Inclusion

School Support Services

I get a lot of questions about whether there are opportunities to get students tested within the education system. The answer to that is complex, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to run through the role of the Student Support Services [SSS] team. 

SSS are a team of Department of Education Allied Health professionals who work across schools within a region to provide support in a range of services. They are made up of Social Workers, Speech Pathologists and Educational Psychologists. Each school has a specific SSS contact who looks after their extra needs. Our SSS contact is Educational Psychologist, Kate Lucas, and our fortnightly sessions help us to manage students who have more complex needs. 

While Cognitive Assessments and Speech and Language assessments are occasionally possible through SSS, there is a long waiting list and priority levels are given to some cases, impacting the order they take place in. With the new Inclusion reforms that have rolled out across the state, the role of SSS staff is changing. They are focusing less on assessment and more on supporting the Disability Inclusion Profiles which are the new way we apply for funding. 

Privately, there are always options for assessment. The first port of call is your GP or Paediatrician who will discuss the student’s needs and make recommendations on the next step which is likely to involve an Educational Psychologist for a Cognitive Assessment.  A Cognitive Assessment will look at the student’s cognitive strengths and challenges. From this report, the school can start looking at what adjustments may need to be put in place to help improve access to learning. Other assessments may look at attentional, sensory or social emotional profiles, and may require forms or screeners to be filled in by teachers to provide more information to the Allied Health professional. Our Inclusion Team and our Year Level Leaders are always happy to help distribute these to the relevant teachers and get them back to the Allied Health professionals. 

If you have reports at home from testing that has been conducted in the past, please make sure you provide a copy to the school so we can look at what recommendations have been put in place by the Allied Health professional. This allows us to get those recommendations to exactly where they need to be – the classroom teacher. We can also look at what other adjustments need to be put in place, for the student.

If all else fails, and you really need some support on the direction to take, feel free to contact the Inclusion department and we can help you with your pathway. 

Inclusion Team

Kylie Rackham - Leader of Inclusion 

rac@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au 

Deanna Poon - Inclusion Support Coordinator [funded students]  

dpo@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au 

Sarah Ervin – Disability Inclusion Coordinator [funding applications]

ser@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au 

Jamila Jamil-Lopez – Learning Support Coordinator jja@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au