Inclusive Education – Supporting our Diverse Learners
Our school welcomes a diverse range of learners to be a part of our learning community. We believe that every child can learn and our focus on student wellbeing, personalised learning strategies, differentiation within curriculum and assessment and evidence based practice for learning support interventions are a winning combination for student success.
Almost 40% of students have a language background other than English. Students are regularly tested so that we know what levels of support they need in their classes.
There are students with a range of disabilities in the school including students who are deaf/hearing impaired, intellectually disabled, speech and language impaired, physically impaired and some who have an autistic spectrum disorder. Some withdrawal programs are accessed by these students but for the most part students with disabilities are in the same classes as their same aged peers.
Students with other learning disabilities and wellbeing needs such as auditory processing disorders, dyslexia, anxiety and other mental health issues are able to access support as required with a team of teachers who consider students’ needs and existing resources.
We have almost 5% indigenous students and as a group they are beginning to develop a stronger and more visible identity in the school and student leadership in this group is being guided and supported.
While we have always had a range of programs that offer acceleration opportunities, we are currently developing an identification process for gifted and talented students. We believe that knowing these learners better will help us continue to enhance our services for these students.
Inclusive Education in our school is led by our Deputy Principal Inclusion, Head of Special Education Services and Head of Department – Differentiation and we have a range of staff with specialist skills to support student learning needs. We employ an evidence based approach called “Response to Intervention” which clearly articulates a process for supporting students on a range of levels. The basic principles of this approach are outlined in the
Response to intervention framework(PDF, 140KB).