Helping secondary students thrive at Ark Boulton Academy

As a secondary school of currently 900 students, including autistic individuals, those with ADHD, and increasingly complex needs, we recognised that a tool like Widgit could do so much to support their day-to-day activities, whilst helping students of all abilities reach their true potential. Following my Colourful Semantics training at Widgit HQ, it all went from there. Now, we’re proud to use Widgit across the setting and we’re already seeing positive results.

We began pastorally with sensory circuits and ‘secret circuit’ cards. Setting up a dedicated sensory circuit room, we displayed Widgit Symbols as a guide to self-regulation activities. Our pocket-sized secret circuit cards were distributed to over 100 students to give them discreet self-regulation strategies in class (including custom symbols created by Widgit, like squeeze and release and finger flares). The impact has already been significant. Over a half-term trial, pupils with Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs specifically saw a 60% average reduction in classroom consequences, with one third of participating students receiving one consequence per day down to zero per week.

Absolutely. We ensure symbolised communication is used to benefit all learners, preventing any student from feeling singled out. For example, task boards have now been deployed across the majority of classrooms. Wall-mounted velcro boards also display the lesson flow (Now and Next), whilst desk-based boards structure the first 5 minutes to help students settle. Working walls also feature key subject vocabulary and visual diagrams (such as river processes in Geography), with core knowledge booklets containing symbolised homework and subject definitions across the curriculum to ensure accessible reading levels for all students.

Having witnessed the positive impact of Widgit, we expanded further to implement the use of visual timetables, restorative practice, and parental engagement. Used in classrooms for pupils in Years 7-9, visual timetables feature alongside digital schedules to reduce transit anxiety and set clear daily routines. For students with SEMH, restorative practice Communication Boards provide visual sentence starters and prompt cards to help them express what went wrong and how to move forward. To provide consistency between school and home, we introduced symbol cards to help students and their parents visually identify what was working during termly review meetings, paired with dedicated ‘Home Packs’ featuring visual timetables and calming strategies designed to extend support beyond the school gates.

We created a fully symbol-supported transition booklet for our additional SEND transition day. It features things like what a secondary school looks like with symbol-supported descriptions of different rooms, and visual prompts for students to express their worries and strengths. Thirty SEND students attended the dedicated transition day using this booklet. When they returned for the general induction day, every student walked in confident, happy, and fully prepared because they understood the environment.

I would advise staff to visit local primary schools to see how primary settings use symbols in Year 6. This can help to build a continuous and consistent approach as students move up. I would also recommend starting small and targeting the real areas of need. Don't try to roll out everything at once! For us, it was SEMH students struggling to focus that required our initial attention. Also, I would recommend pacing your implementation of Widgit. Moving too fast risks introducing inconsistent symbols across different departments. Take a measured, central approach to keep visual language unified.

I really like the Aspirations symbol with the little character raising their hands up to reach the star. It captures positive encouragement and student success so perfectly!