Supporting EMR Schools

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Supporting EMR Schools
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Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood
Development

• Strategies
• System Improvement - excellent school education
• Partnerships with Parents and Communities -
  working with families, communities and businesses
• Workforce Reform - a culture of strong leadership
  and professional learning

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Victorias vulnerable youth

• Who are Victorias vulnerable young people? What
  cohorts of students do we need to
• work hardest to engage/re-engage with education?
• Low SES
• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
• Out of Home Care
• Homelessness (families and individual students)
• Witnesses to or victims of physical, mental,
  emotional or sexual abuse
• Key transition points within education
• Disabilities and additional needs
• Family breakups
• Involved with DHS or JJ
• Parents with low educational attainment

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Statewide Data
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Victorian government school absence data

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Victorian government school suspension data

• Biggest spike in data from year 6 to year 7,
  peaking in years 8 and 9
• SFO is a key factor in suspensions
• Average suspension rates for more advantaged
  areas was 3.4 compared to 13.4 in more
  disadvantaged areas

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Victorian government school expulsion data
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2008 Attitudes to School Survey

• Statewide averages for
• results of the 2008 Attitudes
• to School Survey
• Lowest levels of student
• satisfaction appear between
• years 8 and 10

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2008 statewide average - student morale

• Question measures the level to
• which students feel
• positive at school
• cheerful at school
• relaxed at school
• happy at school
• energised at school

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2008 statewide average student distress

• Question measures level to which
• students feel
• tense at school
• negative at school
• frustrated at school
• depressed at school
• uneasy at school
• stressed at school

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2008 statewide average student connectedness

• Question measures level to which students
• feel good about being a student at this school
• like school this year
• are happy to be at school
• feel they belong at school
• look forward to going to school

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2008 statewide average student motivation

• Question measures level to which students
• think doing well in school is very important
• think continuing or completing their education is
  important
• try very hard in school
• are keen to do very well

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2008 statewide average connectedness to peers

• Question measures level to which students feel
• they get on well with other students at school
• are liked by others at school
• they get on really well with most of their
  classmates
• their friends at school really care about them

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2008 statewide average student safety

• Question measures level to which students
• Have been bullied recently at school
• Have been teased in an unpleasant way recently at
  school
• Feel that other students are mean to them at
  school
• Have been deliberately hit, kicked or threatened
  by another student recently
• Feel that other students often spread rumours
  about them at school

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Regional Data
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Interesting Facts

• In 2008 EMR schools approx expelled 75 students
• 2 wheels were operating in EMR Networks
• EMR schools have expelled 22 students so far (Feb
  July) in 2009
• EMR Options have been inundated with calls from
  schools looking for advice/consultation to
  seeking alternative strategies to expulsion
• Of the 22 expulsions of 2009 more than half had
  consulted with regional office seeking advice
  before expelling

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PSD EMR 2009
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Cumulative ASD growth of 830, average annual
growth rate of rate of 34
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Student Engagement
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Education Training Reform Act

• Both the Education and Training Reform Act and
  the Community Services Act require that parents
  of children of school age, 6 to 16 years (ie
  from the age of 6 until the student turns 16
  years of age) ensure that their children attend
  school regularly unless there is a reasonable
  explanation approved by the school.
• (i) you are required by law to ensure that Alex
  attends school
• (ii) he should arrive at school on time
• (iii) a proper explanation is required for all
  his absences.

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• What is student engagement?
• What does it look like if students are engaged
• in their schooling?
• Think, pair, share activity

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Elements of Student Engagement
Behavioural engagement Participation in
education, including the academic, social and
extracurricular activities of the school.
Emotional engagement Emotional reactions in the
classroom and in the school. Students sense of
belonging or connectedness to the school.
Cognitive engagement Investment in learning and
their intrinsic motivation and self-regulation.
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Elements of Student Engagement
PREVENTION Whats happening in our school?
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How do we actively teach and promote pro-social
behaviours? What values do we share as a
community and how do we actually teach these?
How do we actively engage students in their
leaning and work to motivate and stimulate their
thinking?
prevention
What do we do to promote connectedness to school
and peers? What do we do to educate our children
about emotional intelligence?
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Elements of Student Engagement
INTERVENTION Whats happening in our school when
things arent working for a student?
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What do we do to intervene when students behave
in a way that impacts on the physical and/or
emotional wellbeing of themselves or others?
What do we do when students are not engaged in
their leaning? When do we know WHY? What do we do
to intervene?
intervention
When do se notice when students are not OK and
what do we do?
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Where have we come from?
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Where have we come from?
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School improvementa multi-faceted approach
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School Performance Linkages Map
Good outcomes are driven by a strong
organisational climate
Quality of teaching and learning is the greatest
driver of student wellbeing
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Student Engagement
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• Social Inclusion and Education

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School culture and retention strategies
When a school has a strong, supportive school
culture then strategies to address retention and
disengagement will be most effective

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A Staged ResponseContinuum of Support for
Student Wellbeing
Intervention Targeted, individual support
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Early Intervention Support for vulnerable groups
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How many students at your school will require
early intervention/intervention ?
EMR Approx 105,000 students

Prevention Whole school strategies for all
students
80 of Students
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Effective Schools are Engaging Schools Student
Engagement Policy Guidelines

• A new policy direction that
• embeds student attendance and behaviour support
  within whole-school approaches to student
  engagement
• supports a school system that pays close
  attention to vulnerabilities
• In consultation with the whole school community,
• including students, all Victorian government
  schools will
• develop a Student Engagement Policy by the end of
  2009.

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Policy elements Element 1 to Element 5

• Element 1 Creating positive and engaging school
  cultures
• Element 2 Developing a Student Engagement Policy
  
• Element 3 Promoting school attendance
• Element 4 Positive behaviour support
• Element 5 Support materials

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Element OneCreating Positive and Engaging School
Cultures

• Outlines fundamental aspects of positive,
  supporting and engaging school cultures
• Defines key components of student engagement
• behavioural engagement
• emotional engagement
• classroom engagement
• Links with other policy frameworks, including
• School Accountability and Improvement Framework
• Victorian Essential Learning Framework
• Framework for Student Support Services

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Element TwoDeveloping a Student Engagement Policy

• Alignment with the School Accountability and
  Improvement Framework
• Role of the school council
• Components of the Student Engagement Policy
• School profile statement
• Whole-school prevention statement
• Rights and responsibilities
• Shared expectations school, parents/carers,
  students
• School actions and consequences

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Element Three Promoting School Attendance

• Staged response whole school prevention and
  early intervention strategies
• Early identification of attendance issues is key
  to ensuring effective supports for students

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Attendance

• Sam is often absent from school. When attending,
  Sam often misses some classes. Sam is not alone
  in class but does not appear to have a strong
  friendship group. Sam is often without some
  equipment items and rarely completes homework.
  The school have tried to contact the parent but
  phone calls are rarely returned and scheduled
  meetings often result in non-attendance by the
  parent.

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What would you do to prevent Sam from reaching
such a critical point?
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New attendance guidelines Focus on promoting
school attendance

• Clear expectations for all
• Consistent monitoring, recording prompt follow
  up
• Improve attendance data
• Support provided for families
• Staged response
• - school contacts family if absence is not
  explained within 3 days or if concerned about the
  nature of the absence
• - after 10 days the student file must reflect an
  explanation or a failure to explain statement
• Patterns of absence require attendance meeting
  not discipline meeting but rather support
  proactive problem solving and support
• Ongoing attendance issues require formal SSG
  student attendance improvement plan Individual
  learning plan

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Morning / afternoon tea
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Element FourPositive Behaviour Support

• Promoting positive student behaviour
• Stages of prevention
• Stage 1 Prevention and early intervention
• Stage 2 Intervention
• Whole school approaches to positive behaviour
• School-wide positive behaviour support
• Restorative practices
• Discipline procedures

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Main Messages

• The Effective Schools are Engaging Schools,
  Student Engagement Policy Guidelines supports the
  DEECD school improvement agenda
• Effective schools and classrooms are inclusive
  and recognise and respond to the diverse learning
  and wellbeing needs of their students
• Positive school cultures are preventative
  impact on social/emotional and learning outcomes
  of students
• Effective learning environments must be
  relationship based teacher/student,
  student/student, school/parents community
• Pro social behaviour can be taught and reinforced
  in the school and classroom environment act
  before difficulties arise (teach dont punish)
• 6. A staged response can be used to address
  the barriers to learning

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Developing a student engagement policy
resources to assist schools

• Effective schools are engaging schools
• Absence from school templates / checklist
• Attendance improvement plans
• Learning improvement plans
• SSG templates

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Developing a student engagement policy guiding
principles

• Comprehensive understanding of the diversity of
  the whole school community
• Focussing on prevention
• Identifying and supporting students who are or
  may be at risk
• Thinking critically and creatively about data
  collection

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What drives effective engagement and learning?
AcademicAchievement
StudentViews
School Climate
PrincipalsLeadership
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School planning

• School profile statement
• Whole-school prevention statement
• Rights and responsibilities
• Shared expectations school, parents/carers,
  students
• School actions and consequences

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Ministerial Order 184

• Legal framework which allows for the exclusion of
  students where all other avenues have been
  exhausted
• Outlines grounds and procedures for suspension
  and expulsion
• Outlines expulsion appeal process
• Key changes include
• maximum consecutive period of suspension is 5
  days
• maximum period of suspension in one year is 15
  days
• students can no longer be suspended for behaving
  in a way that threatens the
• good order of the schools program or facility
• provision of pre-suspension Student Support Group
  meeting

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Changes to Suspension Procedures

• Maximum consecutive days of suspension is 5 days
  (down from 10 days)
• Maximum period of suspension in one school year
  year is 15 days (down from 20 days),
• unless approval is sought from the regional
  director
• Student Support Group must be held before a
  student is suspended
• (except in case of immediate suspension)
• Students can no longer be suspended for behaving
  in a way that threatens the good
• order of the schools program or facility
• Notice of suspension must be provided to students
  and their parents/carers prior to
• commencement of the suspension (unless the
  suspension is immediate)
• School must provide appropriate and meaningful
  schoolwork
• Schools should consider utilising in-school
  suspensions
• Copy of the Procedures for Suspension brochure
  must be provided to the student and their
  parent/carer

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Changes to Expulsion Procedures

• Increased regional involvement in expulsion
  procedures
• Regional Director must be notified that
  expulsion is being considered
• Regional Directors nominee attends student
  support group to discuss expulsion
• Copy of the Procedures for Expulsion brochure and
  the Expulsion Appeal Proforma
• must be provided to the student and their
  parent/carer at the student support group
• Increased accountability for the expelling school
  around student transition
• arrangements
• Minor changes to role of the school council in
  the expulsion appeal process

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Where do we want to be?
Where do we want to be?
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We know we are successful when
Student engagement

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• There is a growing consensus that whatever else
  is done
• schools must become places where it is easier for
  students and teachers to know one another well
• and for
• students to connect to the school and its
  purposes.
• Schools must be caring and learning communities.
• (Sergiovanni, 2000)

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Thank you