The British School in Tokyo

School Policies
Created: Feb 2020

BST Student Support Services Policy

The British SchoolinTokyo
School Policy

BST Student Support Services Policy

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1. PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDELINES DOCUMENTATIONTo provide an overview of the operations of different services within the Student Support
Services (SSS) faculty and provide some important details about how these services work
across the British School, hereafter called BST.
2. WHAT IS STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES AT BST?
SSS is a multidisciplinary team, which aims to support our students at BST to enjoy learningand achieve their goals through helping to provide a safe, secure and stimulating
environment. Across the professional roles in our team we share experience and skills in:
Learning Support (LS) / Special Educational Needs (SEN), English as an Additional Language(EAL) and Counselling / Social and Emotional support. Information pertaining to thedifferent services is found in individual service policy and procedure documentation, which
can be found on the SSS internal website and school website. Information around service
involvement can be found on the Student Support Services register, which is also
maintained and accessed by SSS teachers through the school drive.
Student wellbeing is at the forefront of everything we do. We aim to support children atindividual, group and school level through preventative development work as well as byresponding to the needs of students.
We place the student at the centre of our work and take a holistic approach to ourconsultation, assessment and intervention processes. Collaboration and communication withkey staff is essential to help promote and develop the wellbeing of our community. We also
value working with parents and outside agencies to support the development of each
student through relationships based on fairness, trust and mutual respect.
We support students throughout their development. Including potential challenges aroundsignificant transitions. We endeavour to be part of a school culture, which supports ourstudents to develop resilience, empathy and strengths to help maximise individual potential.
Each service has its own policy documentation that demonstrates its operations, proceduresand guidelines. These are reviewed every 12 months by the Senior Leadership Team.
3. RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION MODEL
Student Support Services practise a Response to Intervention (RTI) provision model, which
is a multi-tier approach to the identification and support of students. Students are provided
with, interventions at increasing levels of intensity to support their academic and social &emotional needs. When making decisions about the tier of support that a child receives,formative and summative assessment are used in conjunction with the 4 Cs of care, which
are considered carefully to inform decision making.

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4. OVERVIEW OF THE SERVICES
4.1 THE LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICE
BST welcomes a diversity of students some of whom may have special educational needs.
The school’s Learning Support team, works with students, their teachers, and their families
in order to assist them in reaching their potential and overcome challenges in school.
The Learning Support team falls under the umbrella term of the Student Support Services
department.
The focus of the Learning Support department is:
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To provide effective support for those students who are disadvantaged by a specificlearning difficulty.
To provide support for those students who have been identified as having
difficulties/barriers to learning from the referral process or through data collection
and/or assessment.
To support teachers in terms of differentiation and teaching strategies to meet theneeds of the students in their classes.
To facilitate the employment of LSTAs to work one to one with students who areunable to access and respond to curriculum without support

BST provides an inclusive learning environment for students admitted into the school.
Generally, the needs of students who have mild to moderate learning difficulties can bemet. Children admitted into the school who have more severe learning, behavioural ordevelopmental difficulties may need an LSTA to support their learning. Where this occurs,
the parents fund the LSTA and the school recruits and deploys them.
The Learning Support department will arrange appropriate provision (within its resources) tomeet the needs of the individual and/or cohort of students who require support at any giventime.
Students may be withdrawn from normal timetabled lessons to receive support. In each
instance, the student(s) will follow a structured programme to address their needs. The
programme will be determined by the learning support specialist in collaboration withparents, and colleagues, both internal and external to the school. All withdrawal
programmes will be with the agreement of parents and will be reviewed annually.
The Learning Support team works in close collaboration with all aspects of Student Support
Services to ensure that a multi-disciplinary approach to support is applied whereappropriate.

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4.2 THE EAL SERVICE
BST welcomes a diversity of students, some of whom may be learning English as an
Additional Language (EAL). The school’s EAL specialists work with students, their teachers,
and their families in order to assist them in reaching their potential and overcome
challenges in school.
The EAL team falls under the umbrella term of the Student Support Services department.
The focus of the EAL department is to:
1. Provide support to its EAL learners in the following four domains in line with theirindividual needs:●●●●Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing

2. To provide support for students that aids their language acquisition journey from Basic
Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency(CALP).
3. To support all teachers in terms of differentiation and teaching strategies to meet theneeds of the EAL students in their classes.
EAL staff will be required to work in conjunction with other members of the Student Support
Services faculty as well as being part of multi-disciplinary meetings, working alongside classteachers and pastoral leaders, supporting admissions or running professional development
in areas of experience or expertise.
4.3 THE COUNSELLING SERVICE
School Counselling can help a student to understand themselves and their situation better.
It can give them new ways of coping with issues that cause them upset, therefore
increasing their capacity for learning and general wellbeing. The School Counselling Service
is part of Student Support Services, which works alongside the pastoral care andsafeguarding systems operating in the school.
4.4 SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SERVICESocial and emotional support through SSS is provided by staff with qualifications andexperience in numerous approaches, Including Play Therapy, Social Thinking andAcceptance and Commitment Therapy. This helps students through a process of talking,listening and empowerment. The student is provided with a safe place to express theirfeelings and thoughts, about what they perceive to be challenges in their lives.

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5. PHILOSOPHY AND OPERATION OF STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL
5.1 THE FOUR C’s OF CARETo ensure that services within SSS are aligned throughout the school and understood bydiffering stakeholders, the primary school has adopted the use of the Four Cs of Care
(Appendix 1):-

Competency-

Capacity-Communication-Continuity

Care refers to the combination of Competency, Capacity, Communication and Continuity.
The ability to effectively provide adequate support with regard to the Four Cs allows theschool to provide effective care for a student.
Competency refers to consideration as to whether the service(s) within the school has theexpertise, experience, qualifications and environment to adequately meet a child’s various
needs, or whether they may need a multi-disciplinary approach or involvement with outsideagencies.
Capacity refers to the ability to meet a child’s needs effectively in terms of staffing andresources required.
Communication refers to how information is shared about an individual with teachers,
parents and leadership.
Continuity refers to the ability to provide appropriate support and/or care for a child in theshort, medium or long term.
The SSS faculty refers to the Four Cs of Care to inform decision making so there is effective
continuity across both campuses to ensure equality for students from Nursery – Year 6.
5.2 LEADERSHIP AND FLEXIBLE STRUCTURE OF THE FACULTY
SSS staff support students in the areas of Learning Support, EAL and Social and Emotional
support and Counselling. They are line managed by the Assistant Head of school (StudentSupport Services). The Nursing Team are line managed by the Head of HR. however,important information is shared through the SSS platform.
Where appropriate, staff within Learning Support, EAL and Social and Emotional behaviour
are expected to work across services and phases when there is an identified need, andwhere qualifications and experience allow. This provides a flexible staffing model that allows

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the Assistant Head of school (SSS) to deploy staff to best meet the diverse needs ofstudents within its cohort.
All members of the SSS faculty work within policy and procedures documents that havebeen agreed by the Senior Leadership Team. This ensures that policies and procedures arefollowed and there is consistency across key phases.
5.4 WORKING WITH THE ADMISSIONS DEPARTMENT
Where appropriate, SSS collaborates with the Admissions department on the assessment andadmission of students. Decisions are made with direct reference to the 4 Cs of Care.
The process for SSS involvement takes place in three phases:
1. Pre-application phase
2. Placement decisions phase
3. Post decision phase
The Head of each school (or appointed person) is responsible for requesting SSS involvement
across all phases of the admissions process.
Whilst SSS involvement should be sought to make recommendations around admissions atPhases 1-3, the final decision regarding the entry and placement of any new student rests
with the Head of Primary / Principal.
5.5 THE SSS REGISTER OF NEED
This register is a collaborative document that is maintained by the SSS team. It holds theinformation pertaining to children’s needs and provision of support, including any outside
agency involvement that the school is aware of. The main purpose of this register is to bring
together all student information regarding need, service involvement and strategies aroundthe child.
All students on this register will have as a minimum: an initial Request for Involvement (RFI)
document, a document pertaining to their service involvement, and communication notes.
Where a child has LSTA involvement, a Team Around the Child (TAC) plan is created tocoordinate service involvement and monitor progress.
It is important to note that counselling information around children, is shared in line with theCounselling department’s service policy pertaining to confidentiality.
5. STAFF TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (PLD)
As the SSS faculty is a multi-disciplinary team made up of a number of departments, it isimportant that it provides a PLD session at the beginning of each year so as to keep staff
aware of:●●●●Communication around the Register of Involvement
Changes in the services provided within the school
Training on strategies and initiatives to help meet student needs
Opportunities for discussion and feedback from staff

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PLD sessions should be built into inset throughout the academic year, to share skills,
knowledge and experience from within the department. The aim of these sessions are tokeep teachers aware of best practice to support the students in their care.
6. THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAMThe Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has an important role in ensuring that the Student Support
Services policy and procedures are carried out effectively and that the practices are supportiveof the students within BST. In fulfilling this role, it will:
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review SSS policy and procedure documents on a annual cycle
review SSS staffing in line with student growth cross the school
recognise, that the roles and responsibilities within the Student Support Services
faculty will often require qualifications and experience that go beyond initial teaching/ educational qualifications and recruit appropriately with this in mind.
make a clear distinction between EAL and special educational needs issues;
involve faculty staff in the admissions process, where possible service involvement
may be required
representation in Multi-Discipline-Meetings / TAC plans where appropriate
provide opportunities for SSS staff to run PLD for class teachers where appropriate
facilitate the use of appropriate space on site for outside agencies (e.g. Speech andOccupational Therapists, Counselling, etc) where there is targeted need within our SSS
cohortChampion the message that all teachers at BST have a part to play in supportingchildren who are in their class who are accessing differing aspects of the Student
Support Services faculty.
when possible, enable staff to undertake professional development so that they might
be helped to keep up to date with best practice and research.

Paul ToughPrincipal

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