Special Rights Report - 16 May 2018

The Principal is required to:

• • Identify students at risk of not achieving and students who are gifted and talented and implement teaching and learning strategies to address needs (Board Operations Policy - Curriculum Delivery).

Identified Students

• • Each fortnight at Senior Management Hui, Kaz shares with team an update on children with special rights, any new enrolments, teacher aides and funding.

  • Teachers have been asked to identify in their planning a group of target children also that may include children with special rights in their room depending on the level of need and support.

  • We also discuss at meetings which children may need extra support over and above their classroom programmes. Kaz’s role is flexible to be able to be on hand for learning and behaviour and to coordinate all the different agencies and people that are involved with our behaviour and special rights children. Her timetable needs to be flexible and specific to the needs of who she is working with.

  • We rely on class teachers to ensure they know their learner therefore their planning should reflect specific needs of children who are at risk of not achieving a National Standard.

  • Planning checks, walkthroughs, viewing of children’s books, regular assessment all contribute towards ensuring we are clear about children requiring extra support.

  • Services we can access are PHN (Public health nurse), SWIS (Social worker in Schools), GSE (Group Special Ed), RDA (Riding for the Disabled), IRF (Interim Response Fund), BEH (Behaviour Hours, GSE), RTLB (Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour), RTLit (Resource Teacher of Literacy), SLT (Speech Language Therapist)

  • Each syndicate has an identified group of children that they are targeting to raise achievement in literacy and numeracy.This is monitored by the Syndicate leaders and reported back to Senior management on a regular basis.

  • We are also aware of children who have been identified as achieving well above their peers and these children are also monitored through Syndicate hui and at Senior management hui.

  • Special Rights register - Kaz keeps updated so we keep recorded of all interventions and services

Children with a high level of Special Needs

• • The Ministry of Education’s Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding contributes towards covering the cost of a teacher aide for the children that have high needs. Each child also comes with a small amount for resources and consumables. Funding is allocated to employ a teacher aide but also measured to ensure other costs are covered such as holiday pay and overtime for camps, Individual Education Plan meetings and other school excursions or meetings that a teacher aide may be required to attend.

  • High funded children come with 0.1 Specialist teacher time and Very high 0.2. This funding ensures we have a full time SENCO who can cater for needs by keep regular contact with agencies, fund providers, whanau, teachers and support staff.

  • We currently have seven ORS funded children, a high health needs student, a child funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). Some children are also funded through other avenues such as Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), Oranga Tamariki, Interim Response Fund (IRF), RTLB Learning Support Fund (LSF), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and the Ministry of Education’s Group Special Education. These are usually short term funding solutions while a child transitions or they are assessed further. All children continue to be mainstreamed with Kaz (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)(SENCO) supporting teacher aides and teachers. The Ministry of Education in Kaikohe provides support with Individual Education Plans, applications and development of learning programmes.

  • We currently have 18 teacher aides, 3 who are full time permanent and 14 fixed term who are employed as additional TA support for classrooms, behaviour needs and ORs children.

  • Kaz meets with all support staff once a fortnight.

  • Ongoing professional development is a challenge to source for our teacher aides and teachers with regards to behaviour and special rights children, however, we endeavour to source PLD opportunities as they arise and if they fit within the budget.

Data

• • At the beginning of each year we identify the children at risk of not achieving the determined curriculum and these children are provided with extra support through Target group teaching and Individual Learning programmes as required. This is reported in key curriculum areas of Numeracy and Literacy with relevant data.