Geographe Primary School students have introduced an education support squad, a group of students who strive to make their school one where everyone has a friend.
GESS was a student started initiative that saw the main stream students start an inclusive playgroup with students from the support centre.
Geographe Education Support Centre is a purpose built kindergarten to year 12 co-located with Geographe Primary School and Busselton Senior High School campuses.
The school caters for students with autism and a range of physical and intellectual disabilities.
The students said they wanted to create an environment where everyone would have someone to play with.
And so the squad was created, now the GESS students don their special vests and head over to the support centre for fun and games.
Geographe Primary associate principal Alison Freeman said she was incredibly proud of the students initiative.
“It is such a lovely idea, once we saw what was happening we decided to make it an official program,” she said.
“We gave the main stream students some training in body language, social cues etc to help them develop their own social skills and learn how to manage different students emotional needs.
“You can see how excited all the students are now, they can’t wait to play with each other.
“The support centre students have grown so much since this started, they are now playing more inclusively and growing their own social circle.”
The GESS students said they take their squad seriously and were always thinking of new ways to include all students. They said they wanted all students to feel safe and appreciated.