We take pride in being a truly inclusive school

As Deens celebrates a decade of providing quality education and having earned name and plaudits from several educational forums, institutions etc., for the services it has rendered in the field of education, I strongly felt the need to further articulate the School philosophy in respect to children who are differently abled.

We decided to create a Special Education Wing in the year 2011/12 for children with special needs, as we thought it is just not fair to deny a child admission in School just because the child is differently abled. At this point we decided to create a specialized facility in order to address this issue.It is consequent to this that Endeavor Extended Learning Services program at Deens came into being.  It was an initiative by the management and was spear headed by Ms Vidya Doraiswamy to address the unique learning style and individualistic needs of every child and provide remedial intervention to underachievers in class and children with special needs especially those with Developmental delays, learning disabilities, mild to moderate ADD/ADHD, Autism spectrum disorder, Cerebral Palsy and Down syndrome.
At Deens, the special education unit strives to provide the students with learning experiences which enhances their motivational levels, targets behavioural presentations, supports accommodations and administers remediation when necessary. The unit is equipped to handle the needs of children aged 2-19 and the program is varied from academic to vocational training modules.

Over the last couple of years we realized that despite all the effort we had put in to remedy the situation, we were fundamentally wrong in treating these children as ‘Special’.  Clearly, we felt that there was no need to separate these children or to label them as such. As a result, the School decided to assiduously try and integrate these children into all the extra-curricular activities of the mainstream School, be it Sports, Resonart or Annual day. It was a proud moment for us to watch the children who graduated under the NIOS program participate in the School Graduation ceremony shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the graduating 10^th and 12^th graders.

 

We knew that we as a school were ready to take on inclusion at this level.  We therefore formulated the 3 Tier system of education.

Tier 1: Curriculum oriented classroom based learning

Tier 2:  Individual Learning Program (ILP) for children who need minimum intervention strategies.

Tier 3: Extended Learning Program (ELP) for children who need intense remediation.

We, the team Deens have grown to appreciate the unique strength of every child and have judiciously crafted out the best environment for their overall growth and development.

I would like to conclude with this message, “We differentiate in our method of teaching but we do not differentiate between the learners”

S.A.R. Adil
President
Deens Academy