5 Reasons to Choose Private School for Your Child with Special Needs
Parents of children with special needs often find themselves frustrated and discouraged with the education their child receives in mainstream school. Between the limited resources, over-crowded classrooms, and lack of support, even the most well-intentioned teachers are unable to keep up with the varied needs in their classrooms. As a result, students with unique needs are falling through the cracks.
Private schools with a focus on special education are able to offer more individualized, specialized programming to meet a learner’s unique needs. Here are 5 excellent reasons for sending your child with special needs to private school:
- Small Class Sizes – Most public schools nowadays boast classes with 30+ students. With this many students, teachers have no choice but to teach to the “majority” and students with any sort of exceptionality are often overlooked. Small class sizes of 3 – 8 students per class allow teachers to instruct at the students’ individual skill level and provide the individualized attention and support students need to thrive.
- Personalized Instruction – In private schools, classes and instruction can be modified to suit the individual learner’s skill and ability level. This is very difficult to execute effectively in mainstream schools due to lack of resources, large class sizes, and an overall lack of understanding of learning difficulties.
- Comprehensive Curriculum – Private schools, even ones that follow the Ministry of Education curriculum, often adopt a more thorough and well-rounded approach to education. A curriculum that not only focuses on the mastery of foundational academic skills, but also offers instruction in soft skills such as social skills, time management, and study skills can be hugely beneficial for students who struggle with learning challenges. Private schools often have more freedom to implement these kinds of programs than mainstream schools.
- Communication and Collaboration with Families – A child-parent-teacher approach to education ensures that challenges and set backs are identified and dealt with effectively. Private school teachers and administrators tend to communicate with parents more frequently and are more open to including parents in problem solving and strategizing than their public school counterparts.
- Trained Specialists on Site – Many private schools catering towards students with special needs will have Speech Language Pathologists, Communicative Disorders Assistants, Psychologists, and Behaviour Analysts on staff. These specialists are available to collaborate with teachers to provide students with an “all-inclusive” education. In some cases, the school day may be combined with break-out sessions in which the child meets with the specialist one-on-one for treatment or therapy.
If you are interested in learning more about how private school can help support your child’s education, please contact us today to schedule a tour.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Love the article! Really enjoyed reading every bit of it. I really liked how you it was said that, “Private schools with a focus on special education are able to offer more individualized, specialized programming to meet a learner’s unique needs. ” I went to a private school and seeing kids with special needs get the attention that they need was a nice sight to see.
That is cool that private schools are able to give children with special needs the attention they need to learn. That is nice that children are able to learn in smaller class sizes with private school. I like that in private school teachers work hard to make the curriculum comprehensive for the children.
I love what you said about classes in private schools being modified to suit the individual learner’s skill and ability level. I can see how a smaller class size would make this much more feasible. I imagine that it could be good to ask about general class size when looking to choose a private school for your child.
My kids all went to private school and for a variety of reasons it all ended well for the three of them in terms of education and contacts.
I actually didn’t know that private schools can have a more well-rounded approach to education, and that it can focus on different foundational skills. To be honest, I’m kind of interested in learning more about the different ways they can utilize this. Not only that, but it could be worthwhile to learn if a private school specializes and focuses on a particular skill set. If it’s something that your child is struggling with, it could be very beneficial to helping them learn and overcome it.