Feature Story: Giant Steps Tasmania

As the only school exclu­sive­ly for indi­vid­u­als with autism in Tas­ma­nia, can you tell us a lit­tle about your school and how you approach dai­ly school life?

Our approach as a school for indi­vid­u­als with autism is that we are first and fore­most a school. We are here to pro­vide our awe­some stu­dents with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn and grow. To do this we pro­vide a very indi­vid­u­alised cur­ricu­lum and expe­ri­ence that helps stu­dents find their strengths and gain the con­fi­dence to take risks and have a go at new things. We work in life skills and social emo­tion­al skills to give stu­dents the tools to take on adult life and be a part of their com­mu­ni­ty. So every day is an adventure.

Can you share with us some of the excit­ing ini­tia­tives that you have embarked upon in the recent years?

Some of the most excit­ing devel­op­ments over the last few years have been stu­dent led. When we gave our stu­dents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to be heard they have had some great ideas and amazed us with their sophis­ti­cat­ed thoughts and insights. This has large­ly come through our Stu­dent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Coun­cil. We put this in place a few years ago and it has been fan­tas­tic. Stu­dents have devel­oped a House Sys­tem, they put in place a School Cap­tain and worked out how elec­tions should be run. Stu­dents have designed aspects of our play­ground and gar­den and have had their input includ­ed into pol­i­cy consultations.

The oth­er excit­ing devel­op­ment has been the growth of film mak­ing in our school. Start­ing from 2 stu­dents show­ing an inter­est in enter­ing a short film com­pe­ti­tion (Focus on Abil­i­ty) we now have had ten stu­dents enter a film or doc­u­men­tary this year and sev­er­al oth­er have made a film sim­ply for fun. Their ideas and plot lines are such an eclec­tic mix! We try and let them do them as inde­pen­dent­ly as pos­si­ble and the result­ing films are mar­vel­lous. Some are real­ly unique and an insight into the student’s world. Oth­ers are wild and action packed and an exten­sion of their spe­cial interests.

What have been some of your most pop­u­lar pro­grams that you have run at the school?

Swim­ming is always pop­u­lar. We are lucky to have an indoor pool and we are also lucky that we received com­mu­ni­ty fund­ing to improve the heat­ing sys­tem a few years ago. We mix in ses­sions that are pure­ly for fun and social­is­ing with prop­er swim­ming lessons. It is great for fit­ness, social skills, and water safety.

Stu­dents have also enjoyed STEM ses­sions. They love to plan for and get involved with hands on projects and we have lots of great learn­ing along the way. Build­ing cat­a­pults and design­ing paper planes keeps them excit­ed and involved with the lessons.

As the leader of Giant Steps what are some of the most reward­ing aspects of your role at this school?

See­ing the growth in our stu­dents is always a reward­ing part of my role. Cel­e­brat­ing the achieve­ments of our stu­dents keeps us all moti­vat­ed and we learn that even small steps can have huge impli­ca­tions. Watch­ing chil­dren gain the con­fi­dence to read or have a go at a maths prob­lem is great but it can be some­thing as sim­ple as see­ing a stu­dent ask anoth­er stu­dent to play with them. Many of our stu­dents have had quite a neg­a­tive time in their school life and many take some time to trust their peers and our staff. Some of my proud­est moments have been when I see a stu­dent gain a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and pride in help­ing their friends. Maybe they help oth­er stu­dents read a book or they guide a friend through an activ­i­ty. Show­ing our stu­dents that they have worth and can be lead­ers and that they have val­ue to their community.

Can you share with us some of the chal­lenges you faced dur­ing COVID and how you over­came them?

COVID was a very dif­fi­cult time for our stu­dents and their fam­i­lies. Remote Learn­ing was cer­tain­ly not ide­al for all whilst oth­ers sur­prised us with how well they took to it. Keep­ing every­one safe was the main chal­lenge. Stu­dents longed to be back at school and hav­ing to keep them away dur­ing iso­la­tion or quar­an­tine peri­ods was a chal­lenge. I feel some stu­dents have still not ful­ly recov­ered from that time as it was a real jolt to their rou­tines and sense of safe­ty and belong­ing. I think that we sur­vived that time as best we could through good and hon­est com­mu­ni­ca­tion. We report­ed back to fam­i­lies as much as we could and over the last few years, we have com­mu­ni­cat­ed a great deal of health infor­ma­tion and giv­en fam­i­lies the infor­ma­tion they need to make choices.

We have noticed you have a new build­ing project occur­ring at the school can you tell us a lit­tle about this new project?

This is very excit­ing. Through ISB­GAT we were able to secure a Cap­i­tal Grant that com­bined with our own fund­ing has led to us being able to take on this project. The project involves the build­ing of a new 2 class­room build­ing. This will be our very first pur­pose-built class­room build­ing and we are very excit­ed. Along with the new build we are con­vert­ing an exist­ing prop­er­ty into an Allied Health hub. This will house offices for our Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pist and an Allied Health Work­room for her use and for vis­it­ing pro­fes­sion­als. The build­ing will also house a new Snoeze­len Room (sen­so­ry room) that will be a fab­u­lous asset for our students.

Is there any­thing else that you would like to share with us about your won­der­ful school?

I think that Giant Steps Tas­ma­nia is an excel­lent option for young peo­ple that need some­thing dif­fer­ent. We are here to help the indi­vid­ual find their path and give them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be part of a school. It is a mat­ter of choice and fam­i­lies can choose to make us a part of their child’s life. We can do dual enrol­ments and we love to work with oth­er schools to get the best for the stu­dents. We try to avoid the use of the term ​“Spe­cial School”. We are a school, and we don’t like to think that an enrol­ment with us is detri­men­tal to a stu­dent, rather it opens oppor­tu­ni­ties and expe­ri­ences that may not have been avail­able to our stu­dents oth­er­wise. I am proud of our school and am in awe of our won­der­ful staff, stu­dents, and families.