STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
At AISB, academic achievement is balanced by the school’s emphasis on personal growth and socio-emotional development. Students are challenged and encouraged to discover their individual interests and abilities by teachers committed to developing their students as well-rounded individuals who are confident, creative and collaborative members of the school community.
EAL PROGRAM - ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
There is a full time EAL teacher on each campus. These teachers assess the language learning needs of all students for whom English is not their native language; they develop appropriate curriculum aligned programs to assist non- English speakers; they work closely with the Homeroom teachers and the families and when students reach and independent level of communication in English, they graduate from the program.
The Language & Literacy levels have a strong focus to begin on the development of ‘spoken-language’. As students acquire more skills, the focus shifts to the development of more ‘written-like’ language.
General English: 3 times a week
Intensive English: 5 times a week
The duration of our EAL program is 45 minutes per class with a maximum of 6 students in each class.
LS - LEARNING SUPPORT
The learning support department was created for cases where a child may need additional support to reach their full potential. The aim of the Learning Support Department at AISB is to ensure that these student’s are provided with the appropriate environment and tools that they need to access the curriculum and continue growing in their learning.
Our guiding principles include: respecting confidentiality, focussing on strengths to overcome weaknesses and nurturing students as individuals.
The Learning Support Department functions by:
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Providing targeted 1-1, small group, and in-class support
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Creating Individual Learning Plans that outline the learning strategies and learning goals
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Communicating with parents, administration, teachers, and students to ensure that the learning plan is implemented and updated
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Supporting teachers with differentiation strategies, implementing accommodations, and providing resources
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Providing referrals for external assessments as needed
ACCESS AND INCLUSION PROGRAM
Our Access and Inclusion program helps students with identified learning disorders as well as students who are seen as needing extension in their academic work
As students progress through academic year groups, learning becomes more complex and some students may show that they need intervention and support for identified Learning Support needs. These needs can manifest in many ways, such as dyslexia, for example or other identifiable learning disorders which cause issues for the student’s learning progress.
The school's Access and Inclusion teacher provides help to the teachers of the student and to the student, in some cases psycho-social assessments are conducted by outside specialist services who can provide therapy in various areas of special need, such as Speech therapy and Occupational therapy. In every case, the outside providers work with the school’s Access and Inclusion teacher, the Homeroom teacher and the parents in a collaborative way.