The specialist teaching status (STS) offers three distinct areas of support for schools:
- Autistic spectrum conditions
- Learning
- Behaviour
Autistic spectrum conditions (ASC)
This team works with parents, school and other professionals towards making home and school environments more ASC friendly for children and young people with this condition.
The ASC team:
- Gives individual support to children in schools from Nursery to Year 11
- Delivers training and advice to school practitioners
- Delivers social skills programmes to children in schools
- Advises teachers, learning support assistants and lunch-time supervisors.
- Provides resources, such as information packs, visual material, timetables, to schools
- Contributes to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
- Liaises with other agencies, e.g. Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Speech and Language Therapy Service, Daisy Chain
- Gives support to children during transitions
Learning
This team provides schools, parents, carers and pupils with:
Assessments
- Literacy and learning
- Specific learning difficulty/dyslexia
- Progress review and new targets
- Contribution of advice for EHCPs
Interventions
- Reviews of SEN pupils, providing further strategies and recommendations
- Advice on individual learning programmes
Trainings
- Dyslexia and specific learning differences
- Spelling
- Support for struggling readers
- Support for improving comprehension skills
Behaviour
This team helps schools to meet the needs of children and young people with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.
They works with schools to:
- Offer advice and training on policies and strategies to support pupils with behaviour issues
- Provide observation and assessments of pupils’ behaviour
- Contribute to the statutory assessment process for children and young people with Special Education Needs
- Offering advice and training for schools on strategies for preventing and dealing with children and young people who may have social emotional mental health needs
- Offer advice on where behaviour issues may result in exclusion
- Undertake individual and group support work with children and young people and their parents/carers
- Contribute to the development of pastoral support programmes and multi-agency meetings for children and young people at risk of exclusion
- Support children and young people who are struggling to attend school due to emotionally based difficulties