Teacher support · Page 1 of 2 · Support lesson 4
What help is actually needed?
Support Unit and Care-Team Curriculum · 90 minutes, or two 45-minute sessions · Outcomes SU-04, SU-09
Non-negotiable: The student’s communication and consent direct the lesson. Assistance may provide access but must not determine the response. Real care-team people, invitations or permissions require school/family verification and the seven safety gates.
Learning intention
We are learning to match goals and support gaps without adding unnecessary people.
Success criteria
- I can recognise, choose, communicate, use or explain the important idea at my current access level.
- I can use Circle Operations Centre with the support I need to create or contribute to the lesson product.
- I can show a choice about people, information, help, consent or the next step.
Outcome focus
SU-04 · My people and roles
Identifies trusted people, understands why they are involved and helps decide their roles.
SU-09 · My care team
Creates, reviews or contributes to a fictional or approved real care team.
Lesson product: Match goals and support gaps without adding unnecessary people.
Access-level planning
A — Recognise and respond
The student attends, notices, indicates yes/no or preference, matches, chooses between concrete options or participates with direct assistance.
B — Choose and communicate
The student makes choices, communicates key information, follows a familiar sequence and uses prompts or models.
C — Use and contribute
The student uses a familiar tool, contributes to planning or teamwork, checks key information and seeks help with occasional prompting.
D — Plan, direct and review
The student initiates, explains, adapts, directs aspects of support, evaluates outcomes and transfers learning to new contexts.
Teaching and learning sequence
1. Connect with student voice (10 min)
Use the student’s preferred communication, familiar people or concrete examples to establish why the lesson matters and what the student wants.
2. Explicitly teach and model (15 min)
Teach what help is actually needed? using plain English, Easy Read, symbols, demonstration and a clear non-example.
3. Model the app workflow (15 min)
Demonstrate Circle Operations Centre → Roles and support gaps, including how to pause, change a choice, ask for help and check privacy.
4. Guided participation (20 min)
Complete the first steps together. Provide access support, wait time and confirmation without choosing for the student.
5. Student application (20 min)
The student creates or contributes to: Match goals and support gaps without adding unnecessary people.
6. Review and generalise (10 min)
Check student voice, usefulness, safety and the next step. Practise the same idea with a different person, place, symbol set or scenario when appropriate.
Explicit app demonstration
Circle Operations Centre → Roles and support gaps
- Select the student’s current access level for this concept; do not assume one fixed level across all tasks.
- Prepare Circle Operations Centre in Practice mode with familiar symbols, communication supports and a fictional or approved scenario.
- Model Roles and support gaps one step at a time and explicitly demonstrate how the student can say yes, no, change, stop or help.
- Model the product: Match goals and support gaps without adding unnecessary people.
- Use wait time and confirm that physical or communication assistance supports access without determining the response.
- Check privacy, purpose, roles and trusted-adult verification before any real person, invitation or permission is used.
- Gather evidence through student voice, observation, product, generalisation or reduced prompting—not app completion alone.
- Record the response mode, prompting level, adjustments, emerging independence and next teaching step.
Assessment checks
- Can the student recognise or indicate the key idea using their established communication method?
- Can the student make or confirm a meaningful choice rather than merely comply with a prompt?
- Can the student participate in Roles and support gaps with the documented level of support?
- Can the student show who should help, what can be shared or what should happen next?
Adjustments
- Use one idea at a time, Easy Read, symbols, objects, photo choices, audio, video modelling or a familiar social narrative.
- Provide AAC, eye gaze, signing, partner-assisted scanning, switch access, supported scribing or adapted device input.
- Use a visual schedule, first–then sequence, timer, predictable repetition, co-regulation, sensory supports and breaks.
- Accept private demonstration, small-group participation, recorded evidence or observation across more than one session.
- For higher prior skill, ask the student to direct the workflow, explain a boundary, review usefulness or mentor a peer.
Required evidence
- Student voice or observed choice connected to SU-04, SU-09.
- The product or contribution: Match goals and support gaps without adding unnecessary people.
- Record of response mode, prompts, access supports and whether the skill transferred or required less support.
- Teacher check that consent, privacy, trusted-adult verification and School Mode controls were followed.
Teacher prompt for Kimi
Help the teacher prepare support-unit lesson 4, “What help is actually needed?”. Create a plain-English explanation, an Easy Read version, a symbol-friendly five-step sequence, one familiar fictional example and response options across recognise/respond, choose/communicate, use/contribute and plan/direct/review. Do not infer consent, interpret ambiguous communication, choose for the student or replace teacher and safeguarding judgement.