HUNTER students with disabilities will be able to develop transferable life skills through hands-on learning experiences at mini Woolworths supermarkets within their schools, complete with shelving for groceries, produce, signage, uniforms and operational registers.
The company has rolled out its Mini Woolworths program - which involves replicating a store on a smaller scale as an educational tool - at St Dominic's Centre at Mayfield and Newcastle Senior School at Waratah.
St Dominic's principal Rachel Jones said the initiative, which has been dubbed Dom's Fresh Food, had been in the making for six months and the atmosphere was "electric" for its Wednesday opening.
"Everyone has been really excited," Ms Jones said.
"The build up and the anticipation has certainly come to a climax today of pure joy and that is very visible on our students' and our staff members' faces."
Ms Jones said the initiative aligned with curriculum outcomes and offered a learning environment where students felt safe and valued and could achieve their individual goals.
"Lots of our families are isolated within the community because their kiddies get really overwhelmed when they go to a shopping centre or into a supermarket with lights and people and noise and visuals in front of them, so having the opportunity to learn skills in an environment where it's a bit safer and it's a familiar environment, they can maintain those skills, go home and generalise that into the mainstream community, so it opens a lot of doors for our families that way," she said.
"We're looking for our high school kids at the opportunities of learning parts of retail, handling money, weighing things, but for all our kids it's a part of social engagement and communication."
Ms Jones said there were big plans afoot.
"I see it becoming a paddock to plate option where we will help grow our own food, we will shop online, we'll stock our store, we will buy and purchase items in the store, we will then take those items and build recipes and menus and then hopefully serve them in part of our mini Woolies, we've got St Dom's Diner attached to that. We will then open that up to our school community and once we get good at that, further into our sister schools and diocese and community."
