Word Aware is a structured whole school approach to promote the vocabulary development of all children. Focussed on whole class learning, the resource is of particular value for those who start at a disadvantage – including children with Developmental Language Disorder, Special Educational Needs and those who speak English as an additional language, but it will extend the word learning of all students.

This approach is full of practical and inspiring ideas that can be easily applied by busy classroom practitioners to develop both spoken and written vocabulary.

Word Aware has been developed by combining up to date research with extensive classroom experience. Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan have been using this approach and training many practitioners since 2010. The end product is an effective and time efficient method for developing the spoken and written vocabulary of all children. It has been enthusiastically received by class teachers, head teachers, curriculum coordinators, Special Needs co-coordinators, Learning Support Assistants and Speech and Language Therapists / Pathologists.

The training day is fun and practical. All candidates will go away with ideas on how to support vocabulary within their setting.

Kathryn Pierce, Speech and Language Therapist the course facilitator worked alongside Stephen and Anna as they developed the approach in Hackney East London. Kathryn has worked in a range of educational settings and is able to discuss is adaptation to various specialist settings such as special schools, autism resources bases, special educational colleges and supporting SEMH settings.

The group size is kept small to allow focus on the needs of your setting and unique circumstances.

Word Aware- Teaching vocabulary across the school day.