AQ School operates campuses across South-East, Central, and North Queensland, alongside a Distance Education program for eligible students living in regional and remote communities throughout the state.

Please note: Our Education & Therapy Centres at Gladstone and Gold Coast do not comprise combination AQ School campuses, and our AQ School Brightwater campus does not comprise a combination Education & Therapy Centre.

*What is part-time shared enrolment?

Enrolled students can attend an AQ School campus part-time in combination with shared enrolment at another accredited primary or high school (including accredited distance education providers if applicable). Part-time enrolments include either 2- or 3-day attendance options at AQ School (decision made on a case-by-case basis and is dependent on criteria which impact school attendance, engagement, and/or access to learning).

The part-time format is specifically designed to:

• Enable students to maintain a social connection with their peer group, local school community, and local school curriculum.
• Enable students to practice and develop skills for generalisation.
• Provide an opportunity for observation, data collection, and sharing of expertise among key stakeholders.

Our educational program’s individualised approach to learning includes:

• Personalised leaning: Development of personalised learning plans to support each student’s access to, participation in, and engagement with their education.
• Strengths-based planning: Tailored curriculum decisions that support access to the Australian Curriculum Learning Areas, building on each student’s strengths, interests, and learning needs.
• Collaborative planning: Consultation and collaboration with students, families, the AQ School interdisciplinary team, and other stakeholders, including shared enrolment school teams.
• Interdisciplinary support: Teachers, teacher aides, therapists, behaviour specialists, and wellbeing support facilitators work together to provide universal, targeted, and specialist supports.
• Structured learning environments: Clear, positive, and predictable classroom and playground environments, supported by AQ School Universal Supports.
• Explicit teaching: Targeted teaching to support wellbeing, relationships, and regulation, alongside the Australian Curriculum’s personal and social capabilities to develop independence, self-advocacy, social awareness, and social management.
• Student participation: Opportunities for students to contribute to goal setting and decisions about the supports that help them learn and participate.
• Wellbeing and regulation: Regular check-ins, individualised regulation supports, and access to campus wellbeing and behaviour support facilitators.
• Attendance and engagement: Monitoring and support to promote consistent attendance, participation, and engagement in learning.
• Transition support: Planning and support to help students navigate transitions between activities, settings, year levels, and educational pathways.
• Ongoing review: Regular monitoring of student progress and review of personalised plans to ensure supports remain relevant and responsive to changing needs.

AQ School is an accredited independent special school delivering the Australian Curriculum. Students access either the Foundation (Prep) to Year 10 curriculum or the Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA) curriculum, with curriculum access prioritised as MUST, SHOULD and COULD. This framework guides personalised curriculum decision-making and supports a functional, continuous educational program for students requiring extensive or substantial educational adjustments, as identified through the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD) on School Students with Disability.

Curriculum decisions for classes and individual students consider:

• Learning history: Students’ access to and progress through learning area content throughout the year and across year levels.
• Attendance: The number of days students attend AQ School, including part-time or full-time attendance and transitions into or out of the school.
• Individual needs: Personalised wellbeing, safety, and health needs that may affect students’ access to and engagement with the curriculum each semester.

All students accessing the Foundation (Prep) to Year 10 curriculum have opportunities to participate in small-class learning within the English, Mathematics and Health and Physical Education (HPE) learning areas. Access to other learning areas is considered and provided according to students’ individual learning needs and priorities.

AQ School’s interdisciplinary team approach to assessment, planning, teaching, and reporting involves teachers, teacher aides, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, wellbeing facilitators, and behaviour support facilitators. This team works to provide evidence-informed supports for all students:

• Environmental supports: Staff and student relationships, the classroom, and playground environment (including sensory considerations).
• Social & emotional supports: Regulation support, self-advocacy, social participation.
• Instructional supports: Structured teaching, multiple means of engagement, representation, action and expression, and language accessibility.
• Behavioural supports: School values and expectations, active supervision, enabling safe behaviours, and responding to unsafe behaviours.
• Individual supports: Personalised learning planning, individual adjustments, collaborative goal setting, and transition planning.

AQ School’s Senior Program for full-time students in Years 10-12 aims to support those students who have chosen a Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA) pathway, which allows them to access a personalised program with autism-specific adjustments and supports. This program also supports students develop positive peer friendships, confidence, success, and allows strengths-based learning.

Personalised QCIA curriculum planning is developed by key stakeholders and approved by the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA) within the 5 curriculum organiser categories:

• Communication & technologies
• Community, citizenship, & the environment
• Leisure & recreation
• Personal & living dimensions
• Vocational & transition activities.

Curriculum planning and delivery are informed by evidence-based strategies and resources that support personalised learning, engagement and future pathways. These include the AQ award-winning Adolescent/Adult Goal Setting Tool (AAGST), support to develop or review Senior Education and Training (SET) plans, consistent learning relationships and environments, and the integration of students’ strengths and interests into learning. Students are also supported through myWAY Employability resources, with supported work experience opportunities identified for senior students to build skills and explore pathways to employment.

AQ School Distance Education students engage in core Australian Curriculum Learning Areas, including English, Mathematics, and Health and Physical Education. Additional subjects, such as Science, The Arts, and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), are incorporated into personalised programs, schedules, and interactive digital workbooks to reflect each student’s learning needs and engagement levels.

The AQ School interdisciplinary team provides curriculum content, instruction, and resources through online platforms accessed by students and their home supervisors. Each student has a personalised learning plan, developed collaboratively with the student, their family, and the AQ School team. The plan outlines individual learning goals, strategies, and adjustments to support successful participation.

Benefits of Distance Education offered by AQ School include:

• Flexible learning without the need to physically attend an AQ School campus.
• Daily and weekly schedules tailored to each student’s individual needs.
• Real-time instruction and feedback from the interdisciplinary team.
• Opportunities to interact with classmates through online learning environments established by the interdisciplinary team.
• Flexible access to learning materials, allowing students to revisit content and practise skills at their own pace and as often as needed.
• Opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and independent skills through the development and sharing of an online personal portfolio.
• Reduced barriers associated with attending a mainstream school.
• Flexibility to continue accessing support from personal therapists alongside daily and weekly learning activities.

Attendance in AQ School’s Distance Education program is measured through students’ regular engagement with their learning program and the ongoing sharing of completed work, reflecting each student’s individual abilities and level of independence.

While AQ School’s Distance Education program offers many benefits, it also presents potential challenges. To help families determine whether the program is suitable for their child, it is important to consider the following questions:

• Learning environment: Where at home can a positive learning environment be established, and what resources or equipment will be needed?
• Home supervision: Who will take on the ongoing role of home supervisor, and how much time can they commit to supporting the student’s learning?
• Student readiness: What skills has the student developed to support their participation and engagement in Distance Education?
• Family routines: What changes or adjustments to the family’s daily and weekly routines will be needed to accommodate learning from home?

1. After our we receive your initial enquiry, a consultant from our Client Services & Support team will contact you to arrange an initial consultation. During this consultation we will provide you with all the information you should know about AQ School and discuss your child and family’s needs.
2. After this consultation you may be directed to fill out an official expression of interest (EOI) form and to provide a number of supporting documents. These may include (but not limited to): diagnosis letters, medical action plans, therapy or medical reports, school reports, learning and transition plans, parent agreements or court orders (where applicable), birth certificates and/or other forms of identification.
3. An administration fee ($200*) is payable when you submit your formal EOI.
4. EOIs are reviewed by the AQ School team and you will be contacted with the outcome. Waitlists may apply.
5. When a vacancy becomes available, you will be contacted for an interview and campus visit (this will be organised before formal enrolment placement is offered).
6. A refundable deposit ($1,000*) is required upon acceptance of a formal enrolment offer. This deposit is refunded at the end of the student’s enrolment (except in the event of non-payment of school fees and/or insufficient notice to end of enrolment).

*Please note: All fees are subject to change without notice. Please contact us for all up to date information regarding school fees and enrolment information.

While ongoing enrolment at AQ School may benefit a student and their family, the safety and wellbeing of all students and staff remains paramount. These considerations take precedence over the benefits of enrolment and may mean AQ School cannot always accommodate a family’s requests or preferences.

This may apply where enrolment or continued enrolment significantly impacts the safety of the student, other students or staff, or where providing reasonable educational adjustments would result in unjustifiable hardship for AQ School. We may terminate enrolment at any time where:

• A student is, or becomes, unable to participate in small group settings.
• A student demonstrates unsafe behaviour towards themself and/or others.
• A student is unable to participate or engage with learning without the need for ongoing one-to-one support.
• A student’s continued enrolment at AQ School poses an unacceptable health or safety risk to staff, students, parents and/or themselves (this includes, without limitation, where a parent’s actions may pose a health and safety risk).
• A parent breaches the terms of AQ School’s Enrolment Agreement or any of AQ’s policies and procedures.
• Failure to act on any financial notices issued by AQ regarding outstanding school fees.

Should these criteria not be met, a meeting will be arranged at the earliest opportunity to discuss options and consider alternative arrangements to better meet the educational needs the student and/or the family’s circumstances, and confirmed in writing.

While AQ School will use its best endeavours to achieve agreed student goals and desired outcomes, it does not warrant or guarantee that any particular result or outcome sought by a student and/or their family will be achieved.

Please note: Terms, conditions, and policies are in place for AQ School, enrolments, cancellations, and fees.