Transcript for Nationally Consistent Collection of Data
[Piano playing music in background through duration of video]
The Data Collection
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
I’m Bronwyn Hamilton, Principal of Carwatha College P-12, located in Noble Park North.
There are a number of benefits for our school in undertaking the data collection, one of the main ones probably was building our teacher capacity to really understand where there are students with disabilities, that they don’t necessarily fit the model of the program of students with disabilities where there is funding for students and perhaps particular support but there are many other students that may have a disability that are in every classroom and its helped our teachers to understand that and build their capacity too, therefore adjust their learning for their students or their teaching for their students to cater better for their individual needs. And it helped us to clarify the needs of our own students in a more formal way and therefore catered better for their needs.
What is the Data Collection?
[Richard Sunderland]
My name is Richard Sunderland and I am from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
So the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability or the Data Collectionis an annual count of students in all Australian Schools who have a disability and as a result of that disability their school is required to make adjustments to support their ability to participate in their education and to learn alongside their peers.
What is the purpose of the Data Collection?
[Richard Sunderland]
Our department along with every state and jurisdiction department is requesting that every school in the country undertakes the Data Collection so that every state and territory and the Commonwealth government have a clear picture of the number of students with disability in our schools who require adjustments, where those students are and the level of adjustment, the level of support really that they need within their school to be able to participate along with their peers in their learning.
Preparing for the Data Collection
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
To prepare for the Data Collection in our school I must admit initially I thought "Oh my goodness this is big this is going to take us a lot of time, it's yet another thing we're being asked to do on top of our already busy schedules" but once we then broke it down into manageable segments we realised that it actually was very manageable and there were benefits to us so let’s get into it and make it happen. So the first thing we did to prepare was have all of our teachers complete the DSE online learning modules so that they were better informed about what the definition of a disability is and what kind of adjustments are required. We then asked our classroom teachers in the Primary and our Year Level Coordinators in the Secondary part of the school to identify the students that they believed fit the definitions of students with a disability who required the kind of adjustments according to the definitions we were working with. We also had a core group of teachers who were two Assistant Principals, the Primary Assistant Principal, the Secondary Assistant Principal, our Student Wellbeing Coordinator and our Inclusion Support Coordinator who completed the training that the department provided, read all the materials that the department provided, so they became the experts. We then organised a meeting, just one day in fact it was half a day I think where each of the classroom teachers and the year level coordinators just came and met and discussed with the core team the students that they believed met the definitions and then we would come to a conclusion together but with the core team who had the most training, our experts making the final decision as to who would be included.
Informing the school community about the Data Collection
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
It was important that the whole school community was aware that we were undertaking the Data Collection. The way that we did that was to put an article in the school newsletter, to say this is happening, what it's about, what it was for, and that any families that we would be involving their students in the collection would be contacted directly. That was the first step, that was the general step. Then there was the process of once the students were identified that there were letters sent home to those families or phone calls or both, made to those families whose students would be involved in the collection, and it was very important that they were not worried about their students being labelled and the school wasn't worried about that occurring, that it's kind of a matter of fact kind of event that is happening in the school and that's the way we approached it.
Who do we include?
Step 1: Is the student provided with an adjustment to address a disability as defined by the DDA?
[Tracy Elias]
My name is Tracy Elias, I teach grade three-four at Carwatha College prep to twelve. I’ve been teaching here for about nine years.
Gathering evidence to identify students
The process for identifying the students that were included in the Data Collection involved a number of things. It involved handover information from the previous teacher, it involved information that we had obtained from parents either in Enrolment Forms or through initial Parent Teacher interviews, it included collection of my own data so I identified students who were performing at 'not at expected' levels, it also included prior knowledge of any other supports that the students may have been receiving.
Making final decisions about who to include through team moderation
As a team we looked at all of the information we had collected to identify whether the students had the health and learning conditions that meant that they were the right students to be included in the Data Collection.
After reviewing the evidence, not all students will be included in the Data Collection
Not all students were included. What we actually did is took the names of the students we had concerns about to the team that included the Inclusion Support Officer, the Assistant Principal and our Welfare Coordinator and we had a discussion about those students to identify what their needs were and whether their needs were related to a disability.
Team moderation
What really made this process easy for me was the fact that it was part of a team effort and that I wasn't solely responsible for making any decisions about those students, that I could talk about the needs of all of the students that I had concerns about in my class and therefore we could work out exactly what supports were best going to suit them and which students could ultimately be included as part of the Data Collection.
The term ‘disability’ and the Disability Discrimination Act
[Richard Sunderland]
One of the elements of the Data Collection that school's expected to have difficulties with and have had is the use of the term 'disability' which some families have found confronting. It is I guess part of our understanding of disability and society's understanding of disability that can influence the way schools communicate.
[Tracy Elias]
The use of the term 'disability' didn't concern me initially because I was thinking mainly about the needs of my students and the best ways that we could help them access the supports and the learning that was going to help them achieve their best.
[Richard Sunderland]
Certainly the students they're seeking to include in the Collection are students they know, they know the needs of their students and they're supporting those students, but perhaps the use of the term disability hasn't occurred in conversation with the family, they might have been focussing on the student's needs rather than the label of 'disability'. Part of what we need to consider in implementing the Data Collection in years to come is some understanding of the broad use of the term disability that comes from the Disability Discrimination Act.
Consultation with parents
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
We saw consultation with parents as actually vital to the success of this process and that's an ongoing thing, that can't just be as a result of this process, that's because you've been consulting and talking to parents about their student's needs in an ongoing way. So we really were only including students in our Data Collection that we had that ongoing dialogue going on with parents. We will have new sets of parents next year because we have identified new students whose needs we could meet in a different way through the Data Collection process and we will ensure that we commence the dialogue with those parents so that next year it doesn't come as a surprise to them as well so it's just a part of the ongoing business that we do in schools in knowing our communities, knowing our parents and having a relationship with them and working in partnership with them for the wellbeing of their students.
Step 4: Verification of data
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
I was able to verify the data that was submitted at the end of the process as Principals are required to do because I was involved. I actually was involved in the discussions with all of the teachers. I found it really interesting to be honest, but I also felt very comfortable with the integrity of our process…but I think knowing the process is vital for a Principal, to come in at the end and have someone tell you "yeah this is all correct" you don't really know if you haven't been part of it so I'd certainly recommend that that's something Principals should do.
Final thoughts about the Data Collection
[Bronwyn Hamilton]
The advice I would give Principals who are undertaking the Data Collection for the first time in 2015 is don't panic, don't think this is a giant task because it isn't. Take it simply, break it down, think of strategies that you can use that will work for you and your school and will ensure that you are able to complete the tasks required of you in the timely manner. But I would also encourage them to just think about the benefits that might come their way for their students and for their staff because they are there, and look at it that way rather than just another thing we have to do for the Department.