At Fairley House, Special Provision is tailored to meet the specific learning needs of each child. In addition to specialist teaching across the curriculum, the Special Provision team ensures that therapy and learning needs are met. Special Provision includes Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and specialist teaching. Educational Psychologists also provide assessment and advice for pupils.
Therapy is integrated into the curriculum on a daily basis through a transdisciplinary approach, where therapists team-teach with specialist teachers in subjects, so that skills are consolidated within the classroom. Therapy is also delivered on an individual, small group and class basis. This collaborative approach also means that teachers and therapists learn from each other, sharing skills and developing professionally for the benefit of the children.
The Special Provision team have, or are in the process of attaining, the OCR Level 5 Specialist Teaching Diploma, with some staff continuing to attain the OCR Level 7. An overall adult/child ratio of 1: 3.5 ensures that teaching and therapy are personalised and effective.
Our Special Provision Team
The Therapy team at Fairley House consists of 10 speech and language therapists, 7 occupational therapists and highly specialised Literacy and Maths teachers.
The Therapists work collaboratively with classroom teachers as part of a transdisciplinary approach to teaching. All team members are specialists in specific learning difficulties and input is tailored to meet the needs of the individual child. Therapy takes place on a 1:1, small group basis, or is integrated into the classroom.
Our aim is to provide all children with strategies that they can recognise, develop and take to all learning situations, and which help foster independence. These strategies are taught early and reinforced daily in classroom practice.
Speech and Language Therapy
The speech and language therapists (SLTs) target specific difficulties related to the understanding and use of language. This can involve working on children’s ability to: follow instructions; understand concepts, formulate complex sentences; build vocabulary or retrieve words from their memory (word finding). In addition, SLTs work on strategies to support short-term working memory, and build awareness of how sounds work within language to aid spelling and they may address speech, voice and social skills. They also play a key role in developing speaking and listening programmes to support writing skills.
Our specialist teachers help to plug the gaps for children who need a more specific approach for their literacy and maths. This involves developing decoding strategies for reading, sound awareness skills, sight words, comprehension, and extended writing skills. Maths extension work focuses on specific difficulties with the layout of maths problems, recalling number facts and tackling maths word problems. Special teaching work is linked with core curriculum class-work.
Transdisciplinary teaching means teachers and therapists working collaboratively towards a common objective for the child, for example in learning about maps in Geography, the teacher will deliver the key points of the curriculum area. The speech and language therapist will support this objective by teaching key vocabulary and memory work. The occupational therapist will support this objective by teaching the visual strategies of reading/creating grids and legends.
Therapy is integrated into school experience via lesson planning with the teachers, suggesting appropriate learning strategies for the children and assisting with the ongoing assessment of progress. The therapists are also involved with the educational curriculum via input into the children's Individual Education Plan (IEP).