School Health & Therapy Teams

The Health Team at The Ridgeway School consists of nurses, physiotherapists, a speech and language therapist and an occupational Therapist (and their support staff). The team work as an integral part of the school community, working in partnership with pupils, parents, carers and teaching staff. The aim of the team is to ensure that the health needs of the pupils are met so that they may achieve their full potential whilst at school.

Nursing Team NHS

Our team comprises of two qualified nurses and one health care assistant. We are an integral part of the school community and provide training and support for the school staff to meet the individual health needs of the children and young people at school. This enables all students to fully access their education and reach their potential regardless of the complexity of their health needs.

We carry out an initial health assessment prior to the pupil starting school to ensure that any health needs are identified. We train and support the school staff to ensure safe management of epilepsy, administration of medications, enteral (tube) feeding, oxygen administration, suctioning, asthma and infection control, catheterisation, and anaphylaxis.

The Nursing Team regularly liaise with other professionals within the community, including GP’s, community nurses, paediatric consultants, dieticians, the continence service, and social services.

School Nursing (Specialist Schools) -> Link to website 

Physiotherapy Team

If your child requires physiotherapy input a referral will be made to the team. Your child will then be allocated to a physiotherapist for an assessment. If further intervention is required this may take the form of advice, direct intervention and/or a physical management programme in order to meet the needs of your child.

The physiotherapy team work closely with school staff and parents to provide an appropriate physical management programme. The physiotherapist will provide the training required to school staff so that this programme will be implemented throughout the school day and monitored regularly. The physiotherapist will oversee your child’s specialist equipment and orthotic needs.

Wheelchair and Orthotic clinics are held at school and parents are very welcome if they would like to attend with their child.

Should you wish to contact us regarding any aspect of your child’s physiotherapy provision, please feel free to call us directly at school on 01252 717128.

Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Team

The Speech and Language Therapy team at the Ridgeway is comprised of a Speech and Language Therapist and a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant. Our primary goal is to support the class teams in establishing a functional means of communication for the children in the school.

We are part of the school team and work in close liaison and collaboration with school, multidisciplinary team and home. Intervention may be direct (assessment and therapy) and/or indirect (provision of programmes, setting of goals).

We also oversee feeding through assessment of oral feeding and strategies to increase the safety of oral feeding with the overall aim of making mealtimes as safe and as pleasurable as possible.

If you wish to contact us to discuss your child with the SALT team please call us directly on 01252 717128

Occupational Therapy (OT) Team

Occupational Therapy enables people to participate in daily life to improve their health and wellbeing. Daily life is made up of many activities (or occupations). Occupations for children or young people may include self-care (getting ready to go out, eating a meal, using the toilet) being productive (going to nursery or school, or volunteering), and leisure (playing with friends or doing hobbies).

Occupational Therapists will spend time finding out what the child and family’s typical daily life and what they want, need or are expected to do. They will work together with the child, family and other key people to evaluate what helps or hinders their involvement in daily life roles. Together possible solutions will be developed such as exploring alternative ways of doing things or making changes to the environment to support participation.

Occupational Therapy is has two support levels.

Pre referral Universal and Targets and post referral Specialist.

  • A Whole School/Universal approach where therapists share professional knowledge and skills with educational staff and parents to improve engagement and participation of children in a range of home school occupations.
  • Targeted Service is designed to support children and young people who are at risk of reduced participation in everyday activities, delivered via a telephone advice line, school/nursery link visits, workshops, training and occupational therapy recourses packs and advice sheets.
  • Specialist Occupational Therapy Services provide for children with identified physical and developmental learning needs which impact on their participation. Use of an individualised intervention approach to teach strategies, recommendation of specialist equipment , advice on environmental modifications, parent coaching approaches, individualised home and nursery/ school occupational therapy programmes and specialist evidence based therapy delivered individually or in a group setting.

If you wish to contact the Occupational Therapist regarding your child’s Occupational Therapy needs please call us directly on 01252 717128

If you wish to refer your child to Occupational Therapy please call the One Stop (Centralised Referral) on 0300 222 5755.