Special place; special people

Above: Louise Doyle, principal of Oaklynn Specialist School: “I love our community.”

Below: Students and friends enjoying the activities at a recent Whānau Day. Everyone gives you welcoming smiles when you arrive at Oaklynn Specialist School. From the low-key entrance to the office complex they say ‘Hello’ and ask if they can guide you into a carpark. There’s the occasional burst of exuberant laughter suggesting it’s a fun place, yet there’s a sense of calm too.

Tucked into a leafy spot at the end of a New Lynn cul de sac, Oaklynn has been a special place since the 1960s providing individualised programmes for West Auckland students with intellectual and physical disabilities and other complex needs such as autism and ADHD. It provides a service of community learning for 5 – 21 year olds, from primary levels to tertiary education, and it holds student learning and wellbeing at the heart of everything. Louise Doyle has been at the school for 30 years and her love for her organisation and her job is palpable. She has been the principal for 13 years and when she started, there was a student roll of 45 with nine teachers. Today there are 180 students across 10 sites: the base school, eight satellite schools (Arahoe, New Lynn and Chaucer Primaries, Glen Avon, Green Bay Intermediate and High schools, St Leonard’s Road Primary and Avondale Intermediate) and a tertiary unit for 18 – 21 year olds at the New Lynn Community Business Centre where the students use the local community as their ‘classroom’, accessing local facilities like the library, gym, mall and businesses for work experience.

“I love our community,” says Louise. “I’ve always loved working with complex and interesting students and how I could support their learning and how to understand them. I love helping people find their niche and getting the best out of them.”

From nine teachers, Louise’s team in the central west area has grown to 40 teachers, an outreach team covering local schools from Laingholm to Waterview, a team of therapists and 70 – 80 teacher aides. Their roles cover a range of services including speech, language, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, vision impairment and drama.

Louise says parents are very involved in the work Oaklynn is doing. “They make the choice to have their child in a specialist school but if they want to choose a different option or want to go back to mainstream, we ensure we support what they believe is best for their child.”

The needs for families can change over the years and meetings at key points are important. “At five or six they may want their child to read, write or talk; when the youngster is 11 or 14 they might want him or her to have friends, a buddy, peer groups just like them. Some students may stay in the same class with the same teacher for three or four years.”

Louise says learning success is very much on an individual basis. “You can’t make comparisons, one person to another. Individual gains are often around the fundamentals of being a human being. It may be independence, social skills, making friends, holding a conversation or getting on with adults.

“An example of that may be an 18-year old who has a playdate with other students for the first time, or a 14-year old having their first sleepover. It may be students having friends they can text or message.”

Staff wellbeing is crucial too. “Everyone in the organisation is working to support the learning and wellbeing of our students. For that to be optimised, the adults also have to be well so for us it’s about ensuring our staff feel happy and safe in their workplace, that they’re fulfilled and feel they have the skills and resilience to do the job.

“Once the teacher and the team are swimming, the kids are fine.”

Louise says Oaklynn has always been good at what it does. “We’ve always wanted to be an outward-looking organisation and a centre of expertise and knowledge. Little by little we’ve achieved that.

“We’re very involved in our community of learning with local schools, and we offer a lot not just to our students but to those working in wrap-around services and the community at large. We’ve become valued and appreciated as a centre of expertise,” she says.

“I love the growth we’ve made over the years and I can see a lot more we can do.”

– Moira Kennedy