LDC - Learning Development Centre
"We aim to make a sizeable contribution to the lives of those children striving to overcome learning differences and it is a combination of rigor and empathy which drives the LDC. Children know they are secure and their difficulties are understood; they also know there are high expectations of them. Children who attend the LDC contribute a great deal in many ways to the diversity of our School community and we are proud when we are able to see them flourish".
Mary Mountstephen, Head of LDC
“A major feature and strength of the School”
The Learning Development Centre (LDC) is an integral part of Millfield Preparatory School and has been identified by the Independent Schools Inspectorate as “a major feature and strength of the School, where pupils are supported and encouraged to develop an independent learning spirit”.
Its aim is:
- To develop successful, independent learners based on sound assessment and prior knowledge
- To identify strengths and barriers to achievement with each child
- To promote self-esteem, a sense of pride and resilience in each child
- To help children to take responsibility for their learning
- To promote a positive perception across the School community of individual learning differences
Dedicated, trained, experienced staff at the heart of your child’s education
The LDC is staffed by five full-time and five part-time members of staff (including dyslexia specialists) and its primary function is to support pupils who have identified learning difficulties, including dyslexia. Our staff work with children in small groups to develop literacy skills. All staff in the LDC have training and experience in working with children with learning difficulties. The LDC also has tutors with training and experience in:
- Screening for visual difficulties
- The Listening Programme
- Johansen Sound Therapy Programme
The LDC is an integral part of the School. The staff liase closely with the child’s Group Tutor and support staff in other curricular areas, reinforcing the advisory role for the LDC, embedding best practice in respect of differentiation for additional learning in the School's culture and placing its expertise at the core of your child’s learning programme. Speech and Language and Occupational Therapists now work in conjunction with the LDC. By matching the teaching programme to pupils’ individual needs, the provision is aimed at taking children on the fastest track to success. Teaching programmes are used to train and develop visual and auditory perception, phonological awareness, memory skills and thinking skills. The programmes also target tactics for comprehensions, reading, grammar, spelling and vocabulary. The LDC is well resourced, with its own set of laptop computers and an extensive range of multi-sensory programmes to support learning.
To read about some of the methods used by Mary Mountstephen, our Director of LDC, please click here and here.
Mary Mountstephen is the author of several books on additional learning needs and trains teachers internationally in the best approaches to raising achievement. She is also a neuro-developmental delay specialist, carrying out detsailed assessments of the possible causes of underachievement in children and providing individual intervention programmes.
Believing that all our pupils can achieve high standards
We recognise that children learn in many different ways and arrive here bringing diverse and sometimes unsettling perceptions of themselves and the process of learning. We recognise that learning can be hard but we believe that children, with a will to succeed, can achieve very high standards and take increasing responsibility for their learning. We have high expectations of all our children and we believe that the promotion of literacy and learning is balanced by the opportunities for them to restore a sense of equilibrium in their lives. This is achieved through the use of techniques such as discussion, the use of relaxation and visualisation and developing strategies for a healthy self-esteem and personal success.
Every concerned parent knows only too well that childhood is too precious a time to have unproductive years at school. With a sixty year tradition of believing unequivocally in the value and potential of our children, we work in partnership with them to develop the confidence to dream big dreams and to learn how to make them attainable.
