North Herts DSPL1 Area 1 - Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock and Royston

Outreach

The outreach service has been established at Woolgrove since the early 1980’s. It is a 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).

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:

  1. Pupil Focus Support/School Focus Support: (Referral for an individual pupil or groups of pupils – Please see the ‘Outreach’ / ‘Referral’ section on the Woolgrove School website for more information). We provide support and advice to mainstream colleagues to identify and develop strategies and resources for children with learning difficulties who 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.

All referrals will be shared with the ISL Advisory Service so that we can avoid any duplication of work. Please only refer to Outreach if pupils are not already being supported by an advisory teacher, otherwise, we will likely be advised to turn down your referral.  

Please note, that there is usually a delay in starting a referral and the current wait time is over one term for DSPL1 schools.

  1. Inreach: As part of a referral, ‘Inreach’ may be suggested. Sencos, teachers, and teaching assistants can visit our school to gain advice from our staff, observe what we do in class, or observe specific interventions.
  1. Inset/Training: Woolgrove Outreach regularly run FREE 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 by email to Sencos.

These are some of the training sessions that we run:

  • Communicate In Print 2 & 3
  • Literacy Strategies and Resources for Children with SEND
  • Sensory Circuits
  • Supporting Pupils with Speech and Language
  • Supporting Pupils with SEND for Teaching Assistants
  • Advice Sessions for Sencos, Teachers or Teaching Assistants to discuss ‘unnamed’ pupils and to gain advice on strategies and resources to support their learning.

Staff

Outreach Manager: Sharon Knight

Outreach Teacher: Zoe Tyler

Outreach Administrator: Diane Barrett