Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 405 Issue Date: 5 Sep, 2010

This morning Adrian Piers, Principal of the Mirrabooka Education Support Centre spoke at our club about the work of the centre. 

The centre has been set up to assist in the development of intellectually disabled children living in the northern suburbs area.  Many of these children have experienced a significant amount of trauma in their lives having come as refugees into Australia.  Approximately 30% of the students are autistic.  The consequence is that each child needs to be assessed individually and is schooled with an individual program.

The primary objective for the centre is to provide:

“…a safe and supportive learning environment, where the rights and responsibilities of the individual are recognised and respected.”

The centre has been affiliated with Mirrabooka Senior High school for some years and is situated between the Primary and High school campus.  It is also affiliated with neighbouring schools which run various vocational programs such as Balga Senior High School and the Swan TAFE.

The centre has the same time schedule as a high school in that students are taken in at the same age as high school students and leave within a 5 year time frame with the possible extension of an additional year.  There are 7 classrooms with about 56 students, 9 full time teachers and approximately 20 full time teaching assistants.

During their time at the school students initially spend time in a socialisation program to address the trauma related injuries and assist them in relating to other students and teachers.  They then move on to learn some of the basics about independent living such as how to travel on public transport, cooking, cleaning and general housework. 

As an introduction to vocational training the children are placed in voluntary organizations where they  undertake tasks such as collecting paper and community clean up with organizations such as the RSPCA and Foodbank.

They then move on to vocational training where they can earn a living and still contribute the community.  This assists in their community integration and self esteem.  The Centre currently places children in local businesses such as Woolworths, IGA, Bunnings, Coles and Tyre fitting as a means of structured work experience learning.

As such there is a development path mapped out for each child which maximizes their independence and ability to cope and live in our society.

Recently with the government funding stimulus packages for schools, the centre has been able to construct it’s own Independent Living Centre which simulates a typical home and enables the children to learn to help themselves in the home environment.

Part of the student’s academic life involves learning how to fill in forms and using computer technology.  Recent technological advancements such as the ‘interactive whiteboard’ have been implemented successfully, and found useful and stimulating for the children.   Bringing CSI television to reality!!

This approach being adopted would appear at first glance to be very costly however if compared against previous models of institutionalized care actually results in a far more cost effective and beneifical result both to the children as well as the community. 

Building people is a costly business… but to not do it… is far worse.