Tel: 01787 280733 Email: info@brainwaveseducation.com 4C Clock House Farm Estate, Cavendish Lane, Glemsford, Suffolk CO10 7PZ

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Back to School Booster – August 2016A one week suite of programmes offering specialist Literacy, Numeracy & Study Skills tuition for students from ages 7-15 years

Many students, particularly those with Specific Learning Difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD or autistic spectrum disorder lose skills they have worked so hard to achieve at school, during the long summer break. We recognises the need for these students to have an opportunity to maintain and boost their current skill levels in readiness for the following academic year and therefore offer a choice of specialist programmes during August to meet this need. To cater for the individualised needs of all students we offer a choice of programmes; Literacy, Numeracy and for older students a Literacy and Study Skills programme. For each programme students attend five x 2 hour sessions, Monday to Friday.

Students may attend more than one programme however experience shows us that booking 2 sessions both weeks leaves children tired, therefore we recommend both programmes are booked during the same week. To help accommodate this, the numeracy programme is sandwiched between the literacy programmes. Programme choices: Literacy

Literacy and Study Skills across the curriculumNumeracy and Maths Skills

Recent experiences of our Back to School Booster programme suggest that students work well when grouped vertically in ‘families’. We therefore try to group students according to their learning need, age and social skill development. This also permits brothers and sisters to attend together. Please note, we can accommodate all students’ skill levels; your child does not have to have a learning difficulty in order to attend. More information on the programmes is included on page 3-5.

Programme times:

Brainwaves Education LtdSpecialist Assessment, Training and Consultancy Service

for Dyslexia and Related Learning Differences

9:30 - 11:30am Literacy OR Literacy and Study Skills11:45am - 1:45pm Numeracy and Maths Skills2:30 - 4:30pm Literacy OR Literacy and Study Skills

Two programme dates: Week 1 - Monday 15TH August – Friday 19th August 2016Week 2 - Monday 22nd August – Friday 26th August 2016

Fees: £240 per student per programme per week (first inflation linked fee rise since 2012)

Location: The Dyslexia and Literacy Support Centre, Glemsford Suffolk, CO10 7PP

More information about the Back to School Booster programmes and what happens:

For the first hour of each daily session the students work in small groups of no more than 2 students to 1 tutor and are taught within the appropriate multi-sensory programme. In the second hour students come together and have the opportunity to transfer their skills to the wider school curriculum through a project. This gives students the opportunity to feel the same as their peers, (important for students with dyslexia and associated Specific Learning Difficulties), as well an opportunity to work with boys and girls of all ages and abilities, whilst still using an individualised programme. Many students feel rushed during a busy classroom environment; the extended project gives our students an important experience of satisfaction and achievement at completing a project due to the high level of staffing support they will receive.

The Back to School Booster programmes are held at Jane Dupree’s Dyslexia and Literacy Support Centre in Glemsford. The Centre is a safe, spacious and well-equipped learning environment in which they can flourish. It is this relaxed but purposeful atmosphere that helps children develop confidence and readiness for the next school year.  During the Back to School Booster work is rewarded daily with stickers which are traded in at the ‘Sweet Swap Shop’ and a BBQ and swim at Autumn House, Glemsford during the 2nd hour of their Friday session at the end of the week.

Students who attend two programmes straddling the lunch period are able to stay at the Dyslexia and Literacy Support Centre between sessions. They need to bring their own packed lunch. Weather and numbers permitting they may also be able to go for a short swim at Jane Dupree’s home, Autumn House, Glemsford. In poor weather we have ‘DVD and popcorn club’ during the lunch break. It always proves very popular.

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To Book a place: Complete a Back to School Booster application form and send it to us with a deposit of £80 per programme, made payable to Brainwaves Education Ltd. This deposit is non-refundable once the booking is confirmed.

At the time of booking parents are asked to select their preferred programme/s, week/s of attendance and time. Before we confirm each booking careful consideration will be given to the needs of your child to ensure that the programme grouping we can offer is suitable for them. Once we have confirmed the booking with you the deposit payment is non-refundable. The remaining fees are due in two instalments payable in March and June. Should you prefer, following payment of your deposit, you may make monthly payments.

If your child has not been taught at our Glemsford Centre before, towards the end of the summer term you will be offered an appointment with Jane at the Centre. This appointment will be for you and your child and provides an opportunity to discuss and plan your child’s individualised programme. This also helps familiarise your child with staff and the Centre, before they attend the Back to School Booster.

Back to School Booster – August 2016Programme Details

Literacy — Typical school year grouping - Years 2 - 6 Students are taught in very small group sizes, a maximum of 2 students with 1 tutor, all who have a qualification in the theory, assessment and teaching of students with dyslexia and related specific learning difficulties. Each daily session runs for 2 hours. In the first hour students work in groups of 2 students to 1 tutor and are taught within the appropriate multi-sensory structured language programme. Resources used include: Corrective Reading, Decoding, Units of Sound, Toe by Toe, Alpha to Omega, The Nessy Learning Programme, specialist handwriting programmes (including the Speed Up programme written by occupational therapists for students with dyspraxia), touch typing programmes and a variety of software and Apps to support learning. Their skills at the sentence level and text level are also developed.

Literacy — Typical school year grouping - Years 5 - 9This is the same as for school years 2-6, however in this group- for the older students- there is more emphasis on using the skills learned earlier and transferring them to reading and writing extended pieces of text across the whole school curriculum.

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Example of a target sheet for a year 7 student attending the literacy programme

Back to School Booster - Target Sheet Literacy Skills

My word level target was to continue to secure my knowledge and use of key words required for Comprehension and written work including: adjectives, adverbs, alliteration, similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia, suffixes and synonyms. I also practised my spelling skills focussing on silent letters in words: wr, gn, and kn.

My Sentence Level target was to highlight the key sentence in each paragraph of writing to improve my understanding of complex passages. To use these skills to transfer to my written work by planning essays using the ‘Exploded Burger’ and writing key starter sentences for each paragraph.

My text level target was to understand the use of the 6 Thinking Skill Hats and how they can be valuable in answering questions and in organising paragraphs for my writing. I also used the ‘Questions as Steps’ Sheet to appreciate that questions in comprehension exams ask for answers with different levels of thinking skills required and that sometimes I have to ‘Dig Deep’ for the answer. I used all of my targets to plan and write a small essay using organised paragraphs.

Literacy & Study Skills across the Curriculum in Secondary School Students with specific learning difficulties often have adequate basic reading and spelling skills by the time they transfer to Senior School. However, they find it difficult to multi task when having to work independently, and are unsure of how best to revise for exams; they often lack exam skills techniques.

The programmes will focus on developing their literacy and study skills at the text level. At GCSE level Study Skills are best learned using the student’s own assignments from across the curriculum. A good Study Skills tutor will teach the student to be ‘Metacognitive’ about their learning (What have I learned here that I can use and transfer to my next assignment?). Many students find this transference of skills very

difficult. The Back to School Booster programme will have this at the heart of its aims and objectives.

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In addition to developing Study skills, students who are on the pathway to Higher or Further Education who have specific learning difficulties, benefit from learning how to use software tools that remove the barriers that their learning difficulty creates. Therefore both Study

Skill groupings will give students the opportunity to use software tools and iPad Apps. Students will be encouraged to bring along their own laptops, iPads and iPhones to capture the best use of their hardware equipment and share their skills with each other.

Numeracy and Maths Skills- Year 2 onwardsAs with the literacy sessions, students spend the first hour working on their individualised programme with 1 tutor working with 2 students. Older students work at their own level and own pace in all areas of maths: functional skills, numeracy, algebra, data handling and shape and space. A variety of multi-sensory resources are used, including Maths watch CDs, games & appropriate text materials. For our younger students we have added to our resources; for the last four years the Numicon programme which is proving effective for our

students who have a more severe difficulty with number work and exhibit signs of Dyscalculia. Numicon have now published their third programme, for students working towards level 3 and beyond. Our older students benefit from using Maths Watch DVDs to enhance their home learning.

Across the Curriculum ProjectsIn 2014 our ‘Literacy across the Curriculum

project’ had as its focus ‘Edible Poetry’. (In the summer of 2015 we had our first year off in 7 years.) Students first had to match a variety of cupcakes, pop cakes and cookies to a range of poetry displayed around the rooms. The themes of each poem stretched their thinking and gave them models of poetry themes and structures. From there they all selected a poem, chose their design of how they would decorate it to explain the meaning of the poem in edible art (whilst keeping their poem a secret.) As you can see we had fun decorating our edible poetry. On the last day, all of our students secretly placed their poems around the room and each student had to match an edible poem with its written counterpart. I baked a lot and we all got sticky.

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In 2014 our Maths Across the Curriculum had as its focus ‘Sweets!’ On day one students used their calculation skills to work out ‘value for money’ using a variety of different sized sweet packaging for the same brand of Skittles. They then used the ‘best deal’ packet to further their understanding of bar graphs with fractions, ratio, decimals and or percentages, depending on their current maths skill. From day three students made their own sherbet and compared it to a shop bought brand for flavour. They experimented with proportions,

fractions and ratio again whilst developing the taste of their product. The older students also used their knowledge of exothermic and endothermic reactions and were introduced to balancing equations. Using nets they designed their own packet and sherbet tube. The older students grappled with the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions required to make these products feel ‘cool’ on the tongue. Using nets all students designed their own packet and sherbet tube.

As you can see, some sherbets were less sweet than others!

The younger students learned the scientific name for the products that made their sweets and were introduce to the idea of how compounds can combine and change to make new products. As usual we enjoyed working with all of our students; they socialised well with each other, and learned valuable skills of team work, tolerance, and that all of us have strengths and weaknesses that shine at different times.

To book a place please download and complete a Back to School Booster Application Form.

Email sue.walling@brainwaveseducation.com for more details

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