Domestic Animal Services Volunteer Program

Domestic Animal Services "Dog Walking" Volunteer Program Evidence Set Annotation

Standards: 3.2, 3.3, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.5

Synopsis of Evidence Set

Artefacts 5 and 6 demonstrate the establishment of an ongoing relationship with Domestic Animal Services Canberra (DAS, also known as the pound) commencing in 2019 which has enabled multiple groups of Year 10 students to visit on a weekly basis and engage in exercising dogs, enrichment activities and social animal training. Maintaining student safety, managing student behaviours in the community and providing feedback and authentic assessment as part of this educational program were key focus areas.

Artefact 5A and 5B

Artefact 5 includes detailed emails over a two year period around risk management, planning and programming as well as the final version of a risk assessment that was developed through these emails with input from school staff, DAS staff and the ACT Health Directorate. The email evidence of risk assessment development and the final risk assessment demonstrates my ability to initiate and take responsibility for implementing current school and system, curriculum and legislative requirements to ensure student well being and safety (4.4). This includes evidence of consideration around student dress, weather, hazardous air quality and COVID 19. The risk assessment formal document meets the required legislative needs for application of a risk matrix within a school and also takes into account the added complications of a trauma framework and working with animals. The risk assessment also includes evidence of developing and sharing with colleagues a flexible repertoire of behaviour management strategies using expert knowledge and workplace experience (4.3) as it includes detailed consideration of how to manage student escalations pre-visit and on site, ensuring multiple plans were in place for a variety of scenarios/staffing needs and the need to consider bathroom access options for transgender students.

Artefact 5A demonstrates the development and application of a comprehensive range of assessment strategies to diagnose learning needs, comply with curriculum requirements and support colleagues to evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches to assessment (5.1). The late 2020 and 2021 emails demonstrate interactions with newly appointed education officer Brian at DAS and the sharing of the variety of assessment strategies I have used to assess this program and provide informative, timely - and most importantly authentic - feedback on student learning to both students and carers (5.5). The documented use of an engagement tracker, photographic evidence for student portfolios, student journals and explicit links to the Work Studies curriculum demonstrates my ability to select from an effective range of strategies to provide targeted feedback based on informed and timely judgements of each student’s current needs in order to progress learning (5.2). It also shows my willingness to work with colleagues within my own school and in other networks to evaluate and modify teaching programs to promote student engagement (3.2) .

Artefact 6

Artefact 6 was an additional lesson observation completed by the Head of Teaching and Learning (HOTL) to document and record the innovative approach to this program and to provide support for the demands on staffing this program presented. The lesson observation demonstrates my willingness to develop and share with colleagues a flexible repertoire of behaviour management strategies using expert knowledge and workplace experience (4.3) as I shared with both the HOTL and other staff present different ways to manage student and animal interactions. The lesson observation also identifies how I selected and applied effective teaching strategies to develop students knowledge, animal care skills, problem solving and their critical and creative thinking capacity (3.3). The demonstration of the WHS briefing and the ongoing safety checks noted throughout the observations also support my ability to initiate and take responsibility for implementing school and ACT government safety requirements while ensuring student well being and safety (4.4).

Impact

This volunteering program is now moving into its third year and has had a significant impact on students past and present as well as DAS educational programs. Engagement in this program has led to multiple students continuing as independent volunteers outside of school as well as the employment of an alumni student as a permanent kennel hand (Artefact 6A) which will be a life changing event for both him and his family. This program was used as a model lesson observation for the Head of Teaching and Learning to observe how the community interactions were integrated with individual student needs and apply this to other programs within the school (Artefact 6) and was also presented to a variety of teaching networks at the 2019 AISACT Celebrating Teaching and Learning Event 2019 (evidenced in Module 2 submission). The program structure, the links to curriculum, the engagement tracker and the student journals are also currently being used as an exemplar for other schools as DAS looks at expanding their educational program (Artefact 5A).