New Churchtown facility goes right to the core of Lasallian Values

De La Salle College Churchtown celebrated a significant milestone in the school’s history with the opening of a new Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) classroom.

The desire to provide this facility is very much rooted in the Lasallian tradition and in announcing the new classroom, the school was keen to set out context within which we operate in DLS Churchtown.

We are a Lasallian School, the 5 core Lasallian Principles are at the centre of everything we do. Each of these principles impacted our decision to open an ASD Classroom this academic year.

Delivery of Quality Education - Every Child is entitled to a Quality Education. The introduction of an ASD Classroom has given us access to resources that ensure Quality Education is accessible to Autistic Children in our school.

Concern for social Justice - It is only Just and Fair that all students in our school have their needs met, that barriers that might impede their education are removed. The very presence of our ASD Classroom which is located very prominently at the centre of our school building is an explicit representation of this core Lasallian principle.

Respect for all persons - Respect is of course a fundamental value in our school, the presence of an ASD Classroom in our school strengthens the atmosphere of respect for all in our school.

Inclusive Community - We believe passionately in DLS Churchtown in inclusivity, we have over 48 nationalities, we welcome children of all faiths and no faith, we have children from a broad socio economic background. Our inclusive community is one full of colour and dynamism. Our policy of diversity and inclusion of course means we have always accepted children with Additional Education Needs, these children contribute greatly to our community.

Faith in the presence of God - It is our belief that God is present in each and every one of us, each one of us his unique and wonderful creation, everyone of us God's children. To provide an environment that is welcoming to all is to welcome God, In DLS Churchtown we therefore welcome children regardless of faith, ethnicity, socio economic background and regardless of their Additional need.

Given the welcoming nature of our school it is imperative that we access the necessary resources to adequately support the needs of our students.

Our intake in 1st year 2019 was the catalyst for us setting up an ASD Classroom, whilst we had always welcomed students on the Autistic spectrum it was in this particular cohort of students that we recognised the necessity to access more resources in order to meet the needs of the ASD students in this group.

We quickly realised that this process would take time, dealing with the Department of Education and Skills and the normal associated bureaucracy was bad enough, throw in a global pandemic and the process was even slower.

Thankfully we were sanctioned to open up an ASD Classroom which entitled us to 1.5 teachers and 2 x SNA’s. We received a budget to furnish and kit out an ASD Homeroom which accommodates 6 students. We were lucky to have a suitable classroom available which meant we did not require any building work to get our Homeroom operational. It is a requirement that schools with ASD Classrooms have a sensory room or quiet space to cater for students with sensory issues. Having identified a suitable space for our sensory space an additional application for funding was necessary to transform a once unused space into a lovely quiet space used regularly by our students.

The next hurdle to surmount was the allocation of places, there are 6 places available in an ASD Classroom, policy was drafted and ratified and our selection committee was formed. It was essential from our perspective that places would be accessible to a number of our current students who were struggling in their mainstream classes.

Thankfully our policy allowed us to offer places to three of our current 3rd year students leaving three places available that were allocated to 2 x new 3rd year students and 1 x incoming 1st years.

This was a good outcome for us as it meant we would have 3 familiar faces and 3 new faces which is a good mix given that the whole concept of an ASD Classroom was so new to us.

We next identified current teaching staff that are trained in SEN and would suit the post of ASD Teachers.

Having completed the first term with our new classroom we are very happy with our progress so far, we know that we have quite a journey ahead of us and there will be many challenges. With God’s blessing we will rise to the challenge and most importantly our efforts will benefit the wonderful children in our care.