Inclusive Schools

LEARNING SUPPORT COORDINATORS

One of the key issues identified in the Tomorrow's Schools Taskforce Review was disability and learning support.  "The big ticket item here is getting a learning support coordinator in every school." I have created a strong learning community with SENCos over the last several years and recently worked as a Senco in a large intermediate, further strengthening my network and skills in this field.  
Participant feedback
"Great learning and collaboration opportunity."

"Definitely recommend - have been attending since they started and have found them excellent."

"Networking is really important for us, it’s one of the strengths of this group." 

"Interesting range of presentations mixed up with practical in between. Had time to network and share ideas as well"

"The collegial communication was excellent." 
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"Enjoyed the resource sharing time." 

SUPPORT STAFF​

 Findings from the Tomorrow's Schools Taskforce show that "the status and the roles of paraprofessionals in schools are limited and represent a significant lost opportunity for national schooling workforce development."  Let us work with your support staff to address this.  We can help clarify the role in context, grow knowledge and confidence in effectively working with all students, and enable strong relationships with students and teachers.  
​Some of the concepts developed in previous workshops:
  • Using equipment
  • Simple coding 
  • Simplifying language
  • Working effectively to support your teacher, across the whole class and 1:1
  • Strategies; Talk Moves, wait time, questioning ... 
  • ​Role of Teacher's Aide
  • Using technology to support yourself and your students
Participant feedback
"Great discussions"

"Affirming we are doing a good job"

"Videoing strategy really helpful, great to see ourselves in action and be able to discuss this with peers" 

"Role play was really good, opened us up" 

​"Good relationship with teacher so important so both know where you are in the classroom"

"Planning really good, able to set up yourself for tasks"

"Importance of having the same language, on the same page to prevent the child being confused"

INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Teachers who have children with additional needs in their classrooms often struggle to know how to meet their needs without huge allocation of time.   Support available for some of these students is highly fragmented or almost non-existent.  We can help teachers develop manageable best practice, inclusive teaching strategies, and effective assessment approaches for all students that actually show strengths and opportunities for further learning.