Assisting all learners to succeed and enjoy a positive attitude in their learning.

The role of SENCo

Maungatapu School employs Donelle O’Neill (Whaea Donelle), as a full time Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo). Donelle has over 30 years of teaching experience and was team leader of Y5/6 at our school before stepping into the role of SENCo.The SENCo’s role is to work in partnership with learners and their whanau, colleagues, outside agencies and members of the community for the benefit of student learning and engagement. An important component of the role is to assist teachers to plan and provide authentic learning experiences that acknowledge student diversity, and to provide assistance so that students can access the curriculum successfully.
The SENCo is also responsible for the Teacher Aides. Their role is to support teachers and to assist identified students who need extra support with their learning. This can be 1:1 or in small groups. 

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) support

Our school employs an ESOL tutor who works with individual students and groups of students who have English as their second language. The tutor attends regular meetings with other ESOL tutors from our area. This provides an opportunity to keep up to date with the latest resources and to share ideas and successes.

Meeting the needs of students from diverse cultures and language backgrounds is vital. ESOL students are often speakers of other languages. Non English Speaking Background (NESB) students who speak languages other than English as their first language, qualify for special government funding. This also includes students born and brought up in New Zealand to new migrant families. Eligible ESOL students are funded for ESOL programmes at school to maximise their academic language skills.

ESOL lessons are taken once a week, either in groups or on a 1:1 basis during school hours. The school keeps records of ESOL student’s language progressions using the MoE database and tracking systems.