Professional Development is a major component of the support Kilparrin provides to client sites.

As part of the service offered to schools and preschools, professional development around the needs of the individual student is regularly provided. Individually designed professional development sessions focus on the specifics of the individual child’s sensory loss and provide methodologies to increase, or maintain, their successful access to the curriculum. Training sessions are also provided to assist staff in the development of practical skills in areas such as communication, Orientation and Mobility, the creation of specific resources and the use of specialist software and applications.

Training and development activities are also offered to clusters of schools, regions and yearly at a state wide professional development day, provided by Kilparrin teachers. Topics presented aim to build capacity across the Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) so that school staff are better able to support the complex needs of students with sensory impairment (vision and/or hearing) and additional disabilities.

Kilparrin staff need to remain at the cutting edge of research and up to date with successful educational approaches to allow them to best support enrolled students and those students placed in a variety of sites across South Australia. All staff take part in a range of professional development activities; some are provided in house while others involve lecturers and teachers from around Australia and the world.

The Kilparrin ‘Educator in Residence’ program brings selected academics to Kilparrin for extended periods to work with learners and staff.  This intensive program has proved to be most successful and is considered to be cutting edge as it embeds skills and has seen changes in practice across the entire school staff.

Click here to find out about the next PD day!