*
(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)
Love is the foundation for any good education.
Whoop. Ta-da!
Are you good?
Yeah?
And it's really important for the child
to sense that, to get that, to feel it.
And then, feeling secure, from that platform, well,
they'll be challenged; they'll have a go at anything
and be a able to be a bit courageous and step out of their comfort zone
and try things that are new. And that's how we learn.
All good? All right. We're off.
And so it's really important for children, as they come into school, that they actually feel loved,
that they feel cared for, they feel nurtured, that they feel safe.
(GENTLE MUSIC SLOWS)
Copyright Able 2018
(CHILDREN CHATTER, SQUEAL)
(DELICATE MUSIC)
We kind of always knew there was something special or non-typical about Jess.
She was 5 when she was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Jess is a really clever girl.
Jess, when she is anxious, will completely shut down.
So we went to a mainstream school, but doesn't cater for special needs,
and we had a few difficulties there, didn't we?
Yeah, unfortunately we found out the hard way.
They refused to make any adjustments for her or for her condition.
She was so anxious, she would sit there and rock and shake and cry. She didn't speak at the school.
And once we realised that, finding the school that is open-minded enough
to actually accept her for what she is.
Out we go, comets.
(CHILDREN CHATTER)
Good morning, everybody.
Great to see you all this morning. Alex is helping us with morning song this morning. So over to Alex.
We're gonna start with the prayer.
(SHOUTS INTO MICROPHONE) ALL: Get us through each day...
St Lucy's is catering to students in the primary years. That's from the age of 5 through to about 11 or 12.
It's 140 students,
about 40 staff.
Its unique position in Sydney in its real focus on special needs education, specialist education.
The philosophy of the school is very much a holistic education.
We're wanting each child to develop as broadly and as fully as they possibly can
in the social, emotional, academic areas,
preparing them for life, because ultimately, they've actually got to become, we hope, as independent
as they possibly can be.
About 70% of our children have autism.
Many are non-verbal and have real challenges of how to engage with the curriculum.
Everybody else, we are going to be...
cooking!
Our whole focus, really, is very much the individual and what's going to benefit the child.
All our teachers are experts in their field,
and we want the children to really find their language for learning.
(THOUGHTFUL PIANO MUSIC)
(ALL CHATTER HAPPILY)
(CHILD CHATTERS)
My daddy will wave goodbye, and my mum will pick me up.
Have you finished there?
My daddy will say goodbye,
and my mum will be back to pick me up at night.
Initially we were really hesitant to put Jess into a school
that only catered for children with special needs.
We thought, 'Will it label her?
'Is she gonna pick up behaviours from other children? Will she go backwards?'
But from the minute we came in for orientation day, we knew that this was the place for her.
Jess.
Jess, would you like to come tell your news? Head up, though, like a big girl.
Hello, Antony. Can we say, 'Hi, Jess!' ALL: Hi, Jess!
So, tell me, what did you get? A new magazine.
And what kind of magazine? (CHILD WHISPERS) Um, pink!
My experience with Jess is she comes across as quite shy,
and it's about encouraging her to use the skills that she does have,
cos she does have quite a lot.
I have a question. Oh, Ms Alders has a question. Jess. Jess.
Jessica, look at me. Turn around. Where'd you go?
Jessica, you need to look at me, please. I can't turn around.
Yeah? Look. Jessica, look as Ms Alders.
Turn around. Like a big girl. That's it. Look at me.
Did the shop have just magazines, or was it a toy shop?
Toys and magazines. Toys and magazines!
I have a question. Oh, Andrew has a question. Jess, Andrew's question was—
Dylan, wait for your turn. ...when did you get your magazine? Was it on Saturday or Sunday?
Um, excuse me, I wanna ask— It was on...?
Sunday. On Sunday.
When we're working with students on communication barriers,
we take what's called a 'total communication approach'.
You went with a friend as well?
We'd be using the spoken word; we'd be signing along with what we're saying.
Chips and nuggets. Chips and nuggets! That's yummy.
Yum!
Here at St Lucy's there's a focus on literacy and numeracy.
One of the challenges, of course, is one child with autism is different to the next child with autism.
And so a lot of the research indicates the visual way
of helping children actually gain an understanding of their world.
We find that the creative arts is the gateway in.
So, my role at St Lucy's is the Head of Creative Arts.
So I came here for what was gonna be one term, as a drama specialist,
and then they kept me. (LAUGHS)
ALL: One, two, three,...
...wow!
We want the creative arts to be about two things.
Time in the studio should be a time for expression and self-exploration;
and it should complement the learning that they're doing in their classroom.
Nooo!
So in drama, we wanna build their articulation and their vocal projection
and their capacity to work together.
Run! Run, Kenny!
Visual art, we really want them to learn some good technical skills around drawing and form
and composition and line.
Up higher. So it does a splash. Here.
And squirt!
Yay!
You can do a yellow background here.
Yeah.
Other times, the kids don't have another functional means of communication,
so art can be really... kind of a way for them to express themselves, and, yeah,
to kind of communicate with the world around them, I've found.
(CHILD SHRIEKS) I mean, I've been daydreaming, like, monsters.
This is called...
a... robot monster.
And this is a female...
gas monster.
(GROWLS) Shh.
And this is— (GROWLS, SNARLS)
(GROWLS) Stop!
(SNARLS) (LAUGHTER)
And this is a...
This is an elf.
Are you being a monster? It's like an elf from...
It's a male elf from... (SNARLS LOUDLY)
Come. Come over here.
You do your green.
Come on.
Come over this side.
You put on your green.
(GIGGLES)
(CHUCKLES)
If they can't draw a circle but they do a beautiful, organic shape,
that's OK with us.
It's about being— their work and being really genuine.
And sometimes they'll wanna use all black and dark colours,
and I'll say to someone, 'Why are you choosing those colours?' And they said, 'Oh, I'm sad.'
I said, 'Oh, that's OK. It's OK to put that out on to paper or to talk about it.'
Going? Do you have a question?
Open your hands and give me some glitter.
Big comet.
This is gonna be the background for our St Dominic's painting.
When I first came here, there were a lot of very dedicated staff here
who'd worked with kids with special needs for a while,
and they had a very particular way of doing things, quite comfortable,
a little bit— I mean, I'll say 'old school', and then Jo came in, and she was just trailblazing.
I came to St Lucy's as a kind of accident,
my previously being principal at a major girls school in Sydney,
and I retired and I wanted to start a school
for children with disabilities that would prepare them for mainstream.
Opened the Sydney Morning Herald, saw the position being advertised for St Lucy's.
It was a school for children who were blind or vision-impaired.
It had been started by the Dominican Sisters in the 1960s.
They were dark buildings, and so different from a regular school.
And they had always done everything on a shoestring.
The school was enrolling children with other kinds of disability,
but in those days, they didn't say so, because they got donations
from people who were concerned for children who were blind,
and the belief was nobody in the public would want to support
children with intellectual impairment.
I find you only had to bring them to visit the school and meet the children,
and then you'd won their hearts. (LAUGHS) I didn't have to do anything else.
She had this real vision for what the students' potential was, what their capacity was,
and she just wanted to outfit the school so that they could achieve everything.
When teachers were coming in with ideas of what they could do for their students,
she was just giving it the green light. You know, 'We want more community access,
'and we need X amount of dollars and more teaching staff to do A, B and C.'
She found a way to make it happen.
And I think the other thing is that I had to change myself.
You know, the first day, I prepared my speech for assembly. I'd been doing it for so many years,
and I was surprised that when I spoke to them, they didn't all fall silent as I was used to!
And at the end of my very lame attempts, a little girl with Down's syndrome came up,
and she crossed her arms in front of me and said, 'Miss Bossy.' (LAUGHS)
And that's when I realised that you couldn't manage a school like this
in the way you do a mainstream school, where you use all the social mores to control the student.
You know, the expected thing, the done thing — the kids here don't respond to that at all.
So you had to instead understand them. It was the only way to teach them.
Whoo!
(DREAMY PIANO MUSIC)
(CHILDREN CHATTER, SHOUT)
(DELICATE, LIVELY MUSIC PLAYS)
# One little finger,
# one little finger. One... #
We have a very open enrolment policy here.
Obviously they have to be diagnosed with disabilities.
When we get them in in kindergarten, they're only 5 or 6,
so they're very little and difficult to assess in a complete way.
And, really, it's up to them to start expressing themselves.
# Nose! Put it on your head. #
Head!
Let's try 'E'. Ready?
Long line down, short line across.
Line down. Ready? Looking.
Two,
three. Good girl.
This is a handwriting programme called 'Handwriting without Tears'.
So it starts with that man that teaches the children body awareness,
and it's made up of circles and straight lines.
Like, Caitlyn arrived without being able to draw a person,
and then so we move our way where we can actually have—
we know where eyes, nose, mouth, all our body parts go.
So it's— This programme is very beneficial.
...to write your whole name. (ELECTRONIC TRILLING) You can do it.
So we teach them to write in capital letters first, cos all the capital letters start in the same place.
So if we can get students to leave kindy with being able to write their names, that's a win.
Good girl.
High five.
Did it. Very well done.
(CHILD GROWLS)
(CHILDREN CHATTER)
(LIGHT, HAPPY MUSIC)
Oh, my gosh, Jacob. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
Part of my role is looking after the area of teaching and learning, and the curriculum.
We use the NESA curriculum, which is the curriculum of New South Wales.
We want the children to be studying in the same areas as other children.
We tend to find things that the children absolutely love motivate them, but then, of course,
once the teacher starts with the class, and, you know,
there's a whole different range of students within that class,
they then need to look at each individual child and say,
'Well, that really motivates that child. Let's make sure we include that in their learning.
'They're at this level; that child's at this level,' so it's a bit of a juggling act.
But our teachers at St Lucy's, and teacher's aides, they're amazing.
OK, so one of the first activities we're doing is the next step,
where you start to identify shapes in a picture,
and then you start to do it in the environment as well, OK?
We have about 150 volunteers who come in, and they're trained
to actually give one-on-one tuition to our students, in mathematics and also literacy.
OK, let's get going. Let's welcome them in.
Eli, you did great waiting. Thanks, buddy.
And... emptied...
...the box.
BOTH: Thanks...
The children who come might pay for that intensive, explicit direct instruction
because we know that children with learning difficulties,
and alone with other disabilities like autism and intellectual disability,
they won't learn to read without that direct, explicit instruction.
READS: 'Oh no.' 'Shadow!'
'Alas!'
'We can't go...'?
Over! We can't go over. We can't go...?
(EXCLAIMS) Under— We can go through it.
We've got to go...? Oh... We've got to go through it, yes!
And they have this lovely rapport with their volunteers. Some of them are like their grandparents to them.
Have you seen Bud? (SQUEALS) Oh no!
I upskill those volunteers every term with new training,
and the volunteers are a community of their own as well.
So they really support each other, and they talk about strategies for the students.
Find me then the sound that says 'ah'.
Which one says it? Up here.
Ah.
And what comes next? Tuh-tuh.
Good. Let's put them together, and it says...?
Point.
Point with your finger.
Mm.
And then 'ah'.
Tuh. And the word is...
math. Which one's the same on here?
Good boy! Yay!
I hover, and I try and jump in wherever I can,
and maybe model a process or a strategy that I want that student to learn.
And then that volunteer will quickly pick up that,
'That is something that I can do with that student next time.'
But we also apply the creative arts and that knowledge of the whole child
and a really extensive knowledge of their communication profile to be able to work out what is best.
OK, guys, time to rock 'n' roll. Come on. Let's go, Dylan.
Sitting down. Oh.
So we find that usually, about 20 to 25 minutes of intense instruction is enough for most of the students,
and then with transitions and a little bit of time on the at the end is the reward.
(UPBEAT MUSIC)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) And then there's rice... or noodles.
Some of our children just need to start in this setting for a year or two or three,
and then hopefully they're ready to come on into a mainstream setting.
Others will be with us right the way through.
To push some of our children with higher needs into a mainstream setting,
which I know is very much the democratic, inclusive approach which everybody talks about,
is lovely in theory. But in practice, you have a larger class with less individualised attention.
Whereas here, with eight or nine children and three or four staff, including volunteers,
you can really get down to tin tacks for the child.
(BOTH CHEER)
(RISING CLASSICAL MUSIC)
(MUSIC ENDS)
While at St Lucy's, I've learnt being kind to people.
I've been... I learn to... to read very well...
and... and learn to talk very well, because back when I started,
I, as you can see, I wouldn't be able to— to— to talk at all,
except for maybe a few words, but not very much at all.
All righty. I need you to sit down.
Andrew, sit down, please.
Elijah. Make her don't—
Giant. Giant.
Everyone be giant. Everyone walk around like giants.
TEACHERS: Fee-fi-fo-fum!
Say, 'You've got to take the cow to the market.'
You take the cow to the market. (COUGHS)
I'd like to really explore different communications —
how we sort of communicate with each other non-verbally,
how to be with other people.
Throw the beans out. Throw the beans.
Throw out the window. Oh!
We create stories. Sometimes it's stories we all know — Jack and the Beanstalk.
Other times it's stories from real life.
Well done!
And learning about who we are, how we express ourselves, learning about life.
TEACHERS: Oh! Oh no! He's fallen down!
(GENTLE MUSIC)
Can you come and sit down? Can I have a break?
After Drama.
Coming to Drama is actually not an easy thing for Jess,
because it's outside of her routine.
So to do anything different can be a little bit daunting, can be scary.
That's OK and that's all natural, but we still want to include everybody,
and I try and make a connection with everybody. And it's just finding the key.
And for today it was about her being the princess.
Up the sky! We go, 'Whoo-hoo!' SOFTLY: Yes! (LAUGHS)
Well done, princess. Thank you.
After you see a place like St Lucy is, with the class numbers and the specialist care,
she's doing things we never thought would be possible —
certainly not within a year or two of starting school.
The approach of the school has created a— you know, a Jess that we didn't think was possible.
Everyone put your hands in the middle. Everyone, standing up. One, two, three.
ALL: Go, comets! (CHEER)
Come on, Bill, Elijah.
Elijah, ready, set, go! Push!
Push! Go, go, go, go!
Are you ready? (BOTH GIGGLE)
Ready?
(GENTLE MUSIC)
Whose turn?
Wah!
Ah. Come on. Ah! (LAUGHS)
Come on, let's go. Up, one, two, three, boom!
(EXCLAIMS) Ready? We'll watch. Ready? One, two, three, spinning.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Go, go, go. Use your feet.
Use your feet, Loki. Spin. Use your feet.
Good boy! Yeah! (GRUNTS)
What's next? Cheese.
Then just make it all around,
put it on to the tray, just like this. Lovely.
And this is how the guys in class here at St Lucy's does it.
That's how we make our pizzas.
At the end of the year, we don't really have a high school to be able to take care of my needs,
which is— which is very sad. I might have to— to— to go online,
but I do think that there's some sort of hope.
Sadly he's not able to go to St Lucy's new high school
cos he doesn't quite fit the new criteria of the new high school.
So (COUGHS) we are still looking for a new suitable school for him.
Matthew, he's a person who worries about his own future and where he'll be and what he needs to do
to have a successful, happy life.
One of the misconceptions is that students who are really high-functioning
are gonna have a much easier life, say, than students who need more support.
But often it's the students who have an awareness of their disability who are in strife.
(LIGHT, HAPPY MUSIC)
(ANIMATED CHATTER)
Hi. Hi, Jo.
The Hope Group began after I left St Lucy's,
which is just everybody getting together and chatting and bringing parents together,
giving the opportunity to share their stories with each other.
(LAUGHTER, CHATTER)
I'm a waitress. I clear tables.
And I love it here. I love Paul and Martha very much.
Pass me the other one.
When Sarah left St Lucy's,
her mother was talking to my sister-in-law about Sarah.
I cried, 'What are we gonna do? What's she gonna do? You know?'
I said, 'Would you like to be a waitress, Sarah?'
'Oh, yes,' said Sarah. I' don't know what it is, but I'll be one.'
Um, black skirt and a white shirt. Monday morning, you're a waitress.
And this is the fourth business that we've been in that Sarah's come to work with us.
So whenever we've moved businesses, she's moved with us.
So she started at 18, and she's now 40 years old.
Barbecue chicken? Thank you.
We're helping each other, and we give support in the Hope Group,
because we still share our experience; we still share our difficulties;
we're still laughing with each other to our problems.
We've formed a real friendship, and that's why I come to this.
Because I think it meant so much, and I want to instil the fact that,
you know, we've gotta stick together. And that's how you find out what's happening
or, you know, whatever.
So as a parents, by having a child with disability, we are very fragile.
We need the care the same as our children need care.
Cheers. Cheers.
Pressures on our families are enormous.
It's really important to talk very honestly about the challenges they're facing in their family life,
in their individual working lives, in their home life.
A number of years ago, we did, of course, have a very sad event,
a tragedy here, uh, and a whole family ceased.
That rocked this community to the core.
(POIGNANT MUSIC)
Maria Lutz was a woman full of vitality, full of energy,
and her two children who both had autism were here at St Lucy's.
She was an inspiration to everybody. Everybody loved Maria,
and if they were down in the dumps, they would ring Maria.
She was that kind of person.
When she and the children died, mothers started looking at their husbands differently
and wondering could it be done to them and their children.
Could it be that their husband would lose the confidence to go on?
I was the acting principal in 2016,
and the dads, one after the other, would come to me and say
that they felt in some way guilty too,
because they were men and that they felt that men had—
this particular father had let them all down.
One of the reflections was that they realised
that they hadn't spoken to anybody at their workplace about their child having an intellectual disability,
and they discovered that all the mums had —
that the mums got together and would share their stresses and concerns, but the dads didn't.
And a few of them suggested that the men need to get together and have a talk about it.
And a few people came very very negative, you know, didn't feel it would work.
But they came because of the situation, out of respect for Maria and the children.
And... And they were just stunned by how fabulous it all worked.
Jack. Cheers. No worries.
Sounds good, thank you.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(BOTH LAUGH)
How'd you survive the holidays? It wasn't too bad. Kim organised plenty of stuff for the kids.
The dads are particularly concerned about their wives and the emotional stress that is put on them,
their relationship with their wife, how hard that is because of the pressures,
not being able to have a holiday together.
They've talked about how some of their relatives and friends have fallen away
because they're uncomfortable around their child.
I know toileting for our family's a real issue.
You wanna go to really good friends' homes, right,
that they get special needs, because if they don't
and there's an accident, it can be pretty confronting.
I think that the hardest thing as a family unit and how we function
is just really just the level of energy required.
And that's the main thing and just not having the extra person to just take off some of the weight.
Some of our families need help and support from the school.
Of course we can't be with them 24-7, but what we can provide is the safe, nurturing, loving environment
where the children want to come. And that's really important,
because sometimes for our families to get the child out of the door to go to the shops or to go to the park
can be a huge challenge.
(GENTLE, THOUGHTFUL PIANO MUSIC)
(CHILDREN CHATTER FAINTLY)
St Dominic helped bring his community together through prayer and kindness.
May we come together as one to give thanks for the wonderful person St Dominic was.
CHOIR SING: # Ain't got a soapbox I can stand upon,
# but God gave me a stage, a guitar and a song.
St Dominic's Day is very important. It's probably the biggest day on our calendar.
So it's a special day. And we get together with our neighbours, Prouille School,
who are also a Dominican school, and we just have a really big day of celebration.
The Dominican Sisters still own St Lucy's, and they call St Lucy's the 'jewel in their crown'.
# But what do I know? #
(BAGPIPES PLAY, DRUMS THUMP, RATTLE)
(LIVELY CHATTER)
Well, it's a bit emotional for-for-for me, because it's gonna be the— the last St Dominic's Day
that-that for-for me here at St Lucy's and for the— and for... for me and the community.
(BAGPIPES CONTINUE PLAYING)
The joy that we see on a daily basis when a child understands something for the first time
and their eyes light up, and just the way the children seem to actually just accept each other,
that kind of happiness is just gold.
(GENTLE SWELLING MUSIC)
(GENTLE MUSIC)
Captions by Glenna Casalme
www.able.co.nz
Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.
Copyright Able 2018
(MUSIC SLOWS)
Attitude was made with funding from NZ On Air.
Tickets are now on sale for the 2018 Attitude Awards.
This premier event shines a spotlight on the achievements
of people who live with disability.
Go to attitudeawards.org for information about the event.
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