Dear Parents/Guardians,
This is a brief article outlining some information about Special Education (SET) supports in our school. This week, we are sending out letters in relation to Parent Meetings that will be held for pupils who receive SET support in our school.
Who are the Special Education teachers?
Ms. Denise Fitzharris and Ms. Bríd Casey are the full-time SET teachers. Ms. Elaine French is here 4 days per week. These three teachers are our SET team.
What does the SET team do?
They support children with their literacy and numeracy but also with social and emotional difficulties as well as with fine and gross motor skills. Schools are still using the term 'special needs' and some people like to use the term 'additional needs'.
How do we decide who gets support?
Our support model is based on the NCSE model for SET which is explained by this triangle called the Continuum of Support:
Most children are in the orange section - in their classroom they might get support from the teacher where their work is differentiated/changed to suit the child's needs/abilities etc.
The red section is School Support - this is where we give support to children who may have diagnoses, reports, assessments, sudden/emerging needs etc. Some of this support may be in the classroom with the SET teacher, in a small group or 1:1. We have a lot of need in our school and hence a lot of pupils accessing support at the red level.
Finally, the green section is School Support Plus where children with complex needs receive support and those children need very defined programmes,targets and plans.
How will you know your child is receiving support?
If your child is in Sen. Infants upwards, you will know from previous years and from information that went out recently. If they are in Junior infants and it emerges they need SET support, the teacher would inform you.
Today, we will send our letters outlining the dates for your child's SET meeting so you will find out at the meeting what type of support they will receive and together with parents, class teacher and SET teacher targets and plans are devised as part of a School Support Plan.
Do we have sufficient SET teachers for all the need in our school?
The short answer is NO. The long answer would take a lot of time to explain. We have fought hard in this school for more SET teachers and we have put in many appeals and the recent one in March was unsuccessful. We know that there is so much need in our school - there are 64 pupils accessing support at green, red and orange levels. That is 43% of our school population. Two full time and one teacher working 4 days per week is not enough to meet the needs of our pupils.
How can parents support the school with this?
We know that there will be an election in the coming weeks if not months. There will be politicians knocking on your doors. Please ask them:
What is their vision for schools and education if they get elected
Why we don't have enough SET teachers to meet the needs of our pupils
Why children with autism are not seen by our Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and what will they do if elected
Where are the speech and language therapists, physios, Occupational Therapists etc who should be on site in our schools to help those who need this support at this age to prevent problems becoming entrenched as they get older. Ask them what they will do for children with additional and complex needs if elected.
I would love to see a group of parents advocate for our school and our pupils and I am very happy to facilitate a meeting in the school if there are any parents/guardians willing and able to lead this!
Thanks everyone,
Audrey