How our schools programme started:
It is understood that ABA support is needed in schools to ensure robust integrated inclusive education. Despite ongoing funding not being secure we also saw an opportunity to put in place a pilot programme in a primary school that sees a psychology masters graduate undertake their 12 month internship by working with children who would otherwise get left behind in the education system. Two other primary schools have jumped at the opportunity to participate in this programme and the collaborative programme between FAST and the schools is now impacting positively on the school environment of 1200 children!
We are currently in discussions with a 4th primary school about putting a collaborative support programme in place and may even be able to extend this to a high school. School communities of some 3,500 children and young adults are in our sights.
By 2019 we have found ourselves actively involved in three primary schools and three secondary schools (as the need arises for our expertise). It is incredibly rewarding to be involved in such forward thinking schools and to be able to make such a difference to so many children. If you wonder why we have not ventured into more schools, it certainly isn’t because we haven’t been asked, rather it is the BOTs approach to make sure we have every child that needs help supported before we expand. We have successfully run two psychology internships with the collaboration of two of our primary schools and our psychology teams and both participants have gone onto successful careers within the MOE.
Te mahi ngatahi ki te whakarite maatauranga rangatira mo a maatau tamariki katoa.
Striving together to ensure robust educational opportunities for all our children.