In 2020 we were selected amongst 197 proposals by the NSW Department of Education to carry out 1 of the 7 chosen innovation programs in NSW. So we launched the Student Voice program in NSW schools.

The Student Voice Program captured the voice of children and young people so that they can make meaningful contributions to their Individual Education Plan (IEP) / Personalised Learning and Support Plan (PLaSP). The program invited parents, carers and teachers to share, collaborate and learn together in order to create better outcomes for children.

The program advances children’s goals by teaching parents and teachers strategies that can be used when coaching each child to set personal goals. From here, a plan to achieve the goals is created. Parents and teachers apply their learning and support the child to communicate their interests through Pictability. These interests are then incorporated into their Individual Education Plan.

This program builds on Plumtree’s award-winning, evidence-based Now and Next program, for parents of young children with disabilities and developmental delays. Research reported that Now and Next increases goal achievement, engagement, empowerment and wellbeing for participants. This program adapts prior successes to the school setting with teachers; incorporates student voice in the Individual Education Plan; and measures impact on the student, parents, and teachers.

Dace Elletson, Principal, Punchbowl Public School, described this project here.

This is how these teachers embedded the use of the evidence-based Pictability tool to help parents plan. The Pictability session lasts for ~45 mins. It is an enjoyable experience for parents who engage their creativity.

The session allowed teachers to:

1. Work from a strength-based perspective, for instance help parents identify unique strengths in their child

2. Coach parents to create their positive future vision, prioritise goals and take the first steps to help their child find his or her voice

3. Lay the foundations for a strong partnership with families. Teachers commented that they can periodically review goals with parents to overcome potential obstacles in achieving goals or move to the next goals when initial ones are achieved.

4. Such powerful collaboration with families accelerated progress on goals... since parents formulated these goals together with the teachers and therefore were committed to help achieve them! Teachers reported that parents shared via school apps the progress on goals that they achieved at home!

1. Share these video clips with parents to raise their awareness about their child's strengths

Watch the clips below to guide you identify your child's strengths and help your child grow their strengths... then talk about these strengths with your child's teacher!

Coach parents to create their inspiring future for their child with Pictability , an evidence-based tool.

Including a child's strengths in planning for their preschool and school years will help bring out the best in the child and get optimal results. A great tool to plan goals is Pictability, a game-like, award winning, internationally recognised way to help you reconnect with what is important to your child and family. Join over 1,000 families who have used Pictability to create an achievable map for a great life. To see how we plan differently watch the clip below or visit www.pictability.org. See how other parents have worked with these ideas: https://sites.google.com/view/studentvoice2020/pictability

Judy shared an example of how she coached a mother to start working on her goals during the summer and teaching the mother to use Class Dojo to keep in touch. This empowered Mum to start building her agency even before the school year starts! Then as the year started, Judy has some strength-based starting points to unpack Mum's goals for her children and to coach Mum to work collaboratively on these goals!