Satellite Schools

Trying to find a workable solution to ensure that the concept of inclusion can be achieved without disadvantaging the very child it is designed to help, is quite a challenge. Aspergers children frequently experience sensory issues and a large school cannot readily accommodate this aspect of their disability; coupled with this is the problem that some children have with school uniforms. They may experience them as scratchy and the layering of a shirt and jacket can be intolerable. Some children can build up a tolerance and can manage to cope with the sensory issues but for others this is never an option.

One solution might be a satellite school which would be a small, specially designed or adapted, home-like building (off-campus) for ANY child who is finding a larger setting difficult e.g. children with Aspergers, those of exceptionally high IQ, a bullied child, the anxious etc. much like a university that has different faculties with staff that are peripatetic. The school would share resources with the main building including both staff, labs and gyms. It would also have its own staff and individual study rooms. Individual work stations would be used to supplement small group and individualised teaching, making use of prepared, interactive lessons viewable through computers. The small school would access the main labs etc. at a time when the main school is quiet. This may necessitate some classes being later in the day or run on a Saturday (school week could be Tuesday to Saturday) or some other flexible and creative solution.

Do you think this is a sound concept?

Anna van der Post