A good rule of thumb is if a student is beyond two years above, or two years below the syllabus, a typical teacher utilising DOTT and planning time effectively will find it difficult to cater to the needs of these students without additional assistance, resourcing and planning.
Where there are a group of four or more in one class (typical of low ability streaming) this results in students not progressing their mathematical understanding when in Years 7-10. This is frustrating for parents and students and cause for concern (and is a workload issue) for teaching staff. It is also easily measurable using NAPLAN7 to NAPLAN9 progress data.
To properly address this issue requires analysis of assistance, resourcing and planning available.
ISSUE
1. Assistance
- Identifying the help required is a difficult proposition as students on the NCCD list may have undiagnosed IDs, mental health, DV, FASD, family dsyfunction and typically requires a multi-disciplinary approach.
- Providing "just in time" intervention to students when in the proximal zone of development requires teachers to understand the needs of NCCD students who are typically not in the proficiency area of high school teachers and support staff.
- Teachers are committed to teach the year level curriculum from the syllabus to the majority of students in the class.
- Many of these students attract no extra funding from external agencies as the disability is either not covered, require an extended period of observation and/or are too expensive for parents to receive a formal diagnosis.
2. Resourcing
- To teach year levels beyond a year either side of the year level achievement standard will reduce the effectiveness of teaching the majority of students in the class. Where more than two groups of students are in a class that require instruction outside the year level achievement standard, students will not get optimal instruction from their teacher alone.
- Typically resources available at developmental level are not developmentally appropriate (when teaching Year 4 material, resources are pitched at 8-9 years olds, is not appropriate for 13-15 year olds).
- Assistance by support staff is typically unavailable through current FTE model which requires an IQ and EQ diagnosis.
- For every student in the class that requires teaching from another year level in the syllabus, requires the equivalent of an extra class of planning to be completed by the teacher.
- Additional planning time is not available even if content could be delivered with sufficient preparation.
SOLUTION
1. Make it someone's problem
- Identify someone with a passion for the problem, a champion that can relate to these students and has a rapport with students services, parents of students and HOLAs of each learning area. This person becomes responsible for driving solutions and becomes the Learning Support Coordinator (LSC).
- Acceptance of a student into a remediation group must be linked to resourcing being available.
- Make the solution a team effort with shared responsibility by support staff and Learning Areas.
2. Communicate with parents and create a shared understanding
- Create IEP / Documented plans
- Develop MHRMPs/RMPs/BMPs
- Have meetings with parents and create measurable attendance/behaviour/academic goals for each term
3. Adequately resource the programme
- Resource the programme based on number of support groups required (eg. where indicated by class composition) not by resourcing allocated through support staff FTE.
- Develop resources that can be reused with minimal customisation.
4. Measure the results
- Research project / Masters or PHD level support
- SEN reporting
- Standardised testing (PAT Testing/ NAPLAN)
- Attendance
- Behaviour
5. Keep expectations reasonable
- Expectations set in IEPs must be achievable and modified when found to exceed ability of intervention programme to achieve.
6. Celebrate wins / analyse challenges
- Make time to analyse progress of intervention programme.
7. Communicate with stakeholders regularly
- Connect
- SEN reporting