Hertfordshire SpLD Specialist Teacher Outreach Service

Promoting the expertise of schools to meet the needs of pupils with specific learning difficulties through advisory work, training and exemplar teaching.

Following review, the Herts SpLD Specialist Teacher Outreach Service is changing and will be part of Hertfordshire’s Integrated Services for Learning (ISL) provision from 1st April 2019.

The service will be focused on providing additional support to schools for pupils with the most significant specific learning difficulties, where the school has already identified difficulties and put in place a carefully tailored programme of support and reasonable adjustments, but progress remains very slow (See Service Booklet tab for draft booklet).

Specialist teachers based at Parkside and Laurance Haines schools will now be working together to form the South SpLD Team covering DSPL Area 9 – Watford and 3 Rivers and DSPL Area 6 – Hertsmere.

The South SpLD team comprises of the following specialist teachers:

Lynne Williams is the Lead Practitioner for the service.

The service will be following a ‘graduated response’ model (See Graduated Response tab). The summary of our Tiers Structure shows how and when we can be involved in supporting schools with pupils. Please note that Tier 2 pupils, as well as Tier 3 pupils, will be discussed on a named basis following completion of a service request.

We will also continue to provide assessments to support you in early identification of underlying difficulties in literacy and number and to enable you to put targeted interventions in place, following the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ model from the SEN Code of Practice. These assessments have been updated so that they are consistent across Hertfordshire and replace all previous assessments. All schools will receive email and paper copies.

If you are considering a service request, please email your link teacher in advance to discuss the wording for ‘reason for request’ and ‘desired outcome’.

Please also complete the prior information form for literacy or number difficulties and send it (and any other relevant reports/information) with the service request. This will enable a swift and appropriate response (See Graduated Response tab).

The link specialist teacher for your school will contact you by email and keep you up to date with information regarding service provision.

The Service will continue to provide a termly training programme offering a range of courses to support schools in meeting the needs of pupils with specific learning difficulties. Training fliers and booking forms will be posted and emailed to schools but can also be downloaded from the Training section of this website.

Schools can still visit our resource centre here at Parkside by appointment. We can offer telephone advice – 020 8387 3000 for general SpLD queries on a Thursday afternoon between 2.30 and 4.00 pm (See SpLD School Helpline section). Email us here: spld.outreachservice@parkside.herts.sch.uk