Prepare.
Practise. Reflect.

Start here: three things before the first session

1. Prepare people and access. Agree a manageable group, trained lead and support staff familiar with pupils’ communication. Prepare usual AAC, individual access plans, a quiet observe space and pass/return signals.
2. Practise with adults. Use the five-minute demonstration, then rehearse one activity through different communication routes. Test school devices and permissions with invented content.
3. Agree the starting point. Choose two meaningful pupil focuses and two adult-practice focuses. Plan familiar repeatable tasks and record conditions in the impact desk or school-approved records.

Suggested starting group: 4–6 pupils with a trained lead and sufficient support for individual access. Upper-primary is the current teaching focus; adapt the materials and language to the group. For a class of 30, plan small-group slots across the timetable or supervised practice stations. Short rotations are not equivalent to a full 55-minute group lesson. Plan breakaway delivery →

Experience the practice before leading it

Six facilitated modules, which can be split across staff meetings. This guide supports a workshop; reading the page does not certify competence or provide accredited training.

Prepare the resource basket

Use familiar puppets, safe everyday props, visual agendas and usual AAC. The resource bank gives weekly suggestions; nine printable topic/core boards provide optional cues. Practise partner modelling, waiting and confirming choices with adults. Preview meanings with pupils; adapt or use their familiar resources.

Use the programme each week

1. Prepare: choose the week in the teacher desk; read the full lesson, prepare AAC and agree the observation focus.
2. Deliver: follow the 55-minute sequence. Split it when needed while retaining arrival, modelling, purposeful interaction and reflection. Continue, consolidate or extend from evidence.
3. Embed: use Around the Table as an optional 10-minute practice between lessons. It does not add an undeclared 10 minutes to the 55-minute schedule. Keep food-free, listening and usual AAC routes equal.
4. Notice: keep one useful communication moment in My Journey. Use structured impact observations at starting point, Week 4, Week 8 and follow-up.
5. Reflect: hold a 10-minute staff huddle. Choose one adult move to practise and one access adjustment; assign a role to prepare it.

Train the observation, not just the form

For a speedy close: open Review together, offer feedback choices, agree one target, assign the participant code and choose a support role and review point. This can replace lengthy end-of-session writing. Targets stay separate from observed outcomes.

Before Week 1, two adults observe the same brief fictional exchange independently. Record the task, route, access, context and descriptor. Compare what each actually saw; agree what counts as a prompt, self-directed communication and no accessible opportunity.

Repeat a small moderation check at Week 4. Where staff disagree, retain the uncertainty and revisit the definition rather than averaging ordinal descriptors.

Use the impact desk to export observations and comparable pairs. It is a local evidence organiser, not a school record system. Follow-up, attendance, changed access and missing observations belong in the review.

Weekly huddle · 10 minutes

2 minutes: one specific pupil moment and their feedback. 3 minutes: one adult facilitation move that helped or needs practice. 3 minutes: choose Continue, Consolidate or Extend and address one access barrier. 2 minutes: agree resources, responsible role and next check.

Keep a simple delivery record in approved school storage: session offered/attended, staff present, adaptation, between-session practice and any missed observation. Avoid placing identifiable detail in this demonstration.

Delivery readiness

• Adults can model the activity and offer an equivalent nonverbal/partner route.
• Pupils can pause, pass, choose an audience and step out of role.
• Usual AAC is ready; device speech, recording and external sharing are optional.
• For table activities, school allergy/feeding/sensory arrangements are followed and eating is optional.
• Staff agree starting tasks, observation definitions, storage/deletion and review dates.

Check working functionality and device-dependent features →

Give communication a shared purpose

A café, picnic or shared gathering gives the group something to organise together: welcoming a guest, choosing a role, sharing a preference, telling a story or repairing a misunderstanding.

Use the table as a setting for genuine interaction. Offer a small invitation, leave time and follow the pupil’s idea. Everyday food, pretend props and food-free gatherings are equal options; there is no requirement to eat or speak.

Try and review: notice whether invitations are accessible, pupils choose to participate, peers respond to each other and messages can be repaired. Ask pupils what helped. Adapt the setting when it creates pressure or sensory barriers.

This is an optional educational routine. Its effects within The Studio have not been established. Keep claims proportionate to the observations collected.

Yes… and…

Use this eight-minute shared-story warm-up in Week 5. Choose a familiar object, picture, sound or puppet as the stimulus. Preview it and agree a fictional setting. A pair or group of 4–6 can build the story; there is no compulsory turn circle.

1. Start: show a spoon. “This spoon has arrived from the moon.”
2. Model a build: “Yes… and… it has brought a tiny parcel.”
3. Invite imagination: wait for a pupil-selected detail. A star symbol could mean “the parcel is a star”; confirm before adding it.
4. Guide gently: “What could happen next?” Offer two possibilities only if helpful. Accept a sound, gesture, AAC, object choice or partner-directed contribution.
5. Give it shape: retell the chosen Start, Build and Finish in Voice Lab, or use Create’s three-picture storyboard. Check that pupils recognise their ideas.

“Yes… and…” accepts a fictional offer; it never requires agreement to unsafe actions, personal disclosure or unwanted participation. Welcome “another idea”, thinking time and pass. The teacher can redirect the fiction while keeping the pupil’s meaning.

Notice: a contribution that builds on a peer’s idea, a purposeful response, or a clear choice to change direction. Record route and support, rather than speed or how imaginative the adult thinks an idea is.

Everyone has a purpose in the story

Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert places pupils within an imagined team with responsibilities, a client and a task. Our short Studio scenarios draw on that principle of purposeful participation; they are not a complete Mantle of the Expert scheme or accredited training.

Read the Mantle Network’s guide ↗ · Read the BERA introduction ↗

Example: the Story Rescue Team

A fictional puppet librarian needs help to complete a story with a missing ending. The teacher invites: “Could we be the team who helps the library?” Agree the fiction, show the stimulus and use “Yes… and…” to build possibilities. Pupils choose how they take responsibility.

• Story finder: chooses a detail, object, picture or sound.
• Sequence keeper: places the selected ideas into Start, Build and Finish.
• Message maker: composes a chosen line through usual AAC, text, gesture or speech.
• Puppet director: decides how a character carries the idea; an adult can operate it.
• Listener/checker: checks whether the librarian can follow the story and invites a repair.
• Sound or prop curator: selects a cue that helps the audience understand.

In a smaller group, combine roles; in pairs, share them. These are invitations, not ability labels. The listener or observer may contribute later, through a partner, or choose to pass. No role makes speech or public performance compulsory.

Teacher as colleague, then teacher again

Briefly model the librarian’s request or join as a team colleague. Keep instructions and fiction clear: “Pause the story—let’s check the choices.” Step out, review what helped, then return only by agreement. The teacher still manages safety, access and learning.

Transfer the idea: Week 3 can be a delivery team helping a recipient; Week 6 a prop-curation team; Week 7 a radio production team with an agreed audience. Each role carries a real communication decision, rather than just something to hold.

Practise the interactive teaching routes

Weeks 1–2: choose a familiar lab picture and rehearse one invitation, intention or checking question. Keep the picture stable before trying another situation.

Week 3: build a sender target with labelled shapes or picture props, hide it, then reconstruct and repair with a partner. Direct the maze together as another practice context.

Week 5: use Yes… and… to build a beginning, problem and attempt. In Create, choose an ending direction without requiring a happy resolution.

Week 6: preview a setting, optional sound cue and one presenter turn. Agree solo, friend or staff support, a pupil-selected message and a pause/take-over signal.

Week 7: rehearse the layered story one part at a time, hear a listener’s idea, then try another ending or revise an attempt. Each pupil can act, direct, cue, choose, communicate or listen first.

Mirroring and playful mistakes

Use a brief mirroring game in Weeks 1–2 to notice a partner’s action and respond through movement, an object or a puppet. Use Pip’s playful mistakes as an optional Week 6 prop rehearsal: notice, reinterpret, check and repair a fictional misunderstanding.

Both can work in a pair or small group. Model first, agree roles, offer a seated/object route and allow observation or pass. A clear communication decision matters more than physical copying or comic performance.