COMENIUS PROJECT : STEPS IN OUR WAY TO INCLUSION Andorra, october 2012 Gloria Fuertes Public School of Special Education C/ Fuente Baja nº Andorra (Teruel) Spain Website:

“All children can be successful, although in different ways. Success feeds on success; and schools determine the conditions of success” (Arnáiz, 2003)

Spanish Education System Legislative framework Spanish Constitution (1978) all citizens the right to education, to implement a policy of planning, treatment rehabilitation and integration of people with disabilities Act on the Social Integration of people with Disabilities LISMI ( 1982) establishes measures regarding personal, social and employment assistance The Organic Act 1/1990 of General Ordering of the Educational System (LOGSE) introduces the concept of special educational needs The Organic Act 2/2006 (LOE) This law is actually being changed

Equality in education The Law of Education focuses on setting up the principles and measures directed towards compensating inequality in education resulting from social, economic, cultural, geographic, ethnic or other factors. Education authorities should ensure the necessary resources for these pupils to reach their full potential, as well as to achieve the general objectives. Put the necessary procedures and resources in place for the early identification of specific educational needs. Comprehensive attention to these pupils should begin at the very moment in which such a necessity is identified, according to the principles of normalisation and inclusion.

Structure of education Pre-primary education (3 two-year stages )not compulsory, 3 to 6 years Primary education (3 two-year stages) compulsory, 6 to12 years Lower secondary education (4 years) compulsory, 12 to 16 years Post-compulsory secondary education: - General upper secondary education 2 years, ages 16 to 18 - Intermediatespecific vocational training 1½ to 2 years, ages 16 to 18

Pupils with specific needs of educational support The law (loo) (LOE) establishes the concept of pupils with specífic needs of educational support, which includes among others, three different types of pupils: Pupils with special educational needs require, for a specific period or for the whole of their schooling, certain specific educational support and attention due to disabilities or severe behavioural disorders. Psychopedagogical assessments is the starting point of every educational decision. Highly gifted pupils Pupils incorporated late into the Spanish education system or any other pupils who require compensatory education.

Schooling of pupils with special educational needs The concept of special educational needs is related to the idea of diversity among the students and it is defined as the assembly of supports and adaptations that the student will carried out his processes of development and learning in the educational system in mainstream educational institutions. The schooling in units or centres of special education only will be carried out when the needs of the student cannot be met in an ordinary educational centre. This situation will be revised periodically, so that the access of the students to a state of greater integration can be favoured provided it is possible.

Pre-Primary and Primary Education Assesments resources for pupils with specials needs Early Intervention Teams : for Pre-Primary stage, there is one for the province of Teruel. Specialised Specific Teams : Pre-Primary and Primary there is only one in Aragon located in Zaragoza. Psychopedagogical Interdisciplinary Guidance Teams: Primary, four teams in the area of our school. Gloria Fuertes School is an open educational resource institution for the professionals working in the district’s mainstream institutions. Pupils who are schooling in ordinary schools come for specialised therapies (psycomotricity, physiotherapy..) and to be evaluated in Psycomotor and Communication skills, as well as given an assessment and intervention program.

Pre-Primary and Primary Education. Types of schooling and measures for pupils with specials needs Mainstream schools, general measures: variation of the length of the schooling period for this stage, significant curricular adaptations, reduced class sizes, special teaching methods and support of specialised teachers (Therapeutic Pedagogy, Hearing and Speech). There are more than 30 schools in the area). Combined schooling: pupil shares the school timetable between and ordinary school and a special school. Specific special educational institutions is only contemplated when the needs of the pupil, requiring very extreme curricular adaptations, will not be suitably met in a mainstream school. Gloria Fuertes school is the only one in this area.