The Department of Education is searching for a social worker for the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy ? a special needs school.

The school, which currently has ten students aged four to 16-years-old, wants to take on up to nine more students for the upcoming school year.

The social worker is required to conduct and write social assessments of each student, their families and the impact of the school on the students. They will also be required to develop intervention methods in individual, group, family counselling and crisis management, the advertisement stated.

Education Minister Terry Lister explained that the school currently boasts four educational classrooms and students are exposed to a curriculum adapted to their aptitude.

Students can eventually be placed in the public school system.

Mr. Lister said that it is the parents choice whether to send their children to the special needs school or allow them to stay within the public school system.

?I?ve toured some of the primary schools and seen some students who are very challenged but they are coping because their life is being enriched by being with the other children. We support the choice for which school is chosen because it?s the parents? choice,? he said.

Each student has multiple difficulties but the school is outfitted with offerings of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and vision services several times a week.

The emphasis of the school is on developing personal management skills, communication skills, career and vocational skills, community skills, and recreational and leisure activities.

Students are also exposed to formal instruction in reading and math as deemed appropriate by the child?s aptitude.

The school is also fitted with a sensory room and the kitchen is under renovation to make it more accessible for the students? needs. A library will be finished by the end of the month and will be filled with literature and books on tape.

?Our school focus is to develop independence wherever possible whether through an adaptive switch to turn on music, learn how to prepare a meal or teach self-sufficient ways to enjoy leisure time,? he said.

?We have a commitment to every child to allow them to be independent because they have to have a full life.?