ORRS Guidelines

2006 revision of the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) Guidelines. The guidelines explain about the Schemes for students with the highest special education needs, the criteria for eligibility and the application process.

Criterion 9

Students with Combined Moderate Needs.

Criterion 9 is for students with moderate-to-high learning needs in combination with two other needs at the moderate-to-high level. The three needs inter-relate to significantly reduce a student's ability to access the curriculum.

These students require assistance throughout their schooling from specialists and teachers to access the curriculum, and to support the development of Essential Skills and learning achievements.

Towards the end of their schooling many students will be achieving most Level One objectives and beginning to work on Level Two objectives of the Essential Learning Areas. These achievements will be supported by specialist programmes and equipment.

When the students leave school, they may require ongoing support services.

Sub-criterion 9.1 is a pre-requisite for eligibility.

9.1 Students need significant adaptation of most curriculum content.

This sub-criterion is for students who have delayed cognitive development. At five, students will be learning skills and knowledge usually achieved by children up to three and a half years of age.

For example, they can:

complete three to four piece puzzles
name familiar objects in pictures
demonstrate an understanding of some early concepts, such as big/little, in/out
match colour, shape and size
give one object on request and sometimes two
demonstrate simple problem-solving
use sentences of three or more words.

With frequent repetition, they are learning to:

respond appropriately to questions such as what? where?
imitate a vertical and a horizontal stroke and need:
prompts about toileting and other routines of daily care
frequent prompts to stay and complete activities.

9.2 Students need specialist teacher intervention and monitoring to assist with moderate hearing impairment.

This sub-criterion is for students who have a moderate or

moderate-severe hearing loss (41 - 70 decibels) and use hearing aids for learning.

These students need specialist advice and teaching strategies to improve their language development, understanding of concepts and Essential Skills.

This sub-criterion is not for students who have a central auditory processing disorder.

9.3 Students need specialist teacher intervention and monitoring to assist with moderate vision impairment.

This sub-criterion is for students who have moderate vision impairment with visual acuity of 6/24 after best possible correction and/or a loss restricting the field of vision to 30 - 60 degrees.

These students need specialist advice and teaching strategies to access the curriculum.

This sub-criterion is not for students who have visual perception difficulties alone.

9.4 Students need specialist intervention and monitoring to assist with moderate physical needs.

Students who meet this sub-criterion have moderate to high difficulties with gross and fine motor skills. They usually require environmental adaptations, specialised equipment or technology and adaptations to the curriculum in physical education, technology, written language and Education Outside the Classroom.

These students require physiotherapist and/or occupational therapist involvement to help maintain their physical wellbeing and to advise on special equipment and adaptations.

9.5 Students need specialist intervention and monitoring to assist with a moderate disorder of both language use and appropriate social communication.

This sub-criterion is for students who have both language and social behaviours that are unusual, repetitive and inappropriate in their context, and impact on learning and social interactions.

They have difficulty understanding or communicating through non-verbal cues and rarely use speech for reciprocal, conversational purposes. They often have an unusual tone of voice and speak very precisely. Some are very literal, misinterpret what they hear, have a narrow range of obsessive interests and talk on and on about the same topic.

Some students have good rote learning skills but have difficulties with comprehension and generalisation. They often lack empathy, are socially isolated and are inflexible. Their resistance to change can cause anxiety and lead to aggression and other inappropriate behaviour.

Cory: 4 years 11 months - a brief profile

Cory has learning and physical difficulties, and vision impairment.

With verbal prompting Cory can follow set routines such as knowing where to hang up his bag and sitting at a table for morning tea. His attention to task during group activities is very short, and he requires an adult to prompt and physically guide him through most tabletop activities.

Cory's best-corrected visual acuity is 6/24. He often brings books up very close to his face and copes better with pictures that are uncluttered.

Cory speaks in two or three-word phrases and uses gesture to make his needs known. He understands simple one step instructions but often needs further verbal and physical prompts to carry them out. Cory enjoys listening to stories and can identify some pictures of common objects. He holds a crayon with a fist grip and attempts to copy a circle with circular scribbles. Cory can match by shape and colour, and identifies two colours.

Cory walks with an uneven gait and needs to hold a person's hand when walking over uneven surfaces. Cory has difficulties with depth perception causing him to misjudge his step and to fall frequently. He uses furniture to stand up from the floor and sometimes uses a walking frame outside. He climbs steps with two feet per step, holding onto a rail or person's hand. He is toilet trained but needs help to get onto the toilet and to adjust his clothing.