Celebrating our high-flyers

One of the priorities in education is helping those who are falling behind, on how we can reach more children and offer them valuable pathways.

However, there is also another side of the education world, one which perhaps does not get as much as attention as it should. We have a lot of success on the higher end, with a lot of talent in our schools getting exceptional results. In mathematics, our students have won six bronze medals and two silver medals in Independent Challenge in the final round of the Mathematics Without Borders International Tournament; a gold and a bronze medal in the Team Challenge and, moreover, one of our students was also awarded with a Bronze Cup and a wreath for his outstanding achievement throughout the tournament. The same student was further awarded with the title of Maths Star of the tournament for his country.

There is a lot of hard work behind these results and in no small part this is due to the great work done by our educators in the sector.

Putting autism on the forefront

This week the conference ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Second and Foreign Languages Classes’ highlighted the important work being done to make education truly inclusive in class, and not just as a buzzword which is sometimes thrown about it.

Inclusion does not simply mean putting all students within the same class but measures have to be taken to reach all children and help them develop their full potential.

The conference, organised by Dr Mario Pace, included a presentation by Language Speech Pathologist Ms Veronica Montanaro, who explained that most children who learn more than one language gain valuable skills. Researchers say this may also be true for children with autism.

She explained how students with autism have varying levels of skills and that every student may have unique needs with learning, social skills, and communication. The Conference presented the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder, the varying learning styles of children with autism and included a practical session on strategies that can be used to support students with Autism who are acquiring a foreign language.

It is important to highlight these challenges for the educational experience to change itself in a way that really fits the needs of each and every child.

Over the past decades we’ve seen a lot of policies in education which focus on bringing everyone together under the same roof and getting the same experience. This was labelled as inclusion. But if we really want to include each and every child, we must first and foremost offer them an engaging and relevant experience. Putting everyone in the same class with the same delivery does not work. We can romanticise things, but in reality we’re not getting much work done unless we offer students the most relevant education delivery that is possible.

Goodbye Ray

Raymond Cutajar lost a six-year battle with cancer on the 3rd of July. He was a remarkable person who inspired a lot of people around him. I had the honour to get to know him. His soul shone through and he always remained positive and with a smile, even in the most difficult circumstances. Goodbye Ray.