Student Support

Learning Support Staff

The Board of Trustees in partnership with Ngati Whakaue Endowment Trust provides additional teacher aide resourcing to support children with their learning at St Michael’s School. The Learning Support staff members currently working at our school are:
 
Tracey Goodrick 
Ra Ward
Tina Hetherington

Range of programmes offered

Our Learning Support team offers a range of programmes, which may vary from term to term depending upon the current needs of the students. Programmes offered at St Michael’s Catholic School include the following:
 
Oral language support – designed to increase the spoken word knowledge and foundation of young children
 
Phonological awareness – designed to increase children’s knowledge of sounds and letters
 

Lexia –  a computer programme that helps children develop their literacy skills independently and at their own pace. It has been used in education for 30 years and is one of the most researched and respected reading programmes in the world.

Early Words – a programme designed to support children with the acquisition of the all important high frequency words to kick start their early reading

Reading support – offered across a range of year levels to support students develop their decoding skills and understanding of print 

 

PMP – The Perceptual Motor Programme aims to develop children’s perceptions and understandings of self through motor experiences. It helps children to refine gross motor skills to prepare the brain for formal classroom learning.

 
Writing support – offered across a range of year levels to support children develop their writing skills
 
Spelling support – specifically targeting children’s recording of sound to print
 
Mathematics support – in-class support of students with the acquisition of mathematical concepts, particularly focusing on the number strand.
 
iCept – The iCept software enables schools to screen for some of the key indicators of visual and auditory development, including eye tracking. If a problem is found they can usually be improved with training.

Word Chain – The apps are designed to independently teach the skills that underlie successful reading and spelling: phonological awareness, phonics, and ‘chunking’.