Student Services - Inclusion Team

​​​​​​​Our Inclusion Team meets weekly to discuss the individual needs of students referred to the team for support or students who have the potential to be referred.  The members of the team are:

• Deputy Principal (Belonging, Engagement and Wellbeing)
• Head of Department - Inclusion 
• Guidance Officer
  
• Inclusion Teachers P-6 (one per year level)
• English as an additional language and dialect teacher P-6
• Speech and Language Pathologist ​(SLP)
  

NB.  Meetings may also be attended by Advisory Visiting Teachers (AVT) – Hearing Impaired, Physical Impairment, Vision Impairment and Wellbeing Professional (WP).​

Students may be referred for any of the following reasons:

• Academic
• Social and/or emotional difficulties
• Disability
• Speech and language difficulties
• English as an additional language and dialect

The team makes recommendations based on the information and data presented by the referring staff member.  A letter outlining the recommendations by the Team is sent to the parent/carer by the Inclusion Teacher, as soon as possible after the referral has been processed. 

View Responding to a Student's Learning Needs: Parent/Carer Information  ​(PDF,524KB)

Classroom teachers generally refer students to the team; however, it is possible for parents/carers to bring their concerns to the team via the classroom teacher. At times, a referral may be requested by the School Leadership Team.  In addition to classroom differentiation which is used by teachers to cater for individual needs, a number of support programs can be accessed to address individual student's needs. These are listed as follows:

Whole School Curriculum Differentiation

Inclusion Teachers

These teachers work with classroom teachers and other members of the school and local community to improve student outcomes with a focus on literacy and numeracy.  A team approach ensures that all students have access to the curriculum regardless of their differences.  In consultation with classroom teachers and the Leadership Team, plan and manage year level and classroom intervention, based on current data.

In addition, the Inclusion Teachers assist classroom teachers to identify, plan learning programs for identified students and support learning in the classroom.  This may include:

• working in the classroom
• teaching individual and small/large groups of students.
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West End State School offers English support to students who speak another language, who may be newly arrived in Australia or born in Australia and have English language needs.  EAL/D teachers work within school teams to support EAL/D learners to develop the English language required to access and achieve across the school curriculum.  EAL/D teachers help classroom teachers to work with EAL/D learners in whole class contexts as well as providing intensive teaching to small groups or individual EAL/D students if required.

Our EAL/D (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) teacher and teacher-aide offers this support to students across all year levels.  

Guidance Officer

The Guidance Officer collaboratively negotiates, develops and implements programs for students that have a focus on preventative and early intervention strategies that are responsive to identified personal, social, emotional and educational needs. In addition, the Guidance Officer provides counselling, psycho-educational assessment and/or individual student support, recommendations and advice to students, teachers and parents/carers concerning educational, behavioural, mental health and family issues.

Wellbeing Professional (2 days a week)

The Wellbeing Professional is a qualified social worker who responds to the needs of the student population and school community in an advisory and advocacy capacity. This includes personal and family counselling, therapy and group work, facilitation of referrals to other allied health professionals, and service and care coordination for the purpose of assisting students' wellbeing and mental health.

Speech and Language Pathologist (2 days a week)

Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) are professionals with specialist knowledge in speech,​ language and communication who work to improve literacy, academic and life outcomes of all students. SLPs work collaboratively with the school team to deliver evidence informed speech pathology practices within a multi-tiered system of support.

Advisory Visiting Teachers (Visiting)

Advisory visiting teachers (AVTs) support students across a number of schools.  AVTs mainly specialise in one or more of the six Education Adjustment Program (EAP) disability categories:

• autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• hearing impairment (HI)
• intellectual disability (ID)
• physical impairment (PI)
• speech-language impairment (SLI)
• vision impairment (VI)
  

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