Unique programme in Sumner schools

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 16

Unique programme in Sumner schools

Sefton Bartlett believes that the integration programme between Van Asch College and Sumner School is unique in the world for school-age children. As principal of the college, which caters for deaf students in the South Island and south of Taupo, he started the programme eight years ago.

“I felt there were a lot of children with special needs who would benefit from the opportunity to spent part of the day with normal children, even when it wasn’t practicable for them to be mainstreamed in their local schools,” he explains. He found there was support for the idea both in the local primary school and in Sumner community. It has gradually grown.

Now standard one and form one pupils from Sumner School have the opportunity to spend a year at Van Asch, mixing with deaf students of a similar age wherever appropriate. Similarly, Sumner School has a deaf unit, whose pupils mix with mainstream children for certain activities.

The programme aims to create a positive, stimulating atmosphere which en-

courages co-operation and friendship, removing the fear of communicating and interacting with children with special needs and encouraging the development of high selfesteem and a feeling of “belonging.”

“It needed to be flexible enough for interaction between students to vary according to the needs of the students,” Sefton Bartlett believes. Interaction js encouraged in • all social and cultural activities, art, physical education, crafts, music, sport and technicrafts, but it may be appropriate in other areas as well, the teachers have found. A student needing remedial help may find studying with a small group of hearing-impaired students beneficial; a hearing-impaired child who is good in a certain subject, such as maths, may be able to join the mainstream class for that subject. All of this requires close co-operation between teachers, but the staff feel it is worth the effort. “The presence of hearing children gives ‘normal’ behaviour patterns to model,” points out Thelma Costain, who

teaches the form one pupils. "It gives many of the deaf children confidence, in the initial stages especially, since the integration is taking place on their ‘home territory’.”

She finds there are advantages for the hearing children as well.

“It gives them a better awareness of deafness as a handicap. They see through working with the deaf how much difficulty they encounter.” There are obvious practical advantages, too, in having free access to the resources of two schools.

The integration programme is introduced gradually at the standard one level, starting with social activities in the afternoon. There was a great deal of teacher guidance, and the situation was rather forced, say the two teachers involved, Lynn Roberts and Tiffany Langley. They tried to make all integration times non-threatening and enjoyable. To begin with, the deaf children always selected another deaf child as their partner or team-mate. It was only as both groups recognised the strengths of children in the other class that the

barriers broke down. Within six months they found the integration more natural and obviously enjoyable. The hearing children have twice weekly classes in total “communication,” learning Australasian sign language and other aspects of commu'nicating with deaf people. Good communication skills are seen as an essential part of a successful Integration programme.

The programme has been so successful that it has now been extended to include some multi-handi-capped children.

Community support is such that both integrated classes are always oversubscribed. Many parents have commented on the ease with which their children relate to any handicapped person. They have no fear, only genuine interest, say Lynn Roberts and Tiffany Langley. As one parent said, after watching the integration unit’s production at the Sumner School Christmas concert, “Hearing those children, both deaf and not deaf, sing so naturally together is the most moving thing I have everexperienced.”