SBST

The School-based Support Team (SBST) is responsible for determining the support needs of our learners. The SBST team co-ordinates the support needed by learners and uses the school framework and alongside the Department's policies to assist learners in reaching their full academic potential.

FUNCTIONS OF THE SBST

Coordinating and overseeing all learner and teacher support in the school

• Person in charge: Pieter Botes

• Learners who have failed a grade are automatically enrolled into the SBST system.

• Learners who have failed a term or subject will be added to our tutorial support system.

• This is an internal process driven by the school and the SBST team.

• Learners on SBST are monitored by a case manager and are expected to attend tutorial lessons.

Identifying the need for a learner concession

• A concession applies when a learner has an identified barrier to learning.

• This has to be formally diagnosed by an education psychologist or medical practitioner.

• Alternatively, it must be picked up by a teacher, who will then inform the SBST team who will then contact the parents in order to have the child tested.

• A concession enables a learner with barriers to function optimally within a mainstream system; it does not provide unfair advantage over other learners.

• Concessions cannot be applied for in matric. The applications close at the end of the grade 11 year as per the Department of Education rules.

Concession application process

• The teacher in charge of concessions, Ms Megan Albertyn, applies for all concessions at FHS via the WCED online system.

• Teachers identifying a need for concessions is the first step in this process, as required by the Department of Education.

• Alternatively, if your child has an existing diagnosis, or is diagnosed with a recognised learning barrier, that information can be forwarded to Ms Albertyn who will then start the application process if that condition is a barrier to learning.

• In the case of a learner not having a diagnosis, but where a teacher identifies a need for a concession, Ms Albertyn will contact the parents to have the child assessed by an educational psychologist. This must be a teacher driven process, as per the requirements of the Department of Education.

Concessions offered at Fairmont:

• Scribe and Reader Concessions (A person who writes and reads for the learner)

• Scribe Concessions (A person who only writes for the learner - learner tells scribe what to write.)

NOTE: Learners leave the exam venue for the above-mentioned concessions.

• Extra Time (learner remains in the class / venue for this concession)

• Learners who only have reader concessions will make use of a CPEN (an electronic reader pen) this is a text-to-voice device. Learners write in the exam venue during the examination sessions and in a separate venue during test lessons.

• Prompter/planner concessions: The register teacher does this during test lessons. In the event of learner having this concession alongside a scribe and reader or scribe only, that person will then also be the prompter/planner.

Tutorial lessons offered at Fairmont:

• Tutorial lessons are offered free of charge at Fairmont to any learners who would like to attend.

• Learners are identified for compulsory tutorial lessons based on their term marks and the relevant information is sent to their parents every term.

• Learners who would like to attend tutorial lessons to improve their subject knowledge, are welcome to join lessons. Learners do not need to be on the compulsory list to attend.

• In some subjects the same subject tutorial lessons are taught twice weekly to accommodate those learners who must attend multiple subject tutorial lessons and to avoid possible timetable clashes.