It focuses on working with students who have Special Educational Needs (SEN).
The objectives of the Support Program are:
Establish strengths and weaknesses of students with SEN according to the assessment.
Provide an inclusive education for those students who require an adequate space to discover their strengths and work with their areas that need to be reinforced.
Support students with SEN through the planning and development of accommodations and/or modifications in their curricula, in coordination with the Administration, Teachers and Counselors.
Generate strategies for the student with SEN to understand and manage their differences in learning and to develop a positive image of themselves.
Motivate students with SEN to identify and use their strengths to achieve their academic goals.
National Section
Nursery
Support Programs
They tend to children who present some type of difficulty or difference in learning in the classroom, to receive individualized help from a professional who specializes in dealing with these difficulties, within the Nursery regular schedule. The follow-up of the children attending the Support Programs is carried out by the coordinator, classroom teacher and the learning specialist once a week.
Lenguage Therapy
For children who present some difficulty both in their receptive and expressive language and are treated by a language therapist within the regular schedule of classes at the Nursery. Follow-up of children attending speech therapy is performed by the coordinator, classroom teacher, and language therapist once a week.
Preschool
Language therapy
For children who present some type of difficulty in the pronunciation of the mother tongue and are treated by a language therapist.
The follow-up of the children who come to either of these two centers is coordinated by the specialists in charge, the classroom teacher and the Orientation department.
Progress information for these students is given to parents twice per semester, or more frequently, if necessary.
Individualized Help
This service provides personalized attention and psychological and pedagogical reinforcement to children who have been referred by their teachers for presenting individual educational needs, providing them with specific strategies that help them overcome their difficulties and allow them to function independently within the group.
Tutoring
The tutorial program aims to stimulate and strengthen pedagogical areas of need in Preschool children in a more personalized way. The tutorials are held from Tuesday to Thursday, in the hours of 7:50 to 8:40 am, and is offered by the classroom teachers.
Primary
Philosophy of the Program
Support Programs, based on the philosophy of the school, have the primary objective of forming responsible, self-confident individuals capable of meeting the demands of the future. These programs, both in English and Spanish, are intended to enable the student to develop skills to compensate for difficulties, using their strengths, in order to have a better performance in the classroom.
Focusing the goals towards respect for oneself as others, using individual programs, implementing different methods and varied strategies, the student is expected to compete in a normal teaching situation and in the future is an individual who brings his potential in benefit of society.
Operation of the Program
The Primary National has a professional for each grade that is responsible for working in the Support Program with children of their level.
The children who enter the Support Program are referred by their classroom teachers, who find a difference in their academic performance in relation to the group in any area of learning. Once formally referred to, observations are made within the classroom and an assessment that identifies the weaknesses and strengths of children and their special needs. In case the child enters the Support Program, we work with him/her for four hours a week, in English and Spanish, both inside and outside the class. We work in IAP (Intelligence Activation Program) for one hour a week with all the children of the grade.
Individual tutorials are provided in specific cases. In special cases where the child presents a delay of two or more years in a particular area of learning, an IEP (Individualized Education Program) is created.
Children do not attend the Special Needs Support Program during non-homeroom class, and no new concepts are introduced at times when children are not in their regular classroom.
Working in the classroom schedules and planning is done together with the classroom teacher.
In addition, differentiated activities are developed to better serve the specific needs of students using the curricular objectives.
Intelligence Activation Program (IPA)
The IAP was implemented to work in the classroom, one hour a week with all children. This Program works skills such as:
- Perception
- Attention
- Memory
- Thought
- Spatial structuring
- Time Perception
- Specific Psychomotricity
- Artistic Expression
- Personal Knowledge
Differentiation Activity
Student Counseling
The Department of Student Counseling has as mission and vision:
Mission
Support and guide the student in their holistic development, providing a space for expression and reflection, which favors responsible decision making regarding themselves and their environment. This process links students, parents, teachers and administrators.
Vision
To work proactively for the overall well-being of the student, considering their individual characteristics, through prevention and intervention programs in an integrated process from Pre-kinder to 12th grade, taking into account the specific aspects of the National and International Sections.
Counselor
It is the professional that provides support and follow-up to students in the emotional, affective, social, psychological and pedagogical aspects, through an interdisciplinary work.
Duties and Responsibilities of Counselors
Develop a process of knowledge, support and follow-up for students.
Support in the School application process.
Assisting students in change processes: beginning of schooling, transitions between levels and graduation.
Transfer information to the Counselor for the following year about follow-up with students and analyze individual cases.
Conduct assessments and suggest interventions.
Provide information relevant to emotional, family or health issues of students during meetings with teachers and administrators, when the situation calls for it.
Coordinate with the Support Programs in the creation of individual plans for students with differences in learning (IEPs), developing strategies and training for teachers.
Advise teachers on the emotional management of students at individual and group level.
Encourage and support teamwork for the benefit of the student.
Recommend to parents or student representatives, specialized professional care for students’ problems.
Keep the individual cumulative student record updated.
Developing Student Counseling programs, such as sexual and affective education, values, interpersonal relationships, conflict management, violence and intimidation prevention, alcohol and drug use and abuse, eating disorders, vocational and professional guidance.
Organize meetings, conferences and workshops for parents on topics important to their children’s education.
Provide information and support students in decision making, as support in academic programs.
Train teachers on topics related to the Student Counseling curriculum, and others.
Participate in the placement of students in the various parallels.
Others provided for in the Organic Law on Intercultural Education and its Implementing Regulations.
Secondary
Department of University Counseling
The School offers programs of orientation and support to the students in the processes of application to local and international universities. University Counselors maintain regular activities and meetings with students and parents in order to provide individualized follow-up on the application processes.
Guidance Department
The main objective of the Guidance Department is to provide a healthy development of students throughout their adolescence process. Counselors work closely with students, both individually and in groups.
Counselors provide support with the emotional needs of students and/or their families.
Develop prevention programs for situations and risk behaviors.
Learning skills and constructive channeling of affects.
Mechanisms for conflict mediation are established.
Education programs are developed for: love, vocation and a life project.
Students exert their leadership skills.
The CRECER program is developed for differentiated education in the classroom.
The Guidance Department has six Counselors, one for each grade, and works one hour weekly with each parallel on various topics established by the orientation plan and created according to the development of each group.
Some of these subjects are:
- Adolescence and biological and psycho-affective changes
- Affections and positive affective relationships during adolescence
- Taking care of yourself and risky situations
- Human values among young people
- Self-knowledge and construction of a life project
- Vocational and professional guidance (University Fair, Career Day)
- Workshops, conferences and meetings for parents and teachers.
- Develop a leadership program in the classroom and workshops, throughout the academic year, to improve leadership skills.
The Guidance Department works closely with students and their families on some subjects:
- Emotional
- Academic
- Relations
CRECER Program
This program was established seven years ago with the aim of incorporating strategies to address the differences in student learning in the classroom.
The program integrates knowledge, respect and channeling of multiple intelligences, different learning styles, affective components and flexibility in contents, processes and products within the curriculum.
International Section
In order to ensure the academic and personal success of our students, the International Section offers several programs to support their diverse learning styles and/or special needs. All children in our Section, including those with learning differences, have access to the regular curriculum and are educated with age-appropriate peers.
Our Support Programs are:
Learning Differences (LD)
Our LD teacher provides individualized support to students in the areas where they are needed. This specialist works closely with regular and ESL teachers to accommodate and/or modify programs and prepare differentiated lessons. Students receive services both inside and outside their regular classrooms. When necessary, we develop Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students who require a more complete intervention.
Spanish as a Second Language (SSL)
SSL teachers offer introductory instruction in Spanish and reinforce the Spanish curriculum for non-native students. SSL students receive services both inside and outside their regular classes.
English as a Second Language (ESL)
The ESL teacher gives introductory instruction in English and reinforces the skills and concepts taught in all subjects in English. ESL students receive services inside and outside their regular classes.
Homework Club
Students in grades third through sixth have the opportunity to stay with a teacher during extracurricular activities to do homework and receive extra help.