Introduction: Basic principles and beliefs of... 
| REGULAR COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL #95 in LVIV CITY |
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The school has 9 class groups in which on average 30 students with hearing disorders study, as well as children with disorders of musculoskeletal system, children having autism, visual disorders, and other categories of physical and mental special needs. In 2011/12 academic year, 2 children with Down’s syndrome are expected. The school has been accepting hard-of-hearing children since 1993, and such children are placed in joint education with other children. The school’s pedagogic staff consists of over 60 teachers, among whom there are teachers distinguished by the state qualifications of “Resource Teacher” and “Senior Teacher.” In order to satisfy various needs of the school children, a practical psychologist, a social teacher, and a school events organizer provide their services.
Architectural transformations are also going on in the School so that the School building and rooms would be adjusted to the needs of people with disabilities. At present, a ramp has been built to one of the School entrances; an entrance door-way has been widened, and reconstruction of the toilets has been started. Some additional equipment used by hard-of-hearing students in classroom has been introduced (a FM-system of sound transmittance and amplification). In 2011/12 academic year, various learning and methodology events with the School active participation are planned within the project and will be aimed at further improvement of the organizational and methodology work with all the children who already study in the School or reside in the School district. Contact information Address: School #95 School administration: Principal: Yuri Moklovych |
Regular comprehensive School #95 in Lviv city offers education services to over 500 students in elementary, secondary, and high grades.
The pedagogic staff of the school has collected significant experience of working with children with special needs owing to the participation in Ukrainian and international projects, such as the program “Integration of Children with Special Needs” led by the Step-by-Step All-Ukrainian Foundation, Ukraine-Poland project “They are among Us”, Ukraine-Netherlands initiatives “MATRA-Juice”, “MATRA-CUP”, art-therapy project “A Path not Passed by”, and others. Since 2011, the School has been participating in a research and pedagogic experiment led by the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth, and Sport of Ukraine, focusing on social adaptation and integration of children with special needs. This project has enabled the school administration and teachers to participate in seminars and trainings, to get acquainted with and introduce contemporary international experience in inclusive education.
Since 2008, the school has been actively participating as a pilot school in the 5-year Canada-Ukraine Project “Inclusive Education of Children with Disabilities in Ukraine”, funded by the CIDA. In the period of the project implementation, the teachers, administration, and parents of the students with special needs have been participants of many scientific and methodology seminars and trainings which contributed to increasing the methodology potential of the school, testing and practical introduction of new methods and approaches in working with children with special needs. The School teachers have upgraded their professional level through the 120-h training course focusing on the methods and technologies used for teaching in inclusive school, taught by specialists from Lviv Regional Institute of Post-Diploma Upgrade of Teachers (IPUT) and the Institute of Special Pedagogy (ISP) at the Academy of Pedagogic Sciences of Ukraine. The participation in the Summer School in June 2010 allowed the parents and the teachers to better understand the role and functions of partnerships in educational process. The parents of the hard-of-hearing children who study in the school have had a possibility to master the basics of the Ukrainian Sign Language thanks to the courses organized in the School by specialists from the ISP Sign Language Laboratory. Acting as sources of practical experience, the school staff, together with their partners from the other pilot school in the project – School #3 in Simferopol – are directly involved in creating an innovative Ukrainian guidebook “How to Make Your School Inclusive?” and a model of “Ukrainian Index of Inclusion” based on successful international experience, in particular, British Index of Inclusion.
