🎄 ASO Berndorf
52 children from Altenmarkt to Leobersdorf, distributed in 9 classes, go to the Allgemeine Sonderschule Berndorf – ASO Berndorf. This school is THE special school for handicapped children for the entire Triestingtal. There, children are cared for very individually, in small groups by highly trained special teachers, sometimes only for a limited period of time, sometimes for their entire school career. The special school is divided into 8 school years and additionally a ninth school year, the vocational preparation year. Children with special needs can often add a 10th, 11th or, in exceptional cases, a 12th school year.
The children
range in age from 6 to 18 and have disabilities of all kinds. There are basal more severely handicapped children, children with good aptitude but behavioral problems, children with concentration difficulties and learning disabilities, children on the autism spectrum, children with Down syndrome and many other special children.
At ASO Berndorf, instruction is currently provided according to 7 curricula: Elementary School Curriculum, Middle School Curriculum, General Special School Curriculum, Curriculum for Children with Increased Needs , Behavioral Disabilities Curriculum, Polytechnic School Curriculum, and Vocational Preparation Year Curriculum. Each child gets what he or she needs.
The goal of this intensive support is to provide the best possible schooling and practical life training so that the children can achieve maximum independence and life skills.
Special school is not a dead end, but an opportunity for children who are overwhelmed in other school types of instruction or by the size of the group. Repatriation is possible at any time. Graduation from special school does not preclude a teaching career or a regular job. However, some children need an extended apprenticeship, a sheltered workplace, or a place in a sheltered workshop.
The ninth year of special school is called the vocational preparation year, with specific goals:
Consolidation of basic skills and basic competencies.
Strengthening self-esteem and self-confidence
Finding strengths, learning social skills as well as team and conflict skills
Finding and formulating realistic career aspirations
Increasing self-assessment and frustration tolerance
In this final year, the young people are prepared very intensively for professional life. Application training, cooperation with youth coaching and job center and a wealth of apprenticeship excursions (companies, vocational schools, workshops, career information fairs, etc.) help the young people in their search for a profession.
Cooperations
For many years there has been a cooperation between the cultural office of the municipality of Berndorf and the special school. At the annual book exhibition, the young people of the upper school organize the buffet with great success. This cooperation was extended to include a performance at a vernissage. In this way, young people whose school careers were often fraught with many problems were able to train for the world of work and strengthen their self-confidence. Recognition is an essential factor in our school and sometimes the key to positive development. Receiving this well-deserved praise, even from the outside, does our young people infinite good.
Tutors & teachers
So who are the people who master this responsible task. There are currently 19 teachers, one teacher and 3 assistants from the community working at the ASO, 3 of them are in charge of the speech therapy classes in the Triestingtal and beyond, one is a guidance counselor. They are all excellently trained, have a lot of heart for children and are ready to be there as a team for difficult children. To see this task not as a difficulty, but as a responsibility and enrichment, that is the secret of what we do. My team picks up the children where they are and accompanies them into life.
If you are now curious about what else we do, who we are and how we learn and laugh, then take a look at our homepage:
There you will be able to understand our motto:
“The things that make me different are the things that make me, me.”
(Winnie the Pooh)
If you want to donate something for the work with our children, contact us, we always have wishes!
