Staff professional development

All staff recently participated in an afterschool professional development program addressing Neurodiversity from a young person's perspective. The informative session was presented by Whittlesea Youth Services Baseline. In 2019, a Neurodiverse Group involving young people aged 15 – 17 was formed to discuss the challenges neurodiverse young people face and what kind of supports were needed to make young people feel better supported. As they shared their own personal experiences it was evident, they had

a lot of rich information and ideas as to how schools could best support and engage with neurodiverse young people to maximise their engagement and experience at school.

The Neurodiversity from a Young Persons Perspective set out to achieve the following:

· Provide teachers with a better understanding of neurodiversity from a lived experience perspective.

· Give teachers an insight as to how neurodiverse young people feel in the classroom school environment and what helps them feel safe and supported.

· Encourage teachers and support staff to think about strategies they can use to engage with neurodiverse young people in order to create a safe and supported learning environment.

The time was invaluable as we built our capacity as educators and lifelong learners to develop knowledge to support the young people that we work with on a daily basis here at Plenty River College.