The Reishit School
Background
The Reishit School was founded in 2000 in Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, Gush Etzion. The cornerstone of the school is its commitment to co-educate children with special needs alongside their mainstream peers. Reishit is a private school which covers the full curriculum up to seventh grade and has 320 children in 14 classes.
60 of its children have special educational needs, including Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. Each classroom is staffed by a general classroom teacher, a special education teacher and a volunteer from Sherut Leumi (National Service). All pupils with special needs are part of the regular class and are supported with their own individual education program covering the same subjects as their friends with additional input where needed. They also receive occupational therapy, speech therapy and animal therapy, according to their needs.
The School’s ‘raison d’etre’ is based on three principles: The love of Torah; Love of the land of Israel and love of one’s fellow man.
Reishit is located in a rural setting approximately 20 km South West of Jerusalem. The tranquility and space that the kibbutz provides allows for a number of therapeutic activities which benefit all the children. These include a petting corner where the children are responsible for the care of the animals, a garden where the children grow vegetables and plants and horse-riding.
Our Concept
The theory of integrating children with special needs into a regular framework is not new, but is seldom put into practice to the extent seen in Reishit, which has proven to be one of the greatest successes in Israeli special needs education. The key to the school’s success is that rather than providing an institutional environment meeting the physical and/or psychological needs of such children, Reishit provides a tailor made program to meet the needs of each child within a regular educational environment. Apart from fostering understanding and tolerance in all children at the school, it also focuses on bringing the child with special needs closer to the mainstream and allows them to build the skills they need to achieve a high level of independence or even to return them to mainstream education.
The regular education is similarly innovative in that it focuses on the enjoyment of creativity and the abilities of each child to both learn and contribute within a framework based on Judaism, its values and texts. This combination of integrated special and regular education, with an original approach to the syllabus and teaching methods, is unique in Israel.
Budget
| Ceramics Room |
| Ceramics class |
$20,000 |
| Clay, tools, wheel, kiln, materials |
$10,000 |
| Furniture |
$2,500 |
|
| Annual training of teachers, with special software
for challenged children |
$25,000 |
