Growth Opportunities and Life Skills is a divisional program, which uses a flexible model to support students with complex learning needs related to significant cognitive delays.
The present program meets each students needs and ensure a highly inclusive model. Student’s individual programs and daily schedules depend on the best context for meeting their needs and they may participate in any or all of these tiered learning situations:
- Intensive/individualized: These supports are for students with significant cognitive delays and whose needs are involved and complex. Programming support provides assistance with basic care, intense medical/behavioral interventions, communication supports and foundational adaptive skills. Students requiring this level of programming are often fully dependent on adult support to meet their basic needs.
- Targeted/individualized: These supports are for students who demonstrate some independence but require program modifications far from their expected grade level and adaptive skill support.
- Targeted/ Small group: These supports typically focus more on functional literacy and numeracy skills and skills for daily living. At the junior and senior high levels, some of our students in this grouping might also access modified K&E programming.
Rather than being segregated to one classroom setting, the class ensures all students are an active part of our school community. This flexible learning model allows students to move across learning environments in order to enrich their experiences and increase opportunities. Students have the opportunity to participate in learning opportunities within a whole school community, small group targeted interventions and access small class sizes with high levels of support when required. All of these environments create learning opportunities that are meaningful and relevant to each student’s abilities, interests and needs.
An example of this flexible model:
All students will have an individualized program and schedule directly related to their needs. For example, one student may start their day with same aged peers in a typical “homeroom” setting with staff support. They would participate in curricular objectives and activities modified to match their learning needs within that classroom setting. At other times in the day, this same student might join students in a smaller group setting to participate in targeted literacy, numeracy interventions or social skill development. Within this flexible model, students with significant cognitive delays will continue to have access to highly specialized and individualized programming, with opportunity to participate in inclusive learning environments across the entire school.