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Principle 3 - Vignettes: Knowledge Bank
Early Years
Social Stories: using stories to teach social behaviour - Eppalock Primary School
In 2002 the school identified that students with disabilities were finding social situations stressful. We were interested in accessing tools that would provide our students with an improved understanding of their environment and support their social interaction with their peers. A Social Story is written or told to share social information, often in response to a troubling situation, in an effort to provide a person with social information he/she may be lacking. It was suggested that Social Stories might meet the needs of our students, even though they are more specifically used for students with Autism. It was then decided that we would trial Social Stories.
See: Social Stories (http://knowledge.education.vic.gov.au/sites/knowledgebank)
Middle Years
Check and Connect: improving student attendance - Taylors Lakes Secondary College
When a small group at Taylor Lakes Secondary College started spending significant time out of school, the school set up Check and Connect. This program works through mentoring individual students with high absences, on a case-by-case basis to address the problems that affect their attendance. Teachers work with the families of at-risk students to look at issues affecting the whole family. Absences have now significantly reduced and the students’ academic performance has improved.
See: Improving Student Attendance-The Check and Connect Teacher Monitor Program (http://knowledge.education.vic.gov.au/sites/knowledgebank)
Later Years
Development of VET Teaching Resources in IT and Multimedia (Teacher Professional Leave) - Lakes Entrance Secondary College
Lakes Entrance Secondary school is a rural school implementing Year 11 and 12 through VCAL and VCE. Previously it was a 7-10 school. Boyd McPhee saw that students were struggling to cope with text based courses in VCE, such as IPM. They needed a more practical hands on approach. To help the students he developed a structured course outline and a self paced module and set up a new room with IT hardware. From this, the students could take a structured approach the tasks to be completed and progress through the course. What has been achieved are structured course outlines, self paced modules are used so students can work at their own pace. Appropriate software has been identified and purchased. There is also a new room setup with IT hardware. Through a structured approach students can see the tasks to be completed and their progress through the course.
See: Teacher Professional Leave: Individual Teacher (http://knowledge.education.vic.gov.au/sites/knowledgebank)