Student Support

A confidential multi-level service or referral to community and allied health services is available to a few students who may need cognitve assessments, onsite social work and counselling, youth work, pastoral care worker and, or support from our wellbeing and student support officers and will be arranged directly and discretely with families.

At Findon High School we offer students the opportunity to be part of our Reading Tutor Program, known as MULTILIT (Making up lost time in literacy). This is an intensive reading program based on phonics, word attack skills, sight word recognition and supported book reading in a one-to-one context. The MULTILIT program caters for students who have not yet acquired the basic skills needed to become functional readers. To ensure all students are put on the right level for their reading capabilities, students are tested to determine which section of the program they need to start on to ensure the program can be tailored to their needs.

Hi, I am Kathy, the Pastoral Care Worker here at Findon High School.

The role of the Pastoral Care Worker is primarily a support role for students, staff, parents and families promoting a sense of community and wellbeing. I really enjoy what I do and have been in this role for 10 years.

Over the years at Findon High I have worked to bring events and programs to the school highlighting areas affecting not only young people but the wider community. As a result, awareness and education concerning these issues have been presented to students.

I also work as an SSO in the school and have done so for many years. My role as an SSO has always worked in a complementary capacity with my role as the Pastoral Care Worker, as both roles work for the benefit of the young people in our school.

It is a unique privilege to be part of a great school like Findon High and it is my aspiration to support the needs of the community of Findon High School in any way I can through the work I do.

I can be contacted though the school or my email: kathy.pivetta6@schools.sa.edu.au

Pastoral Care Worker (PCW)

Our Pastoral Care Worker supports the school in the following ways:

• Working closely and in partnership with leadership and wellbeing staff in the school to provide pastoral care and practical support to students, families and staff as requested.
• Providing pastoral care in a ‘first response’ capacity to critical incidents, referring to specialist support and to provide ongoing support and follow-up.
• Working across the whole school to build a sense of community, harmony and cohesion.
• Being trained and equipped to provide our school with a unique dimension of social, emotional and spiritual support in line with the DfE wellbeing framework.

Chaplaincy Services promote student wellbeing, engaging young people in activities that are preventative and which support early intervention and referral of mental health issues.

Access to the Pastoral Care Worker by students is voluntary and parents must give written permission for the Pastoral Care Worker to provide ongoing personal support.

QuickSmart is a structured Numeracy program tailored for middle school students (years 4-9). It is designed to improve student learning by developing their skills in addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and problem solving. QuickSmart lessons are conducted in pairs, 3 times per week and each session is 30 minutes.

The structure of the lessons provides deliberate practice of new number facts, combined with the use of appropriate strategies to enable the student to remember the facts and eventually automatically recall each fact. When students can automatically recall number facts, their working memory is freed up so that they are able to engage meaningfully with more demanding mathematical tasks (Simerr, 2019).

The QuickSmart programs have been developed by the SiMERR National Research Centre at the University of New England and are based on educational theory. The program is backed up with 15 years of data demonstrating its effectiveness at improving the learning of struggling students in a range of school settings.

Additional information about the program can be obtained from:

https://simerr.une.edu.au/quicksmart/pages/qsmathematics-intervention.php

To ensure our students are achieving their full potential and developing as learners, Findon High School utilises a ‘Traffic Lights’ reporting system that occurs mid-way through each term. Traffic Lights provide important feedback about a student’s attendance, work completion and behaviour in each of their subjects at the mid-way point in the learning program. The Traffic Lights therefore capture student achievement in a holistic way, and enable important dialogue between the student, teacher and family to occur in response.

Teachers and House Leaders undertake extensive follow-up in response to students allocated Traffic Lights of concern, prior to the end of the formal reporting period. This follow up ensures that the necessary supports can be put in place to enable students to achieve success in their learning.

What do the Traffic Lights indicate?

Green – A student is up to date with work and tracking well without any concerns

Amber – A teacher has concerns in at least one of the reporting areas for the subject

Red – A teacher has serious concerns about the student’s progress that will impinge on a student’s achievement without intervention

Learning Plans

Supporting students with learning disability and learning difficulties requires a team around the child approach, where the student is at the centre of the process for creating a learning plan. Findon High School is beginning to transition to the Department for Education’s One Child One Plan, which replaces the Negotiated Education Plan (NEP) and Individual Learning Plan (ILP).

In doing so, students at Findon High School who have a verified learning disability will have their plans updated as required by a team including the student, parents/caregivers, staff. This process seeks to communicate to teachers the students’ needs and sets the goals they are striving to achieve. This plan is intended to make sure that learning demands are appropriate, support needs are made available and that an individualised pathway through school is crafted.

Department for Education learning plans – https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/education-and-learning/curriculum-and-learning/learning-plans

Funding and Student Support

Funding is provided by the Department for Education for students with verified learning disabilities, as well as a sum to be used for students with learning difficulties. This funding is used by the school for a range of intervention and support programs. Commonly this is used to employ Student Support Officers (SSOs) to work in classrooms with students to clarify and explain tasks. This funding is also used to support students, aged 15 and above, to engage with programs that support the transition to adulthood.

Department for Education funding for student support – https://www.education.sa.gov.au/supporting-students/children-disability-and-special-needs/disability-funding-reform

Programs to Support the Transition to Adulthood

Students with verified learning disabilities have pathways open to them to support the transition to adulthood, in recognition of their specific developmental and learning needs. These include programs that help the students to:

• Gain skills (e.g. relationship building, communication, organisation)
• Gain certification (e.g. SACE credits, drivers licence, vocational certification)
• Broaden horizons (i.e. learn about the world of work)
• Gain employment

Department for Education School to post-school options –

https://www.education.sa.gov.au/supporting-students/children-disability-and-special-needs/school-post-school-options

Youth Education Centre Short Courses – http://www.yec.sa.edu.au/pages/short-courses.html

Barkuma Transition Program – https://www.barkuma.com.au/supports/in-your-school/transition-program

Maxima Disability Employment Services – https://maxima.com.au/disability-employment-services/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw9GE3-iK4QIVDCQrCh2EUAEbEAAYASADEgIPjfD_BwE

External agencies supporting students with learning needs

In working with young people with a learning disability, there are external agencies who can work with staff or students to work on specific areas of need.

Students with Autism, Asperger’s or on the ASD spectrum have worked with ASD Facilitators in order to gain skills related to their learning plan and goals.

Autism SA School Program – https://www.autismsa.org.au/school-program

One Plans

Every First Nations student and family is involved in developing and reviewing their student’s One Plan each year. The One Plan is a key strategy for challenging each First Nations student intellectually by building their learning around their strengths and interests. It supports and extends each student to achieve their personal best and to improve their literacy, numeracy and personal and social learning.

Aboriginal Secondary Education Transition Officer (ASETO) and Aboriginal Education Teacher (AET) support

Our ASETO Steve Phillips is available to support First Nations Year 7-12 students with any aspect of their learning, including First Nations cultural learning. Steve encourages all First Nations students to participate in our First Nations homework club and liaises with families and caregivers on matters that affect First Nations student’s learning. He and our AET Judith Rose also advise and assist teachers on ways to include learning about First Nations cultures and histories in their lessons. Together they provide learning support and case-management for our growing Year 7 – 12 First Nations cohort.

Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) group

In 2021 the Findon High School RAP group formed to develop our school’s Reconciliation Action Plan. It is our formal commitment to reconciliation and it documents how our school is working to strengthen relationships, respect and opportunities with First Nations peoples in the classroom and with the community.

First Nations Homework Club

First Nations students at Findon High School are supported by our ASETO and teachers with any of their schoolwork after school for an hour each week.

The Workabout Centre

The Workabout Centre engages our First Nations students in educational and employment pathways and builds relationships between education providers, industry, First Nations communities and other organisations. Our First Nations students are empowered to make positive choices, set high expectations and plan achievable training and employment goals. Each student’s individual training plan focuses on how they will ‘play the job game’, access training and ultimately achieve their goals.

South Australian Aboriginal Secondary Training Academy (SAASTA) Connect

Our Year 7 – 9 students are involved in SAASTA Connect which is a curriculum program for First Nations students and is a pathway for entry into the SAASTA program in senior years. Several of our Year 10 – 12 First Nations students participate in SAASTA courses at Le Fevre and Para Hills high schools enabling them to earn 20 SACE credits and continue their First Nations cultural learning.

A Learning Hub, or wellbeing space is also available to provides a safe space for regulation to re-engage with learning. This only occurs in consultation with families. Panda, our therapy cat visits the space on Thursdays.