a best practice model’ - adhd foundation : adhd foundation€¦ · and adhd team of onsite ......
TRANSCRIPT
Schools working with
Clinicians – A best practice
model’ Justine Sims Head Teacher Pontville School
A collegiate approach at Pontville
Independent Specialist Residential and Day School supporting 105 children
and young people aged 5 to 19 with social communication difficulties, ASD
and ADHD
Team of onsite therapists including SALTs, Occupational Therapists,
Educational Psychologists and Mental Health Practitioners
‘The collegiate approach which is taken across the whole school is strong.
The school is ably supported by a strong multi-faceted clinical team who
use their expertise to support pupils and upskill the whole staff team. The
contribution made by all staff is valued and strong systems are in place to
ensure staff are able to work together to meet pupil needs in an effective
and consistent way.’ NAS Autism Accreditation 2017 Area of strength
Being part of the team
A member of the clinical team is part of our Senior Management Team
All therapists are linked to Key Stages from KS1 through to KS5
Every member of the therapy team has identified classes and caseloads –
this is shared across the school so education and care staff know who to go
to for support and guidance
Our clinical team have a shared office space on site at Pontville. This allows
for collaborative work and conversations between the therapists
Shared planning
Therapists and education staff plan sessions and lessons together
Social communication sessions are delivered by therapists and supported
by education staff so that key themes can continue to be delivered across
the week
Our PHSE lead and Speech and Language Therapists plan a social
communication foci for each week which goes across the year which is
shared across the school. Teachers then include these in their planning and
delivery across all curriculum areas
Our occupational therapist and speech and language therapist deliver a
combined messy play session to our primary pupils which is planned and
shared with the class team
Team Around the Child
Internal Team Around the Child meetings:
Ensure effective sharing of information about the child, young person or family to underpin on-going work, improve consistency and coordination in the services delivered
Helps to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to supporting a child, young person and family
All key staff who work with the child attend and contribute into the meeting
The child/young person also contributes to the iTAC process
The meeting allows for successes to be shared and new strategies to support to be discussed
Actions are reviewed at each meeting to ensure that support and progress continues for the young person and support can be adjusted where needed
Team Around the Child
Care Education
Therapy Child/Young
Person
'ITAC'
Support outside the classroom
Young people have individual 1:1 therapy sessions
These take place in agreement with the young person at their preferred
time where possible
We have a variety of spaces to support individual sessions both inside the
building as well as outside
Therapeutic relationships can take a period of time to develop. Having the
team onsite allows for flexibility in developing these relationships at the child
or young person’s pace
Education staff can identify young people to the clinical team who may
benefit from therapy sessions
Strategies to support the whole class
Often strategies that are identified to support an individual pupil will benefit the whole class
For example; step by step tasks, clearly displayed rules, checking off completed tasks, movement breaks
At Pontville our learning environments are designed to provide clear structure, low arousal, low distraction and calm places to learn. Our therapy team alongside our education staff will undertake classroom audits to ensure that every environment meets the set criteria to support learning.
Paired observations of lessons with education and clinical staff take place across the year to evaluate the promotion of small group work and independent learning. This allows for professional conversations to take place and the identification of best practice and further support where necessary
Staged approaches to supporting
pupils
Post admission our young people have a 12 week review where education,
care and linked therapists contribute to the review and this enables future
planning and support to take place based on the both educational and
therapy assessments
Often our young people will have a longlist of strategies to be implemented
into lessons
Working with the therapy team to priorities strategies can prevent a young
person from becoming overloaded
This also is the case for individual therapy sessions. By having an open
dialogue between the clinical team as well as the education and care
team we can effectively plan together to best support the young person’s
individual priority needs
Using strategies that support the
whole school
The clinical therapy team upskill education and care staff by regular and
focused training including bespoke training tied into classwork
observations, assessment of pupils or following requests from staff
All new staff to Pontville as part of their induction process have a 6 week
package of training of an introduction to the different therapies
By training other members of staff the clinical team are then able to
develop further approaches and techniques which in turn may be rolled
out across the school
Strong communication systems across the school to information share and
promote collaborative working
Working together for success –
Sensory Garden project
Working party including education, clinical and care staff developed the
ideas and plans to create a sensory garden
We used a training day to dig, plant, build, create and upcycle for the
sensory garden
Pupils continued after the day to complete the project giving them a sense
of ownership
The sensory garden has many uses now including individual therapy
sessions, a creative learning environment and just a fantastic place to be
outside for our young people
Work together was definitely successful!
Working together for success
Working together for success
Working together for success
Working together for success
Working together for success
Working together for success
Working together for success