Salisbury is a station on the way back to the young person's school or community
Nick Armstrong wrote this opinion piece for the Nelson Mail in August 2024. At the time he was the deputy presiding member of the Salisbury School Board, and he is also the father to former Salisbury School student, Molly.
I never believed I would be writing this article celebrating bipartisan support for residential specialist schools, and yet here I am.
For over a decade, since the National Government’s Education Minister consulted on Salisbury School’s closure in 2012, the school has seemingly been in a battle for survival.
But the announcement in June from the current Minister of Education Erica Stanford about the investment in specialist education, specifically the $10 million to refurbish Salisbury residential specialist school in Richmond, Nelson changed all this.
The Minister’s speech in June sent a clear message from the Government that a child’s educational needs come first and the role that residential specialist schools play in the education network is highly valued, a position that the previous Labour-led Government also held.
This bipartisan commitment marks a pivotal moment, ensuring that the efforts and advocacy of countless individuals and the School Board will yield lasting stability for the whānau who need us for their daughters’ education.
Given this support, I wanted to take this moment to explain what a residential specialist school in 2024 is all about, especially given the wilful use of such outdated old tropes of ‘institution’ and ‘removing the problem to somewhere else’ that we see casually tossed around by groups who would like residential schools shut down.
New Zealanders can be immensely proud of Salisbury School and the outstanding educators who, despite the challenges, are deeply dedicated to the learners and their whānau to give them a successful educational experience.
First, let’s slay the sacred cow of ‘Inclusion.’
Inclusion has been weaponised in the war against special education, is a widely debated and emotive topic, yet its true meaning remains elusive.
The Education Hub released a report in May titled "The Illusion of Inclusion" outlining the devastating reality of what inclusion currently looks like in the New Zealand Education system.
While some argue that mainstream education is the universal solution, others advocate for voice and a spectrum of choice to include specialised settings like residential schools. It is polarising. This "all or nothing" mentality often leaves anyone ‘in-between’ or who is an ‘outlier’ vilified, belittled, or even shamed.
Binary thinking that pits mainstream education against specialised settings is madness. Hands up if you have met two children who are exactly the same.
Let us celebrate the richness of our differences and provide various pathways for every child to succeed. We want success for all our kids, right?
Navigating special education for the last 15 years with my daughter I know what inclusion looks and sounds like - the first time she experienced it completely was at Salisbury.
It isn’t about the room a learner is in; it is about a sense of belonging in that room. It is about feeling valued and being an integral part of the school community.
When you are in a space like this you can feel it; this can be at mainstream, at one of the three residential specialist schools or a combination of both.
As the name residential specialist school suggests, learners live on site during term time like a boarding school.
The key differences to boarding schools is that residential school’s curriculum also focuses on extending life skills, community living, and independence. Additionally, learners only attend for a maximum of two years.
Salisbury is not a destination but a station on the way back to the young person's school or community.
This is important. Targeted goals and programmes of work are all centred on what will make a difference for life and for our young people’s ability to thrive beyond Salisbury. Transition is at the heart of programmes, from when a student takes up their enrolment at Salisbury through to settling back into their home school.
Salisbury is so invested in the transition process that in 2023 the Board contracted a longitudinal study with Global Research to track our graduates to further measure their success and therefore the success of Salisbury’s education programme.
This has never been done before, commissioning neutral research without any predetermined ideology across a wide cohort of students.
The first phase of the study is due at the end of 2025. We are excited about what we might learn and build into our already robust transition processes as acknowledged by our 2023 Education Review Office report that said, “Students’ holistic strengths and needs are at the heart of practice and pedagogy, with a focus on supporting successful transitions and life pathways beyond the school”.
The ERO Report observed that our educational programmes are informed by “multiple voices, including students and their whānau and families, inform tailored goals, programmes, tools and strategies”.
Our collaborative goal setting approach is guided by the mantra of “thinking beyond behaviour”.
The success of this can be evidenced by the academic pathways that are built for our learners and the accelerated learning our students achieve year on year.
Schools must report on academic achievement and our reports and results are publicly available.
Like the politicians have, let’s all step out of the boxing ring and in the quest for true school inclusion, recognise and champion diverse educational pathways for our young people, ensuring every child’s success and dignity is fully supported.
The time to respect each other’s voice and choice is now.