If your young person needs to be at home for an extended period of time, for example if they are required to self-isolate or spending time at home after a medical procedure, your class teacher will be in contact to provide a bespoke response with personalised support and learning opportunities.
Please see below for more information on our Remote Offer and our approach to supporting families and young people in the home.
KIT calls and individualised support
All Parents /carers receive at least a weekly KIT call but the frequency is determined on an individual basis according to what each family needs. Within the KIT calls teachers offer support, discuss learning, plan personalised resources, support parents to find online resources that suits their young person, consider support other professionals could offer and ensure we are doing as much as we can.
Through frequent discussions with parents and families we are constantly revisiting each young person’s ‘Big Picture’ with an enhanced perspective of ‘Life Beyond Glenwood’ and priorities that will have the greatest influence on a young person’s life.
Bespoke Learning Resources
In response to KIT calls and in-depth knowledge of individual young people Teachers are making and sending home personalised resources to meet and work on individual targets. The quantity/type of resources supplied is judged by the young person’s ability to engage within the home setting and consideration of the whole family and what is best to support without adding additional pressure.
Where specialist equipment can be used within the home this is being be sent home so that positioning and OT/PT experiences may be continued in part. Advice from therapists/ staff within school is also sought to ensure optimum use.
As we work on support at this time we are learning how ICT can enhance young peoples’ learning and experiences and are working hard as a school to improve our use of technology across the curriculum.
Online Learning Resources
As well as individual resources teachers are also supported by HLTAs and LSAs to provide creative and differentiated online learning and support resources.
The resources that we have shared with families on social media have included:
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Differentiated visual work systems for cooking, science and RE activities and art projects.
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Signposted families to online resources e.g. stories that link to class topics
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Created ‘movement breaks’ to support our learners who have sensory processing difficulties.
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Shared symbolised timetables with the associated musical cue to support learners when structuring their day (snack time, dinner and assembly)
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Sensory Stories.
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Tacpac
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Shared resources from our Occupational Therapists
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Corridor resources linked to each topic.
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Signposting to specific websites.
Links with partner agencies
We are meeting and working together with Glenwood Partners to prepare resources that use their specialist knowledge and enhance our Online resources. Young people and families enjoy seeing members of the wider Glenwood Community
Shared video clips of our extended Glenwood Family e.g. Music Man singing the Glenwood Song and Bootcamp workout.
· Shared video clips from our Dance teacher and Music teacher
· Online lessons with Trainer.
· Online Music Therapy sessions.
· Sensory Integration OT prepared videos and activities.
· Music lessons with specialist teachers
Specialist Support and Consultations
Consultations with specialist staff and colleagues to build personalised programmes e.g. around calming, dealing with frustration and de-escalation strategies. This can either be done in conjunction with one appropriate expert or a team consideration through a conference call.
Corridor Teams meet regularly with Specialist Colleagues to prioritise individual meetings and to discuss shared concerns and topics in order for teachers to enhance their support to families.
Consultations, advice and online meetings available with:
Specialist Sensory Integration OTs
Speech and Language Therapist
STEPS tutors
Lead Practitioner
Members of SLT
Special School nurse: consulted daily and parents/carers can also contact her about health matters including diet, sleep systems and toileting
Celebrating Success and bringing parents together
We have changed the way we are using our social media with families. Previously the focus was to celebrate our learners and although this has remained our key motivation we have moved to using Facebook as a two-way communication aid. Families are responding to the online resources that we are sharing incredibly positively and have been emailing us photographs of their young person. This has enabled our online community to continue to celebrate our learners’ achievements. Incidentally, there has been a marked increase in the number of comments that we are receiving since introducing our new approach.
Continuation and Development of Annual Review Meetings
We still continue with AR review meetings as remote conference calls where needed if it is not possible for a family to meet us in person. This ensures that there is continuity and moving forward, these are still very much multi-agency meetings.
We have further developed our Annual Review Process to ensure families are at the centre, all our joint learning is having a clear influence on targets and planning is having an impact on all aspects of a young person’s life
Learning Conversations
More formal Learning Conversations are still running alongside KIT calls. This is particularly important for those whose Annual Review are not during this time to ensure we are learning all we can about young people at this time and are being responsive to all we are finding out. We are able to reflect our new learning in Young people’s targets, Big Pictures and curriculum planning.