Our Therapeutic Approach
At Fairley House we have a highly adept in-house Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) provision. This supports the teaching of the curriculum in a truly transdiscplinary way, and is tailored for every student based on their identified needs. This specialist support is a regular part of the Fairley House experience and core to how we transform all our students’ learning outcomes.
Teachers appear to be keenly aware of pupils’ needs and provide individual support within lessons while also challenging pupils to achieve their best. Pupils appreciate the fact that they are not taken out of whole lessons for specific support and feel that they do not lose out.
CRESTED
Transdisciplinary
As part of our transdisciplinary approach therapists work collaboratively with subject teachers within their regular lesson planning.
Integrated
At Fairley House, therapy is integrated within their school experience and delivered as part of the normal curriculum. In mainstream education, your child may receive special provision and/or special educational needs (SEN) support by being removed from the existing curriculum which results in missed schoolwork and can leave them feeling singled out.
Tailored
The therapy provided at school is tailored to meet the specific learning needs of every student and is delivered on an individual or small-group basis.
Specialised
Our specialist staff include multiple dedicated speech and language therapists and occupational therapists, along with highly specialised literacy and mathematics teachers. They are highly qualified specialists in their field with huge passion and commitment to support children with specific learning differences.
Speech and Language Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy at Fairley House supports students with any difficulties related to communication. This includes; vocabulary, sentence structure, speech sounds (pronunciation), social skills, understanding of language, and making connections and inferences.
These needs are identified through formal and informal assessment, classroom and playground observation. Our speech and language therapy team are integrated into the school, working closely with teachers who can update us about student’s needs and point us to students who need further assessment or support.
Fairley House offers a broad array of speech and language strategies to support each student’s learner profile and specific needs.
The most common areas of communication difficulty students with SpLD experience are:
- Word Finding Difficulties: when a word is on the top of your tongue. You may know a lot of words, but have difficulty recalling them when you need them
- Phonological Awareness: the ability to identify the sounds which make up a word. Difficulties with phonological awareness impact reading, spelling and vocabulary learning.
- Emotional Regulation: the ability to respond appropriately to your emotions. Increasing students vocabulary related to emotions can support them with recognising how they feel, choosing appropriate strategies, or asking for the help they need.
These needs are identified through formal and informal assessment, classroom and playground observation. Our speech and language therapy team are integrated into the school, working closely with teachers who can update us about student’s needs and point us to students who need further assessment or support.
Speech and Language Therapy is also part of the school’s transdisciplinary approach to teaching.
Speech and Language Therapists support classroom teachers to teach new vocabulary, to use memory strategies and to break down instructions to enable students to understand classroom teaching better. Therapists who have completed the Level 5 SpLD Specialist Teaching Diploma also teach Reading and Word Study, utilising their expertise in language comprehension, sentence structure, vocabulary learning and phonological awareness to maximise learning in the classroom.
The speech and language therapy team provides universal support to all students at Fairley House School. This includes specialised vocabulary learning methods, memory strategies, and support or sentence structure built in to all lessons.
Targeted support includes pre-teaching topic vocabulary, supporting individual students within lessons, and providing social skills groups for students to learn and practise conversation skills, perspective taking and other important skills for social interaction.
Finally, direct and individualised therapy sessions. These sessions take place during the school day and are very much part of school life.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy at Fairley House is always holistic and bespoke for every student, based on information gained from in-depth assessments and feedback from teachers and parents. Our occupational therapy assessments aim to better understand a student’s ability to participate in daily activities, including self-care tasks, classroom work, social interactions, and play.
With this knowledge, we develop functional and holistic therapy goals, which aim to improve independence and self-efficacy in all areas of life. Evidence-based practice is integral to our intervention, and we constantly track progress and adjust our goals to ensure our students make the most progress possible.
Our Occupational Therapy team are very involved across the school in many areas of school life, and we are familiar with every student’s profile of strengths and needs
Occupational therapy input is at the heart of Fairley House’s transdisciplinary approach, and we use a 3-tiered therapeutic approach to ensure that Occupational Therapy principles are infused into all areas of school life.
We provide universal occupational therapy input to all students, which includes:
- Weekly strength and fitness class at both the Junior and Senior departments for all of students
- Executive function support and strategies embedded into all lessons using Fairley House’s bespoke executive function teaching framework
- Assistive technology to access the curriculum
- Sensory strategies
- Specialist seating
- Environmental modifications
- Regulation strategies (both sensory and metacognitive)
- Support in writing
- PSHEE lessons.
The team also provides targeted intervention to groups, including:
- Math input (motor maths, tool usage, visual perception and spatial relations)
- Push in to practical lessons (DT, Textiles, Art and Science)
- Handwriting lessons
- Touch-typing lessons.
Finally, direct and individualised therapy sessions, that aim to close gaps and improve function. These sessions take place during the school day and are very much part of school life.
We have a highly skilled team of specialist occupational therapists that use a variety of therapeutic approaches to ensure our students make maximum progress. Most of our therapists have postgraduate sensory integration and cognitive orientation to performance training. We have well-equipped therapy spaces, with access to a large variety of sensory integration therapy equipment. We use the very latest and up-to-date assessments.
Our School
London’s leading day school for children with specific learning differences
Get in Touch
30 Causton Street
London
SW1P 4AU
Call: 020 7976 5456
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