- Do your over support, over help, step-in and do the task for the child when they could do it themselves?
- Do you understand the concept of the learner as an effective problem solver and do you support this… or do you step-in and take over, worrying that if you don’t others will think you are not doing your job properly?
- What are your long term expectations of the learners you support?
- Do you plan for maximum independence?
This is everybody’s business!
Did you know that at Positive Eye we have developed a specifically designed programme to support educators and parents to each understand their role in maximising the independence of children and young people with additional learning needs, but, inclusively of all children / young people.
The programme was developed to support the implementation of the new Additional Learning Needs Education Act in Wales. In this extensive article written by Higher Level Teaching Assistants at King Henry VIII Comprehensive (See pages 4 – 9) they share the positive outcomes they have seen as a result of implementing the ‘Step-in, Step-back approach to support learners to become more independent.
There are 8 individual comprehensive case studies detailing how Step-back has made a difference. They make an incredible and fantastic read!
What is the purpose of supporting additional learning needs with Step-back?
Its purpose is to support a whole school approach to creating independent learners. Step-back assists Practitioners to understand their role in maximising learners independence. It considers several questions;
- Do the teacher, teaching assistant and learner understand the purpose of support?
- Do practitioners create learners with additional learning needs who are effective problem solvers?
- Is the learner over supported and over helped?
- Does the learner have a voice, are they listened to and responded to?
Positive Eye’s Easy Easier Learner’s Voice Resource is at the heart of Step-back and forms an important part of this approach.
It’s unique to Positive Eye, there isn’t anything that I have located that does what Step-back does in the way that it does it.
Step-back is available to any Local Authority, or school or organisation, please get in touch with Gwyn McCormack for more information.
Here is the link to the Step-back website
