Students At Risk (SAR) Mapping Tool
The Students At Risk (SAR) Mapping Tool is a simple process that takes your own school’s data from the CASES21 database and displays it in a pre-formatted Excel spreadsheet. Using the Tool cannot change or compromise the data held on CASES21.
The Tool extracts CASES21 information that is relevant to each student’s risk of early school leaving.
These pages and documents will provide everything you need to use and make the most effective use of the Tool:
- SAR Privacy guide (PDF - 455Kb)
- SAR Data extraction guide (PDF - 1.8Mb)
- SAR Mapping Tool spreadsheet (secure site - requires login)
- Quick guide to SAR (PDF - 53Kb)
- Frequently asked questions
- Using the SAR Mapping Tool
- Getting the most out of the SAR Mapping Tool
- SAR Mapping Tool background
- SAR Mapping Tool roll-out
- Identifying students at risk
- Mapping support programs for students at risk
Australian research has shown that early school leavers are more likely to exhibit certain characteristics or be exposed to certain risk factors. These include poor attendance, low literacy or numeracy, disrupted relationships with teachers and peers, a low income family background, and a range of other obstacles to school completion.
The SAR Mapping Tool was developed by the Brimbank Melton LLEN and the Victorian Department of Education, and is available to all Victorian schools free of charge.
The SAR Mapping Tool will not provide a definitive answer to the question, “Which of our students are at risk of early school leaving?”
The Tool will generate easily understood data about each student, and about groups of students, that can underpin school conversations about
- Managed Individual Pathways (MIPs)
- absenteeism
- literacy and numeracy support
- welfare and discipline.
Schools should review the data and consider its implications in their school context. Teacher insights and other factors should also be considered. The Tool should start the conversation about who is at risk of early school leaving, rather than finish it.
Using the Tool should encourage staff to consider the whole child, and to take a whole-school approach to meeting each child’s needs. The Tool can also be used to support a student’s transition from school to school, campus to campus, or even year to year.
Schools that trialled the Tool found that whole school approaches, supported by the senior management team, resulted in the most rapid and effective adoption of the Tool.