Delamere Helps Develop A Central Support Service For SEND Professionals In Jewish Schools

In 2017 Delamere started to support OYY Lubavitch Boys’ School (an independent orthodox Jewish school with a positive attitude towards those of their own pupils with special needs) through a Gershon Rothman Grant Award to set up a Central Support Centre for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Professionals in the Greater Manchester Jewish community.

The charity was impressed at this simple but innovative idea to help these workers who so often lack the affordable copying, printing, IT and secretarial facilities they need for support and to produce the special material they needed to help their young clients with learning disabilities.

When the school also pointed out the problem of a small minority of SEND students who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to sit exams in their schools but still need a culturally appropriate alternative, Delamere agreed to fund their setting up of a more suitable accredited Exam Sitting Centre for them.

This Central Support Centre has been so successful that Delamere awarded OYY a further grant in memory of the late Janette Cattan to maintain and extend this Support Centre at OYY Lubavitch Boys’ School.

The services will now include advice and help in finding the right support from suitable educational needs specialists in the Jewish community.  The Centre will also now invest in the SNAP Diagnostic system to provide workers with recognised professional identifiers of the specific learning and behavioural needs of individual children and ensuing interventions for home and school.

Finally, Delamere’s new funding will also cover the creation of a library of self-help books which are culturally suitable for the orthodox Jewish world and can be lent out to Jewish parents and SEND professionals.

Appreciative Comments

There is much appreciation of Delamere’s funding of these central support services from across the community.

“Our students and staff always endeavour to share what they have with others. This is a cornerstone of our school and we are delighted to help the SEN children of the community.”

Rabbi M Cohen (OYY School Head)

“I have long believed that SEN children and their needs are a community responsibility rather than something that individual parents must contend with alone.”  

Rabbi D Hickson (OYY School Governor)

“With so many advances being made in special needs education, sharing knowledge and resources is essential for all families in the wider community.”

Mrs Kramer (SENCO)

“Thank you so much OYY for letting Pathways use its copying service. You have helped enable me to print material and keep costs down for community members using our services.”

Rabbi M. D. Kanter (Counsellor and Director of Pathways)

“I really appreciated the SEN service. It saved our organisation money and was easy and smooth to arrange.”

Rabbi Yossi Goldberg (Better World)

“The Centre is easily accessible in a quiet environment. I like to come and do my printing work. The staff are very accommodating.”

Rabbi Hausmann (renowned SEN pioneer)