and the headphones are so big that it is fairly obvious why they are in the group!  A member of staff sits with the children and also wears headphones – always good to ‘model’ good behaviour! Some children like to lie down to listen and for some it is an obvious excuse to stop and relax.  Some children need an adult’s knee to help them maintain their concentration.  The majority however just sit and listen and wait for the ‘waves’ to start knowing that their session is over’

We have run a Johansen Programme ever since 2005, and it continues into Reception and Key Stage 1.

Our school includes the most deprived catchment area in the town, yet over that period we have seen a steady improvement in Key Stage 1 results and gained the strongest SATS results within the local league.  We also achieved the highest overall local results in the recently introduced Year 1 Phonics Screening Check 

We all feel that the programme contributes to better listening attention in class and to early language and phonology development

In some areas I cannot put my finger on what it does and why it helps, I just know that it does and wouldn’t be prepared to stop offering Johansen to those children who need some additional support.”