Speech to Launch 'Success for All – Every School, Every Child';

Cornwall Park School, Greenlane Road West, Greenlane, Auckland; Wednesday 20 October 2010

It’s great to be here today and thank you for your warm welcome.

I’m here because your school is a great example of what being an inclusive school is all about. It’s about making sure that you all can take part fully in everything you do here.

We are here to launch a plan of action for special education – Success for All, Every School, Every Child.

I’m new to Special Education, and in the last six weeks I have had the privilege of listening to other people’s stories - parents, teachers and colleagues – about what is working and what isn’t working well for children.

I heard a story from one of my colleagues, about a child with very high needs – let’s call her Mary - who was enrolled at a local school. The school said that as Mary’s health was getting worse, the school didn’t have the ability to support her - even with specialist support in place.

The parents were asked to take Mary out of that school. My colleague sided with the school, agreeing that it was ‘just too difficult’ for them to support Mary.

What my colleague didn’t know was that when Mary moved to the other school things changed.

Teachers and children at the new school didn’t have any experience with a child like Mary. But what they did have was a willingness to learn and a desire to help. They were open to the challenge and accepted Mary with all her differences.

Mary’s life is very busy in her new school. She does art, music, swimming, and community activities in a class with other children. She is at an ordinary school where the people have created an extraordinary environment for Mary and her classmates.

Mary’s story taught me about what I call ‘soft prejudice’ about disability; that is belief that nothing can change.

Success for All, Every School, Every Child sets out the changes for children like Mary that will be made over the next four years.

I believe all schools can be as welcoming and inclusive as Mary’s new school – and yours – by 2014.

Parent’s should have the right to choose where their child goes to school.

Therefore, I’ll be keeping the special schools that provide support to children with very high needs, and encouraging them to provide more specialist out-reach teaching.

Eleven hundred more children will get Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes support, and a further thousand will be able to get specialist support in their first years of school.

There will also be more flexible services and support for deaf, blind or low vision children.

I want it to be easier for children with special education needs and their families to get extra help. I’ll be finding better ways to bring together the support they receive.

In four years time I expect to see:

• All schools welcoming and including every child.
• All children learning and succeeding, and getting the extra help they need when they need it.
• Parents who can see that their child belongs, has friends and is learning and succeeding;
• Parents receiving good information – without having to fight for it.

I understand that for some this is going to be a challenge.

It is going to take a fundamental shift in our attitudes and our mindsets but it can be done.

I know it can be done as there are schools out there that are already doing it.

Schools like Cornwall Park District School.

Everyone in education – including teachers, principals, boards, Government – needs to make sure every child gets a fair go.

That way all young New Zealanders will succeed.

Thank you