HOW DO you provide effective Additional Learning Support (ALS) when your facilities are closed and face-to-face support is no longer possible?
That’s the daunting challenge faced by our ALS team in recent weeks as they reinvented their service delivery to ensure learners and families continued to get vital support.
ALS students are those who need more, or different, support to what is normally provided to ensure they can get the most out of their education.
That’s not just learners who have long-term learning difficulties or disabilities: it encompasses a huge range of issues and barriers to their progress.
It can mean specific learning difficulties like dyslexia and dyspraxia, or Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties. It can also mean physical and medical problems, and sensory impairments, and social or communication difficulties, like those experienced by people diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Condition.
STEPH Firth, Head of ALS, explains the scale of the challenge posed by a pandemic that brought an abrupt end to all in-person meetings, visits and groups.
“Going into lockdown meant daily personal contact was removed, and that means we’ve had to work doubly hard to provide our support,” she said.
“The team has switched to providing all our usual support services online or via telephone – and has tailored how we do it to the very specific requirements and needs of each individual learner and family member.”
ALS staff have been contacting all students or parents at least once a week – as a minimum – checking on their welfare, monitoring vulnerable learners, and ensuring strong collaboration with safeguarding.
They’ve also delivered bespoke support packages for each learner with some wanting daily phone calls, others preferring weekly emails, and some needing more bespoke assistance.
One example is a learner who has described his dyslexia support as a “five-star service”.
His support package has included overlays and work printed onto green paper all sent out to his home whilst he had no laptop access. Liz Wilcox, Dyslexia Tutor, has even started delivering Toe by Toe reading intervention – a highly-structured multi-sensory reading manual – over the telephone with him.
“That was definitely a first for us”, says Steph. “And probably a first for Toe by Toe delivery anywhere in the country.”
ALS staff have joined Google Classrooms to work alongside our tutors in providing academic support.
And they have been contacting all new students and families due to join Oldham College in September as part of their usual transition process, and to offer reassurances in these unprecedented circumstances.
“Thankfully we had started our transition visits early this year so most new students have already been for at least one visit here”, said Steph.
“However, if we were open we would now be having second and third visits for those who need it.”
The ALS team has adapted its model for carrying out annual reviews for EHCP learners – including virtual liaison sessions with external professionals and parents – and continues to strive to make sure the learner’s voice is fully heard in that review.
They’ve also shared and signposted key information for deaf learners via the Oldham College Deaf Club on Facebook, and are liaising with local authorities to ensure learners leaving us this academic year will get the next support and social care packages they need.
Dyslexia support has continued almost as normal – just delivered differently with 1:1 support over the phone – and the team has also been updating and refreshing their own skills through online CPD activities covering new developments in ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia and other areas.
AS EVER, the litmus test of this team’s work remains the results and feedback from learners and their families.
The team’s regular calls have been credited with helping many learners to feel more relaxed about this extremely unusual situation.
One parent, for example, describes them as a “godsend” to her daughter, adding: “She’s been a lot calmer and happier that things will eventually go back to normal for her”.
‘Thank you once again for getting in touch, very much appreciated”, wrote another satisfied parent.
“Please send our best wishes to everyone at the college – you are all amazing! Thank you!”
