Learning Support
About
Banks Avenue School is passionate about providing an inclusive environment for all of our learners. We offer a variety of support structures and pastoral care for our learners, for example, programmes such as the Perceptual Motor Programme, oral language groups, support in literacy and maths along with other specific programmes such as, Reading Recovery. On occasions, Individual Education Plans are developed to target specific learning goals for children with specific learning needs. See below for the types of support we have to offer.
The wellbeing of our students we believe is crucial to learning. We have three staff who share the SENCO (Special Education Needs Co-ordinator) role. Tricia Carroll (Muringa DP - Junior Module), Jan Thompson (Acting Pāhake DP - Senior Module) and David Erece (Learning Support Coordinator). These are the people you may need to get in touch with about the wellbeing of your child.
The wellbeing of our students we believe is crucial to learning. We have three staff who share the SENCO (Special Education Needs Co-ordinator) role. Tricia Carroll (Muringa DP - Junior Module), Jan Thompson (Acting Pāhake DP - Senior Module) and David Erece (Learning Support Coordinator). These are the people you may need to get in touch with about the wellbeing of your child.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
Cultural diversity is important to us. We have a range of students who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, some of whom require extra support when learning English. We employ an ESOL learning assistant to assist with meeting their language needs.
Mana Ake
Mana Ake is a government initiative to support schools with children who have difficulty managing their wellbeing. Please see the pamphlet for more details or click here to access their website.
School Counsellors
We have two counsellors which are funded by the City Church. We are grateful for their generosity in supporting our children. There are limited spaces for this service.
BAMP (Banks Avenue Mentoring Programme)
We also run BAMP (Banks Avenue Mentoring Programme) where parent volunteers are buddied one-to-one with a student for an hour a week. If you are interested in volunteering, please email bwalsh@banksave.school.nz.
School Chaplain
Our school chaplain, Bob Jaeger, mentors some students on a weekly basis.
Outside Agencies
In certain circumstances, it is important to request the support and expertise of the Ministry of Education and/or outside agencies when specific needs arise. We endeavour to access support agencies to work with us, in order to meet the learning, behaviour and wellbeing needs of our students. For example:
- Public Health Nurse
- Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB)
- Resource Teacher of Literacy (RTLit)
- School Chaplain Service - Banks Avenue School is fortunate to have its own chaplain service.
- STAND for children
- Cholmondeley
- Ko Taku Reo
- CAF Link
- Socially Speaking
- Special Education Advisors from Ministry, for example, Speech Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Education Psychologists.
