At
Narbethong State Special School there are 11 teachers dispersed throughout the
school who are trained and qualified as Teachers of the Vision Impaired. Each
section of the school includes at least one of these teachers to support,
advise and mentor other teachers in the school.
As the
students who attend Narbethong State Special School have unique disability
specific needs and abilities, the teaching and learning at Narbethong State
Special School is very unique. We follow the Australian Curriculum for English
and Mathematics while embedding the FIELA Curriculum and the Expanded Core
Curriculum.
The
role of educators of the vision impaired at Narbethong State Special School, is
to ensure that low vision and blind students achieve mastery of an array of
additional disability specific skills in addition to the regular ‘core
curriculum’ subjects of English and Mathematics from the Australian Curriculum.
For students with vision impairment in addition to
studying the core curriculum subjects, further skills and knowledge “that are
needed by students with visual impairments because of their unique
disability-specific needs” have to be learnt (Hatlen, 1996, p. 1). These skills
and knowledge are referred to as the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) and
are categorised under nine areas.
At Narbethong State Special School we embed the
Expanded Core Curriculum into the Australian Curriculum. This is to ensure that
all students learn the appropriate skills to be functioning members of society.
The Expanded Core Curriculum assists students with a vision impairment to
understand and participate in the Australian Curriculum. It also prepares
students adequately for their future.
All nine areas of the ECC are implemented on a daily basis.
However, at least one of the nine areas is reported on for each student every
semester in their Individual Learning Plan. The goal to be reported on is
specifically selected and developed by the teacher in relation to the
individual child’s needs and abilities.