Learning Support 
Looking after children with additional needs
Every child is a unique individual with his or her own strengths. At times, some children may need additional support and specific ways to learn in order to reach their potential and cope in an ever changing world.
Learning Support is a small yet busy department within the Julia Gabriel Family of Services. The role of this department is varied. Learning Support covers many areas and its aim is to assist children, teachers and families to gain the most from the lifelong learning journey.
Speech and Language Therapy
Our Learning Support department provides speech and language therapy for children on an individual basis. Speech and language therapy covers areas such as difficulties with articulation, receptive language, expressive language, the structure of language, feeding and other oral motor difficulties, among others. For young children each session is specifically planned around the needs of the individual child, with most work structured through play. Parents or carers are encouraged to attend the sessions in order to do follow-up work at home, and so that they themselves gain a greater understanding of their child’s development. Caitlin Godbold, our speech and language therapist from South Africa has been with the Julia Gabriel Family of Services for over a year now. Caitlin is based at our Chiltern House Crescent Road and Turf Club Road centres.
Support in class at Chiltern House
The Learning Support department also provides individual support for children within our Chiltern House pre-schools. In every class from Nursery 2 to Kindergarten 2, one place is reserved for a child with additional needs. Support is given through the setting of individual goals, one-on-one activities with a member of the Learning Support team, and of course the extra attention given by the class teacher to the child’s specific needs. Support of this kind is beneficial for all: the individual child has time to work on specific areas of difficulty, while other children in class gain from a deeper understanding of people, developing empathy for others. As Head of Learning Support, I work closely with the teachers and Heads of Centre to provide the optimum placement for all the children, to monitor their progress and work on their individual programmes.
The Green Room
Within Chiltern House we also conduct a specialised programme solely for children with additional needs. Based at our Crescent Road centre, the Green Room offers a unique opportunity for children who may not be able to access a regular pre-school class on a full-time basis. With a small class of six children and three adults, the children are provided with an individualised programme, with structured teaching in their specific learning style, and the opportunity to integrate into the other pre-school classes. This programme has been running very successfully for the past five years.
Discovery Tree
The Learning Support department also runs a social skills programme for children who may need extra help in this area. Our Discovery Tree programme has evolved according to the needs of the children who have attended over the eight years that it has been running. Some important skills frequently focused on include: recognising emotions, confidence building, risk taking, giving and following instructions, and self- leadership. This is a once a week programme designed for small groups of six. It is currently based at Chiltern House Halifax Road on Saturday afternoons.
Adult Education
One further area that the Learning Support department is involved with is adult training. The department participates in many of the courses run by the Julia Gabriel School of Education. We also offer workshops covering a variety of areas such as Behaviour Management and Language Development, and we work with teachers of both JGCL and Chiltern House throughout the year, offering a variety of in-house training sessions in order to enhance their own learning journey. As professionals, we also attend many meetings, workshops and conferences to further our own knowledge and skills.
Throughout the world, people are constantly learning more about how we develop and it is important that we are all involved in the lifelong learning process. Let’s help each other express ourselves at our best!
Fiona McDonald
Head of Learning Support