Making a difference

She takes the following considerations into account:

• In order to engage students with disabilities – some with short attention spans, who struggle to sit, to listen, to participate and be ready for learning - lessons need to follow predictable patterns.
• Some students may learn over a term and quickly settle into lessons, others may need a breakdown of activities in the form of a visual schedule with tick boxes.

The structure for a typical KS:CPC lesson is often summarised as a checklist for students to provide predictability and a sense of student agency as they check off the activities during the class.

Each unit of work is put on presentation slides – this includes the topic with individual weekly lessons – that are all connected to the sub-topics. This provides students with a visual purpose and staff members with a sense of shared direction.

"The purpose of the lesson is always stated: I use WALT. Eg We Are Learning To understand different feelings (Years R – 2 FA1 The right to be safe) or We Are Learning To define what public and private is (Years 6-9 FA3 Recognising and reporting abuse)."

Lesley incorporates stories, games, role plays, worksheets and media clips. One example of a game that is used is Spaghetti Head – the students and adults need to trust the others to poke (uncooked) spaghetti in their hair without poking them in the ears or eyes.

"We take photos and put them into their books – students love looking at themselves and the activities they have done in KS:CPC and the photos can be used for writing and reflection activities. We always finish on a positive note with guided meditation."

Find some examples of warm-up songs, books and videos under 'Lesley's resources' section on this page.

The most effective pedagogy for delivery of this type of curriculum (for all students) includes a strong focus on collaborative learning. This is because students develop better skills if they can practise communication activities with their peers in a safe and responsive environment with teachers supporting them.

Some of the learning strategies which Lesley and her colleagues use include:

• Pair swaps
• Knee-to-knee activity (or side-by-side)
• Role play
• Y chart, T chart, X chart
• Concept or mind mapping
• Lotus diagram
• Modified jigsaw diagram
• Values walk or vales continuum (with ‘Thumbs up’ options)
• Placemat activity
• Brainstorming
• Relaxation
• Problem solving
• Teachable moments
• Using songs and stories
• Critical literacy in using electronic and print media’
• Drawing and scribing
• Persona dolls
• Relationship circles

For some further ideas about strategies that might be effectively used in relationships education, see the Teaching and Learning Strategies Overview provided by the Western Australian website Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships, where some of the strategies mentioned on this page are described in detail. You will need to decide what is most appropriate for use in your own context.

Students use a range of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems including; PODD books, Proloquo2Go and Eye Gaze systems. This diversity necessitates a lot of adaptation of teaching activities. Lesley has described the Communication Assessment Reporting that she uses at the school:

1. Know your students and make adjustments. This might include diversification and differentiation of actual activities with some students completing a posting or glueing activity, or using an App, one or two sitting apart from the group or alone in a quiet place. Others may sit in a group setting, to watch media clips, sing songs, listen to stories and complete written reflections.
2. How will my students communicate their responses? Teachers use the PODD a lot to provide vocabulary, and check that they and the students are on the same page.
3. Teachers compile their reports based on each child’s learning plan. Resources and activities used within the KS:CPC are linked to some of the intended outcomes in each students’ learning plan.

There are three main expectations of all people at centre:

"I am safe"

"I am friendly"

"I am respectful"

Explicit examples of what behaviour looks like for each of these expectations are used to model preferred behaviour – creating a focus on desirable behaviours at school. The positive language associated with these expectations is also embedded within the communication modes such as the AAC used at the centre.

The whole school focuses on one statement each week and reminds students of what this may look like in class lessons daily. This is reinforced by all school staff. For example, when the weekly statement was “I am safe”, “I am OK” the whole school practised the series of statements: “I am OK”, “I can calm down”, “I can take deep breaths” during the end of the day assembly every day.

The PBIS program is having an appreciable impact on the incidences of inappropriate behaviours in the school and links well with some of the content areas of the KS:CPC.

Lorna Fenech, Adelaide West Special Education Centre Principal, said:

‘We’ve had a significant increase in use of positive language, talking to students and about students. We’ve had a decrease in behavioural incident reports.’

View the presentation Making the shift: A school wide approach to Positive Behaviour Intervention Support for more about this focus.