How Support Teaching (SET) Works

  • Annual Parent teacher meetings, held in January every year, allow parents to meet with their child’s class teacher and discuss their progress and how they are getting on. If the class teacher has any concerns with progress they will raise them as soon as possible with parents and often before those meetings in January.
    • Firstly so that parents are kept informed and,
    • Secondly to enlist that vital 1-1 support that you as parents can give. Teachers will usually ask parents to work on additional activities at home and may provide resources to support your child’s learning.
  • The Special Education Teacher Allocation Model governs how we structure and roll out our support teaching. We follow the Guidelines for Primary Schools: Supporting Pupils with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools. 
  • The guidelines are available at the following link: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/edf64-guidelines-for-primary-schools-supporting-pupils-with-special-educational-needs-in-mainstream-schools/ 
  • Support begins with the class teacher meeting with parents to inform them of any concerns they may have regarding your child’s progress.
  • A Classroom support plan may then be drawn up, if required, to outline any adaptations within the classroom setting or strategies the teacher may use to support your child. 
  • If concerns persist, a meeting will be arranged with class teacher, parents and SET, if required, to discuss additional support.
  • In June and Sept of each year standardised test results, together with class teacher observations and work samples, are analysed. From this, we identify children that might need extra support.
  • We must then prioritise children and needs across the school as we only have 42 hours support teaching per week. The allocation of 42 hours is reviewed annually by the Dept of Education.
  • In Sept of each year, we send out support plan questionnaires to parents in order to get your help with beginning to draw up the right plan to address your child’s learning needs             
                        Please note some questions may not be applicable to your child. 
  • Over the course of September and October, SET will phone or meet with parents to explain the support plan targets we have set and again outline any activities that parents can do at home to help.
  • This support plan usually run from Sept - Jan (some children might meet targets sooner, some might need longer)
  • In Jan PT meetings, parents meet with the class teacher and SET to discuss progress. We discuss whether targets have been met and whether your child will continue with support. 
  • If the child is continuing in support then targets will be agreed and a new support plan is drawn up for Feb - Jun. Again, targets may be met sooner than June and we move on to work on the next priority concern. Priority needs may also change, in which case we alter the plan,  in collaboration with the class teacher and parents. 
  • All teaching, whether in class with your class teacher or in support, is in partnership with parents. If you have concerns or worries about how your child is progressing, please make contact with your class teacher or SET by phoning or emailing the office to make an appointment to meet with us. If there is something you notice your child is struggling with, please make a note of it and mention it at parent teacher meetings or bring it to our attention before then if you are concerned. Together, we create a plan to work on any struggles or difficulties. The way we teach reading, writing and maths in schools today is very different to how many of us were taught as children, and so often a concern you may have, can be alleviated by talking this through with your class teacher or SET. 
  • More information on Special Education Teaching in primary schools can be found here: https://ncse.ie/set-overview-for-primary-schools