Kangaroo Flat Secondary College

Story recorded in 2001

For many years, Kangaroo Flat Secondary College has been developing a whole-school approach to promoting the emotional well-being of its students. This approach aims to establish structures, policies, leadership practices, professional development and curriculum designed to improve the health and educational outcomes of all students. Since 1997, this process has been further informed by working closely with the Gatehouse Project team. The experience of the College in addressing these issues led to it being selected as a focus school in the Well-being and Engagement focus group of the Middle Years Research and Development project (MYRAD). The integrated approach to continuous improvement has seen an improvement in staff satisfaction responses, fewer incident reports, growth in negotiated areas of curriculum, improving academic results for Year 8s, an extended skill base of staff through targeted professional development, team teaching and close working relationships with local primary schools.

Background

Kangaroo Flat Secondary College is a co-educational 7-10 college located in Bendigo, in central Victoria. It is linked to Bendigo Senior Secondary College and has a population of 611students. Students are drawn from both a defined urban area and a large rural area in the south west sector of the greater Bendigo area. The College places high emphasis on continuous improvement of teaching and learning and takes great pride in its extensive use of Learning Technologies, upgraded facilities, co-curricular, extension, and support programs. Most important is the focus on students, based on the belief that students achieve their best in a stimulating, challenging and safe environment in which their uniqueness is recognised.

When invited to join the Gatehouse Project, the school had already been involved in a large range of programs and initiatives targeting different issues and groups of students.
Support from the Principal was strong as the Gatehouse Project provided a strong theoretical base and processes for reviewing, co-ordinating and enhancing these programs.

How was a team established?

In 1997, the main focus of the Project was to implement curriculum materials in Year 8. KFSC had chosen to do so through both the English and Health and Physical Education Key Learning Areas. Initially, the Gatehouse Project team comprised staff from these two Key Learning Areas, together with the Student Welfare Co-ordinator and Helen Butler from the Centre for Adolescent Health. The Principal continued to be closely involved in discussions about the progress of the work. In 1998, the core adolescent health team was formed to oversee the Project. It drew together the senior management and junior management teams, and student support staff. It included the Principal, Assistant Principals, Junior and Senior Sub-school Managers, Student Welfare Co-ordinator and Chaplain. This group was the key group for receiving and responding to data from the student survey, and integrating the work of the project into whole school planning. The focus of the work at the College was on developing a positive climate in the school, engagement with learning and enhancing relationships between students and between teachers and students.

How did the school use the data from the survey and school audit processes to inform planning and determine priorities?

After the first feedback of data, the junior sub-school management team developed an action plan. It linked Gatehouse Project data and principles to College Charter priorities. This plan confirmed the need to continue to work on enhancing relationships and reducing bullying, developing relevant and challenging curriculum, reducing the number of teachers and increasing the time each teacher spent with the same group of students at years 7 and 8, and further developing the initial team-teaching Multiple Intelligences approach developed by two teachers at year 7. The broader Gatehouse Project Management Team has continued to use the data to inform priorities and confirm directions and progress.

What strategies were adopted to address the identified priorities?

The overarching strategy has been to consciously and explicitly link student support, student management and curriculum. Keeping in mind that "it's not just what we teach but how we teach it" has driven changes in the ways teachers work with students. Teams of teachers have been established across Key Learning Areas at Years 7 and 8 to work with groups of students. Double classrooms have been created to facilitate team teaching, using small table groups, more integrated curriculum and a Multiple Intelligences approach. Other strategies have included:

• using existing texts in English to provide opportunities to explicitly teach about emotional health
• integrating Gatehouse Project curriculum messages into study of issues such as drugs and body image in Health and Physical Education
• peer mediation from an initial four students trained in 1997, this program has grown with more than twenty Year 10 students and six Year 7 students trained in 1998 and the Year 10 peer mediators have been directly involved in the training of new peer mediators in 2000 and 2001. This program is an example of a strategy that contributes to enhancing security, as well as communication and positive regard through valued participation.

Anti-bullying strategies have included interactive drama experiences linking Year 10 students with year 7 students and:

• drama events focussing on body image issues
• a range of programs for parents
• Solving the Jigsaw, A Program in Schools, which focuses on the key areas of violence, bullying, depression, anxiety and abuse and which is designed to foster safety, well-being and belonging among young people. The courses are run by trained facilitators and range from short, medium and long-term programs at primary and secondary levels. The program also includes linked parenting programs and professional development and information sessions for teachers. Skills in conflict resolution, assertive communication, decision-making and anger management are highlighted and positive regard between students, their parents and the school is promoted.

What was the role and involvement of teachers, parents, students and student services in promoting change?

Kangaroo Flat Secondary College has worked closely with its wider community in developing programs and practices that support emotional well-being. Collaborative partnerships have been important in developing and delivering programs addressing a range of issues, including boys education, girls' personal development programs, literacy support, and parenting programs.

A good example of this is the ever broadening transition program, which has seen exchanges of students through peer education, joint professional development with primary staff, crossover of teaching staff from secondary to primary and vice versa, drama performances delivered to primary schools, and the development of a Passport including important information about students compiled by students and teachers at primary schools and then brought along as an important element of transition. This Passport now includes opportunities for students and staff to discuss and problem solve difficult feelings about changing from primary to secondary school, and to discuss important issues like 'what makes a good teacher/student/school and what can we do to achieve that'? It gives students opportunities to have contact with staff and students before they arrive at the school so that they can feel more secure in making the transition.

Senior management staff

Senior management staff have overseen the development of strategies and facilitated the growth of a team approach to teaching and learning, e.g. Special Programs Co-ordinator negotiates individual programs for disengaged students outside the school.

Teachers

Teachers have been involved in continuing professional development across a broad range of issues, within Key Learning Areas, Year Level teams, as a whole staff and with primary school teachers. They have been involved in team teaching within the school and with primary school teachers. They have looked for opportunities to integrate Gatehouse Project curriculum messages into existing curriculum.

Parents

Parents have participated in special programs for example, ADD &HD Group with a District Psychologist, Exploring Together (DHS Psychologists and Teachers), Parenting Teenagers Positively BCHS. Parents have been involved in development of programs with a community focus.

Students

Students have been involved in peer education and peer mediation programs, collaboratively setting classroom rules, involvement in exchanges and joint projects with primary schools, e.g. solar power challenge program and drama based explorations of bullying and how to deal with it.

What strategies implemented by this college have applicability to other school communities?

These have included:

• use of texts and performance to explore emotional well-being and related issues such as bullying and body image
• team teaching and fewer staff taking same group of students in junior classes
• teaching & learning teams to develop consistency of management and relevant curriculum
• shared professional development for primary and secondary staff
• team teaching across cluster of primary schools
• peer education and peer mediation.

Where to from here?

Kangaroo Flat Secondary College plans to continue to build on the foundations developed so far. Particular areas of focus include:

• increasing the range of assessment & reporting strategies
• further involvement of parents and the wider community in school activities such as work placements and Arts Festivals
• further team teaching, for example in technology, science, home economics
• a continued focus on enhancing transition from primary to secondary and, developing such a focus on transition beyond the College to Senior Secondary College or work.
• shared reflective PD for Primary and Secondary for example, relating to things that work best in Maths and Science
• shared consultants in residence to assist primary and secondary schools to achieve more compatible curriculum approaches
• increase the range of teaching and learning activities that will develop emotional intelligence (social competencies)
• develop a co-ordinated approach to literacy across Key Learning Areas from Primary to Secondary using a range of strategies including effective learning technologies
• further develop individual learning programs and flexible time tabling
• reviewing curriculum to ensure that we identify and include core skills that students will need, to participate in a global community.

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