Learning Support
The Learning Support Centre is a wonderful resource. It is a beautiful, colourful, warm and friendly place for pupils to work and is found on the top floor of the new Jubilee Building above all the Sciences and ICT. The staff here are specially trained and qualified to provide extra teaching and support to pupils mostly in literacy skills such as may be needed by pupils with dyslexia, but extra Mathematics teaching is also available. Pupils needing extra support are informally assessed by the Head of Learning Support, Mrs Helen Farley, so that she can determine what an individual child’s needs are and give parents an idea of how much extra support she feels their son or daughter will need to begin with at Clayesmore.
It is well-understood at Clayesmore that pupils with a difficulty such a dyslexia or with tendencies of that sort may need help not just of a specific literacy nature but also with such things as personal organisation and study skills. It is very much a policy of the Centre to equip the children with the skills they need to enable them to be as independent as possible in their learning over time.
Work in the LSC is usually of a 1:1 nature, but group work is also carried out, especially in the case of those who may not be studying a modern foreign language.
A fundamental aspect of the work of the LSC is that it is undertaken in conjunction with the work of the subject teachers so that the specialist LSC staff have as much knowledge as possible of any difficulties that a boy or girl may be experiencing when they are away from the LSC, working in their normal lessons.
The LSC is characterised by its open door policy and by the staff’s willingness to go the extra mile for pupils who need their help with their schoolwork.
Mrs Farley will always advise parents about all the issues to do with children qualifying for extra time, readers and scribes in their GCSE and A-level examinations. All things are possible at Clayesmore!