Student Support

Castlemaine Secondary College is committed to supporting the diverse learning needs through the work of the Student Support team. The Student Support team works in a variety of ways across the College to provide support to students and build the capacity of middle leaders and classroom teachers. 

Documenting Diverse Learner Needs

This year, the Department of Education has made changes to its IEP policy to reduce the amount of Individual Education Plans schools are required to develop, to reduce administrative burden on classroom teachers and leadership staff. This semester, the Student Support team will work with Sub-School teams to develop an IEP & SSG policy for Castlemaine Secondary College, which reflects these changes. Part of this work will include developing a centralised database for documenting the adjustments required by all students with a diagnosed disability or learning difficulty. This database will provide staff with a comprehensive overview of the needs of all diverse learners in their classroom, allowing them to utilise universal classroom strategies that support all students whilst implementing specific adjustments for individual learners. 

Sub-School Support

The Student Support team meets with Sub-School teams twice per term. Actions undertaken at these meetings include:

• Identifying students requiring SSGs each term, and organising bookings via Compass
• Supporting sub-school staff with developing learning plans and identifying appropriate strategies to support diverse learners within the classroom
• Support with Special Exam Arrangement applications

Meeting together regularly builds consistency across the College in supporting the needs of our diverse learners

Intervention Support

This year, Education Support staff have been building their capacity to undertake formal intervention programs for students who have been identified as requiring individual or small group intervention. Programs our Education Support staff are currently implementing are:

• MacqLit Reading Intervention
• Real Friends (small group social-emotional learning)
• Skills Based-Training (individual behaviour support)

Students are identified to participate in these programs through the analysis of academic and wellbeing data, and on the recommendation of sub-school teams. 

If you have a student with diverse learning needs, and would like to discuss the strategies in place to support them across the College or inform us of their individual learning needs, then please contact their Year Level Leader. 

Caitlin O'Halloran

Student Support Leader