Galilee Newsletter

     Wellbeing & Diversity 

National Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

  • year of schooling
  • category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
  • level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

  • formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
  • consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
  • develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

Galilee's Support Staff

This year at Galilee, we have several new additions to our Education Support Team.  We are very happy to welcome Shelley Blignaut, Occupational Therapist, and Brooke Perrin, Speech Therapist.  Shelley and Brooke are employed for two days each week.  In consultation with teachers, learning support officers and parents, Shelley and Brooke will assess children and implement interventions to support their access to the curriculum.  

We also welcome two new learning support officers (LSOs), Bianca Trewhella and Jack Sandow.  Both Bianca and Jack have been employed full-time and will provide support to children and teachers across the school, along with our current LSO team, Sharon Cameron, Annmaree Pinner, Rosa Seratore and Pauline Semmens.

Intervention Programmes at Galilee

In 2020, we are offering a variety of intervention and support programmes across the school. Here I will provide information about our social-emotional programmes. In our next newsletter, I will outline some of our academic intervention programmes.

Seasons for Growth

The Seasons for Growth program will continue to be available to students this year.

The program supports children to understand and respond well to the issues they experience due to death, separation, divorce or other significant change and loss in their lives.

The program:

Supports children to understand and respond well to the issues they experience as a result of death, separation, divorce or other significant change and loss in their lives

Assists children to understand that their feelings and other reactions are normal

Develop skills for coping, problem solving and decision making

Build a peer support network

Help restore self-confidence and self-esteem

Educates children about the grief process

Children can be nominated by their parent/carer or teacher and consent is required from their parent/carer.

 

Peaceful Kids

The Peaceful Kids program will continue to be facilitated in the school

 The aims of the program is to:

build emotional resilience

empower children to self-manage their emotions

teach children Mindfulness exercises they can use for life

teach children to use a range of effective coping strategies

teach children to self calm

develop emotional intelligence skills.

Peaceful Kids is a 5-8 week program for groups of 4 children, with sessions running for approximately one hour each week. Children can be nominated by their parent/carer or teacher/staff members.  All Prep students will complete the Peaceful kids as part of the curriculum.

 

School Counselling Services

Last year, Sharon Cameron took on the role of Galilee school chaplain, supporting and monitoring the mental health of various children in the school. She has assisted children suffering from anxiety, depression and social issues in a supportive, calm and engaging manner, building trust and rapport with troubled children, providing ongoing support and understanding for them. She is well-known by the children in the school as someone they can rely on and approach at any time.  

 

Sharon is now a qualified counsellor and will be working in the school in that capacity. As a counsellor, Sharon will work with children one-on-one. Our counselling service seeks to support and enhance social, emotional and developmental wellbeing.  Children can be nominated for counselling with Sharon by parents, staff or by the children themselves.

 

If you have any questions about the NCCD or any of our intervention programmes, or if you would like a referral form for any of our interventions, please contact me at jferris@gsm.vic.edu.au.  Jane Ferris Learning Diversity Leader.  Keep an eye out for our next newsletter for further details about our intervention programmes.