Special Educational Needs and Exceptional Learners

Inclusion at Green Valley

We are an inclusive and an academically non-selective school, although we assess each child on entry to ensure we are appropriately equipped to meet their needs. We understand that many children could need additional support at some time during their education for a wide variety of reasons. Learning Support provision at St. Andrews International School, Green Valley is personalised for each child, using an ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ response method to meet each child’s unique and diverse needs.

Classes are small at St. Andrews Green Valley, meaning that in most cases special needs are able to be met within class with high quality teaching and differentiated learning opportunities. Although, in some cases we may assess that your child needs some additional learning support in order to meet their full potential.

We offer a range of Learning Support services that include:

• Targeted interventions from the learning support coordinator
• One to one support from a learning support assistant
• Learning mentor drop in sessions to remove barriers to learning
• Speech and language therapy
• Daily drop in study support sessions in the school library
• In class support and strategies from the learning support coordinator
• Exam technique and revision sessions
• Educational testing for Access Arrangements
• Extra support for tests and exams which include evidence-based interventions
   

Evidence-based interventions that we use include:

Nessy reading and spelling, Nessy touch typing, Nessy Numbers, Dynamo Maths, Read Write Inc, Precision Teaching and Nessy writing beach.

Sensory Room

Our school has a sensory room, which is a therapeutic learning environment that can be used for a range of purposes including relaxing, reading, social skills interventions and motor skills lessons.

Support from outside agencies

• We have links with a wide variety of external educational services should the need arise.
• Counselors
• Educational Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Behavioural therapists
   

If you would like to hear more about learning support at St Andrews International School Green Valley, please contact:

Laura Kerr - Head of Learning Support
lkerr@standrews-schools.com

What is an ‘Exceptional Learner?

Exceptional Learners are defined as those who have natural ability or talents in academia, sports or the arts. At St. Andrews International School we also work towards identifying those children who may be both exceptional and have additional needs. They may;

• Be underachieving
• Students from culturally diverse background or that have
• English as an additional language
• Have a physical, emotional or learning difficulty
• Have a medical diagnosis such as ADHD

These students might be known as ‘twice exceptional’.

Identification of Exceptional Learners

The identification system at SAIS is multi-faceted and includes both subjective and objective methods.

Objective

• Summative end of term tests
• Standardized testing (Acer, Spelling tests)
• Naglieri Non Verbal Ability Test

Subjective

• Teacher identification
• Parent identification
• EL coordinators or SENCo identification
• Secondary – Student identification

Provision for Exceptional Learners

The needs of exceptional learners are met in a variety of ways appropriate to the student

• Planned in class differentiation and extension opportunities
• Acceleration
• Primary EL activities, National and Local Enrichment days and tournaments
• Termly school and parent IEP meetings for twice exceptional students if required

Please contact lkerr@standrews-schools.com if you would like to recommend a student for EL assessment.

St. Andrews International School, Green Valley welcomes students for whom English is not their first language.

Our academically robust, comprehensive and high level English as an Additional Language (EAL) programme is tailored and resourced to provide optimal conditions for the personal growth and academic success of students.

The programme aims:

• To provide immediate, short term acquisition of sufficient English to ensure a successful integration into both academic and social life of the school
• To strategically assist students to acquire a developed English proficiency to ensure success in the mainstream classroom without EAL support
   

At St. Andrews, language support is available to all students for whom English is not a first Language from Nursery onwards, in a number of forms, dependent on the level of support required.

St. Andrews International School, Green Valley is proud to host students from over 30 countries as we embrace and celebrate our internationalism. The EAL programme is delivered by specialist language teachers with specific pedagogical experience, in both our Primary  and Secondary schools.

In order to maximise the benefits and outcomes of the programme and to ensure EAL and language acquisition is a whole school focus at St. Andrews, all staff are exposed professionally to the theory and pedagogy of English language teaching.

At St Andrews we believe in allowing our children to achieve more than they ever thought possible by providing challenging opportunities. Year on year we have excelled in the Tournamet of Minds (TOM) inter-school competitions against schools in Bangkok and have attended the finals twice in Australia becoming overall winners with our Primary team in 2016.

And 2018 was no different, with our Secondary team winning in their category in Bangkok so they also went to the finals in Australia. 

The Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a problem solving programme for teams of students from both Primary and Secondary years. Thousands of children are involved in these STEM challenges across international schools throughout the world. TOM aims to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management, and the discipline to work collaboratively within a competitive environment. 

Teams solve challenges from a choice of disciplines:

• Science Technology
• Engineering Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Language Literature