ADACAS - ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service reposted this
#ADACAS would like to give a big shout-out and thanks to ACT Education and Jake Naylor, Director, Inclusive Educaton ACT Education for inviting our Disability Employment Program Officer, #KarenWeir to present at the ACT Inclusive Education's Student Voice Forum at Shirley Smith High School in Kenny, ACT on Wednesday. Karen shared her experiences over many years of engaging with Young People in the Disability Employment sector and the numerous examples of where she has heard first-hand the bad experiences they have had at school. This includes students being teased by other students about their disability or the challenges faced by teachers trying to accommodate students' complexities with their disabilities. Karen concluded her talk by emphasizing the importance of ongoing commitment and engagement around disability in our education system: "School shapes us for life, and if we have bad experiences at school, this will affect us in our futures. Today is a unique opportunity to start to improve your experiences and those of the students who follow you." Today's forum, "People," was the first of three upcoming forums for ACT school students. This will be followed by Forum 2, "Practice," in August and Forum 3, "Place," in December. The Strategy Action for today's forum was: Children and young people with disability (+ Allies) have a say in inclusive education reform, and their insights are used to inform quality improvements. This strategy was achieved by young people participating in five activities: 1. Getting to Know Each Other 2. Who am I - Identifying, recording, and sharing personal strengths 3. Inclusive Education - Developing, recording, and sharing personal definitions 4. Safe and Connected - Identifying the aspects of an inclusive school 5. Taking Action - Sharing and gathering insights Thank you again to ACT Education for this opportunity to engage with and support the voices of young people in shaping inclusive education! To find out more about ACT Educations disability inclusion strategy. https://lnkd.in/gfF33A7M #ACTInclusiveEducation #StudentVoiceForum #InclusiveEducation #ADACAS #Advocacy #YouthEmpowerment #InclusiveSchools #EducationReform