Vision Support Team
A small number of children and young people may have a vision impairment, which is diagnosed by an Ophthalmologist or Orthoptist. They may experience barriers to learning, the education environ`ment and access to the curriculum.
We are a specialist team of:
- Advisory Teachers of the Vision Impaired and trainee Advisory Teachers of the Vision Impaired
- Sensory Support Service Teaching Assistants
- Paediatric Habilitation Specialists
All teachers are highly skilled with at least two years of teaching experience. They all have a national mandatory qualification, which trainees work towards. We work collaboratively with schools, children and young people (0-25 years) and their parents and carers. This ensures inclusion, achievement and progression.
In order for us to work with children and young people a medical diagnosis is required; Your child/young person will have one or more of the following:
- Visual acuities of 6/18 or less 0.48 LogMAR or above in both eyes.
- A fluctuating vision impairment such as Cerebral Vision Impairment (CVI) or nystagmus.
- A degenerative/progressive vision impairment.
- A Certificate of Vision Impairment
How to access our support
If you have any concerns, it is important that you speak to your child's lead medical practitioner. Sometimes, the medical practitioner will make the request for involvement to our team. If you are concerned about your child/young person’s vision in their educational setting, you should also talk to the SENDCO.
A request for involvement can be made using the Request for Involvement form.
Complete a Request for Involvement form
Requests for Involvement can be made by:
- the educational setting
- an ophthalmologist or orthoptist
- other professionals working with your child/young person, such as a social worker or portage worker
- the family
As part of the request for involvement you will be asked to complete a referral parent/carer consent form. This gives permission to share your child/young person’s details with us. This is essential for the request for involvement to be considered. Not every request for involvement results in support.
Complete a referral parent/carer consent form
What may this support look like?
- Watching some learning happen in your child/young person’s education setting.
- Talking with your child/young person about what their educational setting is like for them.
- Looking at some of your child/young person’s schoolwork and we might take photos of this.
- Talking to key staff about how your child/young person is getting on in school.
- Providing training for the people that work with your child/young person.
- Working together with other professionals involved.
- Support children/young people to transition between settings and prepare for adulthood.
- Helping to put strategies in place to make learning and the environment more accessible for your child/young person.
- Carrying out functional vision assessments. We use a standardised set of criteria from the National Sensory Impairment Partnership (NATSIP) to set our levels of support. Reviews of support takes place at least once per year.
- Providing a report to formalise our findings and recommendations for the educational setting. You will receive a copy of this report.
- In some cases, children/young people will receive specialist teaching. This will be with an Advisory Teacher of the Vision Impaired or trainee Advisory Teacher of the Vision Impaired. This may include the teaching of braille or assistive technology skills.
- Loaning specialist equipment for identified learners.
- In some cases, children/young people will receive support from a habilitation specialist. This may include assessment and blocks of input for identified learners.
Further information if your child/young person has a multi-sensory impairment (MSI)