How I may be able to help you.

Currently, in New Zealand Schools according to the MOE, there are 1 in 5 students who require additional support from support services.

We all know there are a lot of other students in our classes who require additional support and are not currently receiving any support.



In my role as Across Schools Teacher supporting students with Additional Needs
I might be able to help with some of the following things:

• Facilitate Professional Development for your Staff, tailored to your schools' needs.

In the last year, I have presented :

• Teacher Aide training on Oral language development, Early Reading and Writing skills.
• Supporting Neurodiverse students - How our brain works.
• Behaviour and Sensory needs

• Assessment of individual students using additional assessment tools

•  to gain baseline data
• to assist teachers to plan appropriately
• to check the meet criteria for additional support eg ORS, ICS
• to gather information for Welcome to school project

• Discussed School Special needs support registers      

• Supported COL teachers with inquiries and carried out observations.

• Provided adapted material and resources for students with Additional needs

I am here to help:   Book me through my Blog or email me donna@sommerville.school.nz
I am happy to help with any quick questions or come along and visit.

Wellbeing Strategy

Ministry focus on Wellbeing.

I attended the Inclusive Education Seminar where Dr David Wales National Director Learning Support Ministry of Education discussed the Learning Support Directions.

David presented the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy.

Resources and Initiatives available to support student well being.

Additional resources

Wellbeing tools

Student wellbeing

Wellbeing ERO

Positive Behaviour for learning

Using Physical restraint in schools.

Change to learning support by MOE

The Ministry of Education is using the following model when working with schools to support learners with additional needs.

The new Learning Support  Delivery model process.

Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin will be making an announcement about the learning support Co-ordinators role sometime over the next month.
There will be 600 Learning Support Co-ordinators across the country - MOE is saying one Learning support co-ordinator per 500 students - this is a paid position in addition to normal staffing allocation.

Catering for the many needs in your classroom.

All Teachers have a large range of student needs in their classrooms and this makes for an ever-increasing workload.
We need to start working smarter as we just don't have any more hours in the day.

I have talked to a few teachers about thinking of simple things we can put in place in our classroom to support a range of students.
For example, if you have a visual timetable or instructions available this will support your special needs learners, your students with English as a second language, students that just weren't listening to the teacher.


Universal design for learning   check out tki for more information

As every student learns differently, schools must create flexible, barrier-free learning environments if all students are to become successful, lifelong learners. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help schools and kura design learning environments that are flexible, and where there are no barriers in the way. It is a framework that enables equitable access and participation in education.

Engaging our Learners in an active way

If you present new content to your students in multiple
creative ways, using different types of media, and medium
three amazing things happen:

• more students will be able to access and learn the content
• you’ll reinforce new information more effectively than ever
• your students will become expert learners—meaning they’ll know how to explore a wide range of ways to learn, and they’ll understand which strategies work best for them.

Inclusion

Kristin Wiens, is an educator and inclusion coach from Victoria, British Columbia.

Kristin specializes in visual graphics to get important inclusive messages out there.
This is a list of best practices in teaching...these aren't just feel good messages...there is a ton of good teaching happening in this list.