Kear Our campus
Kear Campus is South Lanarkshire Council’s resource for pupils who have additional social, emotional and behaviour needs.
Children/young people are considered to have ASN if they,
"For whatever reason, require additional support, long or short term, in order to help them make the most of their school education"
(Supporting Children’s Learning, Code of Practice, p11, 2005).
Established in 2014, the provision comprises of a number of bases situated in seven locations across the council area, and an outreach service. We offer a continuum of support working with pupils from age 5 to 18.
A safe, nurturing environment is provided where relationships, high aspirations and engaging learning experiences are priorities. We work in partnership to achieve educational success for pupils and to ensure their social and emotional wellbeing.
Young people attending any of Kear’s primary and secondary schools may have a range of additional supports needs (ASN) that may include diagnosed medical conditions or they may simply have found it too stressful and overwhelming to make a success of mainstream education.
In the 2020-21 session, 54 primary and 139 secondary pupils accessed Kear’s services.
Within Kear we offer a range of services as described below:
Whithorn Support Base and Victoria Falls Support Base providing full or part-time primary education. These are located on shared sites with St Ninian’s Primary and David Livingstone Primary. Some children access learning close to full time with us while maintaining a short session in their link mainstream primary school. Other children (up to 12 in total) access our provision for a short period of their week to focus on wellbeing and outdoor learning while attending their mainstream primary for the majority of their school week.
Children in all South Lanarkshire primary schools are able to access support from our team of primary outreach teachers. This service provides a range of supports including direct 1:1 support, observations and advice to mainstream school staff.
Secondary aged pupils from across South Lanarkshire can attend one of our two part-time support bases. Cathkin Support Base shares premises with Cathkin High School while our East Kilbride Support Base is within St Andrews & St Brides High School. Young people who attend these bases remain on their mainstream school roll and the support and learning opportunities provided at the bases compliment the mainstream offer.
Secondary aged pupils can access full-time education from one of three sites; Clydesdale Support Base in Carluke, Hamilton Support Base and Kear School both in Blantyre. At Kear School, young people can access a curricular programme similar to that offered by mainstream schools. Young people from the smaller secondary bases are able to access their curricular entitlements by visiting Kear School and teaching staff work across sites to provide curricular coverage for all young people.
Across our services children and young people benefit from a blended approach. Our curriculum is taught and supported by teachers, School Support Assistants and Youth Family & Community Learning (YFCL) staff. We are well placed to tailor programmes of learning and support around individuals and are seeing the early, growing signs of success with this approach. A recent addition to our range of services includes a dedicated space in East Kilbride where our YFCL team lead a range of programmes designed specifically to engage young people in the senior phase of education.