{"id":202247,"date":"2016-09-26T12:35:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=202247"},"modified":"2023-08-02T12:46:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T16:46:33","slug":"special-education-abroad-teaching-in-u-k-classrooms-that-offer-safe-space-for-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/09\/special-education-abroad-teaching-in-u-k-classrooms-that-offer-safe-space-for-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Education Abroad: Teaching in U.K. Classrooms That Offer \u2018Safe Space for Recovery\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a school where students, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years old, do not regularly show up for class every day. Those who do attend may abruptly walk out in the middle of a lesson. And just outside this school\u2019s entrance is a short, paved path that leads to an on-premises, partner hospital clinic, where most of the school\u2019s adolescent students, facing a wide range of mental health challenges, have been admitted as patients for treatment for anywhere from two weeks to a year.<\/p>\n

Each fall, it is here \u2014 at\u00a0Northgate School<\/a>\u00a0in North London \u2014 that several of the Neag School\u2019s aspiring teachers arrive to intern as part of the London Study Abroad Teaching Internship Program, one of several opportunities for\u00a0international study in teacher education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Northgate
Neag School alum Grace Healey \u201915 (ED), \u201916 MA heads into Northgate School in North London, where she held a semester-long Study Abroad teaching internship last fall. (Photo Courtesy of Grace Healey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northgate is not your typical elementary or secondary school, even by U.K. standards. It is a place dedicated to working closely with its students\u2019 caregivers and psychiatrists to offer a safe space for recovery, and to ensure a smooth transition for its students back into mainstream schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has been built here is a school that has outstanding results and gets young people to work through their mental health challenge. No matter how unwell they are, they continue learning,\u201d says former headteacher Athy Demetriades. \u201cIt ensures that they have a safety net of support when they leave here. At the same time, you\u2019re trying to eliminate the appalling stigma that comes along with being unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really need to be cognizant of what your students are going through, to get to know them. It shouldn\u2019t just be direct instruction.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Grace Healey \u201915 (ED), \u201916 MA<\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This past academic year, two Neag School students accepted into the London Study Abroad program spent the fall semester of their master\u2019s year teaching at Northgate: Grace Healey \u201915 (ED), \u201916 MA, now a special education teacher at Cooperative Educational Services\u00a0and a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s Center for Research and Reform in Education, and Audrey Kelley \u201915 (ED), \u201916 MA, today a teacher at Monument Academy, a public charter school in Washington, D.C. They were two of 16 students from UConn who spent last fall semester immersed in the Neag School\u2019s London program.<\/p>\n

And although Healey and Kelley had each previously served in teaching capacities in locations abroad \u2014 Healey for two months in Cambodia and Kelley during a semester in South Africa \u2014\u00a0interning in Northgate\u2019s small and specialized setting in London still proved to be an entirely new experience for them both.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not about you\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Healey, who had been a student-teacher and volunteer tutor in the States in addition to her two months of teaching in Cambodia, the day-to-day experience at Northgate stood in stark contrast to what she refers to as a more \u201crigid\u201d school-day schedule that is typical of the Connecticut school system to which she had been accustomed.<\/p>\n

With Northgate focused first and foremost on its students\u2019 mental health, conventional lessons and activities do not always go as planned. When children act out in class, seem to be off-task, or are not paying attention, instructors work to redirect the lessons toward the student, says Healey, whose degree concentration at the Neag School was special education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about you \u2014 it\u2019s about the kids,\u201d says Healey, a native of Fairfield, Conn. \u201cYou really need to be cognizant of what your students are going through, to get to know them. It shouldn\u2019t just be direct instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Audrey
Audrey Kelley \u201915 (ED), \u201916 MA spent the fall of her master\u2019s year at Northgate School in North London, where she led classes in English and ethics and sexual health. (Photo Credit: David Moss)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fellow intern Kelley, who was pursuing a concentration in elementary education, found herself taking a step back throughout her initial few weeks at Northgate, at first observing from afar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been so used to primary [school], so used to kids immediately loving you,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was kind of hard at first. As a teacher, you just want to get your hands in and work. If you normally work in a school, you work with kids immediately and know how to work effectively with them. But here, I didn\u2019t know if there were triggers, if there was anything I did or said that would set a kid off or make them feel uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, the subject matter of the classes also proved to be unlike what the interns had encountered in U.S. classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a really different curriculum [in the U.K.] \u2014 much more comprehensive,\u201d Kelley says, who, in addition to teaching English classes at Northgate, was able to apply her interest in social justice and human rights issues and lead an ethics and sexual health class.<\/p>\n

For Neag School interns past and present who are part of the London program, acquiring these new perspectives at a school like Northgate is certainly by design. \u201cOne of the key features of our global program for pre-service teachers is the opportunity for them to experience cultural and professional difference,\u201d says associate professor\u00a0David Moss<\/a>, director of\u00a0global education<\/a>\u00a0for the Neag School, who has been coordinating the London program for nearly 20 years. \u201cSuch comparative global perspectives offer our interns an opportunity to step back from the notion of what is typical in schools and carefully consider if their practice is truly in the best interest of their students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Northgate is a school that specifically offers its student body a special level of freedom to be creative. From painting and creative writing to drumming and filmmaking, its students are encouraged to express themselves through art in all forms \u2014 what one former Northgate student called \u201cart from the heart,\u201d says Demetriades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy being here, and it\u2019s not easy hearing the stories that we hear.\u00a0I love the professionalism of [our Neag School interns] rising above all of that, and continuing to focus on what\u2019s important for the child.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Athy Demetriades, former Northgate School headteacher<\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rising Above<\/strong><\/p>\n

Demetriades, who retired this past year after working for many years at Northgate, is quick to credit both Healey and Kelley for their professionalism, enthusiasm, and skill in the classroom \u2014 as well as the many Neag School students who have interned at Northgate in past years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very first student, we were hooked,\u201d she says of Northgate\u2019s longtime partnership with the Neag School and its teaching internship program. \u201cThe people [we] get are fresh, charismatic. You have additional superb teachers working alongside you; there\u2019s no training to be done. \u2026 I think that the growth on both sides is phenomenal. We learn from each other. They bring a different system, a different inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Grace
Healey, left, and Kelley, right, attend a daily morning meeting with fellow teachers at the Northgate School during their Fall 2015 internship in London. (Photo Credit: David Moss)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before long, Kelley came to feel more comfortable with the unique challenges of teaching at Northgate. She says she realized that \u201cif [the students] leave the classroom, it\u2019s not an offense to you. Sometimes something is going on at home, and you need to be respectful of that, to try to understand and give them the coping skills to come back into the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the challenge of teaching abroad, in a school setting and with a curriculum different from that of schools in the States, was raised to another level when Healey faced a particularly sensitive situation in which a student confided in her about unsafe circumstances at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was very hard,\u201d says Healey. But \u201cI think the Neag [School] prepared me professionally and with techniques to handle the classroom and behavior\u00a0\u2014 especially in special education\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and the really deep issues that come along with mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy being here, and it\u2019s not easy hearing the stories that we hear,\u201d Demetriades says. \u201cI love the professionalism of [our Neag School interns] rising above all of that, and continuing to focus on what\u2019s important for the child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting firsthand experience at Northgate and having the opportunity to work in a setting so different from a mainstream school was, Kelley says \u201cdefinitely the most beneficial for me \u2014 and being able to see different support systems that are put in place for different needs of a student. It will allow me to think about what can be applied to the schools I work at in the future [and] it taught me a lot for my own personal classroom, so I can be responsive and more understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more\u00a0about the Neag School\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>London Study Abroad Teaching Internship Program here<\/em>.\u00a0Find\u00a0more information here<\/a>\u00a0about this and\u00a0other Study Abroad experiences and global initiatives\u00a0at the Neag School. Or,\u00a0contact Associate Professor David Moss, Director of Global Education for the Neag School, at\u00a0<\/em>david.moss@uconn.edu<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Find additional\u00a0information about the Neag School\u2019s Integrated Bachelor\u2019s\/Master\u2019s (IB\/M) program\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Check out\u00a0the\u00a0stories of other\u00a0Neag School London Study Abroad Teaching Internship alumni:<\/h4>\n