College Row School in Bunbury, Western Australia, is radically changing the community\u2019s perception of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. In line with their city\u2019s target of becoming the most accessible regional city in Australia by 2020, the whole school has prioritised communication and worked tirelessly to give a voice to each and every one of their students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
College Row School is an education support school catering for students from K-12 with severe intellectual and multiple disabilities. The majority of their 33 students are non-verbal, and have dynamic and complex physical, sensory and behavioural challenges. Despite these difficulties, the teachers, assistants and families are committed to problem solving the individual learning requirements of each student, to ensure that they have access to the appropriate resources and teaching strategies they need to learn, participate and engage in the school and wider community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Principal Cale Begley has spear headed the whole school approach to communication systems. He attended comprehensive communication training himself in 2015, and sent a number of his teachers and assistants to subsequent sessions, including detailed AAC post graduate diploma\u2019s. Cale has since organized interstate presenters to travel to Bunbury to deliver workshops and also provide consultative support in the classroom, to ensure that every individual communication need is acknowledged and met. Every student at College Row now has their own personally selected and customized communication system that is carried everywhere with them. All staff within the school observe carefully for initiations of communication, and take the time to stop and listen to what their students have to say. They are also highly skilled in modelling the various AAC systems and expanding upon their student\u2019s thoughts and messages. As a result of this the students are more engaged and participating more fully in the curriculum and school life, are demonstrating their learning in more intelligible ways, are calmer and displaying fewer challenging behaviours and have been able to connect with staff and peers in a way not previously possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
College Row\u2019s passion for communication is not just within the school grounds, but has extended to supporting parents from the school as well as local mainstream and special needs schools. The school has recently collaborated with a local early education centre to upskill staff on their knowledge of AAC, and to jointly run a playgroup for youngsters with complex communication needs in the hope that they will commence at College Row with their own personalised communication system already in place. There is increasing interest in AAC from after school and post-school groups, and the school is also in discussions with the City of Bunbury in regards to providing AAC training for staff from their facilities such as the local library and sports centre. College Row\u2019s vision of creating a truly communication accessible community is quickly becoming a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
College Row School in Bunbury, Western Australia, is radically changing the community\u2019s perception of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. In line with their city\u2019s target of becoming the most accessible regional city in Australia by 2020, the whole school has prioritised communication and worked tirelessly to give a voice to each…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":714,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-807","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n