Sensory Support

At Woodlands we work with children and young people who may be:

• Deaf or Hearing Impaired,
• Visually Impaired (severely sight-impaired and partially-sighted),
• Deafblind or Multi-Sensory Impaired (MSI).

These children and young people may be experiencing developmental, educational or social and emotional difficulties because of their sensory impairment.

We have a specialist team of teachers and teaching assistants who are trained to support pupils with a range of sensory impairment across the school, they are:

Beth Redfern - Teacher of MSI 

Katie Lai - Currently in training for QTMSI Qualification

We have a team of over 20 teaching assistants who are trained as sensory TAs who support pupils on highly individualised programmes.

We have several staff who are BSL1 trained and one who has attained BSL2. All staff are encouraged to develop their signing ability and this is supported throughout the school.  We use BSL in sign supported English and native BSL where required. 

We host a variety of clinics from medical services in sensory support including ophthalmologists, optometrists and audiologists. Parents and carers can attend these appointments with their child in school.

We have access to the Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall Advisory Teams for Sensory Support as required to support pupils' learning and access needs. They support us in encouraging independent learning and the development of appropriate life skills.

We incorporate advice provided by our own sensory specialist staff and external services into individual learning plans.