Released: 16.07.10

Two students from UCP Marjon recently visited the Therapy Team at Shapwick School, Somerset, which specialises in supporting children with dyslexia. Shapwick School has worked in partnership with the University College since 2006.

At the start of the year, Cynthia Pollard, Principal Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, and Kathleen Cooper, Specialist Occupational Therapist at Shapwick School, gave a presentation to final year BEd students at UCP Marjon about their daily work with children from 8 to 19 years of age. The students could choose from a range of presentations and showed a keen interest in learning more about both dyslexia and the therapy provision at Shapwick School.

Emma Mead and Harriet Gowring were so inspired by the presentations that they recently made a return visit to Shapwick School for specific placement which involved shadowing professionals who work beyond the teaching profession. This experience has helped them complete their final assignment for their course regarding the five principles of Every Child Matters.

Mrs Pollard and Mrs Cooper explained “As we are increasingly using Every Child Matters at Shapwick School to apply Statements of Special Educational Need, develop our IEPs and plan our sessions, we found this very useful as a basis for discussion with the two students. The placement provided us with the opportunity to share with the students the range and depth of work covered with dyslexic pupils who have additional needs in the areas of communication, motor skills, visual perception, sensory integration and a variety of associated learning issues. The students were well informed but said they valued the chance to spend time looking at these areas in a practical way following on from having heard our talks earlier in the year”.

Harriet Gowring said “During my placement I learnt many different methods and strategies that I would be able to use in the classroom to aid children with Special Educational Needs. I also learnt just how much a Speech and Language Therapist can do to support many different learning needs. I observed Cynthia giving sessions ranging from learning importance sequences (such as an address, phone number or postcode) to focussing on the relationships and communication between peers.”

Emma Louise Mead continued “after shadowing an Occupational Therapist, I now feel I will be more able to support children in my future classes who are receiving occupational therapy as well as knowing more about children who may need to be referred to an Occupational Therapist.  I loved my time at Shapwick School and learnt more than I expected to and gained some valuable experience of teaching children outside the mainstream classroom.”

Dr. Sean McBlain, Reader in Child Development and Disability at UCP Marjon commented that this was a great opportunity for UCP Marjon to develop its links with specialist schools and increase its capacity in the area of SEN (Special Education Needs) and Disabilities.