Additional Educational Needs Mission Statement
It is our hope that our school is a place where we promote and facilitate a whole school approach to special needs education and so create a community of learning.
In our policy and practice, we aim to nurture the values of hope, compassion and understanding in all of our students. We recognise each pupil as a unique individual with different talents and needs. We endeavour to meet their physical, intellectual and emotional needs through our student focused programmes.
In fostering an atmosphere of learning that is holistic in approach, we nurture each individual student’s personal growth and development. We promote autonomous learning and strive to enable all to achieve their full potential.
We offer an inclusive curriculum, which is relevant, realistic and co-operative, and we do so in active partnership with pupils, parents and staff.
Aims of Additional Educational Needs
- The aim of AEN is to enable all students to belong to an educational community without prejudice and within which individual difference is celebrated.
- To encourage every student to achieve to the highest degree possible, according to their potential.
- To ensure the same quality of educational experience for all students, irrespective of ability or need and ensure that all have access to a broad and balanced curriculum commensurate with their talents and abilities.
- The school must acknowledge the right of each member of the school community to enjoy school in a secure environment, both physical and psychological.
- That children with disabilities leave school with the skills necessary to participate in an inclusive way in society and to live independent and fulfilled lives.
- The overall aim of the ASD & MGLD resource centre is the inclusion and integration of students into mainstream classes.
- The priority should be to provide learning-support programmes for the students with low achievement and learning difficulties. The principal aim of learning support is to optimise the teaching and learning process in order to enable pupils with learning difficulties to achieve adequate levels of proficiency in literacy and numeracy.
In addition to this aim, subsidiary aims are:
- To enable the students to participate in the curriculum for their year.
- To develop positive self-esteem and positive attitudes about school and learning in these students.
- To enable students to monitor their own learning and become independent learners.
- To provide supplementary teaching and additional support and resources for these students in English and Mathematics and other subjects when resources permit.
- To involve parents in supporting their children’s learning through effective parent-support programmes.
- To promote collaboration among teachers in the implementation of whole-school policies on learning support for these students.
Model for allocation of learning support outlined here
https://www.education.ie/en/The-Education-System/Special-Education/a-new-model-for-allocating-special-education-teachers-to-mainstream-schools.pdf