Inclusive Education

Colleen Stevens - Inclusive Education Co-Ordinator

At St Brigid's Catholic School, we pride ourselves on including all students within our school.  We feel that every child has an opportunity to develop a personal relationship with Jesus as well as a love of self, love of others and love of learning. Importantly we also believe in a just world where your abilities or disabilities and background are respected and celebrated.

Another aspect of the St Brigid's Catholic School vision is having confidence in embracing a world of change. Society is changing dramatically in many ways. With the marvels of modern science more children and adults are living with a disability, either congenitally or acquired. Disabilities can range from physical, social, emotional, intellectual or psychological. As in society, this is reflective within the St Brigid's School community.
  
As a school community we hope that our students leave St Brigid's Catholic School with an acceptance of difference and the ability to interact with all people with respect.

Our Inclusive Education Coordinator (Colleen Stevens) works alongside a team of dedicated Education Support Officers (ESO's), teachers and school leaders who constantly strive to ensure that all students in our school community are accessing the curriculum and reaching their potential.

The Inclusive Education Team ensures that all students can learn in a safe, supportive and caring environment.

The team supports students and teachers in and out of classroom and supports individuals or small groups across the whole school.

Specialist intervention programs include Pre Lit, Maqlit (Macquarie Reading Program), MultiLit (Making up Lost Time in Literacy), MiniLit (Meeting Initial Needs in Literacy), Leaping Lizards, Reading Doctor, A Sound Way and  Quicksmart.

Leaping Lizards

Leaping Lizards is a coordination program that focuses on gross and fine motor skills for students in Reception and Year One. All  Reception students are screened in  their first year of schooling.

Small groups of students attend the program twice a week for a minimum of 10 weeks. The aim of the sessions is for the students to have fun whilst participating in various skill building and physical activities.

QuickSmart Numeracy Program

(Quicker responses and smarter strategies)

The aim of the QuickSmart Numeracy program is to encourage students to “speed up” their basic skills in numeracy and assist them with the more challenging mathematical concepts. It is a highly  structured program which focuses on developing automaticity, understanding and a quick recall of basic numeracy facts. 

The program is facilitated by a trained tutor three times a week with the  students working in pairs. During the thirty minute lesson  the  students complete speed sheets, flash cards, challenging Quicksmart Maths games and a computer based program. Their progress is monitored and as they improve they are moved onto more complex tasks.

Reading Doctor and A Sound Way

Reading Doctor and A Sound Way are programs that focus on students who are struggling readers and those beginning to develop reading skills.

Both teach vital skills such a letter-sound knowledge, phonological and  phonemic awareness, blending, segmentation, sight word  recognition, vocabulary, auditory and visual discrimination and articulation. Students are able to hear and match the sounds,    giving them a better chance of comprehending letter-sound relationships.

PreLit

(Early Literacy Preparation)

PreLit is a systematic skills-based early literacy program focusing on the development of the two aspects of literacy that are          fundamental to early reading success: oral language and phonological awareness. 

Phonological awareness is aimed at increasing children’s ability to hear sounds and patterns in speech, and Shared Book Reading which  plays an important role in developing oral language skills.

It is delivered to small groups of children by a specialist  trained tutor.

MiniLit

(Meeting Initial Needs in Literacy)

MiniLit has been designed for students over 5 years of age who need support with developing their reading skills. A  tutor teaches a small group the carefully sequenced and structured  program. The main activities include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,  vocabulary and text comprehension. The ultimate goal of MiniLit is to ensure that students increase their accuracy and fluency so they  can read for meaning and enjoyment.

MultiLit

(Making up for Lost Time in Literacy)

MultiLit has been specifically designed for students in Year 1 and above who need further support with their reading.  It is designed to assist the student with fluency, reading accuracy,  comprehension and spelling. The three main areas that this program concentrates on are phonics, sight word recognition and  supported reading.

Macqlit

(Macquarie Literacy Program)

MacqLit is another explicit and systematic reading program designed for older readers from Year 3 to secondary school.  Students attend sessions facilitated by a trained MacqLit tutor three times per week. Macqlit is a comprehensive sequence of structured lessons that helps develop the key skills needed for good reading, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. It helps to develop rapid, automatic and effective word recognition  strategies. It is supported by connected text reading to develop these essential skills.

A quote from Pope Francis:

“Unity does not imply uniformity; it does not necessarily mean doing everything together or thinking in the same way. Nor does it signify a loss of identity. Unity in diversity is actually the opposite: it involves the joyful recognition and acceptance of the various gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to each one and the placing of these gifts at the service of all members of the Church. It means knowing how to listen, to accept differences, and having the freedom to think differently and express oneself with complete respect towards the other who is my brother or sister. Do not be afraid of differences!”

— Address to Catholic Fraternity of the Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship, Oct. 31, 2014

Please click Link Below to access this quote online