ELP – Enhanced Learning Provision
The Enhanced Learning Provision (ELP) at Orchard Park High School is the only secondary specialist
provision in Croydon for children and young people with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD),
previously known as Specific Language Impairment (SLI).
DLD is a diagnosis given when a child or adult has difficulties talking and/or understanding language. DLD is hidden and affects approximately two children in every classroom impacting on literacy, learning, friendships and emotional well-being. However, support from professionals, including speech and language therapists and teachers, can make a real difference.
The ELP is situated in the mainstream school and includes a large teaching classroom, a library, a
computer space and a speech and language therapy room. We decided to name our speech and
language therapy room ‘Bishop’ after Dr. Dorothy Bishop, a leading researcher and British
psychologist specialising in developmental disorders, specifically, developmental language
impairments.
Inclusion
The whole school library is part of the ELP and is open to all students at lunchtime. Our
ELP students will be trained (on a voluntary basis) to administer books, manage books being
returned and answer any queries from other students to develop customer service skills and
interpersonal skills. The ELP is supervised at lunch time every day so that all students at
Orchard Park High School can play quiet games, read in the library and do homework within the
silent study area.
All students who have a place in the ELP are on roll at Orchard Park High School and spend the
majority of their timetable in the mainstream. Whole staff training and regular communications
ensure that teachers are aware of the students’ needs and how best to meet them and students are further supported in mainstream lessons by a teaching assistant.
ELP
Students who attend the ELP do not do Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at Orchard Park High
School and instead access specialist support through the ELP during those timetabled lessons.
Students may also be absent from one or two mainstream lessons in the school week to access
further specialist support. Whilst all students are fully integrated into mainstream, students in the
ELP are able to access speech and language therapy, social skills, life skills, GCSE support, vocabulary, and (if the student qualifies) Direct Instruction which is a specialist programme for Numeracy and Read, Write, Inc which is a programme for corrective reading.
Any teaching taking place in the ELP follows the mainstream curriculum and is differentiated to meet the needs of the students. What the students access in the ELP and how often is dependent on their needs and the level of support they require. We therefore have a flexible model which can be adapted to increase or decrease the number of sessions the students access in the ELP.
Staff
Miss S Palmieri is a Teacher and Leader of the Enhanced Learning Provision.
The ELP is staffed by a range of qualified professionals including the Teacher and Leader of the
Enhanced Learning Provision (Miss S Palmieri), an NHS Speech and Language Therapist (Miss C
Nestor), and an NHS Speech and Language Therapy Assistant (Miss D Welbeck) as well as the school's Teaching Assistants.
Entry requirements
Placement of a student in the ELP is the decision of the Local Education Authority in consultation
with the school. To be considered for the provision, students must have an Education Health and
Care Plan for Developmental Language Disorder. We currently have 16 students in total in the ELP
though we accept a maximum of five students per Year Group.
Contact us
For further information on the ELP and the services we provide, please contact:
spalmieri@orchardparkhigh.net
spalmieri@orchardparkhigh.net