Holy Angels preschool is a Makaton friendly setting. We achieved our Makaton friendly status in September 2016. This means that all our staff have had Makaton training, resources and signage is all Makaton friendly and we encourage all children within our setting to use Makaton to enhance communication opportunities for everyone.
In September 2024. all staff completed the full level 1 & level 2 Makaton training, for some this was refresher for our newer members of staff this was their first time training.
You may have seen "Something Special" the television programme where "Mr Tumble" uses Makaton. Children enjoy being understood and are very quick in understanding and using both signs and symbols with peers and adults.
Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help children communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech in spoken word order.
The aims of using Makaton:
- For basic communication
- To help understanding
- To develop language skills
- To facilitate social interaction
- To help build relationships
- To increase equal opportunities
- To teach pre-reading and pre-writing skills towards literacy.