Lochies School

Special Education Needs

Lochies is a school for Primary aged children with severe/complex Additional Support Needs. The school has 4 classrooms, a GP room, a Soft Play room, Multi-Sensory Room and Sensory Experiential Room as well as two smaller working areas used as a base for a LA Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) provision for a small number of autistic children. There are 2 Speech and Language Therapists, an Occupational Therapist and a Physiotherapist working part time in the school supporting pupils, staff and families with programmes of work linking in to the Individualised Educational Programmes which every child has. These IEPs correspond with the 5-14 guidelines and are delivered through the Synthetic Phonics Programme, IPM (maths) and the elaborated curriculum with sensory approaches used for those children who require it. The school is visited weekly by the specialist music teacher as well as a music therapist, and a Service Level Agreement with Art Link Central ensures delivery of the expressive arts area of the curriculum. Movement programmes, lunch clubs, after-school clubs and holiday provision are offered by the Home School Link Worker and the Minds and Bodies in Action Coordinator. The school works very closely with Psychological Service, Social Services and the Health Board to support the pupils and their families, and a recently formed Liaison Group comprised of members from all of the above services meets regularly.