Who do we support?

Children and young people who, for whatever reason, require additional support, long or short term, to help them make the most of education. The reasons can include:

• Autistic Spectrum Disorder
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Literacy difficulties and Dyslexia
• Sensory impairment
• Communication difficulties
• Being Particularly able
• English as an Additional Language
• A learning disability
• Physical disability
• Behavioural difficulties
• Moving home frequently
• Bullying
• Being a young carer
• Social or emotional difficulties
• Being a young parent
• Highly able learners

The Support for Learning faculty is committed to meeting the needs of all our young people by working collaboratively with pupils, parents/carers subject teachers and partner agencies.

Pupils are engaged in a range of learning opportunities through a flexible and relevant curriculum, facilitated by a team of 4 SfL teachers and 8 Pupil Support Assistants. A range of partners such as our EAL teacher, Speech and Language Therapist and Teacher of the Deaf compliment our team and work closely with our staff and relevant pupils to ensure our learners can access the curriculum and positively engage in school.

Inclusion Resource
St Thomas’ Inclusion Resource is one of four resourced schools in Edinburgh, focusing in supporting up to five students in every year from S1 to leaving age who have significant additional support needs, arising from learning difficulties and/ or language communication difficulties. These children are part of their mainstream class and additional curriculum activities specific to the child’s needs are offered by a team of trained support staff and qualified teachers. We provide individualised planning for each learner, a speech and language therapist who supports staff in meeting learning needs, partnership working with a host of agencies and individually planned transition arrangements post school. Places are allocated through the City of Edinburgh’s Case Management Review Group (CMRG). More information can be obtained from St Thomas of Aquin’s Support for Learning Department.

Speech and Language Therapy:
The Secondary Schools Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Team is based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. There are 4 therapists and one speech and language therapy assistant in this team and we provide support to all four resource schools in Edinburgh. We work collaboratively with teaching staff, particularly the Support for Learning teams, to identify communicative strengths and to support the communication needs of the pupils who have resource places. We support many different areas of communication, including young people who have difficulties with:
• Interacting with peers, establishing and maintaining friendships
• Understanding or using language (including vocabulary and grammar)
• Using intelligible speech
• Acquiring literacy skills
• Speaking fluently (stammering)
Much of the work we do involves working indirectly with the young people (i.e. training staff to use supportive communication strategies and techniques, setting Individual Education Plan targets, attending CPMs, providing useful resources) but we also work alongside teaching staff to deliver targeted groups (i.e. groups that support social skills, vocabulary development, emotional literacy). Some of these groups may include young people who are not part of the resource and some groups might take part outside of usual school hours and will also include parents. Very occasionally, it may be necessary to undertake some assessment and therapy with a young person on an individual basis and in such cases, a request for assistance to Speech and Language Therapy is required. The Secondary Schools SLT Team welcome contact from parents/carers. For more information, please contact St Thomas of Aquins’ Support for Learning Department.

The Support for Learning faculty is a busy and vibrant area and includes a supervised group at morning, interval and lunch.

A variety of courses and intervention programmes are delivered, including The John Muir Award, SQA Personal Achievement and Development Wider Achievement Awards (Bronze, Silver and Gold), SRA reading recovery programme, Toe by Toe to name a few.

We also deliver an enhanced transition programme to pupils in the senior phase who have additional support needs. This programme can include a supported link course with Edinburgh College, independent travel, work experience and life skills.

Other examples of support include:

• Work closely with all associated primaries to ensure smooth transition for pupils with ASN. This includes non feeder primary schools.
• Plan for and deliver an enhanced transition for P7 pupils where appropriate.
• Gather up to date information and strategies on pupils with ASN and share with staff where appropriate.
• Extract groups focusing on developing reading accuracy, comprehension, spelling, touch typing, auditory processing, organisational skills, visual memory skills, motor and social skills.
• Work with parents, pupils, external agencies and teachers to write and update Additional Individualised Educational Plans (IEP) and other planning documents such as Learner Profiles and Health Care Plans.
• Run targeted intervention programmes to improve reading skills of young people in S1 and S2, such as the SRA reading programme.
• To work in partnership with Speech and Language Therapy, focussing on a range of vocabulary acquisition and reading strategies.
• Coordinate team of Pupil Support Assistants to ensure pupils with ASN are effectively supported in class.
• Highly effective delivery of the Toe by Toe and paired reading programme for pupils who experience literacy difficulties.
• Organise the typing programme to support young people in developing proficient typing skills.
• To run the spelling programme to help young people develop their literacy skills across the curriculum.
• Carry out assessments based on the City of Edinburgh guidelines: ‘Literacy and Dyslexia, Identifying and Meeting Learners’ where there is a concern a young person may have literacy difficulties.
• Run the break and lunchtime clubs to support more vulnerable young people during social times.
• Provide access to IT equipment for class work and assessment purposes
• Provide home study support
• Work co-operatively with subject teachers to ensure that a range of strategies are in place to support pupils with ASN access the curriculum at Pathway One
• Run an enhanced transition programme to support pupils with ASN transition from school, to further education or employment. This involves close partnership working with Skills Development staff, College staff and employers.
• Collaborate with a range of partner agencies such as Occupational Therapy and Educational Psychology to plan, deliver and evaluate support for pupils with ASN.
• Administer and apply for SQA assessment arrangements for pupils with specific learning difficulties.
• Deliver the Alternative Provision programme through SQA Wider Achievement Awards.
• Provide enhanced planning, support and assessment to our young people within the Inclusion Resource who have additional support needs.