Barton Primary School
Barton Primary School’s exemplary approach to inclusive education is improving the engagement, support, and education for refugee, asylum-seeking and newly-arrived migrant children attending the school.
Prioritising initiatives that engage families and children of different cultural backgrounds and languages in education, the school is embedding inclusive practice by employing a team of multilingual, multi-skilled education support staff, investing in teachers’ professional learning and wellbeing, and ensuring a strong emphasis on parent and community involvement.
Pioneering the introduction of a highly-skilled, trauma-informed, multilingual Youth Work team, the school is engaging the most disadvantaged and vulnerable students in learning and supporting local schools to implement similar initiatives.
Establishing clear inclusion and wellbeing guidelines and a referral process has supported teachers’ growing expertise in culturally inclusive practices, and initiating support and access in the community for families has increased the capacity of the school to achieve improved academic, social, and emotional outcomes for all its students.
Docklands Primary School
Docklands Primary School has implemented multiple evidence-based frameworks that are supporting the creation of a highly-effective and inclusive learning environment.
Implementing Multitiered Systems of Support to create effective instructional and behaviour support for students, staff are collaboratively evaluating academic and social data to inform when to increase supports to individual students in the form of evidence-based interventions.
The school’s staff represent a highly competent group of values-driven teachers and leaders working effectively within a supportive and high-performing structure to improve outcomes for their students. Their instructional coaching processes, playbooks, and systems of teacher support, provide teachers with the knowledge, skill, and professional learning they require to meet students’ academic and wellbeing needs.
The impact of their work is evident in the school’s most recent academic outcomes data and Attitudes to School Survey, with all students making significant progress in their academic achievement and wellbeing, and in their positive perception of the school.
Waratah Special Developmental School
Students at Waratah Special Developmental School have moderate to severe intellectual disability, and most students are non-verbal. Many students have a secondary diagnosis, including Autism, communication disorders, degenerative disorders, or sensory conditions.
The school's vision of 'independence for every student, every day, everywhere' guides the school in supporting every student to have an effective communication system and to learn appropriate social skills that help them to participate in community life with positive self-esteem. Individual student goals in each of these areas are prioritised by families and staff.
Targeted teaching of skills, and the collection of information about student progress has been important in demonstrating how students are progressing. Working with a mainstream school software provider, the school has created a tracking program that meets the needs of students with significant disabilities.
In 2023, 75% of students achieved their communication goals, 70% of students achieved their independence goals, and most rewarding of all, 89% of students achieved their social goals.
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