The school has a part-time Support for Learning Teacher, Miss Shevlin, she is in school on Mondays and Fridays each week. Support for Learning Teachers in Fife have four key roles and responsibilities:

Planning and Assessment

The SfL Teacher supports every teacher in school with planning to meet children’s needs and to ensure any barriers to learning are minimised. This may  also involve provision of materials and resources to support learning in class. The SfL Teacher is involved in all school assessments procedures, for example, spelling, reading and maths, however, is often involved in ongoing assessments. If any concerns are raised by a child, parent or teacher, then a Contextual Assessment may be carried out. The SfL Teacher is responsible for co-ordinating this Contextual Assessment, which looks at all aspects of learning and wellbeing, and will work closely with the child, parents and staff to gather assessments and observations.

Consultation

The SfL Teacher consults with each teacher formally every term, however, regular informal consultation takes place on a daily basis. Consultation also takes place with many school partners including: Speech and Language Therapy Service; Occupational Therapy Service; the school’s link Educational Psychologist; other Education services such as English as an Additional Language Team. Consultation with families is very important and we view parents as a child’s first and most important educator. Working closely with families is a key way we try to get it right at Lumphinnans Primary. Consultations with children are carried out on an ongoing basis for many different reasons, for example, as part of a Contextual Assessment, to review progress in learning, to check-in on a child’s wellbeing.

Direct Tuition and Co-operative Teaching

Direct tuition can take many forms and can be for different lengths of time in order to support an aspect of a child’s learning or wellbeing. This may include: working towards short-term targets in an area of the curriculum; consolidating learning; providing support to develop skills using ICT; helping to develop social skills; providing appropriate challenge for high achieving pupils. Direct tuition can be a one off session, a short intense period or perhaps periodic support over a longer length of time. Many aspects of  support in school also involves working closely with families. Co-operative teaching involves the SfL Teacher working alongside a class teacher and often involves supporting the whole class. It allows a fast pace of learning and teaching and appropriate support for individuals or groups of children.

Professional Learning and Capacity Building

SfL Teacher is continually engaged in professional learning in order to meet the needs of the school. This might also involve sharing knowledge and skills with other members of staff by contributing to staff training, for example, during in-service days.

Finally, most children will need some form of additional support at some point in their primary school career to meet their wide ranging needs. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss a concern, please email lumphinnansps.enquiries@fife.gov.uk or call the school office on 01383 602421.

Some helpful websites:

Fife’s Educational Psychology Service (EPS)