Page 1228 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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work, the Work Safety Commissioner initiated a review of occupational violence incidents that occurred from 2016, supporting the approach set out in the Policy and Management Plan. The Commissioner’s review led to the Directorate agreeing to an enforceable undertaking that build on the work already underway. Implementation of these documents is a Directorate priority and is focusing on promoting a culture of safety, delivering training targeting appropriate responses to occupational violence, an enhanced reporting culture, and adopting a risk management approach to prevent or reduce the occurrence of incidents of violence.
The government’s Future of Education Strategy launched in August 2018 is a ten-year roadmap for continuing reform led by the principles of equity, student agency, access and inclusion. The Future of Education Strategy was released following an 18 month dialogue consultation process involving 5,000 people in the ACT community, 2,400 of them students.
Clear in the community input, in student, staff and parent feedback, is a desire for strengthened inclusion and diversity that recognises the many factors that might affect individual student engagement in learning and development. The Strategy is also informed by peer-reviewed research. Documents summarising the community feedback and research evidence base for the strategy are available on the Education Directorate website.4
The Future of Education Strategy provides an important strategic policy that aids continued focus on elements of providing inclusive, safe and supportive schools.
These four pieces of work have provided an opportunity to look at the education system critically and refresh the way inclusive education and supports for students with complex needs and challenging behaviours are provided. The government is pursuing an ongoing and ambitious process of capability-building, best-practice research, and policy and program development in schools.
Safe, supportive and inclusive government schools
At the centre of responding to violence in schools is providing support for students. When children and young people can access what they need for their wellbeing, this leads to a stronger, deeper engagement in learning. School communities operate best when the school community has a shared understanding of appropriate and respectful behaviour. Each student enters schools with differing skills and abilities, just as schools explicitly program and teach literacy and numeracy, they also take a role in teaching the skills and understanding of respectful behaviour.
The government applies a systemic Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework to facilitate students to engage and develop in this area, drawn from the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework.5
Social and Emotional Learning is the process through which students acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, understand and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive respectful relationships, and make responsible decisions. Durlak et al.’s (2011) 6 meta-analysis of 213 studies of SEL in schools indicates that students receiving quality SEL instruction demonstrated: positives such as better academic performance; improved attitudes
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