SEND

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS & DISABILITIES

Our vision – Inspired to learn, supported to succeed

Special Educational Needs: The learning support department at Ringwood School is known as The Hive and it has a hard earned reputation for excellence. Staff have experience of a diverse range of additional needs and effective interventions to support learning. Classroom support is top quality and both teachers and teaching assistants have ongoing professional training designed to meet the needs of all learners.

The way to success is through team work between families, staff and outside agencies. We work closely with a range of advisors and professionals who provide us with specialist advice to help young people maximise their development in school academically, socially and emotionally. As well as being future-focused, we value the work of our primary colleagues and the transition between different settings is thorough, ensuring that we are aware of support received during the young person’s formative years. This helps us to ensure both continuity of support and a bespoke approach where things need to be substantially different.

DST Award Badge

You can find the SEN Policy and Information Report and Accessibility Plan in the Policies and Statutory Information part of our website.

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We aim to support all students in meeting their potential- whatever that may be. Students have gone onto sixth form here as well as other colleges to do a range of courses and a significant number have moved on to university or have established thriving careers. We regularly receive visits from ex-students who have valued their experiences at Ringwood and are keen to share their success stories with us. As a department we are friendly and approachable and we value early communication from families when there are queries and questions.

Interventions to support our students

We offer a programme of interventions which are tailored to individual student’s learning needs. These are delivered by trained Teaching Assistants or literacy teachers during tutor time and usually run for 8 weeks (one tutor time a week). Currently we offer:

Precision Teaching – this 1:1 intervention was developed by Educational Psychologists and uses the principle of overlearning to help students to secure fluency of reading or spelling of high frequency words. It may incorporate revisiting of phonics knowledge if this is an area of difficulty.

Paired Reading – this can be 1:1 with a Teaching Assistant or trained older student. It is an evidence- based intervention which helps develop reading fluency and comprehension skills. It also helps to promote enjoyment of reading and understanding of vocabulary.

Lexonik – this intervention is primarily used for weaker readers in Year 9 and is delivered to small groups over 6 sessions by trained literacy teachers. It is particularly successful for students with the Specific Learning difficulty dyslexia.

Pre/post teaching Research has shown that many students benefit from pre-teaching of vocabulary and concepts in order to help them to maximise the learning in the classroom. Student may also consolidate learning during these sessions.

Support with Speech and Language skills (SALT)  A student may follow a programme recommended by the SALT service or using resources for example from the communication trust.

Mentoring – some students really benefit from support with organisation including with Home Learning and Teams. For students with ASD needs or anxiety this can help them to feel more confident during the school day. Relationships are built so that they feel that there is a friendly adult who can be approached if they need help or support.