Individual+Differences-Inclusiveness+Policy+and+Rationale

** Apocrypha Secondary College ** supports and promotes the concept and process of inclusive education by: ** Family-School Partnerships **  Parental involvement is sought at the implementation and development of their child's Individual Learning Plan when considering special educational needs. Parents' aspirations for their children’s future are carefully considered when designing programs. Parental participation in attaining quality ILP objectives is highly desirable.
 * Apocrypha Secondary College **
 * Individual Differences and Inclusiveness Policy ** 
 * Basic Principles **
 * All students have the right to an education which will allow them to participate effectively in the school community and will prepare them to bridge the gap between the school and the wider world.
 * All students anticipate success and enjoyment through active participation in their own learning.
 * All students respect each other and work hand in hand with members of the school community.
 * All students are valued and diversity and differences are celebrated, respected and appreciated. [|[xix]]
 * School Practices **
 * Promoting respect for individual differences among students.
 * Establishing high achievement expectations for all students.
 * Encouraging the development of caring personal relationships among students, between students and staff and between the school and the community.
 * Providing a continuum of placement opportunities, support and services within the school that is available to all students.
 * Providing opportunities for and actively promoting staff professional development that relates to the practice and philosophy of inclusive education.
 * Promoting the use of the school's teaching structure as a means of support for the implementation of inclusive education practices.
 * Aiming to provide time for teachers to meet so as to plan for the continued development of inclusive practices.
 * Encouraging the development of positive self-esteem.

School Executive ** ** Classroom Staff ** ** Complaints-Resolution ** Apocrypha College supports the outcomes of the //Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century// (MCEETYA, 1999) and encourages children in need of support to contact Kids Help at, [].
 * Roles and Responsibilities
 * 1)  Actively promoting and supporting inclusive education as central to the school's vision of good education.
 * 2)  Providing opportunities for appropriate professional development for all staff.
 * 3)  Ensuring staff schedules facilitate time to plan and collaborate.
 * 4)  Ensure classroom staff develop suitable teaching programs.
 * 1)  Provide curriculum content and design and a range of teaching strategies that show an understanding of each student’s individual learning context. [|[xx]]
 * 2) Work in partnership with parents when designing Individual Learning Plans, keeping inclusion options in focus.
 * A student, employee, volunteer or parent may deal with complaints of alleged unlawful discrimination either by way of informal complaint or by way of formal complaint.
 * If any person believes that he or she has been unlawfully discriminated against, Apocrypha College will take that complaint seriously and investigate it fully and confidentially. Any person making a complaint and any witness to alleged unlawful discrimination shall not be victimised or unfairly treated in any way as a consequence of making the complaint or offering any evidence.
 * Any person found to be in contravention of this policy will have access to the provision of a professional analyst as nominated by the College and afforded full opportunity to question and rethink their primary beliefs and values so as to engage with the world in a way that is not traumatic for the individual and those that the individual interacts with in the College community.

** Rationale ** "Inclusion is a philosophy built on the belief that all people are equal and should be respected and valued, as an issue of basic human rights." UNESCO - Rights of the Child, 1997. [i] At ** Apocrypha Secondary College we believe we must; ** ü Provide equitable, high quality education for each student with a disability. ü  Include each student in our school community. ü  Recognise and respond to the diverse needs of all students whilst having support and services to meet those needs ü  Respect, accept and understand differences. ü  Encourage, support, care and offer friendship among all members of the school community. Apocrypha S.C. seeks an ethics for our time. We believe that the foundational staging ground of any ethical policy is the consideration not of good and bad or even the consideration of the beautiful, but rather the consideration of desire itself. To merely enforce adherence to recognised goods or to entreat a pure concept of duty is to invite transgression. Leading students towards an ethical stance based upon rationality and informed decision making ignores a fundamental distinction between representation and affect. Fine explanations, as to why prejudice occurs, such as ignorance, (easily addressed in an educational setting surely?), overlook the powerful forces that hold the subjects prejudices in place; i.e. the subject is deriving considerable satisfaction! Albeit sublimated or substitute satisfaction. “A purely linguistic or interpretive analysis of the events and experiences surrounding the formation of the symptom does not suffice to eliminate it.” [vi] Metamorphosis is only possible when a representation of a subject’s history is made AND they feel //something// at the same time-some emotion or affect, // (empathy, inclusiveness etc.), // that enables a change in behaviours and attitudes. [vii] Apocrypha S.C. neither condemns nor judges the behaviour, merely the desire. Apocrypha Secondary College has the right to protect its educational purpose and students from the irresponsible conduct of others. How people in a school behave towards each other sets a tone that has a profound effect upon what students learn. The social, emotional and physical development of each child lies at the heart of the educational process. Collectively and individually all members of the St Apocrypha community will, through discernable action, demonstrate a concern for the welfare of others. "For the whole community inclusion is a step closer to a better world, a world a little less fearful, less bigoted and more caring and accepting." Ludmilia Regos - Parent of a child with disabilities (Victoria) [viii]. In line with the College values, our program allows students with identified special education rights the inherent right of respect for their human worth and dignity and to realise their individual capacity for spiritual, physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. [ix] The purpose of this policy is to ensure that support and assistance is provided to students having difficulties accessing the curriculum due to ethnicity, gender, marital status, parental status, family responsibilities, religious affiliation, pregnancy, age, physical characteristics, differences in intelligence, learning styles, sexual orientation, political affiliation, miscegenation, (mixed race parenting), personal crisis, language, culture, disability, prior conviction, disorders and/or syndromes. [x] This policy also serves concurrently with and by no means is intended to contravene the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Plan 2008-2010, as well as the following relevant legislation and Government policies.
 * Apocrypha Secondary College believes that t ** wenty first century thinking requires that we “discard the kind of rationality that limits us to linear ways of viewing the world” [ii], that we “must acknowledge multiple perspectives and concern ourselves with what is socially just” [iii] , that we can no longer “assume that there is some universal knowledge ‘out there’ that will equally serve people across the globe”. [iv] Apocrypha Secondary College is a firm believer that we must instead “account for the various ways people construct identities in different contexts” and “consider how we are simultaneously constructed by context”. We must “recognize the importance of ambiguity and contradiction.” [v]

· // Racial and Religious Tolerance Act (2001) **[xi]**  // · // Multicultural Victoria Act (2004) **[xii]**  // · // Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (2006) **[xiii]**  // · A Fairer Victoria [xiv] · DEECD //Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood Development// (2008) [xv] · Growing Victoria Together [xvi] · Valuing Cultural Diversity [xvii] · DEECD Multicultural Education Policy and Guidelines for Managing Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Schools [xviii]

= References = [|[i]] Flekkoy, Malfrid Grude and Hevener Kaufman, Natalie (1997), //The Participation Rights of the Child: Rights and Responsibilities in Family and Society//, Jessica Kingsley, London. Intro. [|[ii]] Donyell L. Roseboro//,//  // Jacques Lacan, // in //The Praeger handbook of education and psychology//, 2007 / edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn Jr., Praeger Publishers, Westboro, U.S.A.   [|[iii]]  Donyell L. Roseboro//,//  // Jacques Lacan, // in, //The Praeger handbook of education and psychology//, 2007 / edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn Jr., Praeger Publishers, Westboro, U.S.A.   [|[iv]]  Donyell L. Roseboro//,//  // Jacques Lacan, // in, //The Praeger handbook of education and psychology//, 2007 / edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn Jr., Praeger Publishers, Westboro, U.S.A   [|[v]]  Donyell L. Roseboro//,//  // Jacques Lacan, // in, //The Praeger handbook of education and psychology//, 2007 / edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn Jr., Praeger Publishers, Westboro, U.S.A.   [|[vi]] Barnard, Suzanne and Fink, Bruce, // Reading Seminar XX: Lacan's Major Work on Love, Knowledge, and Feminine Sexuality, // Suny Series in Psychoanalysis, 2002. p.21. [|[vii]] Barnard, Suzanne and Fink, Bruce, // Reading Seminar XX: Lacan's Major Work on Love, Knowledge, and Feminine Sexuality, // Suny Series in Psychoanalysis, 2002.pp.21-23 [|[viii]] Regos, Ludmilla, //The Making of Modern Australia, Your Story, Our History//, //Why Integrate//?, Victorian Parents Advocacy Collective. makingaustralia.abc.net.au/_Ludmilla-Regos-and-Why-Integrate/VIDEO/758069/73526.html[accessed 29/7/09] [|[ix]] Scott, Wendy and Spencer, Fiona. Professional Development for Inclusive Differentiated Teaching Practice [online]. __Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities__; Volume 11, Issue 1; 2006; 35-44. Availability: ____ ISSN: 1324-8928. [cited 12 Aug 09]. [|[x]] Snowman, Jack, et al, 2009, //Psychology Applied to Teaching//, Milton, QLD. p.107. [|[xi]] // Racial and Religious Tolerance Act,2001 // [|www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/] [cited 27/7/09] [|[xii]] // Multicultural Victoria Act 2004 // // w // ww.voma.vic.gov.au/web17/voma/dvcvoma.nsf/He - adingPagesDisplay/LegislationMulticultural+Victoria +Act? OpenDocument[cited 27/7/09] [|[xiii]] // Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 // www.dms.dpc.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/51dea49770555ea6ca256da4 001b90cd/54D73763EF9DCA36CA2571B6002428B0/$FILE/06-043a.pdf[cited 27/7/09] [|[xiv]] A Fairer Victoria www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/Web14/dvc/dvcmain.nsf/allDocs/RWPBA66A032F874AC59CA2572D00026A8 91? OpenDocument[cited 27/7/09] [|[xv]] DEECD //Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood Development// (2008) www.education.vic.gov.au/about/directions/blueprint2008/default.htm[cited 27/7/09] [|[xvi]] Growing Victoria Together www.dpc.vic.gov.au/CA256D8000265E1A/page/Growing+Victoria+Together!OpenDocument&1=30 -Growing+ Victoria+Together~&2=~&3=~[cited 27/7/09] [|[xvii]] Valuing Cultural Diversity www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/Web17/voma/rwpgslib.nsf/GraphicFiles/Valuing+Cultural+Diversity/$file/ Valuing+Cultural+Diversity.pdf[cited 27/7/09] [|[xviii]] DEECD Multicultural Education Policy and Guidelines for Managing Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Schools[cited 27/7/09] http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/lem/GuidelinesforSchools.pdf [|[xix]] Snowman, Jack, et al, 2009, //Psychology Applied to Teaching//, Milton, QLD. p.145 [|[xx]] Snowman, Jack, et al, 2009, //Psychology Applied to Teaching//, Milton, QLD. p.138.