HORSHAM Special School staff have been recognised for their work helping other educators understand the diverse learning needs of students with disabilities.
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The school is a finalist in the Victorian Education Excellence Awards for its work running professional learning workshops across the state.
The workshops came about when school principal Matt Copping and assistant principal Rebecca Talbot decided to use their expertise to help mainstream educators in the region.
"We started running a few different workshops around understanding disability, IQ, language and communication, sensory regulation and more recently, understandings around neuroscience and the brain," Mr Copping said.
"We started doing that around Horsham and the Wimmera and it became quite popular."
In the past 18 months, Mr Copping and Ms Talbot have delivered workshops to 1200 people from 130 schools.
Workshops range in length from one hour to eight hours.
"Rebecca, on request, also goes out and does individualised coaching for students and staff that are working with students that have diverse learning needs in their school," she said.
Mr Copping said they had travelled across the state, but had also ran sessions in Wimmera towns such as Dimboola, Kaniva, Edenhope, Birchip and St Arnaud.
"Rebecca and I have both been in special education for 20 years and for a long time, we didn't share our expertise much and just focused on our own school," he said.
"But there is a lot of need out there and there are lots of kids with diverse learning needs in every school, so we thought it was important to start sharing.
"I think of the Department of Education like an open-plan office, where you can get up and go over to someone else's desk to help them with their work."
Mr Copping said there was a demand for more training opportunities in the region.
"The workshops really snowballed because of the demand - we thought we would start doing a few sessions around Horsham and then we had phone call after phone call coming through from other schools," he said.
"We had one school in Portland request a workshop and we ended up presenting at the town hall down there to 14 schools."
Mr Copping said teachers were becoming more open to new ideas, especially around diverse learning needs.
"We are learning more and more about how the brain works and schools across the state are changing from delivering the curriculum that's already set, to creating a curriculum around the child.
"Many more educators and schools are now open to taking a child-first approach and developing curriculum around the child."
The school was one of three schools chosen at a finalist in the outstanding inclusive education award.
Winners will be announced on October 25.
Mr Copping said it was fantastic to be nominated for the state award.
"Traditionally, I'm not a big fan of individual awards, but this is great because it shows that sharing is a good thing," he said.