A STLD (Support Teacher Learning Difficulties) is employed 5 days per week, to work with students in years 1 to 7. By year 3 students are referred by the class teacher and with parent consent through the Special Needs Meeting held every 2^nd Thursday. The class teacher presents supporting documentation of the student. Students in years 1 and 2 requiring extra support are identified by the class teacher and parents are notified. Students are not appraised until they are in year 4.

To qualify for learning support, students usually need to be at least 18 months behind their chronological age. This means significant weakness in any aspect of Literacy or Numeracy.

Each term, 4 year levels work with the Learning Support teacher for 40 minutes, 4 days per week. This may involve working in the classroom with the class teacher during literacy blocks or withdrawing small groups of 4 to 6 students. During the term other year levels are supported through the Support-A-Reader and Support-A-Talker programmes. The STLD consults with the class teacher in order to formulate an Individual Support Plan. The learning strategies employed are designed to build on what skills the student already has. The goals set are achievable so that the student experiences success and gains confidence. Students are then encouraged to take risks and have a go at tasks that are more challenging.

In literacy, the emphasis is on improving reading, spelling and writing. This is achieved through developing phonemic and phonological awareness, blending/segmenting/syllabification, sight word recognition, home reading, guided reading, decoding strategies, extending vocabulary, developing spelling strategies and writing various text types.

In numeracy, the skill areas covered are place value, computation, time, money, measurement and space.

Evaluation is ongoing and class performance is monitored. When students are appraised, diagnostic tests are used. A meeting with the parents/guardians is arranged to discuss the results. After two years, the appraisement is reviewed and the parents/guardians are notified. If a student is not making progress, parents/guardians are contacted to encourage home support. In some cases, referral to Speech Language Pathologist or Guidance Officer assessment is recommended.