Another Awesome Adventure
After weeks of anticipation and planning, the TLLP team visited the Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre (OCTC), in Ottawa!
It was a bit of a whirlwind, flying in on Thursday evening and home by Friday night, but it was definitely worth it. After reaching out and connecting with Mari, the school's principal, we made arrangements to visit OCTC. Deb, Allison and I spent the better part of a day touring, observing and collaborating with both the principal and school liaison teachers. As was the case for our previous school visits, a lot of interesting and important dialogue came to light during our time at OCTC. Two of the most salient pieces were, 1) differences in delivery model, 2) the need for PD specific to section 68 schools, and 3) feelings of isolation and desire for collaboration between the six section 68 schools.
Service Delivery Model
Professional Development
We spent a good amount of our time discussing potential focuses for PD. Of particular interest was the idea of PD related to family support pertaining to grief and anxiety. Due to the complexities of parenting a child with physical or other disability, we identified a real need to determine how to best support parents so that we can better support students, and, ultimately, build healthier and happier communities. We hope to examine this theme in the future to see how section 68 schools might most effectively support students and families.
Cross School Collaboration
An unexpected byproduct of our TLLP has been rich discussion into feelings of isolation across section 68 school staff. Many teachers we have spoken to have cited that not belonging to a school board means that we often miss out on bigger picture learning trends, collaborating and development. More than once this year, we have sat with other professionals , scratching our heads, asking, "Why don't we have some sort of platform or forum for sharing and collaborating with our coterminous school authorities?" Despite the differences in student populations and criteria between 68's, there is a great deal of overlap in the needs we support, the therapies implemented and the overall learning goals for many students. Given the vast array of technology available to us today, there is every reason to connect MORE with our coterminous schools. We are looking forward to seeing how we can make collaboration between our school authorities the rule, rather than the exception.
Stay tuned!
It was a bit of a whirlwind, flying in on Thursday evening and home by Friday night, but it was definitely worth it. After reaching out and connecting with Mari, the school's principal, we made arrangements to visit OCTC. Deb, Allison and I spent the better part of a day touring, observing and collaborating with both the principal and school liaison teachers. As was the case for our previous school visits, a lot of interesting and important dialogue came to light during our time at OCTC. Two of the most salient pieces were, 1) differences in delivery model, 2) the need for PD specific to section 68 schools, and 3) feelings of isolation and desire for collaboration between the six section 68 schools.
Service Delivery Model
Niagara Children’s Centre School
|
Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre
|
60 students in six classrooms
|
30 students in five classrooms
|
Age ranges between 4-21
|
Junior and Senior Kindergarten
|
English
|
English and French
|
Therapy supported education
|
Pediatric Rehabilitation
|
Liaison services through entry into community school
|
Liaison services to age 18 if child is a client of
the centre
|
Therapeutic needs in 2 domains (OT, PT, SLP)
|
Primary diagnosis or need is a physical disability
|
Professional Development
We spent a good amount of our time discussing potential focuses for PD. Of particular interest was the idea of PD related to family support pertaining to grief and anxiety. Due to the complexities of parenting a child with physical or other disability, we identified a real need to determine how to best support parents so that we can better support students, and, ultimately, build healthier and happier communities. We hope to examine this theme in the future to see how section 68 schools might most effectively support students and families.
Cross School Collaboration
An unexpected byproduct of our TLLP has been rich discussion into feelings of isolation across section 68 school staff. Many teachers we have spoken to have cited that not belonging to a school board means that we often miss out on bigger picture learning trends, collaborating and development. More than once this year, we have sat with other professionals , scratching our heads, asking, "Why don't we have some sort of platform or forum for sharing and collaborating with our coterminous school authorities?" Despite the differences in student populations and criteria between 68's, there is a great deal of overlap in the needs we support, the therapies implemented and the overall learning goals for many students. Given the vast array of technology available to us today, there is every reason to connect MORE with our coterminous schools. We are looking forward to seeing how we can make collaboration between our school authorities the rule, rather than the exception.
Stay tuned!
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