Strathpine West State School strives for the provision of equitable educational opportunities to ensure that all students have access to, participate in and gain positive learning outcomes from schooling. The SST team plays a vital role in achieving this goal.
The SST team has the responsibility of coordinating the specialist intervention and services within the school in order to maximize the effectiveness of the school's response in better meeting the individual needs of students, including those:
· who are gifted/talented
· who are learning the English language (EAL/D)
· who require behaviour support
· with school attendance challenges
· with learning difficulties
· diagnosed with disabilities:
o Deaf & Hard of Hearing (DHH)
o Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
o Physical Impairment (PI)
o Vision Impairment (VI)
o Intellectual disability (ID)
o Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
o & other disabilities as described under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)
The SST team comprises of the Deputy Principal, the Guidance Officer (GO), the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), the Head of Student Educational Services (HOSES), Support Teachers and as appropriate input from Advisory Visiting Teachers (AVT).
Student Support Team (SST) Referral Process
Strathpine West teachers are dedicated to monitoring the progress and development of students. When teachers have concerns regarding a student's development they observe and collate work samples. This helps build a picture of the areas of concern they have for the student and helps them identify and make adjustments from their repertoire of teaching strategies to support and scaffold learning for students.
If students don't respond to these strategies, teachers will want to investigate further. After consulting parents, teachers fill in an SST referral form outlining their concerns. They then submit this with their work samples and meet with the Student Support Team.
At times, parents initiate the referral process by sharing concerns or information with the class teacher or a referral may be requested by the School Leadership Team.
The Student Support Team assesses each case individually, identifying appropriate actions such as - to determine further assessments necessary, support that needs to be provided, advise the teacher of additional strategies to try and suggest possible outside agency or Paediatrician involvement to parents.
The classroom teacher or SST team member will communicate these actions to parents. Any documentation is recorded in OneSchool (Education Qld School Operating Website) so future class teachers have information to make a difference for your child.
Head of Student Education Services (HOSES)
Student support services at Strathpine West State School is overseen and co-ordinated by Kellie Mills.
Values & Beliefs:
- All students can learn.
- All students have the right to an equitable education and to the removing of barriers to support student learning, so students reach their full potential.
Please contact us if you wish to make an appointment.
Support Teachers
The Support Teachers work with classroom teachers to improve student achievement, considering the holistic developmental needs of individual students. They also support classroom teachers in enabling students with a disability to access and participate in the curriculum. The Support Teachers provide additional expertise in planning, teaching, assessing and monitoring of student progress and support the documentation of intervention practices for identified students.
Working collaboratively with other specialists and stakeholders such as Head of Curriculum, the Guidance Officer, Speech Language Pathologists, Chappy, outside agencies and parents, the Support Teachers coordinate services to improve learning outcomes for students. In particular, through collation and tracking of data, students' progress is monitored to ensure continued learning. Their role requires liaison with parents, classroom teachers and therapists to ensure the educational priorities for all students are met.