What do we mean by … Students with Special Needs?

Any student who is not achieving to their potential for one or more reasons:

• Students with a learning difficulty;
• Students with English as a second language;
• Students with social/emotional problems;
• Students with a speech/language problem;
• Students who are gifted/talented but who are underachieving;
• Students who have a low incidence disability including intellectual impairment, physical impairment, hearing impairment, visual impairment, speech/language impairment, autistic spectrum disorder.

Dalby South has a two Support Teacher working a total of 5 days a week. The Support Teachers works collaboratively with other support personnel (eg. Guidance Officers, Speech/Language Pathologist) involved in the school to:

• assist the class teacher in identifying and assessing children with learning difficulties;
• assist the class teacher in planning programs of work to help children with learning difficulties;
• work with class teachers and the child to improve areas where the learning difficulty occurs;
• advise parents as to how they can assist in the learning process at home;
• participate in the appraisement of children with learning difficulties;
• support professional development programs and influence teaching practices.

A Special Needs Committee meets every week, where the learning support team discusses how individual students with special needs/learning difficulties can be most effectively supported.

A variety of literacy and numeracy programs are in operation throughout the school to cater for a variety of ability levels.