Individualised strategy plan | |
• Guidance on course/occupational choices to determine the ‘best fit’ with the student’s aptitude and personal needs. | |
• Ensure proactive pastoral support is available from professionals with the skills and experience to facilitate communication. | |
• Provide opportunities for the student to learn about their own difficulties and strengths to facilitate the adoption of self-help strategies and reduce dependence on others or the risks of disengagement. | |
• Ensure the student knows how to gain additional support if difficulties arise with accommodation arrangements. | |
• Consideration of the supports necessary where cooperative/collaborative tasks may be set. | |
• Liaison between services where students have complex needs arising from health problems (e.g. adherence to treatment programmes, substance use, mental health difficulties). | |
Assistance to aid concentration and reduce anxiety | |
• Allow supervised breaks at certain intervals during examinations instead of extra time (see also advice in child and adolescent section). | |
• Environmental modifications to reduce sensory demands or to meet sensory needs (e.g. in terms of lighting and noise). | |
• Support during unstructured periods of the day and access to quiet areas in order to reduce social anxiety. | |
Personal assistance | |
• Use of an oral language modifier to explain or re-phrase language in an examination paper and clarify the meaning for the candidate (this is used by the Joint Council for Qualifications [109]). | |
• Recognition of the additional demand and struggle for students when making field trips, external excursions and/or activities that involve any significant changes in routine. | |
• Training in and access to assistive technologies (e.g. voice recognition). | |
• Access to support if difficulties arise with performance and/or interpersonal relationships. | |
Organisational assistance | |
• Explicit instructions and guidance provided in a visualised format (assignment plans, timetables, deadlines, changes in routine). | |
• Provide regular proactive follow-up and support to ensure students are coping academically, socially and emotionally. | |
• Arrange work-experience opportunities with a recommendation for mentoring and/or a peer ‘buddy support’ system that provides supportive monitoring and guidance. |