New Ross Vocational College

Our School has a full time Learning Support teacher, Ms. Grace Reddington. Any student who is experiencing difficulty in the area of literacy and numeracy is assessed by Ms. Reddington and given individualised teaching, either in a small group of students with similar difficulties or on their own. We have a specialised Learning Support Classroom which is used specifically for Learning Support teaching.

It is our policy to give priority to junior classes in the area of Learning Support. A whole school approach to literacy is adopted with Junior Classes. This means that teachers in all subject areas are aware of the challenge which some children face when reading secondary school text books. They use a variety of strategies to help students to overcome this e.g. pre-teaching new vocabulary, highlighting keywords etc.

A Paired Reading Programme is run for a seven week period in First Year to assist students with their reading. This is often done on a peer tutoring basis, whereby Post Leaving Certificate students volunteer to read with the students. This programme has been very successful to date.