Student Support

Introduction

In Loreto College Foxrock we are a caring, enabling learning community where staff, students, parents/ guardians work collaboratively with mutual respect. We understand that our responsibility to students relates not only to their educational and spiritual progress, but also to their well-being as individuals.

The individual student journey from first year to a young adult at 18, involves many opportunities, challenges and choices. Our focus in Loreto College Foxrock is to support the development of the whole person in partnership with the student and her parents/guardians. We have created a robust Pastoral Care Programme which works to ensure that students are in essence happy, and on their optimum development path. A system of Academic Year Heads (teachers) and class tutors (teachers) who see students daily at tutor time ensures regular one to one contact. A team of Guidance and Well-being Counsellors provide a valuable resource for our students at every stage of their development.

Guidance

The care of each student is of the utmost importance in our school. The Guidance and Counselling service aims to offer a full range of learning experiences which are designed to assist students to make choices about their lives and to make the transitions consequent to these choices.

The Guidance Counsellors’ function is to assist students to obtain information about opportunities and to assist the students to gain self-knowledge that allows them to choose among alternatives. Counselling is offered on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process and at moments of personal crisis. Counselling may include personal counselling, educational counselling, career counselling or combinations of these.

‘Knowing Yourself is the Beginning of all Wisdom’ – Aristotle

Guidance Team Contacts:

Ms Hilda O’Malley – guidance@loretofoxrock.ie

Ms Aisling O’Connell – aoconnell@loretofoxrock.ie

Ms Alison Walsh – awalsh@loretofoxrock.ie

Additional Educational Needs

The Additional Educational Needs (AEN) Mission Statement states: “Loreto Foxrock is an inclusive school that endeavours to address and respond to the diverse needs of its learners and removes barriers so that each learner is enabled to achieve the maximum benefit from their schooling”. Student wellbeing is at the heart of the AEN process in Loreto College Foxrock.

The school takes a holistic approach in supporting each student in her individual school journey: we recognise that different supports are needed for individual students and at different points in each student’s school life. The student is at the heart of all that we do: the aim is to encourage each girl to become an active agent in her own learning and develop skills to allow her to become an active citizen.

Students may present with additional educational needs on a temporary or long-term basis. This may include students with traditional special educational needs (physical disabilities, specific and general learning difficulties, emotional and behavioural disorders, needs arising from neurodiversity) . However, AEN may also encompass students whose learning has been impacted by external factors.

The AEN Team works collaboratively with the student and her subject teachers. The team includes the Principal, Deputy Principal, AEN Co-ordinators, Guidance Counsellors, Year Heads, AEN teachers, EAL teachers, ISAs (Inclusion Support Assistants). The role of the ISA is to support students with AEN to access the curriculum and engage in school life. Parents/Guardians are integral stakeholders: they share information with the AEN Team and support the students’ progress at home. All students are supported by their subject teachers through differentiation and classroom-based interventions. Some students may require additional supports: co-teaching, withdrawal, targeted interventions, ISA support, movement/rest breaks, ICT.

The school follows a three-step process to support students: identification, support/intervention, monitoring of outcomes. A label/diagnosis is not a requirement to access support. We are proud to have a diverse student body and the AEN Team works to address the physical, social and emotional welfare of the student as well as supporting her on her academic journey.