Aspire!

As well as having a passion for geography and the teaching of it, I am also extremely interested in the education of SEN students. For the last 2 years I have worked with an organisation called Take A Break which funds both youth groups and sessions for children with disabilities, special needs and terminal illness, subsequently giving their families some rest bite also. The ethos of Take A Break is to provide the children with access to fun and enjoyable activities within their local community, as well as to develop a skills base of social skills that they can apply in other aspects of their lives.

Having been lucky enough to have the chance to travel to Mumbai this summer, as part of my agenda I decided that whilst I was there I would visit and spend a short amount of time in one of their SEN schools. The school I visited on my trip was formerly called The Spastic Society of India, but it is now more commonly known as Aspire. 

The school currently has around 100 pupils that attend it daily. Their ages range from 2-22 and the students are grouped according to ability. In the higher ability classes the students have lessons in English, Maths, Science and other more creative subjects such as Art and Music. The less able students at the school take part in a more vocational programmes of study. They predominantly learn skills for trade and work but also for daily life and socialising. For example, the students are taught to cook and wash clothes. They are also taught work skills such as jewelry making – children spend hours putting beads onto pieces of thread and the work is differentiated by bead and thread size. Clearly this type of activity is extremely difficult for the students as it utilises fine motor skills, but if they are able to master it, it is a good skill for them to use for money and work. Similarly they are also taught how to hole punch paper and file work in folders. 

Many of the children that attend Aspire are from the local slum areas in and around Colabo. The school was originally set up primarily for SEN students but recently this has changed and they now take on main stream pupils too. As a result they currently have two full size classes of nursery children who come from the local slum area and will continue their education with the school. When speaking to members of staff and touring the school it is obvious of how much for a push for “inclusion” there is there. They are keen to have SEN students as part of not only main stream schools but the local society. This is something I found extremely refreshing and in all honesty not what I expected. When you consider this notion with where we are in Britain with SEN schooling, the idea of Inclusion is really progressive and encouraging to see here. 

In terms of staffing at the school there are many people working there. Firstly there are the ‘mothers’ who work behind the scenes at the school cooking fresh, hot dinners and keeping the place clean and tidy. Then there is one member of teaching staff per class who sometimes has a teaching assistant with them. There are a number of professionals at the school such as physiotherapists, children psychologists and behaviourlists. Many of the staff have trained in the UK and are very proud of their hard work and qualifications.

On the other hand the resources in the school were not as much of a privilege. Although the building is very colourful, clean and bright the resources are fairly limited. There is a wonderful sensory room and soft play area but the classrooms themselves are sometimes lacking. Sadly when practising skills such as hole-punching for example the students are often sharing one between at least ten. Additionally, many of the children with cerebral palsy are not able to afford splints and wheelchairs. The school does own one or two wheelchairs of its own but they are still very basic in nature and given to the most severe children.

Although money clearly holds back some of the progression in this school it does not take away from the positive work they really are achieving there. The set up is very similar to home  - if not, in my opinion,  more progressive in their aims and future targets. The staff make the most of what they have and prove to be very inventful when it comes to resources and activity ideas. Visiting this school was a real opportunity and there is so much I will take away from this opportunity and apply to my own teaching career. 

This slogan on the school's minibus really summed up my positive experience!