The Orchards Special Support Centre (SSC) is for children who have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) where the main need is for a developmental speech and language disorder (DLD). We have planned places for 13 children and the decision as to who comes into the SSC is ultimately decided by County as they have an over view of need in the area.
The children are well supported in school through withdrawal to the SSC for all their English, maths and sometimes for other subjects such as History or Science. We also support some of their lessons in class. The support provides a modified curriculum suited to meet the children’s needs that includes differentiated work and visual resources. The children receive speech therapy twice weekly and a social skills session, which the speech therapist is also involved with.
The children’s progress is monitored throughout the year though the same processes as the mainstream children. We hold an Annual Review where advice from all agencies (such as Occupational Therapy and Educational Psychology) are discussed with the parents. Reports from all agencies are collated and discussed at the review. The Annual Review updates the EHCP.
The aim of the SSC is to reintegrate the children into mainstream as soon as possible. As they progress through the school we aim to reduce the support, where appropriate, in order to encourage independence in preparation for High School.
