Welcome

The Learning Centre consists of 2 Teachers and 20 full or part-time Teaching Assistants.
We aim to help students gain confidence to help them become happy and successful in school.
We give support in a number of ways:

• during mainstream lessons - helping students with class activities 
• during skills lessons - which take place within the department to work on literacy
• by helping to improve students’ organisational skills
• by assisting in the improvement of students’ handwriting techniques
• by assisting with homework tasks and coursework deadlines
• by supporting students in internal and external examinations

We also run a number of intervention programmes

The Buddying Reading Programme

This programme is managed by an experienced TA. It takes place in the library and is run with the help of the 6th Form students. It is run during morning registration and is offered to Year 7 twice a week. Over 40 students are involved, making this intervention programme extremely popular. We have seen vast improvements in both the students’ confidence and reading ability.

SuccessMaker®

This is a computer programme which provides challenging work in an attractive environment with colour, sound and video. It offers an individual course mapped to each student’s needs. The programme is used by selected students during morning registration and lessons within the department.

Acceleread/Accelewrite

This is a highly structured multi-sensory phonetic approach to literacy. It is a methodical tool for the teaching of reading and spelling.  Students work on this programme during morning registration twice a week.

Wellington Square

This is an attractive reading scheme designed to meet the needs of students who have moderate or sever difficulties with reading. Students work on this during registration or lessons within the department.

Handwriting Club

This runs weekly during registration for those who need help with their handwriting. 

Mentoring

For a number of students, we may help by mentoring them on a 1:1 basis. This can help significantly with their progress by helping them with issues that may be affecting them in class. We also organise a lunch-time club where children can have help with their homework.

Withdrawal from lessons

Some students are withdrawn from some MFL lessons to have help with literacy skills

Our aim is to ensure students are confident, happy individuals who enjoy their time in school and make the maximum progress possible.