Outreach Service
Penn
Hall’s Outreach Service, a Local Authority
funded initiative, was established in September 2003. A full-time Co-ordinator
was joined by an Outreach Teaching Assistant in September 2005 and
this team draws upon the experience of a number of other staff to support
pupils
in
mainstream schools. The Service works across all age phases and has
supported children from Nurseries, Primary Schools and Secondary Schools
across
Wolverhampton.
Outreach Staff support pupils with disabilities through:
School visits
Advice
and guidance
Assessments
Staff
Training
In-lesson
support
Equipment
provision
In addition to this, an Outreach Sports club is run on Thursday evenings, targeting pupils in mainstream schools, where the provision for PE and disability sports is often very limited. This has been successful to date, in that a number of pupils have gone on to regional and national competitions in specific disability sports. Transport remains a barrier to participation and the Outreach Service is looking at ways of overcoming this and developing extended schools opportunities.
Increasingly, the Outreach Service works alongside other agencies such as Physiotherapists and Occupational therapists, providing ‘joined up’ advice for schools and parents. This is in line with the Common Assessment Framework model and the need for collaboration in multi-agency working.