Learning Support

At Whenuapai School, we believe that all students have the right to learn in an environment where they feel accepted, supported, and safe and we embrace inclusivity as part of the ‘Whenuapai Way of Being’. We promote an inclusive culture where all students are valued, and respected, and have the opportunity to achieve their potential and participate in school life with their peers. We collaborate with our school community to understand the aspirations of our learners, their families, and whānau, and we empower all our students to be engaged in their learning, and experience success. We track and monitor the learning of all students, particularly those with additional learning, health and/or behaviour needs. We practice whanaungatanga by liaising closely with family and whānau and building strong home/school connections to support information gathering and effective identification of any additional learning needs so we can coordinate the appropriate support services to ensure every student experiences successful outcomes. 

Learning support encompasses a range of practices, systems, supports, and services that help students with diverse strengths and needs to experience success in their learning and relationships. Our school identifies learning support needs in a range of ways, which may include:

• monitoring student achievement, progress, and engagement,
• various assessment tools, procedures, and observations,
• consultation with eg: parents/caregivers, school staff, previous schools, support services, etc,
• information from other professionals, including external agencies,
• professional diagnosis from outside agencies.

Our learning support may include extra teacher or learning support staff time, literacy support, assistive technology, equipment and other materials, property modification, specialist support, or other resources and learning programmes. These are funded by both the school and the Ministry of Education and are responsive to the particular needs of our learners.

Learning Support Services include:

• RTLB, RTLit, Specialist Outreach Teachers and multiple other external agencies. 
• Early Intervention Transitions in collaboration with MoE Early Intervention Services (EIS). 
• Facilitating graduated transitions into, out of, and within school. 
• Applications for additional support and funding from MoE Learning Support.
• Referrals to other external agencies such as:
  • Ministry of Education (MoE), 
  • Marinoto, 
  • Youth Hub Northwest, 
  • Care Waitakere, 
  • Oranga Tamariki, 
  • Public Health Nurse, 
  • Strengthening Families, 
  • Waipareira Trust, 
  • Boys Alive
  • The Physical Disability Service (MOE), 
  • CCS Disability Action, 
  • Autism New Zealand,  
  • BLENNZ,
  • Back2School Project

• Working alongside MoE Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) and contributing within the Language Learning Intervention (LLI) process for students with severe communication difficulties 
• Working cooperatively with private Occupational Therapy (OT) and SLT services. Implementing any recommendations made to support the student. 
• Assistive Technology applications to remove any further barriers to learning. 
• IEP and IBP are created collaboratively with the students support team. 
• ESOL – accessing funding, developing programmes, allocating TA support in classrooms.

The Ministry of Education website has in-depth information on support services available for Primary/Intermediate aged children – PLEASE CLICK HERE.