Wednesday 21st
In the afternoon Romy accompanied us to the Pedagogical Teacher Training Institute for the City of Vienna.
After his introduction, the principal, Dr Paul Kral gave a tour of part of the institute. We stopped to admire a series of black and white photographs as he explained their representation of the institute’s 84 year history and his personal ideology that teaching should be child centred with the teacher as an ‘artist’.
We also viewed the institute’s resources library. This provides materials and expertise for teachers from all districts of Vienna. In return, teachers leave portfolios of their work in the library to share their best practice.
We also heard from Gabriele Gstettenbauer, the in-service trainer for SEN. She highlighted two main areas of focus:
• Training covering general, physical, communication and behaviour related SEN, with emphasis on teamwork, differentiation and use of a framework for students.
• A programme for children with behavioural difficulties, providing peripatetic specialist support for both the children on the programme and their parents. .
Teachers have to complete a minimum of 15 hours in-service training per year with a maximum of 23 hours away from class teaching. The nature of the in-service training is decided by the individual teacher, although sanctioned by the headteacher.
We ended our afternoon with a presentation by Karin Pittner, one of 25 special needs advisory teachers for Vienna. They provide a referral service for teachers who have concerns about individual pupils who are working in mainstream classes. Much of her assessment is done with children in the last year of primary school to identify how many inclusion places are required at secondary level. However, she is also encouraging contact at the transition from kindergarten to primary, recognising the benefit of early intervention.
Trish Palmer, Filleigh Primary School & Liz Hayward, Ashburton Primary School