The portage and Pre-school Home Teaching Service is offered to children with special needs who are living in the borough of North Tyneside. It is based at Beacon Hill School. The Service is also represented on the Special needs Team,a multi-disciplinary team which works with pre-school children who have additional support needs and their parents or carers. It is staffed by one full time teacher,with a team of Portage Home Visitors. The Portage service is registered with the National Portage Association (NPA)
The service offers specialist teaching to children by supporting parents or carers promoting their child’s early learning and development through play.
The service is available to families,from their childs birth to the time of entry into a school based nursery or reception class. It includes any child who:
“Is experiencing significant development impairment or delays,in one or more of the areas of cognitive development,sensory or physical development,communication development,social,behavioural or emotional development”,
or
“Has a condition which has a high probability of resulting in developmental delay”
Provision includes
Home visits,usually one per week to two weeks:working with parents to assess the child’s current development,then jointly to plan,demonstrate and review appropiate play activities.
* Support to parents when considering their child’s future education options.
* Assessment and written report on nursery/school entry.
* Mulit-disciplinary liaison to ensure a co-ordinated response to a child’s identified needs.
* Advice and support to staff in any pre-school setting that a child may attend.
* Informal play sessions at Linskill play together centre held fortnigntlyOther duties include
* Liaison with specialist provision and Additionally Resources Provisions for children with identified additional need.
* Participation in resource allocation forum.
* Training and supervision of Portage Home Visitors.
* Consultative work with Early Years Service Providers.
* Input into early years policy development
* Contribution to management group of the service in North Tyneside
* Meeting with Portage providers in other Local Authorities
* Membership of/regisration with NPAReferrals can be made:
* Through the Special Needs Team
* By parents
* By anyone working with the child who has parental permission
We are based at
Beacon Hill School
Rising Sun Cottage
Wallsend
NE28 9JW
Tel:0191 6433023
Fax:0191 6433002
e-mail:lynn.scorer@northtyneside.gov.uk