Meet the Students

These student profiles are fictitious examples, created to reflect the diverse range of young people in a typically representative variety of school settings and locations.

Following each profile is part of the student's completed IEP form, with comments to indicate how this has addressed the key points outlined on the previous page.

Hayden

Hayden is 11 and attends a large urban intermediate school. He is a Year 7 student in a class of 32 Year 7 and 8 students. The school has a decile rating of 7. The students come from a range of backgrounds. There is one student in Hayden's class who is in the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes and has a high level of need. Hayden often stands up for this student when others put him down. Hayden's teacher, John, has taught at this school for five years and is experienced in supporting students with special education needs.

Hayden has difficulty settling to tasks, makes inappropriate noises when the class is working, moves around the class when the students are engaged in individual and group work and is often unwilling to comply with the teacher's requests and instructions. In the playground he frequently disrupts other children's play by arguing about the rules, taking the ball from a game or hitting others when they disagree with him. In most curriculum areas Hayden's attainments are about two years behind his age level. He has a particular interest and ability in art. There are three other students in the class with similar attainment levels. Hayden has just been referred to the RTLB service and has been accepted on the roll of Diane, the RTLB who services the school.

Hayden lives with his mother Rae and two older siblings who attend the local college. Rae is concerned about Hayden's ability to cope at college and about how he behaves when he is out in the community.

During the next term Hayden's group will be going to food technology. His class will be participating weekly in a syndicate sports session and the teacher has a major cross-curriculum thematic project about space, which will involve individual student learning contracts and group projects.

Hayden's complete IEP form is available for download from the table of contents page.

Alice

Alice is now five-and-a-half years old, has been at school for six months, and previously attended kindergarten for two years, where she was supported by the early intervention team. 

Alice has a number of significant disabilities, and has been verified as having very high support needs within the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes. She is fully dependent on others for all activities of daily living (eating, toileting, changes of posture and position); she is non-verbal; and she has a significant visual impairment.

Alice lives on a large dairy farm with her parents, Judy and Steve, two older sisters and twin brothers, aged two. The farm is 10 km from the nearest small rural town where Alice and her sisters go to school. The family are very involved in the school community and the day-to-day programme for Alice. Judy takes Alice to school and back every day in their van. Steve is on the board of trustees. 

This is a five-teacher school with a decile 6 rating. Alice is in a Year 1/2 class of 23 students. She is also enrolled with the Correspondence School. Her class teacher, Kay, has been teaching for 10 years but has never taught a student with significant disabilities before. When Alice started school, ramps were installed so that she could access her classroom and the hall. A changing table has just been funded by the Ministry of Education, and a new wheelchair has been funded by the Ministry of Health. Carol has been employed by the school as a teacher aide until 2pm every day to support Alice's programme.

Alice is sociable, alert, and shows a strong desire to communicate. At the moment she does so through a combination of facial expressions, whole-body movements, and a range of sounds. Some of the other students who went to kindergarten with Alice are quite skilful at interpreting her communication attempts. Carol finds it easier to understand Alice now, but Kay still finds it difficult to know what Alice is trying to say. Occasionally one of Alice's sisters is brought in to interpret if Alice is distressed or frustrated.

Next term Alice's class is involved in the school Pet Day and the end-of-year concert.  In the overall class programme the two areas of most challenge to Alice are the physical education programme, which this term has a focus on small ball skills, and participation in the reading programme, especially shared reading and group discussions.

Alice's complete IEP form is available for download from the table of contents page.

Tama

Tama is 10 years old.  He is in Year 6 at a large urban contributing school. The school has a decile rating of 1.

Tama has been on the school's special needs register since school entry because of his language difficulties. At present his reading, written language and oral language skills are at about a 6 year old level (Level 1 in the English curriculum) and his attainment in mathematics is at about a 7-8 year old level (Level 2 of the mathematics curriculum). Tama is an enthusiastic participant in the school's multicultural club where he performs with skill. In this context he learns and remembers the words and actions to haka and waiata successfully.

Tama's mother and father (Ngaere and Eddie) and brothers and sisters speak English at home. They see Tama's success at Kapa Haka as very important but are very concerned about his progress in the classroom programme.

Tama's teacher, Susan, is a Year 5 teacher who has taught at the school for the past three years. There are a number of other students in the class whose attainments in English and mathematics are below their chronological age but Tama is the student with greatest need.

During the next term Tama will take his turn with two other classmates to organise and present the weekly school assembly. His class will be working in small groups to undertake science fair projects for the school's science fair in the second to last week of next term.

Tama's complete IEP form is available for download from the table of contents page.

Natasha

Natasha is 16. She attends a large urban secondary school as a student in Te Whare Ako Pai, an attached special education unit. Natasha has Down Syndrome with associated intellectual disability. She has been verified as having a high need for ongoing resourcing. Natasha expects to be at school for two more years and then hopes to have a job.

The school has a decile 3 rating and the students come predominantly from families on low incomes. There are 12 students in the unit with two teachers and two teacher aides. The students have most of their classes in the unit but some students join mainstream classes for some lessons. Natasha joins a fifth form class for form time, assembly, art and PE classes. 

Natasha is the youngest in her family. Her older siblings are all living away from home now. Her mother, Shirley, works part-time at the school as a cleaner and her father, Jack, has just taken early retirement from a local plastics manufacturing firm that is downsizing. Shirley and Jack are pleased with how Natasha is doing at school, but are very concerned about what she will do when she finishes school.

Natasha is popular with the staff of the unit. Her oral communication skills are adequate within the familiar contexts of home, school, and the taxi run between the two. To people who don't know her well, her speech is hard to understand and her vocabulary range is limited. Natasha can read her name and approximately 25 social sight words when she is in familiar surroundings. She can count up to 20, recognises money up to $10 notes and can copy up to three short sentences, although her handwriting is very hard to read and it takes her a long time. She follows two-part verbal instructions, can independently move around familiar areas of the school and can make her way to the dairy at the end of the road from her home.

Natasha has a heart condition which precludes her from strenuous physical activity and for which she is on life-long medication, administered at home. She enjoys food and is significantly over-weight. She has glasses to correct her marked short-sightedness and has to be reminded to wear them.

Transitions, the local Supported Employment service, has been working with Natasha and her team for the past year. Together they used the MAPS process to plan for Natasha's options beyond school. She works one morning a week at the local recreation centre and has enrolled in an aerobics class there.