Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Recommendations

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Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson Recommendations 19. Work with the Behaviour Management Taskforce to develop and resource a whole‐system approach to wellbeing and behaviour management, including: a. mandating School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) for bush schools and advising other schools to adopt it; b. requiring all schools to have a school‐wide approach to behaviour management and wellbeing including the establishment of a team, led by a member of the leadership group, with responsibility for behaviour, wellbeing and inclusion; c. developing a social and emotional overlay for SWPBS (taking account of trauma experienced by Indigenous students) for trial and evaluation in Central Australia prior to wider implementation; d. ensuring that schools collect and report data on behaviour and related issues and on the implementation of SWPBS; e. mandating the use of Now Hear in all bush schools and other schools with students experiencing hearing difficulty; and f. providing professional development programs, coaching and specialist support for implementation of SWPBS, whole‐school approaches and data collection and the implementation of Now Hear. 20. Ensure through the school review process that schools are aware of the impact of, and plan to deal with, social and emotional problems, cognitive disability and experience of trauma on student learning and behaviour. Community engagement The engagement of communities in education is seen as essential to success. Despite various initiatives over the past decade, progress has been slow. School Councils are unevenly effective in bush schools and formal partnership agreements between schools and communities have often not had lasting results. Among the causes of slow progress, the review has identified changes in direction, weak implementation of agreements and a lack of focus on real change. DRAFT A new charter should be developed to define roles and guide improved engagement. The responsibilities of school staff for community engagement should be clarified and effective training provided to improve engagement. Local communities should be engaged to lead induction and cultural training. Principals should be supported in developing school councils and governance training developed for remote communities. Community engagement should focus on existing agreements and the implementation of department goals. The Indigenous education unit should include staff skilled in supporting community engagement. Recommendations 21. Develop a new community engagement charter setting out the Department’s strategy for community engagement, responsibilities of Department work units and the expected involvement of community representatives. 22. Clarify the responsibilities of principals and teachers for community engagement, provide effective training in supporting improved engagement and ensure that school review and staff appraisal processes include community engagement as an expectation. 23. Engage local communities to lead induction and local cultural training. 15
Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory Bruce Wilson 24. Provide support for principals in building precursor school decision making bodies based on community practice, develop governance training designed to meet the needs of remote communities and review legislation to establish a basis for precursor bodies to School Councils. 25. Focus community engagement on existing agreements where these are valued and the implementation of specific Department strategic goals (e.g. residential facilities for secondary students). 26. Ensure that the Indigenous education unit has staff skilled and experienced in community engagement and able to support schools and communities in developing school improvement plans and establishing effective governance arrangements. Workforce planning Despite the importance of teachers to student learning, the department has no current comprehensive workforce plan. Indigenous teachers and principals are under‐represented in the workforce and there have been some failures in programs designed to address this, and quality issues with some Indigenous graduates. Assistant teachers are unevenly utilised and employed. Recruitment to bush schools, in particular of high quality principals, needs attention. There is also a need to continue working on the overall quality of teaching and the use of study leave to improve performance. A comprehensive workforce plan should be developed and programs strengthened to increase Indigenous principal and teacher numbers and quality. Assistant teachers should have employment and performance management arrangements consistent with those of other staff. Bush principals and teachers should be provided with professional development, mentoring and coaching focused on department goals, and a program established to attract high quality principals and teachers including early career teachers to bush schools. A common framework for pedagogy should be established and all study leave applications should address department priorities. Recommendations DRAFT 27. Engage additional expertise and experience to develop a comprehensive workforce plan as outlined in this report, aligned with the Department’s Strategic Plan, the Indigenous Education Strategic Plan proposed in this report and the Early Years Workforce Plan. 28. Strengthen programs to increase Indigenous teacher numbers and quality including: a. a revised version of the Remote Indigenous Teacher Education (RITE) program meeting the criteria set out in this report; and b. a rationalised approach to attracting university graduates and Indigenous members of the general workforce into teaching and supporting them in their training and induction. 29. Establish employment and performance management arrangements for assistant teachers consistent with those of other staff and ensure their roles and responsibilities are understood and supported by all school staff, particularly classroom teachers. 30. Raise the quality of bush principals by: 16
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