Powlett River Primary School Student Welfare Assistance
Differentiated Classroom Programs
Within the classrooms teachers develop and implement programs that are tailored to individual needs. Teachers use problem solving activities together with explicit teaching of thinking skills to engage and enrich students. Teachers use school assessment along with use of standardised testing to identify areas of strengths and weakness for all students in their class.
Student Individual Learning Plans
Teachers together with parents, set goals for students to achieve and work through the strategies at home and at school that will be used to support the child achieve these individual goals.
Speech Pathology
A speech pathologist attends the school regularly and provides services to children who have difficulties with:
• articulation (e.g. lisp)
• comprehending instructions, stories and conversations
• expressing needs, ideas, opinions and stories
• social skills
• phonological awareness, reading and spelling
• auditory processing
• voice (e.g. vocal nodules)
• fluency (e.g. stuttering)
Services include assessment, consultation with teachers and parents, provision of helpful strategies and home therapy programs, individual and group therapy sessions. All enquires and referrals for the speech pathologist are to be directed to the teacher.
Year 3/4 Literacy Support
The Literacy Support program aims to provide additional assistance to students in Year 3 and 4 in the area of literacy development. The program involves a parent training program to enable them to take individual children for a literacy support program 3 times per week.
Psychologist
The school has access to a psychologist for school visits and provides the following services to referred students, their families, teachers and the community. These services include: counselling and support to address issues including school refusal, anxiety, depression, anger and frustration, peer difficulties and other difficulties. Assessment is also conducted to assess and provide reports and supportive suggestions. Areas often assessed by the school psychologist includes intellectual and academic functioning and evaluations of social, emotional and coping skills.
Psychologists in schools often work with class groups addressing bullying, making friendships, understanding thoughts and feelings and other areas that are considered appropriate. Psychologists also liaise with other professionals including GPs, pediatricians, speech pathologists, audiologists and others to provide a collaborative understanding of an issue that a student is facing and often assists parents and schools to make decisions about the best course of action to take in light of the information.
The school psychologist also is a key element in the management of emergencies where the school population is affected by a critical incident. Assistance is also provided by other Psychologists in the network and the emergency management team. Schools often seek advice about the management of a number of issues that occur in the life of a school and do this with the highest level of integrity and professionalism.
Psychologists in schools work in accordance with the Psychological Practices Act, the Health Records Act and other relevant legislation and guidelines. The service provided to schools is a limited resource and decisions about if the school psychologist can become involved is determined by the Psychologist and the Assistant Principal.
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Our school can assist students requiring English as a second language (ESL). On arrival in Australia , ESL learners are able to access the New Arrivals Program which provides intensive full time programs or targeted support to assist with the initial stages of learning English. ESL students learning of English is further supported by ESL programs in mainstream schools . Please contact the school for further