Video Transcript
Hi, my name is Glenn Gatehouse, the very proud principal here at Toowoomba West Special School. Come on in. Let me take you for a quick tour.
This is the school administration building. It is a purpose-built facility to meet the needs of our school leadership team and all school staff.
Toowoomba West Special School is a purpose-built facility. We have facilities to accommodate all of our students. As you are zooming around in these videos, you will see that our school looks a little bit differently to the local primary school down the road.
Safety is really important at our school. We have facilities at our school which assist our staff in ensuring safety for all.
Our sensory room is purpose-built. It gives us flexibility to meet individual student need in the areas of vision, hearing, and general sensory.
We know that each and every person learns differently. They have their own way of taking knowledge in. They have their own way of expressing themselves. At our school, we acknowledge this. We foster this and we build on these skill sets. Know the learner is a key component of how we teach. Our staff at our school know all of our learners very closely. We know their likes, their dislikes, their communication mode, how they engage with the curriculum, but most importantly, how they learn.
At Toowoomba West Special School, all of our classrooms are individualised for our learners. You will see throughout our school a variety of different environments to foster different learning styles, different delivery methods from our teaching team. At Toowoomba West Special School, we deliver the Australian curriculum.
As part of our collection of facilities to use at our school is a bike track. This bike track is 180m long, but we use it for a multitude of different purposes. It doubles up as a cross-country course, but more importantly, we have equipment to use at our school on this bike track. We have bikes with one wheel, two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, five wheels.
Our facilities are purpose-built. As an example, there are these toilets. These toilets are throughout our school. Toilets are not normally a talking point. But at Toowoomba West Special School, you will see through our toilets, we have specific equipment. It's dignity. All students at Toowoomba West Special School must have dignity. To ensure we have dignity for our students, we have purpose equipment, we have purpose facilities, and our staff have explicit knowledge.
Our outdoor learning environments double as play yards. These environments foster learning and creativity.
Toowoomba West Special School is a Positive Behaviour for Learning school. Very simply, this means that we teach behaviour. We know that students, and anybody for that matter, respond best with positive reinforcement. Positive reward changes behaviour. Positive reward enhances one's behaviour. We know that. The research tells us. So at our school we pride ourself on being a positive behaviour for learning school.
At Toowoomba West Special School our motto is Time to Learn. We have an expectation that each and every student at our school will learn. But of course they will learn at their own pace. They will learn with their own supports. Know the learner is a key component of how we teach. Our staff at our school know all of our learners very closely. We know their likes, their dislikes, their communication mode, how they engage with the curriculum, but most importantly, how they learn.
Learning at Toowoomba West Special School takes shape in many different ways. We have some learners who like to sit at their desk. We have some learners who need to sit in a different environment because of their sensory needs. We have some learners who really like to sit on the floor. We have other learners who like to engage with the Australian curriculum in an outdoor setting. And that's okay because at Toowoomba West Special School, we meet the learning style of all of our students. We are the ones that change. We are the ones that accommodate individual student learning needs.
Another facility that we have at our school is our hall. It is massive. We have a stage and we can seat 120 adults. Our hall is used throughout the year for wet weather activities, but most importantly, and most excitedly, for our end of year concert.
The Australian curriculum is the foundation of what, how, and when we teach. But delivering the Australian curriculum takes a great skill set. Staff at Toowoomba West Special School have a very in-depth knowledge of the curriculum, how to deliver the curriculum, but most importantly, how to engage students in this curriculum. With this knowledge, this is how we achieve great outcomes for our students. We know that each and every person learns differently. They have their own way of taking knowledge in. They have their own way of expressing themselves. At our school, we acknowledge this. We foster this and we build on these skill sets.
This is our gymnasium. We are very proud of our gymnasium. It is climate controlled and it has all of this fantastic soft equipment. It also has a climbing wall. Students at Toowoomba West Special School absolutely love this facility.
As part of our facilities at our school, we use a variety of different environments. You will see through some of our video: attached to our main learning environments are these little small rooms. They are sensory rooms. These rooms are set up specifically to meet the sensory needs of individual students. They will learn in the learning areas of the Australian curriculum because don't forget we are a school, and all staff at this school have the expectation that our learners will learn.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our school office on (07) 4638 6333.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and listen to this video. I look forward to meeting you soon. My name, as the students call me, is Mr. Glenn, the very proud principal here at Toowoomba West Special School.