Students who have special education needs have a right to enrol and receive education at state or integrated schools.  Rotokauri School will recognise, respect, and respond to diverse needs of all students.

Special Education is defined by the Ministry of Education as “…..the provision for extra help, adapted programmes, learning environments, or specialised equipment or materials to support children and young people with their learning and help them participate in education.”

Children with special educational needs can include learners with learning difficulties, communication, emotional or behaviour difficulties, or intellectual, sensory or physical impairments.

Students’ with special education needs may require modification of the regular curriculum, methods of instruction and/or equipment, and the emotional and social environment of the classroom and school, to obtain optimum benefit from their schooling.

The Rotokauri School SENCo is responsible for coordinating and overseeing additional programmes that support students at Rotokauri School with Special Educational Needs.  These programmes may include:

• Teacher Aide programmes inside and outside of the classroom to support Oral Language development, Alphabet/Phonological Knowledge, Literacy and Mathematics programmes.

• Responsibility for coordinating the teams of professionals supporting a student.  Writing and overseeing the provision of Individual Educational Plans and Individual Behaviour Plans.

• Provide support and advice for whanau to support a student at school and at home.  Refer on to external agencies as appropriate.

• Support and provide resources for classroom teachers to assist them to cater for the individual needs of students in their classrooms.

• On-going provision of staff professional development as required.

• Programmes for students who require additional support for Speech and Language development, sometimes with a Teacher Aide or external support person such as a Speech Language Therapist.

• Referrals and coordination of programmes accessed through the Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour and the Resource Teacher of Literacy services.