Leigh Academy Milestone Outreach service consists of a team of teachers and Specialist TAs who work within the Academy spending a proportion of their time providing advice to mainstream staff children in nurseries and mainstream schools. Our Outreach teachers are experienced in working with children with a wide range of special educational needs.
Milestone Outreach teachers support children in mainstream schools when this has been agreed by the Sevenoaks Local Inclusion Forum Team (LIFT) of which Milestone is a member. Referrals can be made by the SENCO to the Sevenoaks LIFT via STLS at Valence. Depending on the child’s needs advice is given at the local area meeting this can be accompanied by the Milestone Outreach service will be supporting the school or setting directly as an outcome of the meeting. A visit will be arranged from an Outreach teacher to an individual pupil in a mainstream nursery or school and will usually consist of a classroom/playground observation of the child. Following this a discussion with the child or young person involved and consultation with key members of staff (.i.e. SENCO, class teacher, Learning Support assistant) will take place where targets will be set. Following the outreach visit a written report is sent to the school and parents. It generally consists of a summary of the visit and recommendations and targets on how the curriculum and the organisation of the classroom/school can be adapted to meet the special needs of the child or young person. Follow up visits will be arranged at the initial meeting.
We aim to build a capacity in schools and nurseries to ensure that all pupils with identified difficulties are provided with the right support to optimise their development.
We work closely alongside Sevenoaks Specialist Teaching and Learning Service enhancing the STLS core training by providing training including Language Acquisition, extensive Autism and MDVI courses and more bespoke training as required. Visits to the Academy can also be arranged for settings to see barriers to learning being broken down within a specialist environment.