"If I belong, I succeed"

By Claire Melloy, Assistant Principal - Students

The 2022 Australian Council for Educational Leaders' (ACEL) National Inclusion and Disability Conference theme was: “If I belong, I succeed.” The focus was on the ways educators can ensure all students can access and engage fully in their schooling.

The inspiration was from The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration’s goal of providing “all young Australians with access to high-quality education that is inclusive and free from any form of discrimination,” and ensuring that they “have a sense of belonging, purpose and meaning that enables them to thrive in their learning environment.”

This aligns richly with Radford’s philosophy around maintaining a strong school culture which helps build connection and belonging and understanding of the needs of each young person to provide an equitable learning environment for all. We want every student to enter and leave Radford with a sense of belonging, ownership, and success.

Fundamental to creating an inclusive environment is, of course, safety and safeguarding. The Human Rights Act specifically states that “every child has the right to the protection needed by the child because of being a child, without distinction or discrimination of any kind.”

Radford is guided by the Child Safe Principles in all aspects of College life. The Child Safe Principles provide specific recommendations and guidelines (from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse) to help all institutions create child-safe environments.

Radford is committed to being ‘A Child-Safe, Child-Friendly Organisation’ - one that adopts child-focused strategies and takes action to protect and promote the rights and safety of children and young people.

Recently, the Secondary School Wellbeing Team participated in a masterclass series of external expert training presentations, directly addressing these principles (Principle 7 - staff education and training):

• Cybersafety Project (Principle 8 - physical and online environments).
• Kate Morrissey of Halloran Morrissey Safeguarding (Principle 10 - child safe policies and procedures).
• Safe and Inclusive Schools Initiative Core Training (Principle 4 - equity and diverse needs).

Along with parent webinars with Consent Labs and on Digital Nutrition, our counselling team has also run two courses on ‘Tuning into Teens’ this year (Principle 3 - families and community involvement).

We know that asking our young people is one of the best ways to understand their needs and the annual ‘Tell Them from Me Survey’ is one way we gather information about the students’ experience at Radford (Principle 2 - children are safe, informed and actively participate).

This year, it was particularly pleasing to see the results showing that overall, students were experiencing an even higher sense of connection and belonging to the College.

Another way we aim to provide a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment for all our students is by having a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), see the diagram below.

A multi-tiered system of support is an integrated, comprehensive approach that focuses on early identification, early intervention and support that allows all students to engage, learn and thrive inside and outside of the classroom. Tier one focuses on providing universal, evidence-based, proactive practices that support meaningful and accessible experiences for all students. Quality teaching is central to these experiences.

Tier two provides targeted, small-group intervention and support.

Tier three represents intensive, individual interventions and support. Our learning support and enrichment team and counselling team are examples of effective collaboration as they work closely on developing individual learning and pastoral care plans with young people and their families.

Sometimes, the key skills taught at each tier are the same, as our focus at Radford is always on building capacity. We explicitly teach social and emotional skills at a tier one level through the HPE curriculum and Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) program.

These skills include helping young people:

• Recognise emotions and levels of distress.
• Cope with emotions and self-regulate.
• Manage challenge and change.
• Resolve conflict.
• Seek help.
• Know where to go to seek help.

Radford is committed to continual review and improvement (Child Safe Principle 9). One of the most effective ways to review and improve is to listen and learn from our students and families. We welcome feedback, communication, ideas, and engagement as we all have the same goal - helping all our young people feel safe, feel a sense of belonging, feel engaged and experience success.

We also have an online ‘Respectful Relationships’ form on Nexus, called Stand Up, that students can complete and submit should they feel unsafe or have concerns about something they have seen or heard.

(Image credit Multi-tiered system: De Bruin, K & Stoker, K, ‘Multi-Tiered Systems of Support: Comparing Implementation in Primary and Secondary Schools’, LDA Bulletin, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 20)