Experience Belonging

...Belonging

Our Catholic schools offer a safe and welcoming environment for all students. With friendly and collaborative staff, we put belonging at the forefront. Wellbeing and care are critical to positive communities of learning.

Kimberlee Lynch, Townsville Catholic Education’s Inclusive Education Team Coordinator said that inclusive education is not just ensuring that all students with a disability are able to participate in curriculum and have the same opportunities as their peers, but also how schools are developed and designed, including learning environments and activities so that all students can learn and participate together.

“We believe that students with a disability should be present and fully participating in the same environment as their peers, learning the same age-appropriate curriculum, with necessary support and adjustments,” said Kimberlee Lynch.

The Inclusive Education team works within the schools educating teachers and school staff not just about best practices, but around the way of thinking about people, diversity, learning and teaching.

“Being ‘accessible to all students’ is a defining characteristic of a Catholic school and the TCE Inclusive Education Team partners with our schools to ensure resources and innovative options are available to affirm inclusion as part of the apostolate of the Catholic school, not an optional add on,” said Kimberlee.

“A successful model of inclusion purposefully arranges the learning environment, designs curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of all students and delivers evidence-based intervention through quality learning and teaching.”

With no one size fits all approach, each TCE school believes that all students belong in our communities and the Inclusive Education Team supports our schools, to share the skills and experience of our Speech Language Pathologists, Hearing Impairment specialists, Inclusion specialists and English as an Additional Language or Dialect specialist.

"An education in the fullness of humanity should be the defining feature of Catholic schools. An inclusive education finds a place for all and does not select in an elitist way the beneficiaries of its efforts." - Pope Francis.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION SERVICES WITHIN OUR SCHOOLS:

There are a number of specialised services within the Inclusive Education Team who work closely with the Learning and Teaching team to collaborate on dioscean wide initiatives, and collaborate with external agencies to ensure students continuity and consistency of care.

SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS

• Support teachers with planning and ensuring all tasks are accessible to all students with language/literacy needs. • Provides evidence-based Professional

Development to schools to support their knowledge and understanding of speech, language, literacy and

Augmentative and Alternative

Communication (AAC) student needs, and plan for how to cater for these students within classrooms.

• Support teachers with using and embedding use of any

AAC devices within classrooms and whole school activities.

• Support early identification of speech, language and literacy needs through the Early Years referral screening process. • Work collaboratively with the wider

Inclusive Education team within our schools to support students using the wealth of knowledge each team member can provide.

• Collaborates with schools in the provision of specialised advice to support students for whom EAL/D (English as an additional language or dialect). These students may include: • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

• immigrants to Australia and temporary visa holders from non-

English speaking countries • students with a refugee background • children born in Australia of migrant heritage where English is not spoken at home • English-speaking students returning to Australia after extended periods in non-English speaking settings

• children of deaf adults who use Auslan as their first language • international students from nonEnglish speaking countries. • Establishes and consolidates links between home, school and the broader community through community engagement. • Seeks to support the health and wellbeing of all EAL/D students by fostering cultural responsiveness amongst staff, students and the school community. • Works with key stakeholders to ensure all EAL/D students feel safe, valued and engaged in learning. Through engagement and collaboration with school, parents, parish and community members, together with being awarded a small grant from Catholic School Parents Queensland, 2021 has seen the launch of Townsville’s first CALD (Culturally and linguistically diverse) Community Playgroup ‘Spirit Playgroup’ at Holy Spirit School.

The Playgroup is open to all. If you would like to attend, phone 4779 4255

ADVISORY VISITING SPECIALIST – HEARING IMPAIRMENT (AVS-HI)

• Offer specialist educational support for students from Prep to Year 12 who have a hearing loss. • Support students to enhance their resilience in the hearing world and advocate for their needs.

• Work alongside teachers and students to build capability to ensure our students succeed.

• Support students with a hearing loss in the classroom by ensuring they have adequate and appropriate accommodations and adjustments made for them. • Work with staff, both teachers and school officers to upskill them on how to accommodate their needs, and work together to plan and implement changes to their teaching, planning, environment and assessment to cater for these students.

• Work with agencies, such as Hearing

Australia and Deadly Ears to provide the best care for these students.

• Read and interpret audiograms and reports and work with students to develop self-advocacy skills so they are able to articulate their hearing needs.

ADVISORY VISITING SPECIALISTS – INCLUSION (AVS-I)

• Works cooperatively and in collaboration with TCE staff, school leadership teams, teachers, other student support services team members and parents/carers to ensure that students with a disability in schools across the Diocese are supported to engage purposefully in learning. • Provide an array of services to develop the capability within schools which enables all students to access, participate and achieve in school. • Collaborates with school staff and parents/carers to ensure students

with disability have access to a relevant and rigorous curriculum. • Build staff capability through coaching, observation and feedback to identify and implement educational adjustments. • Work in an integrated way with existing support services in schools (e.g. AEIOU, Autism Queensland,

Autism Hub, AustimCRC) by providing advice on services for schools • Advise school staff and parents/ carers of resources and assistive technology available for students (e.g. specialised equipment, devices)