Ignatius Park College is committed to ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all children and young people in its care. This commitment extends to inclusion of all students and support of students with disability and others who may require significant educational adjustments. At Ignatius Park College, we identify students with disabilities through the Education Adjustment Program (EAP). The EAP is a process for identifying and responding to the educational needs of students with disability who require significant education adjustments related to the specific impairment areas of Autism Spectrum Disorder, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, social emotional disorder, and speech language impairment. Adjustments are actions taken to enable a student with disability to access and participate in education on the same platform as other students. Adjustments reflect the assessed individual needs of the student. They can be made at the whole-school level, in the classroom and at an individual student level. As the new Program Leader for Inclusion this year, I was able to continue to develop a specialised team to support our students. I brought with me a wealth of knowledge and experience from my time spent in London as a Leader of Special Education Needs. This international experience has enabled me to strive for a dynamic inclusive program for Ignatius Park College. This year the College dedicated two new positions under the Inclusive Education umbrella: Sandra Walton joined the team as a new staff member in the role of Diversity Support Officer, bringing many years of experience as a Special Education teacher. Collaboratively, she co-planned and teamtaught to break down barriers in the classroom and beyond. Nadine Burnett showcased her expertise to the team as the Transition Officer.
Nadine oversees the wellbeing of our transition students. In preparation for 2021, Nadine has already established relationships with verified and non-verified students from our feeder schools. We continued to build our team of Inclusive Education Teacher Aides to work with subject teachers, support students' self-help strategies, assist with the planning and modification of tasks and monitor students progress. This year we welcomed Bill Mitchell, Frances Hawkins, Laura Simpson-Helman, and Larissa Moule. We continued to implement support programs for individuals and in targeted groups, such as Year 7 - Language and Literacy and MacqLit. These programs are extensive and highly-targeted intervention programs to enable success for those boys with complex difficulties in reading. This year we implemented a program called Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES) with our more complex students with disabilities. ABLES allows teachers to assess the learning readiness of students with disabilities and additional needs, generates reports for individualised learning planning and provides guidance and strategies to enhance the learning framework for the individual student. The NCCD is an annual collection of information from all Australian schools on the numbers of students with disability and the adjustments they receive. This year we collected evidence on 112 students ranging in needs from Quality Differentiated Learning through to Extensive Support. Congratulations to all students with disabilities who showed resilience through the COVID period of learning online. Nicole Putscher | Program Leader - Inclusive Education
Ignatius Park College 2020
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STUDIES
Inclusive Education
