Day 3

Tuesday 20th February 2007

Today we visited a Primary School at Friedrichscplatz 5, 1150 Vienna. This school had been selected because it had inclusion classes catering for children with learning difficulties as part of a school population which represented many of the different nationalities who have sought to make their homes in Vienna – emphasising it’s strategic position geographically at the heart of Europe. We were met by the Head Teacher Silvia Schemeilzl, who welcomed us to her school. We were briefed in the staff room about the school layout and some background of the school. We were then allowed access to almost every classroom within the school. These are some of the things we observed and found out for ourselves.• Class 1b consisted of 100% non German speaking children of 10 different nationalities.
• Staff are flexable in their approach to teaching.
• A new initiative was proposed by the teacher and set up by the school with full involvement of these teachers, the initiative was to set up a specialist unit to include a high number of special needs children from primary age up to and including senior school age children. This involved secondary school teachers coming to The sessions in the primary school with visits ti the secondary school by the pupils when secondary facilities were required.
• Within an average Inclusion class there is no more than 5 children with special needs.
• Most inclusion classes have two teachers, one which specialises in SEN or language.
• There were no whole school guidelines, playtime, food breaks, and behaviour sanctions were at the discretion of the class teacher.
• A speech therapist comes into the school twice a week for three hours, she currently works with 17 children in this school and visits 3 other schools. When children start school each child is assessed on a individual basis.
• Each class holds a informal circle time once week to discuss whole class issues.
• For each child the teacher has a budget of 38. euros to spend. But children with special Educational needs this is increased to 64. euro per child.
• Overall we found that this school had a very positive environment for developing the social and emotional needs of the children.
• The relationship between the children and the teachers was very relaxed and trusting.
• However we felt that the resources were limited and the building was outdated. As was the pedagogy we observed, in comparison to the English, highly structured and standardised curriculum. We were welcomed into every classroom by the class teachers and children. We all found the visit to be very enjoyable and informative. We then went our separate ways and took a tram to the Palace. A tour around inside and the wonderful gardens full of surprises enthralled all of us. Another wonderful meal and to bed ready for another excited day tomorrow.Chris Mason & Sue Manley