Consistent and informed language, practice and protocols of student support in the Diocese of Armidale.

Living Well, Learning Well - A Student Support Framework for the Diocese of Armidale is a rationale document justifying a model of student support that considers learning, wellbeing, school connection, behaviour, family-school partnerships and similar domains as inseparable and interrelated elements in the lives of children and young people and in the complex community that is the contemporary school.

The development goal of Living Well, Learning Well, and related policies was, and is, to ensure contemporary research and findings in fields of pedagogy, inclusion, behaviour support, student voice, participation and connection to school, child and adolescent psychology, student wellbeing and staff collective efficacy are reflected in all language, policy, practice and protocols of the system and schools. It is a polite rejection of the language and practice of manage and control discipline frameworks and a support of a whole-system ecological approach to understanding and acting on the complexity of factors that interact to shape and form the lives of children and young people.

Policies flowing from Living Well, Learning Well are were developed with the aims that they be concise, accessible and focused first on adult actions to strengthen protective factors in the school as a first step in mitigating risk factors in the school.

Living Well, Learning Well

Are there other resources, strategies or protocols you would like to see developed for this site?

Email rwhelan@arm.catholic.edu.au

This site provides a variety of entry points for leaders, teams and individuals investigating, understanding and implementing the Living Well, Learning Well framework. Leaders are encouraged to assess the conditions, circumstances and needs of the individual school and plan learning and work to support a system-wide fidelity of implementation of the framework. Included in this site are:

Key documents Living Well, Learning Well - A student support framework for the Diocese of Armidale and Living Well, Learning Well - Policies and Procedures.
An overview of key elements of an ecological, ecosystemic approach to student support.
Readings, including 'must read' documents and additional supporting documents.
An outline of an approach for building protective factors and mitigating risk factors in the specific school setting.
A justification and rationale for reframing behaviour support.
A justification and rationale for a precise and informed language of behaviour support.
Slide presentations outlining whole-school protective, preventative, responsive, skill-building and coherence-building behaviour support strategies.
Sample scripts for various conversations and communications.
Scaffolds for system student support plans: wellbeing, unsafe behaviour/risk-assessment and behaviour support.
A suggested school audit checklist for assessing gaps between the aspirational and actual in the school setting.

A word about behaviour support

The Living Well, Learning Well framework promotes academic, wellbeing and behaviour domains as interconnected and equally deserving of quality assessment, planning and intervention. Systems and schools have sometimes struggled to integrate these domains, typically displaying a more inclusive tone and language when discussing academic and wellbeing support than when discussing behaviour support.

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) requires systems and schools to develop, have in place and implement named policies, procedures and processes as a condition of registration and accreditation. Included under headings Safe and Supportive Environment - Student Welfare and Discipline are requirements to to have in place and implement policies and procedures related to Codes of Conduct, Rights and Responsibilities, Behaviour Management, Anti-bullying, Pastoral Care, and The Discipline of Students.

NESA representatives are clear that adhering to this traditional naming of elements is not a requirement for registration and accreditation and that systems and schools can develop rationale-supported policies and procedures that address the fundamental intent of the NESA term or domain, without using that term or domain name. For example, Living Well, Learning Well (and related policies) does not employ terms such as code of conduct, behaviour management and discipline: it does however satisfy NESA guidelines for addressing these elements.

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