Therapy
The Therapy team is an integral part of life at St Catherine’s. The team includes speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and an occupational therapy assistant.
They bring a wide range of professional and life experiences to work effectively, creatively and holistically with children and young people with speech, language and communication impairments.
Our therapists work throughout the Main School, Further Education Centre, The Worx (our vocational training programme), with the care team in our residential houses and through our outreach programme assisting young people to access learning and training opportunities and to develop skills that will support them through childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. 
Our aim is to support young people to achieve their maximum potential in speech and language development and independent living, using the five outcomes from the government’s “Every Child Matters” as a benchmark, namely:
- Being healthy
- Staying safe
- Enjoying and achieving
- Making a positive contribution
- Achieving economic well being
Therapy at St Catherine’s is very different to that received by children and young people in mainstream school environments or community clinics. Our high staff-to-learner ratio combined with the collaborative way of working ensures therapy is a positive experience. This, in turn, builds young people's confidence supporting their skills development and application in everyday living. 
Although our therapists work intensively, their approach is flexible in order to provide the right support for each and every learner. They provide in-depth assessments, individual therapy programmes, small group therapy sessions and are fully integrated across the learning environment. Our holistic approach extends to parents and families.
In this Section
Outstanding joint working with speech and language therapists and teaching staff is a major factor in the excellent progress pupils make.
Ofsted, Autumn 2007