Best Practice Thematic Conference Workshop Inclusion and Special Needs Tuesday , 23 May 2017 , h 9:00 – 16.30 Sassari ERASMUS+ ACTION KA2 SCHOOL TO SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP n. 2014-1-IT02-KA201-003491_1 “Europe for Inclusion” Protocol for Students with Special needs

COIMBRA PORTUGAL

This is the main school of the Cluster (grouping) of Schools This is the main school of the Cluster (grouping) of Schools. Here, children attend classes from 5th to 9th grade. We are located on a residential area, with a peaceful environment. We have Primary Schools and 2 Kinder gardens nearby. That means a child can attend classes within the same Group of Schools since 3 until 15 years old. Teachers get together regularly on meetings whose main goal is to coordinate standardization of teaching processes and strategies. This Grouping of Schools makes of Inclusion a priority, so it is much sought after by Parents of children with Special Educational Needs. We respond to those requests with a Teaching staff well prepared and specialized in dealing with various problems, from Down Syndrome or Brain Paralysis to milder cases of dyslexia and attention deficits.

Welcome Cerimony in May2016

Data of School: Total number of teachers - 176 Number of curricular teachers - 161 Number of special teachers - 15 Number of supportive teachers - 24 Total number of students - 1500 Total number of students with special needs - 177 Percentage of students with special needs – 11,8% Number of Students with special needs with medical certification ( divided in Physical, intellectual, neuropsychiatric, sensory, multiple disabilities ) - 177

Number of students with behavioural problems - 9 Number with dyslexia - 45 Autism Spectrum Disturb - 2

Socio or economic disadvantage - 195 Linguistic disadvantage - 2 Cultural disadvantage - 8 Emotional disadvantage – 7 Number of educative/didactic plans - 142

Professional allocated resources inside the school: Number of special teachers - 15 Support teachers - 24 Cultural educative assistants - 0 Speech therapists -0 Psychologists - 2 Social assistant -0 Assistant for communication – 0 Nurses - 0

Non teaching staff: School keepers - 4 Administrative office involved with the management of sensitive data - 4

What happens in school: Inclusion group - The Special Education Teachers group regularly meets and supports students with SEN as well as regular teachers in the classes in which students are enrolled. Multidisciplinary assessment team – Assessment is always present during regular meetings. Guidance teams – We have two Psychologists who work in counselling students, parents and teachers. They also diagnose the rare cases that emerge from punctual events.

Evaluation of outcomes and measure: Used Model: Index for Inclusion Internal Evaluation: questionnaire in the framework of Erasmus Project Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

Development of a curriculum attentive to diversity and promotion of inclusive formative paths: The main theme of this Project is Inclusion. This simple word can mean a lot of different (equal) things. The greatest achievement of the Project, worked by countries from so different European locations, is that the individual contribution of each one put together an almost total Plan for Inclusiveness for all kinds of students different from the “average normality".

Portugal focused its contribution on "Communication". Most of the children with mild or severe disabilities are unable to comunicate in an effective way. That provides them to read and write even small texts or tales. Written Communication is not available for them?... This is only a matter of changing the letters into other symbols that they can understand.

The Delegations present on Portugal Mobility learned how to work with one of the tools our children work with, the Pictographic writing. First, they attended a lecture by a Specialist and then they were able to prepare a Story (The Cicada and the Ant).

This tool can also be used for Cooking Books with lots of recipes and all kind of books where those symbols can be used. It benefits a lot those children, not only because they can write their own “products” but also share them with other. Their self esteem also increases a lot.

Here you can see some pictures from the experimentation workshops:

We are also quite attentive to special difficulties some of these young people have concerning daily life. So, we have “built” in our School a “small studio apartment” where they learn how to deal with daily tasks as simple as cook basic meals, make the bed, iron a pair of trousers, wash the dishes or set the table. Our foreign colleagues also took part of one of these classes. Some pictures, as well.

Much more could be said, but an image worth more than a thousand words…