Special Educational Needs and Disability blog

Last Friday, a team of 25 judges came together to decide the results of this year’s Shine a Light Awards.

This year Pearson Clinical Assessment and The Communication Trust, were once again incredibly lucky to have an exceptional panel of judges from across the education and speech and language sector.

We welcomed back past experts who now know our judging process extremely well, new members whose understanding of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and local practices helped to inform and guide our decisions, and past Shine a Light award winners whose stories have clearly gone on to inspire others.

Secreted away in the basement with a supply of coffee and croissants, our three panels turned their attention to the unenviable task of deciding this year’s winners and highly commended finalists. Tears and tantrums at the ready….!

There were certainly a few tears as we made our way through the shortlisted applications; and the applications that we read left many of us feeling humbled and inspired. We heard about the exceptional best practice taking place across England – strategic activities that have had demonstrable impact on students’ lives; watched our young people nominees who have speech and language difficulties and have worked tirelessly to overcome them, inspire other young people and give back to those who have supported them; as well as exceptional innovative and community-based projects that have improved children’s opportunities to learn, and helped them to participate fully in society.

For now, that is as much as I am going to tell you about this year’s winners. We’re keeping the results a secret and in true Oscars style announcing them on the 24^th September. So make a date for your diary, and follow #SAL2015 on twitter, as we’ll soon be shining a light on the outstanding work of these settings and individuals.

This week’s guest blog post is from Deborah Powers, Speech and Language Therapist from 'time to talk'.

‘time to talk’ were recipients of The Shine a Light Award 2013/14 for Children’s Workforce. We caught up with them to see what other activities the team had undertaken since winning this prestigious award.

'time to talk’ Countywide Conference

Following the success of previous years, we held a conference for this year and secured a top venue and some great speakers. The conference took place in November 2014 and we welcomed 70 Early Years and Children’s Centres practitioners who are involved in implementing the ‘time to talk’ strategy across Warwickshire.

On the 3rd April, Pearson Assessment in partnership with The Communication Trust announced the results of the Shine a Light Awards 2013/14.

These awards, now in their third year aim to celebrate innovative work and excellent practice in supporting children and young people’s communication development.

It's hard to believe that just over a year ago we launched the first ever Shine a Light Awards as part of the Hello, national year of communication campaign. Now in their second year the Awards have proven to hold a special place in the industry; a fact recognised at last week's award ceremony.

After months of preparation, research into helium balloons, how to download acceptance videos and the inner workings of bubble machines...the hard work has paid off! On the 21 November over 120 individuals came together at 80 Strand, with celebrity host Paul Ross, to hear the results of this year's awards, which included exciting new categories such as Communication Champion and Youth Justice.

The Shine a Light Awards were established to honour individuals, teams, projects and communities which have demonstrated excellence in supporting the needs of all children and young people’s communication, particularly those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). This year we were delighted to honour some of the following, including the nursery setting Haven 2000 Nursery Ltd as our Early Years’ Setting of the Year, community‐wide Every Sheffield Child Articulate and Literate (ESCAL) for the Communication and 17‐year‐old Jack Fradgley as Young Person of the Year and winner of our Outstanding Achievement award. The look of surprise and delight on Jack and his families face is one to remember.

It was also a particular treat to honour Mr Tumble/Justin Fletcher as another Outstanding Achievement Winner, along with Jean Gross CBE, the government's Communication Champion during the national year.

There were many highlights at this years awards, but some particular moments stand out including Justin Fletcher aka Mr Tumble's acceptance video filmed at Justin's House, Jack Marshall - last years' young person of the year and a judge for 2012 - congratulation speech to this year's young person - inspiring is not a grand enough word, and of course some Shine a Light cupcakes!

Find out about this year's winners and highly commended finalists in our mini video, (many thanks to Tentacle Media for putting this together - amazing as always!), and reminder to look out for Shine a Light 2013! www.shinealightawards.co.uk   

The Shine a Light awards for the Hello, national year of communication have been a milestone mark in our calendars over the course of this year, and yesterday the inaugural event finally arrived!

On the 10th Floor of the Strand, over 120 people came together to celebrate their achievements and hear the anticipated results of their applications, submitted back in August. The setting offered fantastic views over the Thames where the lights from surrounding buildings and the London Eye lit up over the afternoon as the sun disappeared. We were also lucky to have a surprise celebrity host, TV and radio presenter Vanessa Feltz who brought to the ceremony enthusiasm and warmth for the subject, and worked to really make every award winner and finalist feel special.