November 2009 Vol. 1, Issue 10 (PDF - 16.2Mb) - Department of ...

School Services Officers
Shine 43
this career later in life after my children grew
up. When I was younger I always wanted to be
a teacher but never had the opportunity.
I love working with children and started doing
volunteer work at the local primary school, and
when a job became available I applied –and
was lucky enough to get the job. I worked in
the primary school for about seven years then
transferred to Bairnsdale Secondary College
and have been here since.
What sort of background you
need to become a school services
officer?
There are no specific education qualifications
needed for this job, but when I started
I did an 18-month, part-time course in
disabilities at TAFE, and this helped greatly
in understanding the many disabilities I have
worked with. Maturity and life experience
also help you to understand what some of the
students may be going through.
What do you find challenging
about being an SSO?
A lot of the emotional things we deal with
are quite stressful at times, and it is very hard
to leave that at school and not take it home
with you. I worked for almost 12 months at
the Satellite VCAL campus of Bairnsdale
Secondary College, which is an alternative to
the regular campus – mainly for students who
do not fit into the normal classroom situation.
Some of these students have enormous
problems and very challenging behaviours
and it was hard not to try and rescue them.
As a mother and grandmother I found this
quite difficult. I returned to working in the
mainstream system after this emotional
experience started to take its toll on me.
“Emotional support involves
being a good listener and
helping students access
counselling, speech pathology,
literacy and numeracy
intervention programs and
other services.”
What do you find rewarding
about the job?
Seeing the students succeed is very rewarding
no matter how small the success may be.
It could be something like finally knowing
how many degrees are in a triangle, which
happened recently. In the long term, it’s
finding work or succeeding at sport. I also find
it rewarding when kids I haven’t worked with
for years come up and speak to me and tell me
what they are doing.
Being a minority in a mainstream
school, do you feel that your
colleagues understand your role?
Being part of the school team requires working
closely with teachers to achieve goals for
individual students and the school in general.
I think we have a great integration team at
Bairnsdale Secondary College and we get great
support from the principal, assistant principals,
coordinator and other staff members.
Sometimes staff who have not had an aide in
their classroom before are a little wary, but
once we explain what we are there for – they
are very supportive and understanding.
What has been your
toughest case?
The hardest thing that I have had to deal
with was the death of a student whom I
worked with from Prep until Year 4. She
was the first student I had ever worked with.
She had numerous disabilities and was in a
wheelchair. She was a gorgeous girl with a
great personality.
How did you handle it?
It was extremely hard at the time and it almost
felt like they way I imagine it would be losing
one of your own children. I had fantastic
support from the integration coordinator and
integration team, as well as the classroom
teacher and the student’s family. I just kept
going as best I could to support the other
students who were fond of the student who
passed away.
I had never had to deal with anything like
that before and I hope I never have to again.
I accessed counselling after a time and then
decided it was time for a change of scenery
and began working at Bairnsdale Secondary
College where I still am and thoroughly
enjoying it. I hope to continue working here
for as long as possible.
Have you had a particularly
rewarding case?
I had a mother phone me to thank me for
everything I had done for her son when he
was at primary school and to invite me to his
Year 12 graduation. She said if it wasn’t for my
help he may not have made it to Year 12.
I had a call from the Department of Human
Services’ juvenile justice division to ask me
if I would assist someone who I had worked
with at primary school and the early years of
secondary school, because he said I was the
only person the child had enjoyed working
with at school.
Seeing someone leave school and go into the
workforce is always special. All these small
things add up to a very rewarding job.
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