Two Cranbourne schools have reached the finals in the 2023 Victorian Education Excellence Awards.
Education Minister Ben Carroll announced on 5 October the 47 finalists for the 2023 Victorian Education Excellence Awards, which celebrate inspirational teachers, principals, business managers, and education support staff for outstanding dedication and achievement in government education.
Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School has been recognized for the Outstanding School Improvement award and Cranbourne Secondary College is a finalist in the Outstanding Education Support Team award.
The nomination says with 60 percent of students speaking a language other than English at home, Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School’s new leadership team prioritized student learning and family engagement in building a more inclusive and multicultural school community.
“The leadership team established the Carlisle Community Group as a platform for families to become more involved in school life,” the award nomination explains.
“With the implementation of a Framework for Improving Student Outcomes 2.0 improvement cycle, teachers and leaders improved their data literacy and led evidence-based school improvement centered on knowing all students and their families well.”
The leadership team introduced Multicultural Education Aides (MEAs) that opened up the lines of communication between home and school by interpreting for non-English speaking families and providing them with an understanding of the education system as well as what is happening in the community and what impact it will likely have on the students.
Assistant principal Michael Sweeney said MEAs help alleviate the anxiety and provide an avenue for the community to ask questions and talk about their concerns.
“I’ve lost count of how many meetings with parents I’ve sat in with one of our MEAs on the topics of camp, academic achievement, excursions, behavioral expectations, assessment results, etc … and afterwards I thought without them I would have been no chance of getting my message across,” he said.
Mr Sweeney said a couple of positive outcomes with the MEAs were increased attendance at school camps and improved preparation for the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) through communication with the families.
The school also held regular Cultural Connections Days to celebrate the multicultural diversity of the school community.
Mr Sweeney believed investing heavily in building staff culture and establishing a new level of trust and collegiality contributed to the success of the leadership team.
“Rather than engage outside professional development organizations, we’ve valued the staff members that have a wealth of experience and knowledge in various areas of education and community engagement,” he said.
“We’ve given staff a platform to share their experience and knowledge with each other and this built the profile and confidence of many of our staff, and established internal ‘experts’ for people to go to for advice and help.”
Mr Sweeney said on behalf of the leadership team that they had been very excited to be nominated.
“It hasn’t been easy. Although we’ve been nominated this year, it’s validation for several years’ worth of work,” he said.
“We are all extremely proud to be a part of Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School.”
Cranbourne Secondary College has also been held in high regard, with its multi-disciplinary Student Wellbeing Team expanding and innovating programs to support a growing cohort of students with additional needs as learners.
College principal David Caughey said the Wellbeing Team is committed to improving the college’s overall social, emotional, and academic performance by maintaining a multidisciplinary approach to addressing student needs and providing a safe and inclusive environment conducive to learning.
Student Wellbeing Team leader Melissa Bannister explained the team supports students in a multi-tiered system of support.
She said students can self-refer to the Wellbeing Team or a year-level engagement coordinator, or a year-level leader can submit a referral through.
The Wellbeing Team works in 1:1 counseling with young learners as the tier-three support, group work for tier-two interventions, and a whole school approach as the tier-one support.
Team practitioners also engage in a lot of evidence-based group work, which Ms Bannister said is very popular at school and makes a great impact.
Mr Caughey added underpinning the approach of the Wellbeing Team is a Response to Intervention Model (RTI).
RTI matches students to appropriate interventions based on the severity of their presenting issues and enables the team practitioners to provide differentiated levels of support and therapeutic intervention.
The Wellbeing Team has been pleased by the positive changes brought to the students.
Mr Caughey said one of the big changes they had seen was the amount of students that were very comfortable to self-refer now to get support.
“We definitely see enjoyment in some of the programs that we offer,” he said.
He said the team will focus and expand their supports at a whole school level through the implementation of Berry Street Education Model which will complement their current work with School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) and enable them to focus on some key areas, including trauma informed practices, zones of regulation (ZoR), regulation strategies, learning plans, and brain breaks.
“We are on the hunt at the moment for a speech pathologist and a social worker to complement the team and they would be working as part of a team that has counsellors, psychologists and school nurses,” he said.
Mr Caughey said on behalf of the Wellbeing Team that it is such a privilege and honour to be shortlisted for the 2023 Victoria Education Excellence Awards in the Outstanding Education Support Team category.
“It is fantastic to be acknowledged for the work we do in recognising and improving student outcomes,” he said.
The Victorian Education Excellence Awards support the continued professional development of staff, with professional learning grants of $20,000 for each individual award and $25,000 for each team award.
One category winner will also receive the esteemed Lindsay Thompson Award for Excellence in Education, which offers a further professional learning grant of $20,000.
Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Friday 27 October.
