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WESTMAN REPORT FOR PROVINCIAL <strong>SSAAM</strong> AGM 03 04<br />
Many initiatives have been started since Sept. 03. Here are a brief description of the<br />
major ones that are having some impact in Brandon School Division and areas or will<br />
have in the future.<br />
Effective Behaviour Support<br />
Brandon's year kicked off with this very informative two day training for four<br />
schools on school-wide behaviour plans which were identified as goals in each schools'<br />
growth plan for this year. One school invited every staff member while the other three<br />
had a school team take back the information to the rest of the staff. The presenters were<br />
Tom Hierck and Charlie Coleman from B.C. As a follow up the administrators from the<br />
above schools have met to determine how they are going to collect data to show their<br />
implementation plans have made a difference.<br />
Autism Capacity Building<br />
On October 20-23 Brandon had a one day session for principals, resource<br />
teachers, clinicians and parents with Leslie Burgess, a B.C. provincial consultant on<br />
Autism Spectrum Disorders. She provided a brief overview of Autism Spectrum<br />
Disorders, best practice positive programming strategies and behaviour management<br />
strategies. On the remaining days training in using sensory, communication^ and :<br />
behaviour checklists to complete a student profile and plan for four high needs students in<br />
the division was carried out with the school, divisional and community teams. These four<br />
days have improved working partnerships with the teams around these four students.<br />
The following week Westman Speech Therapists hosted the PECS two day workshop in<br />
Brandon for resource teachers, administrators, teacher assistants, clinicians and parents.<br />
This workshop meshed well with the previous one to enhance capacity building for<br />
students with autism spectrum disorders.<br />
Parent Support Document<br />
Brandon School Division hosted an evening for parents facilitated by Larry<br />
Budzinski from MEY to provide feedback on the parent handbook for children with<br />
special needs. The parents engaged in some animated discussions in their groups and<br />
provided some very useful feedback.<br />
Uris Pilot Project<br />
Brandon School Division has had a slow start in this project but will be ready to<br />
implement changes with the BRHA in the new year. Many of the coordinators from the<br />
Westman-Parkland region met with the department to field questions for each of their
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