Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
to the issue. Schools named (and identified in their Annual Operating Plans) a variety of
social and emotional learning programs used to address behavioural issues. These included
early intervention programs such as Families and Schools Together and Let’s Start, and
school‐based programs including You Can Do It, Tribes, Friendly Schools Friendly Families,
Rock and Water, Bounce Back, School Wide Positive Behaviour Support, and Restorative
Practice. Even highly coordinated and effectively delivered programs did not seem to be
having the desired effect and some teachers argued that the programs needed to be
adapted to meet the needs of their cohort of students.
Over the years there have been many attempts by the department to address the needs of
Indigenous students and sometimes issues of mental health and behaviour have become
absorbed into other areas. After the release of the Little Children are Sacred (2007) report
into ways of protecting Aboriginal children from sexual abuse, the Keeping Safe child
protection curriculum was rolled out to between 40 and 50 schools (with a focus on remote
schools) in 2010–2011 to support students, families and the community to prevent and
appropriately address child protection issues. Anecdotal views of recipients of the training
were that it failed to meet the needs of Indigenous students, placed too much pressure on
the trainer to deliver it with little departmental support beyond the initial training (there
was only enough funding for one Keeping Safe trainer to cover the whole of the Northern
Territory) and took the focus off wellbeing and behaviour. The initiative has largely vanished
since the cessation of Commonwealth funding.
In the 2011–2014 DET Strategic Plan, there was a commitment made to implementing the
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) program across the Northern Territory:
We will continue to increase the number of primary and middle years schools utilising
School‐Wide Positive Behaviour Support processes which ensure a focus on evidencebased
practice in schools and will be explicitly included within School Improvement
Plans (DET, 2011).
DRAFT
Since 2012 as part of the new government’s reform agenda, Student Services was disbanded
and is currently undergoing a restructure. Many of the positions responsible for providing
support and training to schools in key initiatives in the area of behaviour and mental health
will not be continued in 2014, including the team responsible for the implementation of
SWPBS. In their place, there is now a Crisis Intervention Coordinator who has responsibilities
for the implementation of whole school approaches that promote positive behaviour. In the
regional organisation chart, behaviour support is now focused on Positive Learning Centres
(where children who are not able to function in mainstream school settings are placed) with
centres in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs.
SWPBS is promoted as an organisational framework designed to assist schools with a
systematic approach to teaching, supporting positive behaviour and preventing problem
behaviour that is disruptive to learning. It provides teachers with a clear, consistent and
positive approach to dealing with issues and supporting students to learn alternative ways of
managing difficult situations. To date, 45 schools across the Territory have received the
training and are implementing SWPBS (with varying degrees of success) and a further 11 are
on the waiting list. Recent reports suggest that the program, when effectively implemented,
is making a difference. We note, however, that the original mandated approach was not
universally implemented and that data required was not consistently collected or reported
by schools so the department has only limited evidence of effectiveness.
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