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Narara Valley High School, Narara Valley
In-School Initiatives. Families Matter has been really successful at the school. The school engaged a parent who is really active in the community, very involved in the school, a lot of links to Health and has been able to arrange guest speakers. After the first week, where we spoke to a group of parents about the program, linking it to MindMatters and MindMatters Plus and what the school was doing, it was left to parents to decide what they wanted to do.
The parent group now runs itself, the Principal briefs the group for about 10 minutes during their evening meetings and explains what the school is doing in the particular area that they've chosen to look at within the school but the rest of it is done by the parents.
The first topic they chose was anger management co presented with Allied Health personnel. Feedback from the meeting was that parents were sharing their experiences at home and getting advice from other parents.
A panel for Year 9 students was run where we got some health workers, a psychologist, school counsellor and a couple of GPs to answer questions. Students came up with some questions beforehand but on the day students asked a range of further questions e.g. what was the grossest thing they'd ever seen? "All of these services are really great but what if your parents don't let you near a phone to ring and get this advice or see people?"
Identifying students with high mental health needs
Narara Valley uses a combination of formal and informal approaches to support and identify high need students. Several teams exist within the school to support students: the Welfare Team consisting of Year Advisors, Careers Advisors and School Counsellor; the Learning Support Team consisting of Year Advisors, Learning Support Teacher and Deputy Principal; and the Executive Team consisting of Head Teachers, Deputy Principal and the Principal. The MindMatters Team operates separate to these support teams and evaluates current school initiatives and investigates possible new ways the school can support students with high mental health needs.
Referral Pathways
Within the school there are several possible entry points where teachers could identify and refer students in need of support. Teachers can make formal requests for support through whole school, year level, and faculty or executive meetings. Teachers can also formally refer students direct to the school counsellor. Informal referrals exist through day-to-day interactions with School Counsellor, Head Teachers, Deputy Principal or Principal.
MindMatters Plus General Practice and Better Futures Project
Narara Valley has been involved in the MM+GP since its inception and has achieved some degree of success with the project. Through MM+GP the school has created valuable contacts and networks within the primary health care systems operating in the NSW central coast. Through the Better Futures Project, Narara Valley School hopes to run several activities and programs after normal school hours. One proposed program is the funding of a school based GP. The proposed calls for a GP 'take up residence' in the school one day a week for 2 hours. This would allow students and the school community to have greater ease of access to a GP. Also the GP may be able to undertake some educational role by answering specific health queries of individual or groups of students and supply specialised information to teachers creating health and wellbeing teaching programs. The school is aware of the huge benefits that may come from having a GP located on campus but recognises that unless the program has ongoing funding, which is external to the school's operational budget, the program is sustainable.
Curriculum changes
The school introduced a middle school structure four or five years ago and developed the concepts of 'teaming' at Year 7, the first year of secondary school. The 'teaming' concept involved one teacher taking responsibility for teaching a class the three subjects of English, History and Geography and one teacher timetabled to teach Maths and Science. After two years, an evaluation of the teaming initiative took place, and as a result, the school introduced a new structure at Year 7. Three subjects, English, History and Geography were integrated into a single subject, Sciences, taught by one teacher. The model has been successful and has been introduced into Year 8 this year.
An analysis of the learning outcomes for English at Year 7 showed that all Year 7 outcomes were met and indeed most of the Year 8 English outcomes were also satisfied in the Humanities subject.
The process of making this curriculum change began with a process of consultation with teachers in the feeder primary schools, to analyse the content of the curriculum and to identify potential overlaps in subject areas. A writing team undertook the task of developing the curriculum for the Humanities subject and drew up new themes and outcomes. An evaluation was carried out by Erebus Consulting as part of the Commonwealth Government Enterprise Education Program and the curriculum change received a very positive assessment. This has enabled the introduction of the model at Year 8 in 2004.
There have been more challenges for teachers in the process of integrating the discrete subjects of Maths and Science into a single subject. The integration has not been as successful as it has been in Humanities and this has been, in part, due to the confidence in exploring and using alternative teaching techniques.
The PE Department has taken steps towards integrating PE and Health with Science and Maths to make a single subject called Physical Sciences.
The school undertook another initiative to integrate the curriculum and this resulted in the creation of the 'Enrichment Program', a two-lesson per week subject for Years 7 & 8 students. The integration of the three subjects to form Humanities freed up two class periods a week which facilitated the introduction of the Enrichment Program. A representative from Erebus Consulting worked with a team of teachers to develop a set of 'rich tasks' that build on a core set of transferable skills that are central to the program. The skills are relevant for a range of subjects and are taught through themes such as Space and Fieldwork in IT in Year 8.
Through the integration of subjects, the school affirms the sound development of skills in Years 7 & 8. There is acknowledgement that students are required to specialise more in Year 9 as preparation for Year 12. One of outcomes of the curriculum changes and the increased integration of subjects at Year 7 has been the development of positive relationships between students and teachers. Students in Year 7 spend 30 ? 40% of their school time with one teacher and this model facilitates the transition into secondary school at Narara Valley High School.
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