FAME Flexible Learning Centre at Christie Downs has won this year’s Innovative Grant Award from the Australian Association of Special Education Inc (AASE).
AASE is a national organisation that advocates for quality educational programs and services for students with disability and special education needs.
The South Australian Chapter of AASE offers two grants of up to $2000 each year, available to any AASE registered school in South Australia, for innovative programs that enhance the school environment and practices that link to sustainable programs and enable inclusivity and diversity.
The grant is designed to be used to purchase resources and equipment that are not available through regular school funding allocations.
FAME has used the grant to purchase extra sets of scooters and safety equipment to facilitate greatly required constructive outdoor time for their students.
In 2019, FAME introduced an afternoon ‘Bicycle Maintenance’ class option the students affectionally named ‘Scooters’, as part of Design and Technology, designed for students to develop bike and scooter maintenance and repair skills, with a focus on teamwork.
The class sees students working together to deconstruct a bike or scooter, maintain and replace parts and then reconstruct the bike or scooter. Students also have the option to create short YouTube style video clips to teach others how to complete the tasks.
Prior to the grant, only students who had their own scooter or were able to borrow one could participate in the class, so the extra scooters enable a greater number of students to join in the class.
FAME Flexible Learning Centre provides a secondary schooling educational service for approximately 95 young people aged 12-20 who are either completely disengaged from their schooling or who are looking to access a different education model to mainstream schooling. Most have experienced some degree of trauma in their lives, with many affected by anxiety or depression.
The scooter class is reportedly helping to reengage young people who were previously disengaged from schooling.
“For many of the students, it is the first time staff have seen them remaining at school after lunch and actively engaging in collaborative learning, developing relationships with staff and gaining new skills and confidence”, said FAME Special Education Teacher Claire Grantham who submitted the grant application to AASE.
“It enables staff and students to spend quality time outside and encourages movement and exercise”.
The local bike shop supported the program after learning of the students’ passion, donating a large box of scooter parts for scooter and bike repair.
The President of the AASE SA Chapter Peter Walker presented the award to FAME teacher Claire Grantham at the AASE AGM.
The grant is available to all schools in SA; the last 2 years have been won by a Catholic school. In 2018 the grant was awarded to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College (OLSH) at Enfield thanks to an application by teacher Kathryn Knight. OLSH used the grant to plan, develop, implement and maintain a herb garden and establish connections with the community through propagation and sharing with community gardens. Students studied the connection with their cultural backgrounds and how herbs are used in food. Teachers also noticed Increased engagement and social interactions between students whilst gardening and caring for the herb plants together.
Congratulations to Claire Grantham and FAME on winning this Innovative Grant Award. Happy scooting!
Catholic Education South Australia has congratulated the “Class of 2019” on their outstanding SACE results. 3,455 Catholic school graduates from across 34 Catholic Schools have obtained their SACE.
