Special education

Purposeful school design can support student learning and wellbeing. Aspect Hills Shire School is a new autism-specific primary school that opened its doors to students last month. In this photo story, Principal Shane Morris takes Teacher readers on a tour of the new school and its design features.

In today’s School Improvement podcast, Professor John Munro explores leadership for the provision of gifted education. Drawing on themes from his book published by ACER Press, Leading Improvement for Gifted and Talented Students, Munro discusses what it takes to develop a vision, putting together an action plan, upskilling teachers and collaborating with the wider community. 

Aspect runs autism-specific education programs in New South Wales and South Australia. In this Leadership Q&A, we speak to Joanne Tisdell – Principal of Aspect South East Sydney School – about supporting students on the autism spectrum, including curriculum content, collaborative partnerships and the design of teaching and learning spaces.

A new survey from Deaf Children Australia (DCA) hopes to inform the development of resources that better support deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in regional schools. Teacher spoke to DCA CEO David Wilson about the concerns parents of DHH children have raised, and what teachers can do to create a more inclusive school environment.

After her double win at the National Excellence in Teaching Awards for her work helping teachers and schools in New Zealand implement structured literacy into their practice, Amie Roberts speaks to Teacher about how this approach empowers all students.

‘Successful learning is built on people recognising your abilities and strengths and helping you to build on them.’ We speak to Sue Lowry, winner of the Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award, about how she is delivering quality music education to students with special needs, and how they’re smashing expectations.

Our guest for today’s School Improvement episode is Ruth Rogers, Principal of Karonga School in New South Wales. Ruth joins us today to talk about her school’s immersive classroom, and how it allows students – all of whom have an intellectual disability – to access a world beyond the classroom and practice skills that they can take with them when they are out in the community.

Learning Specialist Angela Myler says an understanding of the complexities of twice-exceptional students is paramount to be able to cater to their diverse learning needs, so that both disability and gifts are given the attention they deserve.

‘Best literacy practices in specialist schools look very different to best practice in regular classrooms.’ New research published in the Australian Journal of Education explores the different observational tools needed to understand effective literacy environments in specialist schools.

Equal education involves many things – equal representation, participation, access to resources, and more. There’s a lot to explore around equal education in the Teacher archives, and in this edition of Teacher Staffroom, we bring you some recent examples.