We offer comprehensive but sensitive support for pupils with learning difficulties, so that all pupils have full access to the curriculum.

Sally morrish, head of learning support

The Learning support team aims to:

• Build pupils’ knowledge through working from the known – e.g. using or making resources based on pupils’ own experiences and that use familiar vocabulary, or developing vocabulary and understanding through modelling, questioning and asking for clarification.
• Consider every boy’s individual learning needs and accommodate accordingly to allow every boy to make expected progress.
• Challenge and engage all boys in lessons ensuring sufficient breadth and depth of content to stretch the boys.
• Encourage boys to develop a life-long love and enthusiasm for language and literature in all forms.
• Enable boys to become both critical and creative thinkers, readers and writers through the development of the skills and resources they will need to succeed in an increasingly literate and multimodal world

Staff in Learning Support work in partnership with the boys’ teachers across the whole school. This coupled with a close working relationship with the Pastoral Care team and Hobsons (our on-site welfare centre) ensures we provide social, emotional and mental health support; speech and language therapy; occupational therapy and vision therapy with specifically tailored intervention. Through this support network the boys develop the capacity for fulfilment in school, at home and during leisure and are able to cope with times of difficulty which life naturally presents, such as anxiety, stress, unhappiness, illness, divorce and death.

Boys are typically taught one to one for either one or two 30-minute lessons a week.  Handwriting is taught in groups of four or five once a week (at no extra charge).  These take place within dedicated Learning Support classrooms where all five Learning Support teachers have a permanent room allocation. The in-house team is supported by a visiting Occupational Therapist and a Speech and Language Therapist. Teaching staff are briefed by the Learning Support team each term to help them with their lesson planning. 

Lessons are delivered by experienced specialist Learning Support teachers who foster a love of learning as well as developing more general learning capacities such as curiosity, creativity, and resilience in areas where boys were previously underperforming, often with low self-esteem. They support pupils through ensuring that they are familiar with the range of resources they could use and through encouraging them to identify a source of assistance when they have a problem in the lesson.

The team teach the boys strategies to support their learning with a Special Educational Need (SEN) or English as an Additional Language (EAL) in subject lessons. Each child is supported so that they will have a good sense of self-worth and self-confidence and be able to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. Overall, the department ensures every boy has full and equal access to the breadth of the curriculum and is enabled to reach their full educational potential and to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Ultimately, pupils gain an awareness of, and pride in, their own unique gifts, talents and privileges and leave Summer Fields knowing they are well-prepared for their next stage in education and beyond.