Whole School Support Team
The Whole School Support Team (WSST) supports students across the school population from Kindergarten through 12th Grade. This includes Educational Psychological support, Learning Enrichment, and Social and Emotional Counselling. The school also provides support through University/Careers Counselling, Home Language and English as an Additional Language support. These groups work closely as a team with each other and our teaching faculty to support students, and parents, with a wide range of services to meet the academic, emotional and social needs of all of our students. Further information concerning each group is provided below.
Please contact Kristina Schurzig, Head of Whole School Support, Learning Enrichment if you have any questions.
Our Philosophy
As a department, we have created the following guiding statements to set out what is important to us, what drives what we do, and how we do it.
We firmly believe all students can learn. It is our job as educators to facilitate this by doing the following:
- Foster an inclusive environment where each student is challenged and supported at their individual level.
- Meet the needs of individual students while maintaining a high standard of achievement across school sections.
- Meet students at their current level academically and foster their social/emotional development and self-esteem.
- Model effective collaboration of staff to encourage positive social interactions between students.
- Use assessments as tools for teachers to shape the next steps in student learning.
In order to ensure the above statements are satisfied, we commit to the following actions:
- Value parent input and collaboration as they are the expert on their own child.
- Use current research to guide our best practice teaching and counselling methods.
- Use clearly defined operational targets to measure progress and adjust the educational plan as necessary.
- Create an effective environment for learning by sharing all relevant personal and school information about a child’s learning profile in order for the team to best meet the child’s educational needs.
- The school team will always put the best interest of the child first. We will make educational decisions based on educational history, record review, classroom observations, assessment information, and other performance measures.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me or any member of the Whole School Support Team.
– Kristina Schurzig, Head of Whole School Support
A Tiered Approach to Student Support
At ISHR, we use a tiered approach to supporting students; this is sometimes referred to as a Response to Intervention (RtI) model. This is a multi-tiered approach ranging from early identification to intensive support of students with learning and/or behavioural needs. Students are provided with interventions at differing levels of intensity in accordance to their level of need. These services may be provided by a variety of personnel, including classroom teachers, LE teachers, Counsellors, advisors, homeroom teachers, and specialists. All students at ISHR benefit from tier 1 intervention. For students needing a more targeted level of support, tier 2 interventions such as ‘push in’ in-class support will be provided. This might also include infrequent counselling support. Should the student require more intensive support, they would qualify for tier 3 intervention. More details of this process can be found in our Whole School Support policy.
With all students, the goal is always to support them in a way that develops capacity and not dependency. With this in mind, we aim all students to eventually be devolved to tier 1. Examples of tier specific intervention is shown below.
The Tiered Approach Model
Tier 1 Examples of Intervention:
Differentiated instruction, classroom teacher intervention, monitoring, observations, staff training on interventions and learning and behavioural difficulties, compiling data, assessment for learning, screening.
Tier 2 Examples of Intervention:
In class targeted intervention, small group work (outside of class-time), less regular/irregular class support (pull-out), drop in student support (counselling and Learning Lab).
Tier 3 Examples of Intervention:
Small group or one-to-one pull-out of class. For Learning Enrichment, they must have a diagnosed need; for counselling a documented need.
WSST Referrals and Support Services
Referral
Any student can refer themselves for support at ISHR or parents can refer their children. Simply send an email detailing what you would like support with to a member of the Whole School Support Team, the Homeroom teacher, Advisor, Grade Level leader, or Head of Section and we will be sure to get you some support.
Learning Enrichment
To help remove barriers to learning, the WSST provides a Learning Enrichment (LE) program to support students with learning needs in Early Years, Primary and Secondary School.
Counselling Services
To support the emotional, behavioural, and social development of our students, the WSST offers a comprehensive school counselling program which is available to all Early Years, Primary and Secondary School students.
Educational Psychologist
At ISHR, we are very lucky to have our own Educational Psychologist on staff who can help us find the best ways to ensure all our students meet their learning potential.
Learning Enrichment
To meet the academic needs of our students, ISHR offers a Learning Enrichment (LE) Program to support students with learning needs in Early Years, Primary and Secondary School.
Counselling Services
To meet the emotional, behavioral, social and psychological needs of our students, ISHR offers a comprehensive school counseling program.
Educational Psychologist
ISHR offers an Educational Psychologist as part of our Whole School Support team, and in doing so, have placed a clear emphasis on the welfare of students at our school.
University And Careers Counselling
Whether a student is considering a gap year, plans to head straight to university, or none of the above, our university and career counsellor will help to find the suitable path.
English as an Additional Language
When students enter our school at any age, we assess their language capabilities. This begins at Admission but may extend beyond into the first few weeks of school, and is an ongoing process thereafter. Teachers, the EAL team, and other specialists as necessary, work in collaboration to help every student succeed.
Home Language
Maintenance of home language is an important part of the IB curriculum as well as integral to ISHR’s language philosophy.
