Educational Support Unit

Bridge House has a well established Educational Support Unit (ESU) which works mostly with children at Prep level. This unit was developed to meet the needs of the children who require additional support, especially at Prep School level. The unit adopts a strong multi-disciplinary team approach with the unique needs of each child as its focus. The unit offers the following services: Remedial Therapy: Our Remedial Therapists are able to complete educational assessments, school readiness and class screening tests. This provides us with a sound knowledge of the type of problem that a child may be experiencing and plan the necessary intervention in order to help him/her. Occupational Therapy: Our Occupational Therapist concentrates on intervention relating to gross and fine motor development, visual-motor integration and visual spatial problems. She participates in the classroom on a regular basis, running a program that focuses on these aspects of the child's development Speech Therapy: Our Speech Therapist works with children with auditory processing, phonological awareness, and speech and language difficulties. Like the O.T., the Speech Therapist also participates within the classroom (Gr0) and is therefore actively involved in the identification of children who present with these types of problems. In our case, the Speech Therapist is also the Director of the ESU. Facilitators: We do occasionally recommend that a child have a facilitator with him/her in the classroom. The need for a facilitator is carefully evaluated by our multi-disciplinary team and discussed with the parents. The Remedial, Speech, and Occupational Therapists, as well as the Facilitators, are independent contractors and therefore bill the parents privately for their services. Parents can also choose to use other therapists if they wish to do so. Counselor: Our Counselor, who is employed by the school, offers emotional support for all the children at Bridge House. She works closely with parents, teachers and the rest of the ESU team. She sees children, both individually and in groups, in order to help those pupils who may have emotional difficulties. The ESU is an integral part of our school and is an invaluable resource and service to staff, parents and pupils.