How can a Community page be used to support my SEND learners?
Schools typically just have community pages set up for their class groups, but did you know that children can be members of multiple communities?
One really great way schools can support their SEND learners on DB Primary is to set up a separate community page for just those children. They will still be part of their whole class community and this will be their default community, but in addition to this they will be part of a community set up just for them! This could include all the children with additional needs in that class or year group, or could just include children in a specific intervention group.
This way you can run your class page as you normally would, but you will have additional space in which you can support your SEND learners- meaning you can set up the page however you like in order to better suit their needs.
How to set up your additional community
To set up an additional community, log in with your usual teacher username and password and from the ‘My Communities’ option along the top, use the dropdown arrow and select ‘Create a community’ from the menu.
You can then give the community a name, choose a theme (Starter is best suited to KS1 children and Improver is best suited to KS2 children) and then click the ‘Create Community’ button.
Once you have created the community you will be taken to that community page to begin editing it.
Use the cog icon in the top right-hand corner to take you into the community admin area where you can edit which features will be available to the children in the left-hand menu and which panels you would like to have showing in the main bulk of the page. Use the ‘Manage Membership’ button in the top right-hand corner of this page to allow you to add members to the community.
Ways in which you may consider using the community to meet additional learning needs
- Design the page to meet their needs- You may consider changing the background colour for dyslexic users, using a larger font for users with impaired sight and simplifying the left-hand menu so that it is easy to navigate.
- Add a visual timetable.
- Create additional pages for each subject where you can post extra resources to help the children or to give them access to tasks a little bit earlier than the rest of the class so that they have the opportunity for some pre-learning.
- Add videos or audio clips to the page explaining how to complete a task- great for children who struggle with their reading.
- Add additional links to the community menu to external websites which the children may find helpful.
- Set up a forum discussion where the children can post questions about tasks which they may not feel confident asking on the main class community page.
- Add a calendar to the page to let children know when certain events are happening to help them prepare for anything outside of their normal routine.