Aboriginal Education

The SAASTA Connect program has grown by 50% this year with 15 students accessing the class each week. Run by ASETOs Daniel Giles and Uncle Barney Lindsay and AET Wayne Elliott, the class provides an opportunity for students to get together and connect with their culture. The class is offered to students in years 7-9 and is a pathway towards SAASTA in year 10.

We have approximately 10 students also engaging in a Men’s Group with Uncle Barney each week. Sessions focus on health, connection and identity and have proven to be a highlight for many young men.

We have held another highly successful community event with our Closing the Gap event in term 1. Daniel invited a range of external services providers to come onsite and talk to families about services and opportunities they may not have previously been aware of. It also gave us the opportunity to seek feedback from families on the things that are working for their students and the areas we can improve on. We had to postpone our Firepit Night this year because of inclement weather. This has been rescheduled to week 3 next term, Thursday 8 August.

AET Martine Turnbull is involved in a SACE Pilot Program, looking at ways to include authentic Aboriginal learning in a student’s SACE pattern. This is an exciting initiative, and we hope to be able to share more information in the near future.

FLO Program

The Flexible Learning Options (FLO) program has been at full capacity this semester with a range of services and curriculum offerings being taken up by students. While most students enrolled in the program attend two days a week to complete SACE requirements including literacy and numeracy, other students are supported by Youth Worker Kyla Wade through Case Management and general wellbeing. Successes have included students setting up bank accounts, acquiring a tax file number, accessing their birth certificate, and police checks for employment as well as achieving their White Card and Driver’s Licence. A highlight of this year has been that 24% of students have gained employment while 21% are now actively seeking employment.

Student Support, Attendance and Engagement

Our Learning Hub space continues to be well-utilised with over 115 students accessing the space over term 2 (this only includes Monday, Thursday, and Friday as it is closed to run FLO on Tuesday and Wednesday). This does not include students who have accessed the space to use the regulation room when they have needed a space to re-set.

We have seen an improvement in attendance data following Ben Files’, our Wellbeing Leader, waves of intervention processes. Ben identified a need for developing strategies for students whose attendance was starting to show a pattern of general decline. Ben met with students and families to identify barriers to learning and attendance. Many have been able to reverse or slow this trend, resulting in significant improvements in attendance.

Following concerns collected via last year’s WEC (Student Wellbeing Survey) and anecdotal reports, I was very excited for us to partner with The Resilience Project as a Beyond Tomorrow focus for years 7-9 this year. While it is early days, care group teachers have embraced the program and we look forward to recording some positive growth moving forward.

Wellbeing

Social Worker Alicia Carter has continued to support students across years 7-12 this year across a range of concerns including relationships, wellbeing, gender diversity, mental health, stress, and learning. Her support has involved chats with individuals and small groups as well as in the classroom setting, Academic Coaching and the University Camp last term. Alicia has also worked with Maria to develop a program to support year 7 and 8 students with issues around friendships, bullying and online communication. We are hoping this will commence next term. Alicia has been a real asset to our school and we will be sorry to see her go when she finishes her time with us at the end of this term (see Alicia’s farewell in this edition), however we are very excited for her success in securing a permanent position with SA Health.

Our Wellbeing team has been supported by Maria Dowzard this year as she joins us from Monday to Wednesday each week, providing support to mainly year 7 and 8 students. Maria’s focus has been on helping students to manage their feelings and emotions in a way that enables them to be successful with their learning. Maria has developed individual “My Plans” for students and has recently set up an art program designed to develop resilience, confidence, and friendships. The program involves a few students in year 5 who are working with our FLO students. This has proven to be a hit so far! 

Additional Programs

This term, Martine Turnbull and Maria Dowzard have started a Drumbeat program with a group of year 7 and 8 girls. The program is very structured with a focus on developing resilience, problem solving and self-esteem. We are looking forward to hearing student input at the culmination of the 10 week program.

Student Inclusion Officer, Tegan Smith is running MacqLit this term with a small number of students identified as having some gaps in their literacy. The intensive program aims to help students to close the gap and catch up on reading skills enabling them to have greater success in accessing the curriculum.

We have some exciting initiatives coming up next term so will keep you updated as these evolve.

Danielle Weeks
Director of Inclusion