Pupils arrive at Calder House with a wide range of different difficulties. These include:
At Calder House we address each child’s difficulties through programmes of remedial teaching designed around each child’s individual needs.
Teaching our pupils the strategies they need to overcome these difficulties is the key to unlocking their academic potential.
We have our own full-time Speech and Language therapist at Calder House who assesses pupils to identify the root of any language based-problems. Having done so, pupils are then given one-to-one targeted remedial support. In addition she advises and supports class teachers working collaboratively to improve classroom performance as part of the teaching team both inside and outside the classroom.
Our visiting paediatric occupational therapist identifies any fine motor or perceptual issue, which are underminin a child's academic progress, devising a program for our staff to administer within the child's IEP. She is also able to advise the head teacher as to gross motor exercises, which may assist the child's development if carried out by staff in school.
Calder House also has specialist teachers trained to use a multisensory approach in teaching pupils. The full assessment we carry out on pupils prior to admission, together with regular reviews of progress, enables these specialists to target their teaching to pupils’ strengths and work to remediate areas of weakness. Specialist teachers operate at every level in Calder House – they teach class lessons, take small groups and work one-to-one with individual pupils.
At Calder House we draw upon the skill and expertise of a wide range of remedial specialists who, with the support their teaching colleagues, are able to address the underlying reasons why otherwise bright and able pupils were under-performing at school. We have more than 16 'non pupil contact' preparation days each at which staff to get together and plan collaboratively the measures required to meet the needs of pupils.
The targeted remedial support that pupils receive at Calder House enables them to overcome or find ways round their developmental issues. It underpins our entire approach. And the success of our former pupils testifies to its effectiveness.
Our latest Ofsted inspection (November 2015) rated Calder House as "OUTSTANDING" in all performance categories.
"The school’s balance between addressing specific learning difficulties, while promoting a broad and balanced focus on learning, is extremely successful... Every pupil joins the school having to catch up and make up lost ground... by the time they leave, a good proportion have reading and spelling ages above their actual ages, despite their special educational needs." Read more >>
A man was walking along the beach one day. Ahead he noticed another, older man picking up a starfish that had become stranded on the sand and throwing it back into the sea.
“Why do you bother?” the man asked him. “The beach goes on for miles and countless starfish get stranded every day. You can’t really make a difference.”
The old man looked at the starfish in his hand and then he threw it to safety among the waves. “I can make a difference to this one,” he replied.
Countless children feel stranded at school – for some Calder House can make a real difference.
Calder House School, Thickwood Lane, Colerne, Wiltshire SN14 8BN
Tel: 01225 743566 | Email: enquiries@calderhouseschool.co.uk
© Calder House School
