Page 1232 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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Schools and NSET also work with other government and community agencies to support students with complex needs and challenging behaviours.
Staff training and professional development
Skilled teachers and school staff are central ensuring student and staff safety. The ACT Government invests in the professional development of its teachers through initiatives such as the Canberra University Affiliate Schools program and the Empowered Learning Professionals initiative, the Everyone, Everyday program, 11 and a range of targeted professional learning for teachers and school leaders, as well as support staff. This investment in professional development equips staff with the knowledge and skills they require to support children and young people with complex needs and behaviours of concern. Learning support assistants are also able to develop their skills by participating in the Certificate IV in Education Support. Whole-school professional learning and targeted sessions, such trauma training workshops and training in PBL, are also run with schools as required.
Additionally, NSET provides a range of professional learning opportunities for teachers and school staff on topics such as managing complex behaviours of concern, restorative approaches, neuroscience for education, trauma informed practice and wellbeing.
New school administration system
In the 2016 Budget the government allocated $10 million for upgrade to its schools administration system. Roll out of the new system, called Sentral, is occurring in stages. Its introduction began in 2017 in a pilot group of school, with all schools adopting Sentral in 2018 for attendance data. Other modules that record, for example incidents and behaviour reporting, are being gradually introduced.
The Education Directorate’s legacy administration system (called MAZE) consisted of a database for each school. A limited dataset was centrally held for system backup and manual data extraction for annual and national reporting. Alongside this most schools also held most student behaviour data on paper-based records, and another database was maintained for insurance and compliance purposes.
These historic system limitations have significantly limited transparency about management of bullying and violence in government schools.
The government’s investment in Sentral, when fully implemented, will provide both school and system level data to both respond to emerging concerns and improve practice. The goal at the end of this project is that all government schools record all information in Sentral, including information related to teaching and learning, attendance, wellbeing, behaviour and incidents. Business intelligence tools will allow users to identify trends and access reporting across all schools. The system will also allow improved communication with parents through automated notifications, and automated notifications directed to the Education Support Office when particular information is submitted.
Other initiatives
The government is involved in a range of other initiatives directed at addressing violence in schools. For example:
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