SEND and Student Support
Christian Value: Kindness
Staff
- Gemma Brown - SENCO and Teacher
- Anita Anderson - Teaching Assistant
- Vanessa Aspinwall - Teaching Assistant
- Emily Barr - Teaching Assistant
- Kate Blamire - Teaching Assistant
- Elaine Dodwell - Teaching Assistant
- Emma Harris - Teaching Assistant
- Gemma Kendall - Teaching Assistant
- Cate King - Teaching Assistant
- Ania Krepa - Teaching Assistant
- Gemma Nixon - Teaching Assistant
- Bethany Howarth - Apprentice Teaching Assistant
About the Student Support Unit
We provide support for all areas of the curriculum. Some of this will be support within the classroom and during timetabled lessons, but there are also many other activities that we run during the year. These include:
Homework club - This is open to all students for half of their lunch time. They can use this time to access support, computers and equipment they may need to complete any homework.
Reading - At the beginning of the year we assess all children's reading ages, we then examine these and select students who may benefit from one-to-one reading time - this takes place during registration two mornings a week and is either with one of the support assistants or a year 10 mentor.
Touch-typing - This is a year-long course that takes place during one morning of registration. We are hoping to increase the number of students able to attend, but at the moment this is only available for students who have presented difficulties in this area.
Additional maths and English - We have successfully run programmes for English for a few years now and this has been for years 7 - 9. We work closely with the English department to decide who will benefit most from these sessions and then the students are placed into groups of six and spend two hours a week for six weeks working on different areas such as spelling and punctuation. We are currently extending our training for intervention in maths and hope to provide additional support for this in the future.
1-1 Intervention - Where we feel a child will benefit from 1-1 withdrawal we will assess the child's needs and where possible offer additional support just for them. All teaching staff will be asked if there is anything they would like us to provide anything extra for the particular child and if not we will work on feelings, emotions and anger management should this be needed.
English as an additional language support - We have recently been undergoing training and development to increase our ability to support students with English as an additional language (EAL). We have close links with the specialist teaching service which provides us with advice and support on a regular basis. Students with EAL have the opportunity to access computer software, specifically for EAL at lunchtimes.
We operate an open door policy before school begins, at break, lunch and after school as we believe some students may simply need to discuss their problems and need somewhere they can turn to as soon as they need it.
The year 6 students who come into year 7 often require additional support as they go through the transition, especially those with special needs. We ensure that we attend any meetings at their primary school as well as invite the students and their parents into our school on numerous occasions. This has always proved successful and it is clear that these extra visits have helped.
Our links with parents are vital and we ensure that parents are informed during each step of their child's education while SSU is involved. We send an Individual Education Plan - with specific targets for the child at least once a year and contact parents with progress reports throughout the year. Parents are often invited into school or request to visit themselves to ensure everything is still running smoothly for their child.
Additional Information
SENDIASS Information and Flyer