INFORMATION FOR PARENTS

Additional Support Needs

Q.

What additional support is available to help my child in school?

A.

There are many additional support staff working in schools to help children achieve their fullest potential.

In School Support

• Classroom assistants
• Supervisory assistants
• Additional Support Needs (ASN) Auxiliaries who are appointed to schools to ensure they can support pupils with the most complex and challenging needs
• Additional Support Needs (ASN) teachers who work in and out of classes and receive specialist training in how to work with class/subject teachers to meet pupils needs. - for example, in behaviour management, autism, dyslexia or other barriers to learning.
• Experienced classroom/Subject teachers for whom additional training is available

It is the schools responsibility to organise how their staff are used to support pupils. The pupils with the most severe difficulties clearly will require the most support. However, many other children benefit from additional support staff in schools.

Support from outwith school (Central Staff)

• IT resources and specialist advice
• Educational Psychologist, Anne Bain
• Assistant Adviser Additional Support Needs, Elizabeth Edwards 
• Additional Support Needs Manager, Ian Perry
• Advisory teachers of Hearing and vision, Val Jamieson and Freda Leask with their support team.
• Home-Link teachers, Morag Gray and Isobel Mitchell

Your child's Headteacher will know how best to contact central staff but you may wish to contact them directly - in which case see the leaflet "Helping Your Child Learn".

Schools may also use occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and the clinical psychologist who work for NHS Shetland but support some young people in the schools setting.

Q.

I think my child is dyslexic. What should I do?

A.

The first and best thing to do is to discuss this with your child’s class teacher. Explain what your concerns are and why you feel your child has dyslexia. The teacher will be able to tell you how much he is learning in class and how his progress compares to other children his age. Usually this will result in you and the teacher sharing the same view of what should happen next, whether this is changes in what happens in class, additional support or changes in homework etc. The teacher may feel it would be helpful to ask for an in-school Additional Support Needs teacher to work with your child and may want to try other strategies or materials, which you can support at home.

Sometimes, the school might involve the Assistant Adviser, Additional Support to provide further advice or support.

If after making your concerns clear you still feel unhappy with the school’s view of your child you may want to ask to discuss your concerns more formally with the head teacher.

Hopefully through discussion with your child’s teacher and head teacher you will be able to understand what your child’s difficulty is and what would be best for him. There are many helpful organisations and websites if you find your child does have dyslexia and these are available from your school.