SEN
Southampton SEND Local Offer, including special event promotional material
Southampton Family Training Opportunities
Students who have special educational needs are supported wherever necessary to achieve full access to the whole-college curriculum. This is facilitated through a range of access technologies including skilled staff, specialist equipment and resources.
Students receive support to maximise opportunities for independent living in preparation for life after college, including preparation for work or continuing education.
Learning Support has its own suite of rooms called Trinity. Further support is offered to all students through the lunchtime and after college study clubs where they can benefit from individual help with assignments or extra reading sessions. We also run a nurture group. Computer use is available at the after college study club.
A range of interventions are run to support students remove barriers to learning, such as undeveloped literacy skills or social skills.
Below are brief descriptions of the SEN interventions at either KS3 or KS4.
Social Skills
For social skills group we use the “Talk about for Teens “, which is a programme for students who may have social, emotional, or behavioural difficulties.
The students will work in small groups to work on skills to help with verbal and non-verbal communication and this will increase self-awareness and self-esteem. This allows the students to develop confidence to build appropriate relationships with both staff and peers.
Students are selected in consultation with the Progress Leader and in liaison with home
Specialist Support
Saint George has an allocated school nurse who attends up to once a week. Referrals are made from pastoral staff. The School Nursing service works in partnership with children, young people and their families to ensure that pupil’s health needs are supported within their school and their community.
Saint George is supported by an emotional health and well-being practitioner from No Limits one day each week. Students can access are referred for a series of one to one sessions by pastoral staff or the school nurse. Students can all access a ‘drop in clinic ‘during lunch time.
Saint George employs a registered mental health nurse one day each week. Students are referred by pastoral staff and supports early identifications of social emotional and mental health difficulties and with referrals to outside agencies.
Literacy and Communication
These groups consist of pupils with a mixture of needs. They can be poor readers, have low literacy skills, poor social skills or behavioral issues. The groups generally work more successfully when this mix is used – the pupils learning from each other and learn the need to be tolerant of each other’s needs.
Catch Up Literacy Reading Programme. A specialist one to one support to improve all aspects of the reading process addressing, comprehension, sight and word knowledge, phonics and spellings.
Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme. A specialist teaching programme which enhances student word learning skills and promotes independent learning. During this schema of work students are exposed to figurative language, idiomatic understanding and different linguistic interpretations. Topic themes are taken from the education curriculum and daily life of a student. It can be delivered on to one or in small groups.
Guided Reading. A successful intervention in which small groups of students, alongside a trained teaching assistant, read a chosen text together. Taking it in turns to read aloud to support building confidence and analysing the text in verbal dialogue.
Peer Reading. Working in pairs, an older student with strong fluency and comprehension skills tutors a younger student (the tutee) in order to scaffold these skills. They read aloud to each other with the tutor student assisting in word decoding and comprehension. This intervention has a twofold positive affect; improved attitude to reading for pleasure as well as increased confidence and enjoyment and promotes interpersonal skills as well as improved speaking and listening
Handwriting. Handwriting support is offered to pupils who have poor motor skills or medical conditions that affect their handwriting. The aim of this intervention is to help pupils with their grip, alongside strengthening their hands which ultimately improves the quality of presentation. The use of a different style pen and practice resources for home completion are monitored for progress evidence.
Dyslexia/Dyscalculia
Support for reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, and memory organizational and processing skills. This helps build confidence and gives strategies for promoting successful learning.
Time-out
Specialist support to help pupils to learn outside the traditional classroom, to learn about themselves in an environment that allows them to develop personal and social skills that can then be transferred to the classroom.
ASD Network
A specialist programme is tailored to the pupils’ age and interests. The intervention addresses both the pupil’s behaviour and their communication skills and offers regular reinforcement of positive actions.
Precision Teaching
Precision Teaching is an intensive method of monitoring the accuracy and speed of a pupil's responses. Strategies are designed to take an existing skill, and increase accuracy and speed in order to develop competence. The goal for the pupil would be to increase his rate of performance.
ELSA
We have a Trinity based ELSA (Emotional Support Assistant).
Mrs Sansom’s role is to support the emotional development of pupils within the school .She works closely with the Southampton Educational Phycologists, and other relevant agencies to ensure the best outcomes to the personal circumstances of our pupils.
Breakfast Club
Trinity runs a breakfast club each morning where students can gather, eat breakfast and socialize with friends. The club gives the student a positive start to the day.
Before and after school homework club
Trinity runs before and after school homework club each day. Students receive help to produce high quality homework and to help relieve any anxieties surrounding homework. The clubs are run by a qualified teacher and are supported by learning support staff. The club runs from 7.45 to 8.40 in the morning and from 15.00 to 16.00 in the afternoon (Monday-Thursday).