Our Vision
We are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and high-quality learning environment where every student is known, valued, and supported to achieve their potential. Our Intensive Learning and Support classes include one Mental Health class and two Multi-Categorical classes for students from Kindergarten to Year 6, offering specialised and individualised support that enables students to thrive, achieve, and belong.
Our practice is grounded in unconditional positive regard and a trauma-informed approach aligned with the Berry Street Education Model. Teaching and learning are centred on student need, with each student supported through an Individual Education Plan that builds on their strengths while addressing learning and wellbeing needs. Small class sizes and high staff-to-student ratios allow for personalised support within a calm, predictable, and caring environment.
We explicitly teach self-regulation and positive behaviour using emotion coaching and restorative practices, including affective language, priming, stored responses, and circle work. These approaches support students to understand their emotions, repair relationships, and develop the skills needed for learning and participation.
Through strong partnerships with families, carers, and external services, we maintain high expectations while providing the support necessary for students to develop confidence, resilience, and independence. Our ILS classes are dedicated to empowering students with the skills they need to succeed at school and beyond.
Common Questions
Support classes located in some mainstream primary schools, high school and central schools across NSW are available for students with moderate to high learning and support needs - as defined by the Department's disability criteria.
Support classes cater for students with moderate to high learning and support needs, including students with:
- intellectual disability
- mental health issues
- autism
- physical disability
- sensory impairment
- behaviour disorders
- vision disability
Support classes in mainstream schools have fewer students than mainstream classes. Class sizes depend on the class type and, in some cases, the students' additional learning and support needs.
Every support class has a teacher and a school learning support officer (SLSO). Class teachers - in consultation with parents and carers and allied health professionals, where appropriate, are responsible for planning personalised learning and support for each student.
Students in support classes have opportunities to participate in the school and community activities their school offers, on the same basis as students in mainstream classes. Students also have access to:
- itinerant support teacher (hearing or vision)
- support teachers’ transition
- specialist provisions available to students in mainstream classes including disability provisions from the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for practical support in examinations
- access to transport assistance under the Assisted School Travel Program.
For students enrolled in support classes in mainstream schools, there is the flexibility for students to undertake some of their learning in other mainstream classes in the same school. This is largely dependent upon the resources available and the personalised learning and support needs of the students.
Applications for placement are through the Access Request process. An Access Request is arranged by the school learning and support team at the local public school.
A student is offered enrolment in a support class in mainstream school through a placement panel process. A student's eligibility is determined through the Department's disability criteria as well as the availability of a place in an appropriate support class.
Enrolment arrangements for students with disability and additional learning and support needs are the same as for all students. For further information about enrolment, parents and carers can visit their local public school.
School learning and support teams review the placement of each student annually. Reviews consider all aspects of a student's individualised learning and support, including whether the current placement is best meeting their learning and support needs.
The department manages the Assisted School Travel Program through the efficient and effective procurement, co-ordination, and management of travel support services for eligible school students with identified disability to travel to and from school. The Assistant Principal will liaise and advocate on family's behalf with the service provider.
This may include the development of behaviour management plans to ensure student safety is maintained. Please contact the school for more information. Alternatively, visit the website for more details.
Individual Education Plans (IEPs) ensure students with disability receive personalised support to access learning on the same basis as their peers. Aligned with the NSW Department of Education and the Disability Standards for Education (2005), IEPs outline individual learning goals, adjustments and strategies that build on each student’s strengths while addressing their learning and wellbeing needs.
IEPs are developed collaboratively and reviewed regularly to ensure support remains responsive and effective, promoting academic progress, social and emotional development, and positive educational outcomes.
Collaborative Planning Process
Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are developed through a collaborative planning process that brings together teachers, support staff, families and, where appropriate, students. This approach aligns with the NSW Department of Education commitment to inclusive education and ensures shared responsibility for student learning and wellbeing.
Collaborative planning enables a clear understanding of each student’s strengths, needs, interests and learning goals. Through regular communication and review, plans are refined to remain responsive and effective, supporting positive educational outcomes.
Through collaborative curriculum planning, we determine:
- Appropriate syllabus outcomes and content for each student, including working towards outcomes from earlier stages where required, while maintaining age-appropriate learning experiences
- Adjustments and supports needed for teaching, learning and assessment
- Individual learning goals that may be embedded across curriculum areas
This process ensures learning is personalised, purposeful and supportive, enabling students to access the curriculum and demonstrate achievement in meaningful ways.
General Class Information
ILS Classes Start and Finish Times
- Classes begin at 9:30am
- Classes end at 2:30pm
Play Time Supervision
During play times, students will have the opportunity to engage in structured play activities in both indoor and outdoor settings within the playground. Alternatively, they may prefer to participate in their own games and activities, both indoors and outdoors, outside of structured play.
Structured play (both indoor and outdoor) will be supervised by support teachers and SLSO.
Students who wish to play outside of structured play, will be supervised by mainstream teaching staff and SLSOs along with the rest of the school.
Arrival and Departure
Assisted Transport will drop off and pick up students at the front of the school, inside the front gate.
Teachers and or SLSOs will meet students at the front gates each day and walk students to these areas of an afternoon.
Berry Street Educational Model
The Berry Street Education Model is a practical approach to teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement with students with complex, unmet learning needs and successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, growth and academic achievement. The pedagogical strategies incorporate evidence-based trauma-aware teaching, positive education, and wellbeing practices.
The five domains of the Berry Street Education Model correspond with child-development capacities that each student must build in order to be ‘ready to learn’. When considering how to best meet the needs of students, we focus on building self-regulatory ability, relational capacity and then nurture willingness to engage in learning.
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