Nine South Coast public schools are among 18 across NSW who are pioneering innovations to help students with disability.
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New and different ideas developed specifically to improve the learning and wellbeing of students with a disability were collected and assessed under a new Innovation Program.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell congratulated 18 schools for their innovative approaches to improve the learning and wellbeing of students with disability.
"We developed the Innovation Program to encourage and test new and exciting ideas for improving outcomes for students with disability and to scale up effective approaches," Ms Mitchell said.
The Innovation Program features Nowra East Public School, Shoalhaven High School, Greenwell Point Public School, Falls Creek Public School, Culburra Public School, Callala Public School, Wayeela Cooinda Preschool, Lyrebird Preschool and Clipper Road Children's Centre.
The 18 chosen schools have partnered with universities, industry and government to come up with a number of innovative approaches for inclusive learning.
They include:
- Increasing coordination between health and education services to ensure students with disability are effectively supported.
- Telepresence robots to support students with chronic illness or disability to attend school.
- Supporting students with disability to transition to higher education or employment by building staff capacity around trauma-informed practice, quality teaching and curriculum adjustments, as well as clinical interventions.
- Capturing the voices of students with disability in Individual Education Plans using a visual tool to include their goals.
- An alternative curriculum for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability in Years 9 -12.
- An action research project to improve student learning and wellbeing in early years using universal design for learning (UDL) and co-teaching.
"We will now be exploring ways to roll some of these programs out across NSW so every student can benefit," Ms Mitchell said.
Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward said the program is another example of the NSW Government's work to create more inclusive and accessible communities that support people with disability.
"Fostering innovative solutions in schools is a great way to unlock opportunities for young people with disability and to help them learn, grow and develop," Mr Ward said.