Falling behind? Bad behaviour? Or poor vision?
Vision checks can now be conducted in school, quickly and efficiently, by any colleague.
Undiagnosed vision problems can adversely impact learning, behaviour, welfare and inclusion.
Children’s eyesight can change as they grow and especially due to impact of Covid, there is a huge increase in children with short sight (myopia), due to increased screen time.
That’s why it’s important to check their eyes regularly. The earlier we work out which children are at-risk, the sooner we can focus resources.
- CHECK children where poor hearing or vision may be affecting children’s behaviour/progress
- IDENTIFY welfare and health needs
- NO CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE NEEDED for use by SEND/support staff/teachers
- NO ADMIN All automated including data, letters to parents
- EVIDENCE Through automated anonymised reporting to SLT (and for MATS, MAT-wide)
- INCLUSION through timely/cost effective support
- ENGAGE PARENTS Through automated letters informing parents
- ECONSENT if needed, fully automated
Vision checks made easy for schools.
By using SchoolScreener for Schools Vision, in 2 or 3 minutes you’ll know if that child needs an optometrist eye test or not. It doesn’t diagnose, you won’t be prescribing glasses, that’s for the clinicians. But understanding the child’s needs can help teaching staff to accommodate that child better in class.
All you need is internet access and a laptop. After the vision check, the software automatically generates letters for parents whose children fail their check recommending they take their child for a full clinical assessment.
There’s no need for charts and the app automatically records the vision check results and instantly alerts if the child needs further examination. On-screen prompts are age-appropriate (Thomson the Teddy for KS1 and 2) and available in up to 50 languages.
Any colleague can use it; teachers, TAs, school nurses or SEND specialists. There’s a minimal period of learning how to set up and use it (20 minutes, or less).
Background.
Since 2013, many NHS School Health Teams use SchoolScreener® in schools to deliver Reception age vision screening.
However, children’s vision continues to evolve as they get older. Increased screen usage undoubtedly has an impact as the child gets older, too. For independent, academic research (click here).
SchoolScreener for Schools Vision is a variant of SchoolScreener for use by schools. It includes all the checks the NHS use, plus colour vision. And we’ve re-designed training, too so that schools are up and running with less than 30 minutes online training.
SchoolScreener was developed by Thomson Screening with the clinical leadership of Professor David Thomson, Life fellow of the College of Optometrists and for 25 years head of the Department of Optometry at City, University of London.
SchoolScreener for Schools Vision is a variant of SchoolScreener for use by schools. It includes all the checks the NHS use, plus colour vision. And we’ve re-designed training, too so that schools are up and running with less than 30 minutes online training.
SchoolScreener was developed by Thomson Screening with the clinical leadership of Professor David Thomson, Life fellow of the College of Optometrists and for 25 years head of the Department of Optometry at City, University of London.
Case study: Fischer Family Foundation.
As part of its Apex Project to ‘eliminate avoidable literacy failure’ the Fischer Family Foundation, assessed the software it primary schools – they found:
- ‘Over 20% of children had a potential sight problem, not previously known about.’ This was despite most of them having been checked by school nurses at Reception age school entry.
- Over 75% of those recommended to see an optometrist in the above pilot study did attend. Of those, 64% needed an intervention, usually glasses.
This video includes interviews with the head teacher and key staff involved at one of those schools. It’s illuminating and well worth watching. A little over 8 minutes long, it shows in some detail how they achieved these results and how they feel about it.
Check out our blogs relating to vision checks.
We’d love to show you SchoolScreener for Schools Vision. The application, how it works and how it can help your school.
To schedule an online demonstration, please contact us, without delay.
