St Therese’s Primary School believes no child will be left behind when it comes to education. Exceptional educators provide quality teaching through meaningful and inclusive learning programs that cater for the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, social and physical dimensions of each student.
The learning support services include access to specialists in special education, psychology, occupational therapy (and use of a sensory room) and speech pathology.
St Therese’s aims to provide a fully inclusive mainstream learning environment that reflects the principles of the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and the Disability Standards for Education (2005). All students are included in the activities of the school community and given opportunities of positive learning and social experiences. Our commitment to the practices of purposeful inclusion reflects the Gospel values of respect, equality and social justice. Within a Christian framework, we provide a learning environment that is supportive and responsive to individual needs and differences and that recognises and celebrates the individual student’s abilities and strengths.
Learning Support covers the following areas:
- behaviour support
- mental health support
- social emotional learning
- developmental disabilities
- learning difficulties
- speech, language and communication disorders
- physical disabilities
- hearing impairment
- vision impairment
- medical conditions
- assessment and counselling.
Following are some of the programs on offer through learning support.
Intensive reading/literacy
- Minilit, MacqLit
- corrective reading
- multi-sensory learning (MSL)
- phonemic awareness programs
- PPP reading
- repeated reading
- visualising and verbalising
- supported writing groups
Intensive numeracy
- supported numeracy groups
- Count Me In
- DENS
Other programs
- social skills training
- Gardening Club to foster socialisation
- emotional regulation
- zones of regulation
- What’s the Buzz?
- Cool & Friendly
- Cool & Brave
- anger/anxiety management
- OT fine motor, handwriting development and regulation programs
How does learning support work?
Schools use their allocation of learning support resources to cater for the individual needs of students. Adjustments for students are made in close collaboration with parents and carers and reviewed regularly to assess their effectiveness and to identify any changes needed.
The first point of contact is the school’s Learning Support team. Learning Support teams include key personnel involved in supporting students with disability and additional and learning and support needs.