The Learning Support Unit (LSU)

​The Learning Support Unit aims to provide a safe, secure environment to support learning and personal development.
Carl Rogers, the famous American Psychologist and Philosopher wrote:

If I accept the other person as something fixed, already diagnosed and classified, already shaped by his past, then I am doing my part to confirm this limited hypothesis. If I accept them as a process of becoming, then I am doing what I can to confirm or make real their potentialities.

Students are referred to the Learning Support Unit via a multi disciplinary meeting that takes place each half term. Parents are contacted and invited to discuss the needs of their child. Students will be placed in to one of the following strands of support.

1. Intensive attenders - for students with complex needs, who will spend a half term (6 weeks) in the LSU for 1 period per day developing strategies to overcome either their barriers to learning, personal difficulties or struggles with attendance.
2. Sessional attenders - for students with identified well-being needs that will benefit from specific group interventions such as Transition (from Primary to Secondary School) Anxiety, Self Esteem, Self Image, Relationship and Communication, Young Carers, Sexual health, Alcohol and Substance Misuse. These students will be allocated set times in the LSU group room and interventions will take place for one hour a week over 6 weeks.
3. Special Arrangement attenders – for students that require a bespoke 1:1 intervention which can support a variety of concerns for example persistent absence, returning from a period of medical absence, a recent period of challenging behaviour, an unsettled period at home, etc.
4. Drop In attenders – for students highlighted by their head of year as requiring a space to check in and receive assistance with difficult circumstances that effect wellbeing and impact on a student’s ability to get through the school day.
5. Counselling - for students who are unsettled or distressed they have the opportunity to explore and understand their difficulties in a 1:1 session with a qualified counsellor once a week.

Once the initial agreed programme has been completed the student’s progress will be reviewed. Relevant support information will be shared with the student’s teachers to aid a positive reintegration back into lessons.

​If you require further assistance from the Learning Support Unit please contact:

Lisa Sproat, Head of Learning Support Unit
lsproat@thomastallis.org.uk
T: 020 8856 01156 ext 3032