Balaclava School – transcript
[On the screen]
Sally Direen, Principal of Balaclava School, wo was also a member of the Advisory Group that work the updated 2011 Individual Education Plans (IEP) guidelines, talks about how to create a successful IEP process.
How have the new IEP guidelines changed the IEP process?
Sally:
We’ve always been an inclusive and collaborative school. We’ve always involved the parents in any decision-making, any IEPs. We’ve got a really strong SENCO within the school who is very passionate and interested. We have a lot of parent involvement, our RTLBs are really supportive, and if they can’t make an IEP, they’d make another time.
I think being involved with the writing of the Collaboration for Success booklet, I realised there were inconsistencies across the country, and I could see the benefit of having the guidelines. I think what it’s done for our programme is it’s enriched what we do, but it’s also validated what we do, and I like the idea that it is research-based, that it shows that this is the way to run IEPs, having everyone involved.
We probably have the family’s aspirations first – “What do you want? How do you think it’s going?”
We let them have the first part of the meeting, always, and they give us their feedback on what they think. But we talk to the parents all the time, we would call them in if there were any concerns.
And often we’ll let the child ring the parents and say if they’ve done something really well today. So I think keeping the parents involved, they usually come in after school and pick up their children. We have that opportunity to talk to them all the time. We are a very open door school and parents are encouraged to come in.
[On the screen]
What does it mean to be an inclusive school?
Sally:
I think it’s having open lines of communication with all the stakeholders, with the parents, the case workers, the teacher aides, the teachers, the RTLBs – they are all involved.
These children have as many opportunities as all the other children, they’re not treated differently. We have high expectations for them to achieve and to be part of a class.
Our school culture is that we work collaboratively and we’re inclusive of each other, and we’ve got school-wide consistency in how we treat people.
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