South East Language Development Centre and Outreach Service offers a specialised program for students with an identified Developmental Language Disorder. In 2015 it became an Independent Public School. The school has cohort of students and the Outreach Service works with other mainstream schools across the state. Enrolment into the program is through a comprehensive selection process which requires full speech and language testing, parent questionnaires and a psychometric evaluation. The criteria for placement are set by the Department of Education, Western Australia and placement is highly competitive. The Language Centre provides a full-time early intervention educational placement for children who have a primary language disorder.
We are located over three campuses where we share facilities with local primary schools enabling children from the Language Centre to integrate with the primary school children for play, sporting events, assemblies and other activities. Our campuses are co-located at Cloverdale (Belmay PS), Maddington (East Maddington PS) and Armadale (Kingsley PS). The administration for the Language Centre is located at the Cloverdale site. Administration and specialist staff visit the Armadale and Maddington campuses on a regular basis. The children have access to transport to and from school through the Public Transport Authority school bus services.
The Language Centre is staffed by a team of educators who continue to update their skills through an ongoing series of relevant professional learning opportunities. The Centre has on staff Speech Pathologists who work with parents and teachers in assessing, evaluating and planning appropriate programs for the students. They also work in the classrooms with staff and students to ensure an ongoing program that maximises opportunities for the development of every child. All staff members are very committed to improving outcomes for the children in our care. Staff work as a team and there is a high level of collaboration. Our Outreach team provides a support service to schools in the South Metropolitan and Goldfields regions. Its focus is on building capacity of teachers through the delivery of latest research and strategies in language impairment. Professional learning opportunities are provided through the Language Leaders program.
As well as a continuing focus on the development of all language skills the Language Centre has a focus on supporting students with language impairment to develop skills and strategies to access all areas of the Western Australian curriculum. The small class sizes allow for individualised and small group instruction.
Communication between the school, community and students is maintained through active involvement of all stakeholders. The school is supported by an active P&C that meets each month and a School Board that meets every term. The school community is actively involved in their child's education and language learning. Our team works to embed language in all school experiences. Our goal is language for life.
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