We're delighted to share that MacIntyre School has achieved their target of 30 ‘Competent Practitioners’ of Intensive Interaction.
Intensive Interaction is an approach to interacting with and teaching early communication and interaction skills to people who do not find it easy communicating or being social. It aims to teach the basic ‘Fundamentals of Communication’ such as turn taking, sharing personal space, using and understanding eye contact, facial expressions and physical contact, as well as helping develop their social ability, cognitive abilities and emotional wellbeing.
Becoming a ‘Competent Practitioner’ in Intensive Interaction in requires children, young people and adults involved to be engaged in Intensive Interaction in a natural way and is achieved through a variety of tutoring methods and evaluations.
Kate Webb, Intensive Interaction Mentor at MacIntyre School said:
"Our staff all work towards achieving their ‘Competent Practitioner’ awards in Intensive Interaction. This is a journey of gathering video evidence, reflecting on practice, having mentoring sessions and then fine tuning their skills to reach the standard of competency. Each award was celebrated in one of our school assemblies and we celebrate in style! "
She added:
"At the beginning of last year, we started with 13 ‘Competent Practitioners’ (having exceeded our target of 12) and our target for the year was 30. Did we achieve it? Of course, we did! “
As a result of this achievement, MacIntyre School has been ‘signed off’ by the Institute of Intensive Interaction. In order to achieve this, staff at MacIntyre School were required to embed Intensive Interaction into their teaching, resulting in natural interactions with students.
The certificate, titled ‘Intensive Interaction Happens Here’, was presented to MacIntyre School, by MacIntyre’s Chief Executive Sarah Burslem.
Reflecting on this achievement, Kate said:
“It is truly heartwarming to see such wonderful interactions. These skills will take our students forward in life in a positive and meaningful way.”
