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Classroom Perspectives
issue 41 mar / apr 2013
Nurturing an Inclusive School Culture
At Chong Boon Secondary School, every effort is made to ensure that all their students are provided with a quality education, and that includes students with special needs. The school’s approach to catering to different learning needs is to support their teachers in supporting the students.
Head of Department for Pastoral Care and Career Guidance Mrs Chris Kwok and Allied Educator (Learning and Behavioural Support) [AED(LBS)] Ms Carmelia share with us the strategies they use in their school.
Identification
The first step is to identify the students who may need that extra support and to find out what their needs are. For this, the teachers and AEDs(LBS) have to work together.
“I help identify from various sources – referrals from the primary schools and our teachers, dialogue with parents of the different students with special needs,” says Chris, who oversees the student intervention programmes. “We will go back to the primary schools and find out what type of support these students were getting.”
Intervention
The next step is the intervention. This step involves the teachers, the students and their parents. It is an intensive process of talking to everyone involved and working out the best way to support these students.
“We go into each case and set up the intervention that they will need,” explains Chris. Sometimes, it may also require the involvement of external agencies, such as the Child Guidance Clinic and MOE Educational Psychologists. “We work closely together to support these students with special needs.”
“Every child is different,” says Carmelia, so there is no one-size-fits-all formula. “I look at their holistic development and work with the people in the whole ecology system of the child – including school personnel, peers, parents and specialists – to develop student intervention programmes to help them.”
We don’t leave the teachers alone. Our door is always open, and so are our communication lines, so teachers can come to us for support.
– Mrs Chris Kwok, Chong Boon Secondary School
To enable every teacher to play a key role in working with students with special needs, Carmelia supports them by conducting workshops and providing consultation.
The AED(LBS) are also deployed to assist Form and Co-form teachers for learning journeys, camps and in-class support. They help to follow up on particular students. Some even help to organize holiday remedial classes.
“The school leaders will also identify suitable teachers for additional training in special needs,” explains Chris. After their training, these teachers then share what they have learned with the rest of the staff, so everyone benefits.
“We make sure we journey with them,” she says. “We don’t leave the teachers alone. Our door is always open, and so are our communication lines, so teachers can come to us for support.”
Having a student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in class can be challenging. He may be disruptive and not listen to instructions. As a teacher, what can you do?
Faced with this scenario, Carmelia would give him a “conduct monitoring book”. Each day, every subject teacher would pen remarks on the student’s behaviour for the day, and the AED(LBS) would process the day’s progress with the student and follow up accordingly.
Carmelia has found this to be a good monitoring tool. In this way, teachers can track the progress of the student, and the student learns important lessons like how to integrate with his peers, be responsible for his own actions and regulate his emotions in different situations.
This process requires close collaboration and the involvement of the parents as well as the school’s case management team. But over time, Carmelia has found that the student’s behaviour gradually improves.
“These books are effective as they document their learning journey with us in a very objective manner,” she notes. “Teachers and parents are therefore able to supervise and lend support accordingly, based on the progress of the child.”
Inclusion
The school takes a whole-school approach towards promoting an inclusive learning environment. They believe that every student, regardless if their different needs, can have access to quality education. School values, such as respect and integrity, form the foundation on which special needs programmes and support systems are anchored.
Students are taught to recognize similarities and strengths of persons with special needs, embrace differences and respect each other as unique individuals. This is done through the school’s Character and Citizenship Education lessons and assembly talks.
The AED(LBS) room is set up with inclusivity in mind. The room provides students with special needs a safe environment to interact confidently with peers from their own and even other classes or levels.
It also provides an authentic setting where, facilitated by the AED(LBS), social norms and good behaviour are taught and caught on a daily basis.
In addition, the school has a special partnership with neighbouring Pathlight School, a special school for children with learning needs. Their students regularly join Chong Boon students for integration activities and some academic classes.
The success of this partnership lies in the shared belief that education can work towards greater inclusivity in the near future.
As a result of these, there is an identifiable culture in Chong Boon where students who may have special needs are not made to feel different.
Independence
A lot of hard work goes into helping these students succeed as individuals. At the end of the day, the teachers hope to help these students achieve independence.
“At the start, you have to give your all and monitor until they are able to follow through. Support is intensive initially until they get used to the routine, to you, to the teachers, before they progressively become more independent,” explains Carmelia.
Carmelia takes all these in her stride. “There will be challenges, but take heart in what you do,” she advises. “It is all about helping the children. Even if the journey may seem like a difficult one, it is one that adds meaning to your life.”
