Darling Point Special School focuses on educational programs related to individual student strengths, interests and needs, including special needs, cultural priorities, and personal aspirations. Inclusion, equity, life quality, and quality outcomes give purpose to our attention to evidence-based teaching approaches.
The enrolment of students aged between 5 and 18 years as of 2026 is upwards of 180 students and represents an upward trend, particularly in the early and middle years of the school.
Students who attend the school have intellectual disability, or global development delay in the case of young children, as their primary focus of support needs. Many students have additional learning support requirements related to autistic spectrum disorder, hearing, vision, physical impairment, as well as health issues, particularly epilepsy, cardiac issues, diabetes, asthma and allergies and anaphylaxis.
Students’ strengths, interests, and needs are the focus of the school's curriculum planning and teaching, linked to the school’s curriculum plan derived from the Australian curriculum version 9. Goals and targets are developed collaboratively amongst parents, students, and staff within a transdisciplinary framework.
Students’ learning and development is also supported through the collaborative development and implementation of personalised learning plans that address impacts arising from the student’s disability in the areas of attendance, behaviour, communication, curriculum, health and personal care, learning environment, safety, social/emotional wellbeing, and transitions.
The school prides itself on the way that positive behaviour support methodologies are embedded in teaching practices, ways of working, and school philosophy. The staff team engaged in a longitudinal action research project in partnership with Dr Gary LaVigna, Institute of Applied Behaviour Analysis, California, to develop, refine and pilot a generic multi-element plan and data analysis protocol, that aims to maximise positive student behaviours without the extreme time commitments required of individual functional behaviour analysis processes. Ongoing work with multielement behaviour support (MEBS) plans reflects the published evidence regarding positive behaviour support methodologies and ensures quality practice, staff support and training, consistent language, and ways of working, together with a climate of non-aversive and non-restrictive practices.
Functional, authentic curriculum designed and delivered through a project-based learning project in the junior secondary classes is a key priority especially in the areas of social and coping skills, communication including augmentative and alternate systems, and preparation for life in home, community, relationship, environmental and science applications, work and leisure domains.
Our school continues to navigate an extensive facilities upgrade project with substantial funding from the Queensland government. To date, following the demolition of several aged buildings dated from 1985 at the Manly campus, a new state of the art three storey learning and teaching facility has been completed. Known as S Block, this facility provides classrooms, withdrawal nooks, and adjacent verandas, indoor and outdoor play and leisure spaces, and an expansive staff training area and staffroom. Plans are well advanced for the next phase of demolition and construction that will see new facilities standing at the Manly site within the next several years.
Meanwhile, almost half of the school’s staff and students continue to be accommodated in temporary facilities on the grounds of Iona College in North Road Wynnum. This unique partnership is highly valued and serves as further testimony to the productive and supportive ways that schools work together in the local community.
The school has retained its Independent Public School identity. The School Council with elected staff and parent representatives together with the principal, Parents’ and Citizens’ (P&C) Association chair, and appointed members, provides positive and supportive leadership with strategic planning advice and oversight for the school, through the principal in her role as chief executive officer and the minister’s delegate on campus.
The school has an active P&C Association that raises funds for special projects and resources, facilitates the uniform shop, assists in co-management of school events, and provides a familiar and welcome parent presence in the school. A key aspect of the P&C Association is their registered Outside School Hours Care and Vacation Care service, and their NDIS Registered Service that provides therapy services including speech therapy, occupational therapy, and art therapy, together with social and community participation supports for students attending the school.
Highlights of the school year include the annual fun run along the waterfront which attracts students from across the greater metropolitan area, the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and Toowoomba. Since the inaugural event organised by the school in 1977, and with a resurgence in participation since the COVID-19 lull, numbers have steadily increased each year so that well over 1000 students attend this event, together with their school and family supporters.
The school celebrates its multi-cultural heritage with a special Harmony Day concert and community afternoon tea each March. Students from both campuses present musical performances annually at the Iona College IPAC theatre. All students display at least one artwork at the annual art show and cocktail party each March. End of year class celebrations include the annual senior formal dinner each December where graduating students are affirmed for their individual achievements and transition to life beyond school in the workplace and/or further learning and activity programs.
Students enjoy life skills programs both on campus and in the community. Philanthropic donations together with the P&C Association have provided the school with two vans which enable all students to effectively access the community. Additional transport support for students to access programs is achieved through a partnership with Townsends’ school transport service, and through Brisbane city council bus services, and trains.
Graduate destinations for students expanded following the introduction of focused vocational education programs in thee senior secondary years of the school. During the transition from school to community life, all post-compulsory students have individual transition goals that are confirmed in their senior education and training plans (SETP) and curriculum plans aligned to the Queensland certificate of individual achievement (QCIA). These goals include linkages to support agencies and employers as students and their families are provided with maximal support to facilitate successful transition to their preferred destinations in open employment, supported employment or activity-based options.
In 2013, and ongoing, the school’s replicated STEP UP to Employment program (using the IABA intellectual property) provides a bespoke model of learning and practice for students to develop knowledge and skills, and to successfully transition to work and maximised independence. Whilst reflecting the best practice criteria of STEP, this program also takes account of local contextual, environmental, and political and policy conditions. The school community has taken a lead role in establishing in partnerships with upwards of twenty local businesses, commercial and social enterprises. These enable student work experience and foster real employment opportunities for students post-school. Key to STEP UP to Employment is the school’s focus on life quality and self-determination.