Additional Support Needs

A child or young person is said to have additional support needs (ASN) if they need more - or different support - to what is generally provided in educational establishments to children or young people of the same age.

Many circumstances may mean that a child or young person needs additional support for learning:

• Learning environment

• Family circumstances

• Disability or health

• Social or emotional factors

Additional Support Needs are often identified early on in a young person's life and information of these needs will be shared with Larbert High during the transition from P7 to S1 to ensure all supports are in place for starting at High School. Sometimes, though, needs are identified later and our ASN Department are on hand to ensure the right supports are in place.

Below is a flavour of the supports available at Labert High School

In class supports:

Pupils with confirmed/diagnosed ASNs will have a PSI (Pupil Support Information) document uploaded to their records and is available to all staff. This highlights the needs of the pupil; the background information; the strengths in learning; the areas which need to be developed and the ways in which the pupil is best supported. This is used by the class teacher to determine how to best support a pupil with ASNs in their class and this will happen at classroom level.

Department level supports:

Departments within LHS have their own supports which are tailored to their specific subjects. In particular, English and Maths, for example, run their own intervention programmes for pupils who may need some additional support with aspects of their learning.

Pupil Support Year Teams:

Each pupil in the school is assigned a pupil support teacher within their year team and this is their go to person for everything and anything while they are at LHS. For ASN pupils, the pupil support teacher they are aligned with is carefully chosen based on their needs and keeping in mind which Pupil Support teacher would best suit the pupil and family. If the assigned PS teacher is not available, pupils know that there are other people in the year team they can see, such as the year head or Mrs Ferguson, PT ASN.

Assessment arrangements (AAs):

Pupils with confirmed/diagnosed ASNs are entitled to certain AAs as per SQA guidelines. These are determined by the SQA and our SQA co-ordinator; however, AAs must be used by pupils when they are offered certain arrangements in order to generate evidence of these creating equity for the pupil – in order to be able to receive AAs in SQA exams. Each pupil in the position whereby they receive AAs are required to complete an unsupported assessment for each subject, each year.

Nurture spaces (Targeted Support/Diner/Study):

These spaces are used to support pupils in a number of different ways and are very flexible and diverse in their use. Pupils are referred to our spaces by Pupils Support and a bespoke plan is put in place for each pupil before they begin to use the space.

• The Study is primarily used as a space for those who require support within a particular subject, perhaps after a period of absence. Our Probationer Teachers all volunteer to run subject specific interventions in this space. These spaces can be used in conjunction with mainstream learning and education and are accessed as part of their wider mainstream curriculum.

• The Diner is at its busiest during break and lunch time providing a nurturing space (where there is always something lovely cooking) for our young people. Some pupils also access the diner during the course of the day if, for example, they require rest due to medical conditions.

• Our Targeted Support Space offers pupils a place to focus on both curricular and wellbeing work. Our pupils will spend time on the work that is taking place in their classes, working towards qualifications or undertaking work focused on areas such as anxiety, anger management or stress.

Support for Learning Assistants (SfLAs):

We have a team of SfLAs who work across the school and year groups. SfLAs are often in classes or extracting groups of pupils and therefore are there to share their support across more than one pupil. We cannot assign an SfLA to only one child all day and SfLA time/hours are only guaranteed if they have been applied for and granted by the council for an individual pupil.

Educational Welfare Officers (EWOs):

We have a number of in school EWOs who work with families in order to support with issues such as attendance, late coming, social/emotional needs etc.

Outside agencies:

We work daily alongside other agencies who have previously been involved with pupils and their families or contact those whom we feel need a greater deal of support, which cannot be met within a school setting/context alone.