Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Apr 2001

Vol. 166 No. 5

Adjournment Matters. - Special Educational Needs.

Mr. Ó Fearghail

I thank the Minister for being present to take this item on the Adjournment. St. Anne's school in the Curragh is one of a small number of schools nationally that provide specialist care for children with mental handicap. In the past five years or so it has been designated for children with moderate to severe and profound handicap. This means that the profile of St. Anne's has changed and the range of ability has broadened to encompass children who have high dependency and slow rate of progress and who need a high staffing ratio to achieve even basic goals. It has been proven that with the correct staff input and a properly structured programme the students can achieve in areas that would in other times have not been considered.

Several of the students at St. Anne's, where there is a significant second level stream involving about 40 of the student population of 80, have other conditions. They may have autism and there are other factors affecting their welfare in the school, giving rise to a demonstration of challenging behaviour. This can manifest itself in volatile, aggressive and unpredictable violent outbursts from time to time. These students often do not succeed in learning in groups as they need intensive, structured and individualised lessons and require one to one tuition. The school has on occasion been able to provide one to one cover and where that has happened the progress that has been observed in the case of the students has been exceptional.

For some time there has been a request with the Department of Education and Science focusing on allowing the school to continue to develop its vocational programme for students in the 12 to 19 year old category. We acknowledge that the Department has approved 700 additional teaching hours to this school which has enabled a range of subjects involving woodwork, home economics and horticulture in particular to be provided to the second level students. Those 700 hours were allocated at a time when there were just two classes of students in the 12 to 18 year old category. Now the school has grown to a point where there are 40 students in that area and the Minister's Department has received a request for an additional 900 teaching hours to meet the needs of these special needs students.

I salute the Minister for the outstanding work he has done since coming to office in combating disadvantage and providing right across the country for people with special needs. This school has an urgent need and we ask for the Minister's attention and hope for a positive response. I invite the Minister to come and see the outstanding work being done by St. Anne's school.

Dr. Woods

I am glad the Senator has raised this matter and given me an opportunity to clarify to the House the current position. St. Anne's is a special school which caters for special needs pupils across the age range four to 18 years. It provides educational programmes at primary and post-primary level for these pupils. It caters for pupils with a moderate general learning disability and for pupils with a severe or profound general learning disability. The school has a current enrolment of approximately 76 pupils. It has a principal and 11 teachers allocated directly to the school by the special education division of my Department. Staff are allocated to the school on the basis of a ratio of 8:1 for pupils with moderate general learning disability and a ratio of 6:1 for severe or profound general learning disability. The school also has 14 special needs assistants. In addition, it has for a number of years additional teaching resources provided through County Kildare VEC under a co-operation arrangement.

I am aware that the school now serves children and older pupils who have high dependency. These pupils may have a slow rate of progress and require a high staffing ratio to achieve educational goals. The school has over recent years had increasing enrolments, particularly in the post-primary age group. This has resulted in a changing profile in pupil intake. It has also required the development of appropriate programmes to meet changing educational needs of pupils. Originally the school had two senior classes and this has now increased to five senior classes. It provides a practical vocational education and training curriculum in home economics, horticulture and woodwork for its senior pupils in the age range 12 to 18 years. The VEC supports St. Anne's by allocating teaching resources to the school as part of the VEC remit to provide for continuing education in County Kildare.

The vocational education committee's co-operation arrangement with St. Anne's school provides for an allocation of teaching hours in the practical courses provided for the school's senior pupils. An allocation of 20 hours per week has been provided up to now. Following receipt of a request from St. Anne's for increased support, County Kildare VEC applied to my Department for an increase in the approved allocation. The application was referred to my Department's inspectorate for consideration. Having considered its report, I am pleased to inform the House that my Department has approved an additional allocation of 25 teaching hours per week in respect of St. Anne's. This will enable the school to provide an enhanced practical curriculum to meet the needs of its expanding senior class enrolment. I am pleased to approve the additional resources requested to enable this successful co-operative support arrangement to further develop and enhance educational provision for pupils in the school.

As with all VEC co-operation arrangements, the allocation will be reviewed annually by the committee and by my Department. I would like to take the opportunity to commend the management and staff of County Kildare VEC and St. Anne's school for their initiative, commitment and achievements in developing appropriate programmes for special needs pupils.

The Seanad adjourned at 7.50 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 12 April 2001.