Inclusion Policy

 HCHS Mission Statement

Hope Christian High School is a non-stock, non-profit, non-sectarian church-related educational institution that aims to train and transform its students through Academic Development, Spiritual Formation, Personal Enrichment, and Social Awareness.

Guided by its vision, Hope Christian High School seeks to inspire its reflective learning community to acknowledge God’s love, obey God’s law, develop the self, and contribute to global society.

It’s also set to carry out its mission of being committed to continually provide world-class Christian education relevant to the changes and challenges of the times for the glory of God.

IB Mission Statement

The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

 HCHS Philosophy of Inclusive Education

As a private Christian educational institution, Hope Christian High School believes that education is a basic human right, and regardless of gender, race, religion, or socio-economic status, students deserve the same access to the best quality education.  It recognizes the rights of all learners including those with disabilities to an “inclusive, equitable, relevant, and quality basic education by providing them effective and efficient educational services that will enable them to become well-rounded, happy, and productive individuals.” DepEd Order No. 044, s. 2O21

Given its resources, the school is committed to providing an inclusive educational program and the best possible K-12 educational opportunity, aiming to meet international standards in all of its programs, from Preschool to Senior High School.  To achieve this goal, it provides and implements the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) for its Primary and Elementary School and the Middle Years Programme (MYP) for its Junior High School program to all its students.  

The school further believes that everyone has the responsibility to fulfill the measure of their creation and potential. Therefore, as a private school, the school, with its administration, support and teaching staff, aims to provide an inclusive education to all its students, with the commitment to meet the diversity of learning needs and styles, provide safe learning spaces for all,  and remove learning barriers to fulfill this responsibility through the resources and support it is capable of providing within its context, as stipulated in DepEd Order No. 43, s. 2013 and DepEd Order No. 44, s. 2021.

Procedures for Identifying Learning Needs

Understanding that students come from various educational backgrounds and needs when they are admitted into the school, HCHS follows a thoughtful approach to meet the learning as well as socio-emotional needs of students.  

1. Initial Assessment of Learning Needs

Identifying student needs starts with the assessment during the admission process and continues until students conclude their education and meet their educational goals. The admission and the guidance offices assess the following: 

1. General academic preparedness of students 

Assessment includes intelligence tests and review of previous academic preparation as shown in report cards from other schools.

2. Literacy skills

Assessment includes reading and writing skills necessary to meet the literacy expectations in Junior High School.

3. Numeracy skills

These include the foundational skills in math required to meet the numeracy demands in Junior High School.

Based on the interview and assessment, the guidance office makes appropriate recommendations to parents to meet their learning needs, whether language, literacy, remediation, or enrichment as outlined in the Provisions for Learning  section.

As stated in the admission policy, students diagnosed with special needs and exceptionalities are accepted, with the school collaborating with parents and guardians who provide for the additional assessment, resources, and support, required or given by outside specialists.  

2. Instructional Assessment of Learning Needs

Understanding that students come at different learning levels and with different background knowledge, teachers provide an instructional inquiry cycle that initially assesses both skills and background knowledge.  Thereafter, teachers provide differentiation of learning, either enrichment or remediation as needed, identified below in the provisions section.

Depending on the needs of students, the teacher provides or may recommend the following:

1. Level 1 remedial intervention:  Teachers provide after school support and level 1 remedial intervention, i.e., remediation of concepts and skills within core subjects which include the following:
   1. reviewing previous grade or unit concepts and skills 
   2. reteaching concepts from previous units of inquiry or lessons
   3. providing additional practice to fill in learning gaps
   4. providing help during the consultation period

2. Level 2 After school intervention:  Depending on the need or when student level is below one or two grade levels, teachers  may recommend level 2 after school intensive intervention, i.e.,  intensive support beyond school services and hours. Teachers engage parents, guardians, and students in collaborative efforts to remove barriers of learning that may include behavioral and socio-emotional factors.   

The Guidance Office also regularly reviews the progress of students as shown in their report cards and other data points such as standardized and Lexile test results.  After reviewing such data, the school through its guidance office may initiate meetings with and give appropriate advice to teachers, parents, and teachers.

3.  Assessment of Special Needs

In situations where the initial admission procedure has not identified special learning needs and where regular differentiation support and remediation do not meet student learning needs, teachers may refer the case to the guidance counselors who may provide assistance and/or advice for further advice or recommendation to students and parents, remediation, or possible intervention. 

In cases where specific special needs have become apparent and after careful review of instructional remediation and documentation provided by general education teachers, the guidance counselor may convene a student study team (SST), composed of an administrator, guidance counselor, subject teachers, parents, the student, and a learning specialist, and recommend to parents to seek outside assessment by specialists such as an occupational therapist, a developmental pediatrician, or a special education specialist.  

Depending on the recommendations of specialists, parents may seek and provide for outside support services such as a shadow teacher, while the school general education teachers can provide students with modifications of the curriculum or accommodations in its implementation as required by the learning plan.  

Collaborative SST meetings are held annually or as needed to monitor and assess progress of the individualized learning plan.  During the meeting, teachers provide the student’s present level of performance, from which the group decides whether to amend or keep the individualized learning plan.

Provisions for Diverse Learning Needs

1. A Challenging Curriculum

HCHS implements the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes that provide for a challenging framework in all subject areas.  The Middle Years Programme is inquiry-based, conceptually-driven, and constructivist in approach where students participate in determining inquiry questions with answers that require real-life applications.  With the guidance of the teachers, students construct their own understanding of the world and apply these concepts in real life not only in specific subjects but also across subject areas, providing depth and complexity to the concepts they learn. 

Additionally, subject area objectives and criteria require investigations, creativity and critical thinking, collaboration and communication, self-management and self-regulation as students explore content standards identified by national and international curricula. 

For good measure, students at grade 10 are required to pursue their own interest or project in any subject area, one that requires creativity and/or critical thinking and one that they conceptualize, plan, and implement themselves with the mentorship of a supervisor.

In conclusion, this curricular and instructional framework sets challenging learning standards but is flexible enough to meet the needs of varied groups of learners including the following: 

1. Gifted and talented or the highly capable–students who exhibit high levels of task commitment, creativity, and above average academic ability (Renzulli and Smith, 1978); 
2. High achieving students–students achieving advanced levels of proficiency in specific subject areas in the standardized test for at least two years in a row. 

2.   Differentiated Instruction for All

In implementing the Middle Years Programme, HCHS employs differentiated instructional practices to  serve the diverse needs of students including  students with competencies or skills  that fall one or two above or below  the students’ grade level.  HCHS teachers are trained and equipped with level one instructional strategies, i.e., strategies adapting the content, process, or product of learning to the needs and levels of students.  

During the class inquiry process, teachers provide individualized inquiry opportunities to students including those highly capable to extend their learning along relevant topics of their own choice. Small group engagement tasks also provide opportunities for differentiated instruction to specific needs.

For students with language needs or limited English proficiency, teachers front load concept vocabulary using various strategies such as Frayer model, word visualization, and word analysis.  Teachers present video representations of reading topics, scaffolding the gap between their background knowledge and reading level on one hand and the level of the reading material on the other.  

The school provides level two ancillary programs:  an independent reading program–Scholastic reading program and  an intensive language program for limited English proficient students to facilitate their reading and language development.  Teachers train students in the specific steps of  the writing process, e.g. brainstorming, organizing, revising, and editing to develop writing skills.  Furthermore, teachers  provide sentence starters and paragraph frames, and other strategies to help students with their writing needs especially in the core subject areas and to facilitate grade level learning.  

Where and when feasible, teachers provide differentiated content materials accessible to student language or skills levels, without compromising the standards set by the national curriculum and the MYP framework implemented by the school or interfering with the pacing of the regular instructional plan.

3.   Universal Design of Learning:  Multiple Means of Learning

Following Universal Design of Learning (UDL) principles, teachers also provide students with multiple ways of engagement, representation, and expression in the learning process, which meet the learning style needs of all students.  Specifically, teachers provide the following:

1. multiple means of engaging students in the learning process by providing a variety of tasks that engage various modes of learning:  kinesthetic, visual, verbal, and auditory or a combination thereof.
2. variety of choices in representing the content and products of learning through the use of various media: print, video, and/or audio, and 
3.  variety of ways of expressing ideas either verbally, in writing, or other means  including the assistance and use of technology or computers and the option to use their stronger or preferred mode of learning.

4.   School-Wide Social-Emotional Learning and Information Literacy Programs

In addition to the regular advisement and as part of school’s  commitment to implement an inclusive education, the Guidance Office, in collaboration with homeroom teachers, provides for a regular socio-emotional learning training (SEL) program that covers self-management and self-regulation skills. 

This program specifically trains students in self-management skills such as goal-setting, time-management, and developing action plan; and in self-regulation skills such as becoming aware of and managing emotions and stress, persevering, and other socio-emotional skills.  This is implemented in the Homeroom Program together with the character and values educational program mandated by the national curriculum.

5.   After-School Co-curricular Enrichment Programs

In addition to the above, the school offers enriching co-curricular activities after school hours for students with interests and capabilities in the following areas:

1. Robotics
2. Journalism
3. International and Local Math Competition Training
4. Performing Arts: Dance and Music
5. Team Sports
6. Chess

Adaptable Expectations in Maximizing Potentials

The school offers various learning programs and differentiated instructional practices to meet the diverse needs of students, keeping in mind the diversity of capabilities, adapting expectations with the aim of maximizing the potential of individual students and achieving optimum learning outcomes.

Continuing Professional Development Program

The school is committed to providing teachers and staff with continued professional development programs as it provides challenging as well as differentiated programs in terms of remediation, intervention, and enrichment.

Glossary of Terms

The following are terms used in this policy.  The definitions may overlap with those of other terms.

1. Accommodations are changes in how a student learns the content.
2. Modifications are changes in the content a student is expected to learn.  Both “accommodations” and “modifications” are terms used to identify changes in the learning plan of students with special needs.
3. Remediation is a program used to fill in gaps in the learning of students who have not yet mastered particular content standards or developed particular grade level skills. 
4. Intervention is a program used to target specific learning disabilities of individual students. 
5. Enrichment is a program aimed at extending the curriculum program of the school to further develop various abilities and interests. 
6. Universal Design of Learning (UDL) is a framework based on three core principles: varied modes of engaging students in terms of activities, multiple choices or means of representing content and products, and varied ways of expressing ideas. 
7. Differentiation is a teaching strategy aimed at meeting the individual student needs by adapting the content, process, and product of learning as part of the enrichment program or remediation plan.

Socio-Emotional Learning and Information Literacy Programs during Homeroom

	Self-Management/Self-Regulation	Information/Research and Character Education
Part 1	Managing state of mind • Mindfulness- developing mental focus and concentration, overcome distractions and become aware of body–mind connections • Perseverance and Resilience – developing persistence,  perseverance, delaying gratification, “bouncing back” after adversity, “failing well”, and coping with change• Emotional management – overcoming impulsiveness and anger, and to reduce stress and anxiety	Finding, interpreting, judging and creating information • Accessing information to be informed and informing others • Evaluating and selecting information sources and digital tools based on their appropriateness to specific tasks (credibility)  • Understanding and implementing intellectual property rights • Creating references and citations, using footnotes/endnotes and constructing a bibliography according to recognized conventions
Part 2	Managing time and tasks effectively •Setting SMART goals that are challenging and realistic.•Creating plan of action and using strategies  to achieve personal and academic goals to prepare for personal project and summative assessments • Keeping and using a weekly planner for assignments and an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks • Understanding and using  learning preferences (learning styles)	Character Education•Developing attitudes and behaviors such as  trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship

Appendix A  

Schedule of SEL and Information Literacy Homeroom Program

The SEL and Information Literacy Homeroom Program class of Grade 9 will take place once a month during homeroom period at 7:30-8:00 am. It will be facilitated by Junior High School guidance officer and librarian every Tuesday and Wednesday 

Schedule A – Information Literacy Program

Section	Topic 1The Big 6 Process ModelDifferent Online Databases of Journals and e-resources: Accessing InformationSource: https://nmasse.com/courses/ref/big6/big6.htm	Topic 2Evaluating Sources : RADCABEvaluating and selecting information sources and digital tools based on their appropriateness to specific tasks (credibility)   Source: https://mypigcse.weebly.com/evaluating-the-sources.html	Topic 3MLA CitationUnderstanding and implementing intellectual propertyrights  Source:https://dplibraryi.weebly.com/mla.html	Topic 4APA CitationFormat of Proper Research Paper: How should be doneCreating references and citations, using footnotes/endnotes and constructing a bibliography according to recognized conventions Source:https://dplibraryi.weebly.com/apa.html
Ephraim	Jan. 16-17	Feb.  14-15	March 5-6	April 2-3
Issachar	Jan. 23-24	Feb. 20-21	March 12-13	April 10
Manasseh	Jan.30- 31	Feb. 27-28	March 19-20	April 16-17

Schedule B – SEL Program

Section	Topic 1Respect3 R’s of Respect: Respect yourself, others, and the environment Students will be able to define respect and be able to give examples of ways to show respect at school, at home, and in the community. Source:https://www.slideshare.net/dustinbustin/respect-powerpoint-26-slides	Topic 2Self-RegulationFurther enhance students’ ability to control one’s emotions, create achievable goals, and use practical strategies to overcome difficulties in both academic and personal endeavors. Source:https://www.thepathway2success.com/15-classroom-practices-to-build-self-regulationskills/	Topic 3Goal Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals To teach students the goal setting process, compare short- and long-term goals, and set short-term and long-term goals that are consistent with personal values. Source:https://nc02214543.schoolwires.net/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid =30935&dataid=44278&FileName=smart_goals.ppt	Topic 4Time Management The Four Quadrant Rule: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey To be able to manage and organize their own time efficiently and productively. Source:https://humanskills.blog/time-management-matrix/#h-how-to-use-the-stephen-covey-time-management-matrix
Issachar	Jan. 16	Jan. 30	Feb. 14 , Feb. 27	March 6 , March 20
Manasseh	Jan. 16	Jan. 24	Feb. 14 , Feb. 21	March 6 , March 12
Ephraim	Jan. 24	Jan. 30	Feb. 21 , Feb. 27	March 12 , March 20

Appendix B  

Co-curricular Enrichment Activities 

                 AY 2023-2024

Coaches/Teachers	Club Name	Day/s	Time	Venue
Ms. Sonnie Abella	Hope Chorale	Gr. 1-12	Tuesday and Thursday	3:15PM – 5:30PM	2nd Floor,Music Room                                        Alumni Building
Rev. William Jonathan Ong	Bible Club	Gr. 1-6Gr. 7-12	Tuesday                                          Thursday	3:30PM – 4:30PM 4:00PM – 5:00PM	HS Building   Room 409B
Mr. John Paul Layug	Rondalla Club	Gr. 5-12	Wednesday Thursday	3:15PM – 5:00PM 4:00PM – 5:00PM	Alumni, Building2nd Floor, Music RoomAlumni Bldg. Rm 306
Mr. Marlon Ng Ms. Geneva Chua	Dance Troupe	Gr. 5-12	Monday                               Saturday	3:15PM – 5:15PM                                 9:30AM-12:00PM	Alumni Building,                         2nd Floor, Music Room
Mr. Jerry Yee                 Mr. Jovy Sy	Volleyball	Gr. 4-12	Monday and  FridaySaturday	4:30PM – 7:30PM10:00AM – 12:00PM	Preschool Gym
Mr. Jerrson Cabiltes                         Mr. Gonzalo Catalan	Basketball	Gr. 7-12	Monday to Friday	5:00PM – 6:30PM	8th Floor Gym
Mr. Joseph Guion	Basketball	Gr. 1-6	Wednesday                   Saturday	3:15PM – 6:00PM   8:00AM – 10:00AM	8th Floor Gym
Mr. Jayson Visca	Chess Club	Gr. 1-6   Gr. 7-12	Tuesday                     Thursday	3:15PM – 4:30PM4:00PM – 5:30PM	H       HS HS Building                  2nd floor, Cafeteria
Mr. Anthony Deveza           Mr. Gener Godoy	Badminton	Gr. 3-8Gr. 9-12	Tuesday and Thursday	3:15PM – 5:00PM5:00PM-6:30PM	Preschool Gym
Mr. Richard RebotiacoMr. Alvaro Uy	Track and Field	Gr. 4-12	Tuesday & Thursday               Saturday	4:00PM – 6:00PM                               2:00PM – 4:00PM	Hope Quadrangle
Mr. Rodel Valle	Table Tennis	Gr. 4-12	Saturday	9:00AM – 12:00PM	Alumni Bldg. Grounds
Mr. Lamberto Armada	Boy Scout	Gr. 1-12	Saturday	1:00PM – 4:00PM	Preschool Building
	Girl Scout
Ms. Connie Adriano	Special Math	Gr 7	Tuesday & Wednesday	3:35 pm – 4:30 pm	Hs Building 5th flr
Mr. Arvie Ubarro	Special Math	Gr8	Monday to Thursday	8:55 am – 9:45 am	7th flr Library
		G9	Monday to Friday except Wednesday	11:00-11:50 am	7th Flr Library
Mrs. Connie Adriano	Special Math	G10	Monday	3:35 pm – 4:30 pm	5th flr HS Building
Ms. Ibasco/Ms. Salibay	School Paper	JHS/SHS	Tues and Wednesday	3:40-5pm	5th flr HS bBuilding
Mr. Kim Samson	Robotics	JHS/SHS	Tuesday and Thursday	3:30-5:30pm	2nd Flr Alumni Building

References

Deped Order #43, s. 2013. Implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act no. 10533 Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013.

Deped Order #44, s. 2021. Policy guidelines on the provision of educational programs and services for learners with disabilities in the k to 12 basic education program.

Renzulli, J. S., & Smith, L. H. (1978). Developing defensible programs for the gifted and talented. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 12(1), 21–29, 51.

Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development.  (2024, Jan 9) School-wide enrichment model. https://gifted.uconn.edu/schoolwide-enrichment-model/