Social challenge and reasons for project’s initiation

Immediacy of the social problem

“Inclusion” is still a relatively new and unclear term and phenomenon in our society. The majority of children with special needs, whose abilities are limited by an illness or social circumstances, do not have access to quality medical services, quality education and, therefore, they have no chance to develop harmoniously.

External reasons for project’s initiation

• Lack of environment for personal fulfillment and development of mental and physical capacities of orphans and disabled children, with allowance for their individual characters and needs; lack of differentiated and individual approach in educational process; 
• Lack of comfortable educational environment for children with special needs;
• Lack of continuity of special correctional teaching of disabled children at different stages of their development.

Internal reasons for project’s initiation

Charity Foundation “Absolut Help” provides support to severely ill children, helps orphans and special correctional boarding schools’ graduates  become included into the society, implements innovative educational projects, actively cooperates with public organizations, business and state bodies. In order to provide vulnerable children with equal opportunities to achieve goals and social success, it became necessary to set up a special  educational institution, offering elective courses, based on individual needs of each child. It became a long-felt need to create special educational environment with optimum conditions for harmonious development and socialization of children with different starting opportunities, where they can be taught by means of contemporary educational technologies, have opportunities for self-expression in their educational, professional and cultural activities, get remedial and psychological aid, medical treatment in the medical unit of the school and attend additional leisure activities.

Project description

Innovative school “Absolut” was founded in 2014 by Charity Foundation “Absolut Help”.

The school provides orphans and children with special needs with a social start. Unlike many other schools, where orphans are isolated from their peers and the society, and children with special needs study in special correctional classes, “Absolut” school provides these children with an opportunity to change their lives, grow and study among their peers, respect themselves and other people, learn from each other.

Children from any region of the country can study at this school.

In 2018/19, 123 students study at “Absolut” school:

• 52 students take a general educational course;
• 71 students take a special adapted course;
• 41 children from birth families;
• 82 children from foster families.

“Absolut” school is a pilot project, meeting contemporary educational standards, applying new educational methods and creating favorable environment for children’s development.

“Absolut” school programs include:

• inclusive education;
• humane pedagogy;
• social pedagogy;
• personification (development of individual educational “routes”);
• using authorial programs;
• ecological and volunteering activities;
• research;
• Olympic movement;
• professional identity;
• coaching;
• cooperation with international schools and inclusive centers.

Contemporary educational trends at “Absolut” school

• Education compliant with all mainstream and special programs in accordance with the Federal Educational Standards;
• Elementary and secondary education.   Online courses. Project courses. Participation in educational Olympiads. Using multimedia platforms.
• Professional testing and trainings. Professional qualification together with a diploma
• Early aid service;
• Resource center.

The school has two resource classes on applied behavior analyses (ABA therapy). Families with children with special needs aged 0 to 7, residing in Serpukhov district, can get free-of-charge consultations from various specialists and individually developed educational programs for their children. Based on the results of these consultations, children can receive professional assistance from specialists (pediatrician, developmental pediatrician, speech therapist, etc.) free-of-charge and on a regular basis.

Team and partners 

Team

“Absolut” school teachers, employees of Charity Foundation “Absolut Help”

Partners

Volunteers, private and state financing.

Resources

Financial resources

Budgets in RUB.:

2014 (September-December) 44 314 500, 00 (subventions – 8 807 000,00, Founder 35 507 500,00)

2015 – 84 715 168,00 (subventions – 35 800 266,00, Founder – 48 724 122,00)

2016 – 87 192 572,00 (subventions – 28 409 000,00 Founder – 58 638 314,00)

2017 – 92 823 187,00 (subventions – 19 674 517,00. Founder – 73 148 670,00)

2018 – 139 297 648,00 (subventions – 20 568 488,00, Founder – 118 729 160,00)

2019 –  ( 9 months fact + 3 months plan) –  147 827 971,00 (subventions – 22 204 000,00, Founder – 125 623 971,00).

Human resources

2014 – 88 people

2015 – 103 people

2016 – 92 people

2017 – 89 people

2018 – 85 people

2019 – 99 people

Teaching staff in 2019:

Teachers	27
Speech therapists	3
Developmental pediatricians	1
Tutors	5
Teacher’s assistant	1
Psychologists	5
Social teachers	3
Additional education teachers	9
Teacher-librarian	1
Head of creative studio	1
Musical teacher	1
Afterschool tutors	4
Night tutor	1
Facilitating tutor	1
Head of Early Aid Service	1

Achieved results

Immediate results:

Number of students at school in 2017 – 2018:

– beginning of the school year – 105,

– end of the school year- 104.

Children from foster families – 69, from birth families -30, under custody – 3.

At the beginning of the school year:

– children from the boarding school – 2,

– at the end of the school year- 2.

In 2017-2018 school year orphans:

–  2 went to the boarding school,

– 2 went to the Social Technological College.

Graduates of the 9^th grade in 2018 – 8 people (including 1 student of “Absolut” boarding school).

123 students attend the school in 2019/20 school year.

Out of them, 71 children take a special adopted course, 52 children take a general educational course. 82 students are from foster families, 41 students are from birth families. Senior high students with abandonment experiences had professional orientation trainings.. 92 specialists completed advanced training professional courses.

Social results:

“Absolut” school graduates can understand and communicate with different people, respect their point of view, successfully interact with them and be constructive in settling arguments. As a result, they succeed in achieving their goals.  

The school provides education and leisure activities for children with different starting opportunities and social status: cultivates tolerance, helps children fulfill their potential, develop their knowledge and skills, try something new, make the right choice of life goals and achieve them in harmony with themselves and the world. The school teaches children to believe in themselves, explore the world around them and not be afraid to make this world better.

Internal project assessment:

“Absolut Help” Charity Foundation and “Absolut” Investment Group perform internal assessment of the project, engage experts – methodologists. They have developed a system of internal monitoring of the project’s efficiency.

Project’s distinctive features and know – how

“Absolut” school is the only free-of-charge private inclusive educational institution in Russia for disabled children and orphans. It is a pilot educational project, compliant with contemporary educational standards and using new teaching methods. The school is a special project, developed by psychologists, teachers and developmental pediatricians. It creates favorable conditions for children, enabling them to prove themselves, broaden horizons, communicate with peers and adults, acquire professional skills, form their life philosophy.

Challenges and solutions

The main challenge during project implementation was changing the concept “correctional education” to “inclusive education”. Inclusive education values imply subject-subject relations between all the participants of the educational process, respect to the variety of personal, physical and intellectual characteristics of people.

Problems faced:

• Lack of a shared system of values of school teachers, parents and foster parents;
• Lack of clear methods of teaching and bringing up children with different needs and social status;
• Lack of teachers’ professional skills in selecting methods, means and ways of teaching children according to their individual educational needs and background. 

Use of educational technologies (errorless learning, accurate learning, group instructions, etc.) enables to speed up the educational process and improve the results.

Solutions:

Organization of inclusive environment is a creative process, where everyone involved will have an opportunity to contribute. Inclusive approach requires changes in the system of education, creation of new forms and ways of educational process, with focus on students’ individual needs. Therefore, the system of inclusive education should be flexible. In order to better manage inclusive processes, the school has introduced team work, project management, analyses and monitoring, consideration of interests of all people involved (children, parents, teachers, administration).

The main principle of managing an inclusive school is engaging into the decision making and implementation processes all the participants of the educational process.

Plans of further development   

It is a long-term project.

Project’s documents

PERFORMANCE ANALYSES FOR 2017-2018 SCHOOL YEAR