Ensuring more high school students with complex needs continue their studies is the focus of a $48 million investment to be rolled out from next year – delivering a major reform to high schools across South Australia.
This investment will support secondary students from year eight up to the age of 21 who have disengaged from school due to significant personal barriers including mental health concerns, unstable accommodation, family difficulties, addiction, pregnancy and parenting.
The statewide delivery of Tailored Learning follows successful trials in 12 SA public high schools, which have seen vulnerable students receive additional in-school support to help them overcome adversity and reengage with their education.
“The good thing about the provision is it strengthens connections between the school and the young person in a way that has not previously been possible,” says Parafield Gardens High School Principal Kirsty Amos.
“We are aware that mainstream education structures and settings are not for everyone.
“This initiative offers us the flexibility that we are looking for to be able to meet the complex needs of young people and provide more opportunities to develop the skills and dispositions that they need to be successful when they leave their formal education.”
Meeting students’ needs
Amos says the Tailored Learning program “allows the school to employ more site-based staff that are highly trained to provide supports and to ensure that a young person’s needs are better met”.
Tailored Learning builds on an earlier version of student support called Flexible Learning Options (FLO), which has operated in South Australia since 2007.
A 2020 review of suspensions, exclusions and expulsions in South Australian public schools recommended the decommissioning of FLO, finding that, in many cases, it appears to compound student disengagement and segregation.
Currently, there are 4,360 students that access the FLO program at 85 schools.
More than 40 schools do not run the program, so the new approach will ensure students will be able to access it at all schools with secondary enrolments, ensuring consistency across the public education system.
New model promises individualised support
The redesigned model gives schools greater oversight of the programs offered, puts more individualised supports in place for each student based on their needs and challenges, and encourages supports to be delivered within the school setting rather than off-site and away from their peers.
At the centre of the initiative is a tool to help schools identify a student’s personal barriers and measure their engagement with learning. It then helps determine the most appropriate support for the student.
The resulting learning plan, developed in consultation with the student based on their specific needs, skills and interests, will be delivered through:
- part-time or full-time school study
- vocational courses
- online learning
- work placement
- volunteering
- individual wellbeing and social programs
The $48.3 million over three years will fund additional staff, support for students and ensure follow-up monitoring of student engagement and progress.
During the trial this year, the 12 sample schools reported improvements in attendance as a direct result of the extra youth workers and supports provided, and this resulted in stronger engagement with the students and their families.
Recent examples include the return of two students who had not attended school for two years and are now on track to complete their SACE, an individual student’s attendance rising from 10 per cent to 60 per cent, and a student who had never passed a subject now receiving a minimum C-grade in all of their enrolled subjects.
Making sure school works for every student
SA Education Minister Blair Boyer called the movie “an important step forward in supporting some of our most vulnerable students to ensure they continue learning – making sure school works for every young person”.
“We have long recognised that education is not one-size-fits all and this program is about reconnecting young people with their learning in a way that works best for them,” he says.
“The best place to provide these supports is in a highly inclusive school setting where they can remain connected with their classmates and their teachers.”
