REPORT HOD GUIDANCE – FP - S. JONKER
I am the HOD Guidance for the Foundation Phase and my duties are not just the emotional wellbeing of our learners, but also the academic wellbeing of learners who need support.
I act as co-ordinatorof the School Based Support Team, or SBST. Learners who are experiencing learning difficulties are closely monitored throughout the year and extra help and support are continuously given by educators.
After necessary intervention we implement a Support Programme that consists of extra lessons in the afternoons. We accommodate more or less 20 learners in each grade throughout the year.
In September a Possible Retention Schedule gets taken to the Departement, when they make the final decision whether learners should be retained in the grade.
We are fortunate to have an amazing team of therapistswho we call on for additional assistance. Our Educational Psychologist has assessed several learners this year and is seeing a couple of them for play therapy. Our speech therapistis seeing learners for speech, language and auditory problems. She also works on Language Enrichment and language structure. The two Occupational Therapists have been seeing learners for fine motor and concentration problems. We also have one of our ex-teachers on board as a remedial maths teacher, and her classes are called Move-on-Maths.
I have also applied to get Consessions for 2 learners, which was successful. That means that these learners may write every exam with their specific consession for the rest of their school careers.
Where a learner’s problems prove to be beyond the scope of our interventions and after consultations with the parents, I process a referralfor these learners to the District Office for Remedial School or Special class approval. I have done __ referrals this year; not all of them have been placed yet as space in these schools are limited.
On the emotional side, we offer counselling in case of a trauma in our learner’s lives. That may include going through a divorce, death in the family, abuse, etc. I have counselled __ learners on an ongoing basis this year. This gets handled with complete confidentiality.
We do have a Charity Budget–we occasionally supply learners with lunch, or help the family with essential groceries or blankets in winter. We have helped a few families this year.
Everything taken into consideration, we have had a good 2015 and are looking forward to an even better 2016.Mrs Pillay will be taking over from me as HOD Guidance in 2016, and I wish her all the best.