Since its humble beginnings as a small school with a few hundred learners, Nexus has grown and progressed to become a school for over 1470 diverse learners and families. As our school expands we see new areas of growth emerge across all aspects of school life. One of the growth areas included our inclusive support offerings and the appointment of Sarah-Jane Whyte into a new key role, the Director of Inclusion. Sarah-Jane not only brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience, she will be instrumental in leading the continued development and enhancement of our inclusive support programs.
“Inclusion is about identifying needs, making adjustments or accommodations to facilitate learner access at their level and unlocking their potential by removing barriers”, Sarah-Jane shares.
How Our Programmes Will Grow
Nexus is committed to staying at the forefront of educational innovation and inclusivity. Under Sarah-Jane’s guidance, we have reviewed our inclusive support, which includes our Learning Support (LS) programme and English as an Additional Language (EAL) programme, and improvements are already in progress.
Developments to look forward to include a school-wide structure in both programmes, larger and better equipped support teams, and enhanced screening and testing. As Nexus continues to adapt and improve, we are raising the level of service of these programmes to support our learners. The inclusion team aims to remove barriers to learning to create a more equitable and level playing field so that all Nexus learners can access the curriculum.
Both inclusion teams will be doing more screening and monitoring so they can better identify learner needs and support fellow teachers in meeting those needs. For example, in the next academic year, all Year 7s will be screened for possible learning and language needs and tested for reading fluency. This will improve the school’s ability to benchmark learning and allow it to monitor and assist learners better.
Not only will the programmes grow, our support staff will continue to upskill through continuous learning. The inclusion teams will use their fortnightly collaboration sessions to develop new skills while Nexus teachers will attend Peer Learning sessions to stay up-to-date with the latest methods to support the learners.
EAL Developments
With the allocation of more resources to the team, learners will benefit from increased EAL instruction and meet with their teachers more frequently. This will accelerate the learners’ English acquisition and allow for more frequent and accurate assessments that will help us identify any learning gaps to ensure their success.
One major and new offering from the EAL team will be the facilitation of learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP). While many learners may be good at English as a social language, they often still face difficulties with English within the curriculum. The introduction of EAP will ensure that EAL learners can properly access the curriculum by decoding language and vocabulary that may be used more extensively within the curriculum and in tests and exams like those in the IGCSE. Moving forward, Year 10 and 11 learners will have more sessions with our specialised teachers so that they are more supported and better prepared for IGCSE and beyond.
LS Developments
In Learning Support, the team and programme structures were reviewed and not only were more staff hired, they are also being deployed more strategically. The LS team is also receiving additonal training to ensure that they are up to date with the best practices and have a solid foundation of the IB programme.
Moving forward, learners will receive more targeted support for their needs, including support both in class and in small withdrawal groups for literacy, language, reading, mathematics and socio-emotional mental health and wellbeing. This support will also extend to needs with executive functioning and organisational skills if they face difficulties in these domains. In addition to more specific and targeted support, learners will be able to see their LS integrators more often which allows them to receive more support and check-ins.
More About Our New Director of Inclusion
Originally from London, England, Sarah-Jane has also contributed to education in many international contexts. She has worked in the USA, the UAE and China. She has worked with public schools, international schools and universities as a school consultant, offering her expertise in school improvement to better manage student behaviours, support EAL programmes and recruit teachers. Sarah-Jane holds three master’s degrees in DEIJ, Social Work, and Special and Inclusive Education, in addition to postgraduate diplomas in counselling, coaching and English Language Teaching.
With 17 years of teaching experience, Sarah-Jane has a wealth of knowledge and experience in relation to supporting learners who have additional learning needs and/or have been identified as EAL learners. She joined Nexus as the Director of Inclusion in January as she felt that it was an exciting opportunity where she could share her skill sets and expertise and learn from the wider community.
Nexus International School (Singapore)
As a school for learners aged 3 - 18 years old, we love sharing our insights on education, learner wellbeing and learning in general.
