Our primary goal is to provide inclusive education where all children reach their full learning potential.

St. Joseph’s Special School is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation providing educational services to chronically ill learners with a vast spectrum of special needs.

These special needs include children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome, as well as medical conditions such as heart and lung disease, cancer, respiratory disorders including tracheas. We also accommodate learners with TB, HIV / AIDS, and recently an influx of children with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI’s).

Since its inception, the activities of our school are driven by love. Love for the struggling, chronically ill and the marginalised.

A large portion of our learners have mild/moderate intellectual disabilities.

St. Joseph’s Special School has been providing a safe learning environment for children with special educational needs since 2005. In 2005 under the leadership of Mrs. Wenn, The Western Cape Education Department opened the school for children with specific learning barriers from surrounding communities.

With Mrs. De Klerk as principal classes for cognitively impaired learners were started in 2007 and for the first time in the Western Cape Education Department, a Home School program for chronically ill learners was started in 2011.

Our current principal Mrs. Paulse started a bursary fund in 2004 to enable orphans and the marginalised to pay for their secondary education. A number of persons have since contributed to this fund and a number of learners were able to benefit attending secondary as well as tertiary institutions.

We have two streams of teaching at our school:

• The Lsen stream which is an adapted programme from the mainstream curriculum. Learners are prepared for Schools of Skill at the age of 14 to complete a four year programme.
• The SID phase teaches an SID curriculum, preparing learners for functional, practical life skills and independence in self-care.

The specialised educational programme offered by St. Joseph’s equips our learners to become reasonably independent preparing them for protective workshops and sheltered employment in the open labour market.

The dedicated team of staff we have at our school are committed to provide specialised care and support to the benefit of our learners in preparing them for independence. We have three Occupational Therapists and one Speech Therapist who manages the therapeutic needs of our learners.