Success Story: Wilson School
How moving to Team Teach from another behaviour support provider has created consistency within a large team.
About Wilson School
Wilson School is a specialist setting working with young people aged from 5 to 21. It consists of a base school in Hauraki and satellite classes across the North Shore.
The school supports 120 students with a diverse range of needs across their network. The follow the New Zealand Curriculum but adapt and personalise this to meet the needs of their students.
“There was a really clear indication that the staff wanted to be using Team Teach”
The reason for choosing Team Teach
Making the move to Team Teach was a straightforward decision for Wilson School after working with an alternative behaviour support provider. Neil says, “I listened to what the team had to say and there was a really clear indication that they wanted to be using Team Teach”
As Neil had personally used Team Teach across two other special schools before coming to Wilson, he fully supported the move. He explains, “The training focuses on understanding that all behaviour is communication and it supports staff to reflect on how students can be best supported and engaged within learning.”
Moving to Team Team has created consistency across the whole team, which was particularly important as Wilson School has a range of satellite classes.
The challenge
Moving to Team Teach from a different behaviour support provider.
“We reached out to our staff and identified a potential team of people to be our in-school trainers.”
Solution
Neil’s team consists of approximately 90 staff members, so it was important to consider how to embed the Team Teach approach consistently across the organisation. Neil explains, “We reached out to our staff and identified a potential team of people to be our in-school trainers, and we then worked with that team around implementation.”
This resulted in three members of staff being trained as in-house Team Teach trainers. Neil explains, “As we grow, we will then grow that team of trainers to continue to make sure that we’ve got that knowledge and expertise in school to provide support and guidance for us.”
The results
The team as Wilson School found moving to Team Teach to be a straightforward process.
Neil says, “Implementing anything as a whole-school approach can often feel a little bit daunting. However, that wasn’t the case here. And I think that was because a number of the team really want to have Team Teach back in as a supportive measure.”
An important part of embedding the Team Teach approach was clarifying the role of the in-house trainers. Neil explains, “We’ve been really clear that our trainers don’t just deliver training, but they also work really closely to understand what’s happening across the school, provide targeted support and guidance as needed, and help us to work towards providing high-quality outcomes for our children.”
Next steps
Wilson School has always embraced a holistic approach to learning with the support of professionals including teachers, therapists, specialists, and support staff. They have a large team and often have new members of staff joining them. This makes it vitally important to train new team members as quickly as possible.
They are currently investigating how they can be innovative by using different methods of delivery to ensure that Team Teach training is embedded into every aspect of school life across their organisation.
“We’ve been really clear that our trainers don’t just deliver training, but they also work really closely it understand what’s happening across the school.”
