The outreach service has been established at Woolgrove since the early 1980s. It is a highly regarded free service available to all local authority mainstream primary and secondary schools in the DSPL1 area which is organised as part of the Local Authority’s provision.
Woolgrove is the lead special school for providing outreach services to North Herts (DSPL Area 1 – Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth, Royston and surrounding villages). Woolgrove School is currently working in partnership with Greenside School to deliver outreach for Stevenage and surrounding villages (DSPL Area 2).
Main Aim: The outreach service works with SENCos, teachers and teaching assistants from mainstream schools. The main aim of the outreach service is to support mainstream colleagues to meet the needs of pupils working below age related expectations or pupils that have additional needs or a diagnosis that results in difficulties accessing the curriculum.
There are three main types of support that we offer:
- Pupil Focus Support: (Referral for an individual pupil – Please see Referral section for more information). We provide support and advice to mainstream colleagues to identify and develop strategies and resources for children with learning difficulties that are struggling to access the curriculum. Our support may include: observations of the pupils, providing resources and training, modelling strategies and supporting with planning and differentiation.
- Inreach: We welcome SENCos, teachers and teaching assistants to visit our school which we refer to as ‘Inreach’. This may be suggested during the course of a referral or this can be requested by your school. If you feel that you or a colleague would benefit from a visit to our school to gain advice from our staff or the opportunity to observe what we do in class or in a session such as sensory circuits, rebound therapy etc, then please do not hesitate to get in touch to arrange a visit (outreach@woolgrove.herts.sch.uk).
- Inset/Training: We regularly run training courses at Woolgrove school to support teachers and teaching assistants to gain further knowledge and confidence when working with children with special needs. Details of the training courses are sent out termly by email. Please do let us know if you work in a school in DSPL1 and have not received one of our flyers.
These are some of the courses that we regularly run:
- Communicate In Print 2 & 3
- Literacy Strategies and Resources for Children with SEND
- Numeracy Strategies and Resources for Children with SEND
- Sensory Circuits
- Supporting Pupils with Speech and Language
- Supporting Pupils with SEND for Teaching Assistants
- Solutions Circle
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the services we offer, please do not hesitate to contact Sharon Knight, outreach@woolgrove.herts.sch.uk or call 01462 674121.
Resource Centre: We have a range of photocopiable worksheets available for mainstream staff and a variety of reading books that we loan to schools on a short term basis.
Outreach Courses
