Provision of learning support
Abingdon School endeavours to recognise the needs of boys who need learning support. We realise that a small but significant percentage of intelligent, high-achieving boys like ours survive for a long time on quick wits but with only partial learning strengths, and that a proportion are likely to under-perform at some time. End-of-year examinations, for example, often reveal that a boy has run out of strategies to cope, and we try to support him onwards, teach him how to learn more effectively and alert his teachers to his particular needs.
The teaching is provided by a full-time Learning Support Co-ordinator and an experienced full-time teacher in the Whitefield Coach House. A part-time tutor teaches for one day a week and other part-time tutors can be called upon when necessary. Tuition is given predominantly on a 1:1 basis but small group work may be appropriate on occasions. Tuition is a chargeable extra on the termly school bill when it has been found necessary over an extended period of time.
We have a range of routines and processes which are designed to identify boys who might be at risk and we try to offer support at the right time with the appropriate intensity - always with the full knowledge and approval of parents. The boy receives individual tuition, his subject teachers are told how they can help, notes about all such boys are kept in Common Room files and staff are regularly informed of who is or has been receiving help.
Identification
We begin the process of identifying boys with learning strengths and weaknesses before they join the school. Parents and feeder schools are specifically asked to inform us of any problems a boy has experienced, and we particularly ask for a copy of any specialist educational assessment other than normal school reports. This information most frequently comes from an Educational Psychologist's report and we analyse it very carefully to see if the boy has the kind of ability profile that would allow him to benefit from an Abingdon School education. There are certain sorts of learning profile for which other schools are better equipped to help and we are keen that parents and their sons should not have unrealistic expectations of us.
Our first screening of each candidate is the Abingdon School Entrance Examination for entry to the first year or the Pre-Test for boys applying for third form entry after scholarship or Common Entrance examinations, which we also look at carefully. Boys whose papers give cause for concern are re-interviewed by the Heads of Mathematics and English and can also be seen by our specialist for her assessment and advice. Boys who enter the School in other forms or at different times are scrutinised in much the same way.
On their joining the School, we regularly assess all first- and third-form boys and we follow up our findings. An essential part of the School's monitoring consists of the half-termly report cards when all boys receive a written comment and grades for effort and achievement from all their teachers and overviews from their tutor and housemaster. The staff also discuss their anxieties about a boy's progress with the specialist, who looks at his written work and has an exploratory talk with him. Parents are contacted at this stage and details of the kind of teaching required and the cost are explained.
Teaching
The kind of individual tuition we offer is tailored very specifically to the boy's problems so that very few boys receive weekly tuition for sustained periods of time. In most cases we try to involve parents and subject teachers. Lessons take place during normal school hours and timetabling is arranged to minimise disruption to normal teaching.
It sometimes becomes apparent that a boy should be seen by an educational psychologist so that his learning style can be fully understood and an EP can recommend that a boy be allowed extra time or even use a computer in public examinations. Boys who have this formal recommendation and who have received learning support are given extra time, subject to the examination boards' agreement. Requests for extra time in our own entrance examinations are treated sympathetically, in that we usually feel able to make appropriate allowances for work completed in the normal time limits and believe that no boy should feel at a disadvantage.
The essence of our learning support provision is that boys, staff and parents work together and that a spirit of constructive helpfulness will allow boys to reach their full potential across the whole curriculum.
Mrs Chris Cross, head of Department
Ms Jan Gardner
