Gleed Boys School has an excellent Special Needs Department fully funded and supported by the County and the Senior Management Team. The Department screens and assesses the basic skills of all SEN students in Year 7 and provides them with a range of support measures.
Students with poor literacy skills do Reading Recovery in the SEN Department for three one hour sessions weekly. This is specialist one-to-one tutoring on "Toe-by-toe", a phonics based Reading Programme, as well as Paired Reading and Spelling. The students regularly improve by 1 - 4 years in a 9-month period. The SEN Department promotes improved reading for students with weak reading skills, during registrations. This project is called "Paired and Group Reading" and is equally successful with Reading Recovery, in raising Reading and Spelling Ages.
The Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) compiles a SEN Register, for all staff, of the different types of Special Needs, so that teachers can differentiate their lessons. IEPs are also maintained on a yearly Review basis. The SENCO also manages a team of LSAs and TAs who support the students who have literacy and numeracy difficulties in their lessons. The SENCO also provides training sessions for all staff in SEN strategies and needs to help promote better awareness of SEN student needs. All of these incentives and provisions are supported by the staff and management of the school.
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