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Our
Therapy

At Northern Counties School we have a team of therapists who work collaboratively with all other staff to maintain and improve pupil achievement and wellbeing.

Each class in school has designated therapists as part of the staff team. Therapists’ caseloads are small to allow for intensive input and high levels of in-class working as well as liaison with families and workforce development. The type of input provided is dependent upon clinical need and the delivery of strategies can take place in group or individual sessions. Whilst many of the therapeutic aims for each pupil can be met through class based work there are some pupils who also need to be supported individually. These sessions are agreed with the class team when developing the timetables to allow the pupil maximum access to a broad and balanced curriculum while still ensuring that therapy needs are met. Therapy programmes are highly personalised to take into account the best form of input for each student.

The therapy team work alongside a multi-disciplinary team to gain a holistic view of the student, to gain mutual support from the team around our students and the expertise of a range of professionals.   There is a strong ethos of joint planning with teaching staff to implement high quality programmes and strategies to encourage our students to develop functional skills and encourage participation in a range of life skill activities.

Northern Counties School adopts an experiential, real life approach to learning and therapists frequently accompany classes on community visits. The inclusion of therapy staff on lunchtime rotas ensures that they work with pupils in every situation so enabling them to evaluate and facilitate a pupil’s ability to generalise skills beyond the classroom.

The therapy team have a range of highly specialist qualifications and experience and undertake continued professional development to ensure that strategies used in school are evidence based.

Bespoke Person-Centred Therapy Sessions

Here at Northern Counties School, we have a registered MBACP counsellor (Member of the British association of counselling and psychotherapy)  who offers bespoke person-centred therapy sessions for students around their wellbeing.

Referrals for this service are done through other professionals in the wider team here at NCS, students can self-refer and external services can also request that a student has access to this service, such as CYPS or CAMHS etc.

Person Centred Approaches are about discovering and acting on what is important to a person, what is important for them and finding the balance between them. It is a process of continual listening/observing and learning, focusing on what is important to someone now and in their future, and acting on this.

The listening is used to understand the person’s capacities and choices. Person Centred Approaches form a basis for problem solving and negotiation to mobilise the necessary resources to pursue a person’s aspirations. These resources may be obtained from someone’s own network, service providers offer non-specialist, non-service sources (Department of Health 2001).

If you feel that this service is something your child would benefit from or if you have any questions around this service and would like to discuss it further, please do not hesitate to get in touch anytime with Lorna.Wilson@percyhedley.org.uk or alternatively call 0191 2815821.

Therapy Approaches

Speech and Language

There is an integrated approach between specialist teaching and therapy staff to ensure that all students access strategies to maximise their ability to communicate effectively.

Occupational Therapy

The occupational therapy team specialises in ensuring our children can access the curriculum at the optimum level in order to develop independence, interaction, cognitive processing and functional skills.

Physiotherapy

The Physiotherapy team is based in school and works with school teaching and therapy staff.

Nursing

The Nursing Team respond to the health agenda for the school environment, working directly alongside head teachers, teachers, governors, and parents to promote the health and wellbeing of the students.

Music Therapy

At Northern Counties School, we have a Nordoff & Robbins music therapist who delivers sessions two days per week.