Interventions
In educational settings, interventions are often used to describe a focused teaching session, which is a deviation away from existing teaching practice. Interventions in schools can be one-to-one, or delivered as a group.
At The Ridge Academy we use a number of different interventions to meet the variety of needs our pupils have, here are just a few. If you would like to know about all of them see our Graduated Response document.
Intervention Team
The Ridge Academy Intervention Team work with children from across the school using a range of planned and ad hoc interventions that meet and adapt to the needs of the children. They support the SaLT and OT by carrying out screening activities and support with daily interventions. They are ace bakers and crafty crafters to support the children in making and creating alongside talking about their emotions and reactions.
The team are all trained by the Trauma Action Group as practitioners and in meeting children's SEMH needs.
Laura Brown, Speech & Language Therapist (SaLT)
Laura is an experienced Speech and Language Therapist having worked with children for over 20 years. Laura understands the importance of making sessions fun and engaging for children and always seeks to understand their interests in order to incorporate them into sessions.
Laura supports the school one day a week to screen, assess and design intervention plans supporting the class and intervention staff to deliver the support each individual pupil needs. Laura also supports teaching staff to match the language in the classroom to the pupil's understanding.
The Ridge screens all pupils each year for higher level language skills andf Blanks levels, which Laura uses to advise classroom staff on the use of language in the class to make it as inclusive as possible.
367a9db7-2ea4-4b39-a885-9247b9f876e2.mp4Elen Lloyd, Occupational Therapy (OT)
Elen supports the school one day a week, screening and assessing the children and supporting with developing and embeding intervention in the classroom. Watch her introduction video for more information.
Support teaching staff with their responsibilities for the development and education of pupils.
Creatively support pupils to learn through sensory play, mark making, attention autism sessions and access to outside learning.
Responsible for conducting assessments and making clinical judgments on their suitability for the service. Working with clients that are on health related benefits with an array of health conditions such as anxiety, depression, history of alcohol abuse, low self esteem and pain. Children often present with complex needs and a multitude of barriers to learning. The aim of my role is to help children to manage their own health condition and work on individual developmental goals.
The Trauma Action Group's mission is 'to improve as many people's lives as we can through better recognising and reducing the impact of psychological trauma.' TAG are supporting us to become a Trauma Action Organisation by delivering training to support staff to understand the impact of trauma, how to support children in trauma and how to intervene and improve children's social-emotional understanding and skills.
A Trauma Action Organisation understands and responds to trauma in constructive and compassionate ways. Staff understand the role they play in reducing the prevalence of trauma and engage with the people they support to deliver better outcomes. Leaders create positive environments and role-model the right behaviours, helping eliminate practices which might cause or trigger trauma.
Hamish & Milo is a complete wellbeing programme that enhances PSHE delivery consists of ten different packs on key emotional themes; friendship, resilience, anxiety, diversity, strong emotions and anger, change and transition, conflict resolution, loss and bereavement, sadness and self-esteem to support children’s emotional development.
Hamish and Milo can be used whole class, small group and 1 to 1.
Language for Thinking is a structured approach to develop children’s language from the ‘here and now’ to the ‘how and why’. 50 colour drawings form the backbone of the resource. Written scenarios and question sheets are provided so adults can ask carefully promote children’s verbal reasoning and thinking skills.
At The Ridge Academy we assess all pupils for Language for Thinking levels to inform the use of language within the classroom. Language for Thinking levels are based around Blank levels of language (Blank, Rose & Berlin, 1978), see this video for information .
The dialogue between teacher and student that underpins learning frequently involves students being asked questions. However, a significant proportion of children find it difficult to understand these increasingly complex questions, including those with autism, social communication disorder, Developmental Language Disorder and learning difficulties. They may be able to understand simple and direct language, but when required to ‘read between the lines’ they struggle. This difficulty with questions may an impact on their understanding of social situations as well as reading comprehension.
Language for Behaviour and Emotions is a practical, interactive resource is designed to be used by professionals who work with children and young people who have Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs and Speech,Language and Communication needs.
Gaps in language and emotional skills can have a negative impact on behaviour as well as mental health and self- esteem. Language for Behaviour and Emotions provides a systematic approach to developing these skills so that young people can understand and work through social interaction difficulties.
Sensory Circuits
A sensory circuit is a form of sensory integration intervention. It involves a sequence of physical activities that are designed to alert, organise and calm the child. The sensory circuit aims to facilitate sensory processing to help children regulate and organise their senses in order to achieve the ‘just right’ or optimum level of alertness required for effective learning. The circuit should be an active, physical and fun activity that children enjoy doing.
Sensory Integration is the process by which the brain receives, organises and processes all the information received from the senses. The senses include touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste, body position and movement (proprioception) and balance/position against gravity (vestibular). The information received from these senses help us to make sense of the world. Effective sensory integration and processing enables us to respond appropriately to different stimuli in our environment and informs our everyday functioning.
An inability to effectively process, organise and correctly interpret sensory information is known as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), formally known as sensory integration dysfunction. Children with SPD may find functional daily activities challenging. The severity of these difficulties can vary greatly. However, 1 in 6 children experience significant disruption to their daily lives as a result of SPD. When screened the large majority of our pupils have sensory integration differences.
