Information about Rainbow Class

Rainbow Class offers early intervention and support for young children with developmental special needs. There are currently four members of staff. The teacher is Heather Lockhart. The class provides places for 10 children aged from 4 to 7 years. Places are offered by the L.E.A. through the Student Assessment Office. The children come from a wide area around Ely. Some mainstream children might be offered short-term placements to develop literacy, numeracy or social skills.

Rainbow Class is a typical infant class with sand, water, construction toys, paint, clay and role-play areas. There is regular and positive integration with the mainstream school. There is some shared shared play, P.E., dance and social sessions. Some children from Rainbow class will join a mainstream class for regular afternoon sessions. A speech and language therapist is based in the Unit up to three times a week. She is therefore, more readily available to also work with children from the mainstream school who have therapy needs, or to give advice to staff.

Three afternoons a week, Rainbow Class becomes a parallel Reception Class, with a few children from there moving into the other Reception classes whilst some children from each Reception class join the younger children remaining in Rainbows. The children rotate on a half-term basis, which allows most Reception children the opportunity to experience a different setting that has different adults and fewer children. This is seen as beneficial to their personal and social skills as they gain confidence through the careful extension of their horizons. Rainbow follows the same topics as those of the other Reception classes and these are agreed in shared planning sessions. The work within the topics is tailored to the needs of the children.