Additional Educational Needs
Additional Educational Needs Department
Additional Education Needs (AEN) Department's mission is to encourage self-confidence and self-esteem among all our students.
We are committed to:
The creation of an inclusive, supportive learning environment for all students.
All students who are recognised as having Additional Educational Needs are enabled and empowered to:
Participate fully in the school community
Experience success in their learning
Develop a positive self-image and build self esteem
Meeting Student Needs and the Allocation of Support under Department of Education Guidelines
In 2017 the Department of Education (DE) published, Circular 0014/2017 “Special Education Teaching Allocation”, introduced a revised model for allocating Special Educational Needs (SEN) resources to schools. This document and the, Guidelines for Post Primary Schools Supporting Students with SEN in Mainstream schools, produced in May 2017, by the Department of Education and Skills (DES), are now the guiding principles that form the basis for support for students with Additional Educational Needs (AEN), within the School.
The DE allocates a specific number of additional teaching support hours per week, to cater for all students with an identified AEN. These hours are to be used to provide support, based on the principles laid down in the above documentation so that the students with the greatest need, have access to the greatest level of support. This continues to be our normal practice.
Students are provided with support based upon their individualised needs. This support is based on the Continuum of Support framework set out by the Department which, “recognises that special educational needs occur along a continuum, ranging from mild to severe, and from transient to long term” so that students will, “require different levels of support, depending upon their identified need”. (DES, May 2017, p.6)
The Continuum of Support framework is used to enable us to identify and respond to our students’ needs in a flexible way.
Support is based on the identification of an additional educational need, which can include academic, social, and emotional needs, physical, sensory or language and communications difficulties, or for students whose education has been significantly interrupted.
There are three levels of support:
Level One: Support For All: Whole school and Classroom support – this will focus on preventative and proactive approaches though testing, providing information for students, staff and parents, alongside whole class support.
Level Two: Support For Some: This will focus on providing school support for small groups and some individuals on a weekly timetabled basis, or short-term intervention.
Level Three: Support For a Few: This will provide individualised and specialist support for a number of students on a regular timetabled basis. This will include regular meetings with the individual student’s AEN contact teacher.
From September each year, the AEN team meet our students, who have already been identified as having an additional educational need. We review their support from the previous year and begin planning for the current year, as necessary. Individual AEN support timetables are issued to those students who fall under the Level Two and Level Three of the Continuum of Support framework as indicated above.
Learning in Christ King Girls Secondary School as a pupil with additional educational challenges:
Class groups are mixed ability for Junior and Senior Cycle in most cases.
Student Support Plan is prepared for each student based on their needs. The Student Support Plan is designed following consideration of professional report recommendations, school reports, subject teacher reports, parents, and the individual student.
The Student Support Plan is designed to support our AEN students when they part take in our mixed-ability mainstream classes, using a variety of support systems:
Differentiated teaching
Team teaching
In-Class Support teaching
Small group tuition
Assistive technology, where professionally recommended in light of an external assessment and sanctioned by the National Council for Special Education.
Core Team in Additional Educational Needs Department:
Junior Year Groups: Ms. Suzanne Kelleher Co-ordinator.
Senior Year Groups: Mr. Michael Carroll Co-ordinator.
A.S.D. Sunview Class: Ms Bróna Callaghan Lead Teacher
Special Needs Assistants: Ms. Tríona O' Callaghan, Ms. Orla Kelly, Mrs Frances Gordon and Ms Úna McCarthy
Reasonable Accommodations at the Certificate Exams (RACE)
The scheme of Reasonable Accommodations at the Certificate Examinations (RACE) facilitates access to the certificate examinations by candidates who would have difficulty in accessing the examination or communicating what they know to an examiner because of a physical, visual, hearing and/or learning difficulty. The scheme assists candidates who have special educational needs to demonstrate what they know and can do in certificate examinations, without compromising the integrity of the assessment.
The focus of the scheme is on removing barriers to access while retaining the need to assess the same underlying skills and competencies as are assessed for all other candidates, and to apply the same standards of achievement as apply to all other candidates.
The scheme provides accommodations for students with a variety of complex special educational needs including learning difficulties as well as permanent or temporary physical, visual, hearing, medical, sensory, emotional, behavioural or other conditions.
In 2017 the SEC made significant changes to the RACE scheme changing the emphasis on the application process from Leaving Certificate to Junior Certificate. This means that if accommodations are granted at Junior Cert level there is a greater certainty that they will be in place for Leaving Cert following a reactivation process and once the SEC is satisfied that the need that existed at Junior Cert is still present at Leaving Cert.
We complete the school-based assessments required by the SEC during the early stage of third year for any identified students that may be entitled to apply for accommodations during the state exams.
R.A.C.E. applications are prepared by our Guidance Department, please contact the relevant guidance counsellor for your daughter from the list below:
Ms. Therese McKeown.
Ms. Suzanne Kelleher.