CALDERA SCHOOL
Wellbeing
Overview
Caldera School provides specialised programs for students with challenging behaviour. It is an alternative educational setting with two sites. Each site is established to meet the needs of a group of students unable to succeed in a regular school setting.
In constructing this document, Caldera staff have drawn from advice and polices on the NSW Department of Education and Communities Wellbeing website.
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/wellbeing
This website includes our department's framework for wellbeing.
Policies and resources regarding the following topics can be found here: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/wellbeing/connect/antibullying
Bullying
Student discipline
Suspension and Expulsion of School Students
Peer mediation resources
Legal issue bulletins
Digital Citizenship resources and
Bullying advice for parents
Vision Statement
Caldera SSP:
Provides the opportunity for students to develop and improve their cognitive and problem solving capabilities.
- Values the individual differences of all students.
- Encourages the involvement of families and our community agencies and supporters.
- Implements policies and procedures to protect the rights and wellbeing of all school community members.
At Caldera we know that students develop best where teaching and learning occur within a context of student wellbeing. Student wellbeing at Caldera is the sum of all academic, cognitive and social practices, policies and programs that occur within the school. Given the nature of the students it is paramount that staff, students and the community actively work to establish a safe, structured and supportive environment.
Our school is committed to the values of public education.
Caldera staff operate with in a philosophical framework that informs the way we understand and work with complex and challenging students. This philosophical framework is grounded in suggestions for evidence based practice from a number of sources. Major influences include:
1. Ross Greene- http://www.livesinthebalance.org/
2. June Simpson and her paper- Understanding the meaning of disturbed behaviour in children and adolescents
3. "How Do We Get There from Here?" Nine Stages on the Reclaiming Journey – Bridget Walker, Lisa Hoyt and Nicholas Long https://reclaimingjournal.com/sites/default/files/journal-article-pdfs/15_1_Walker_Hoyt_Long.pdf
Correspondingly, this philosophical framework allows Caldera staff to:
1. View challenging behaviours as a students' best attempt to meet the demands of the environment at a given point in time, considering the skills available to them at that time. Our practices are informed by the understanding that if a student found it easy to do well, look good to others and behave appropriately then they probably would.
2. Have understanding of the possible meanings of students behaviours and knowledge of how to respond in ways that address these behaviours within our philosophical framework.
3. Realise that education or re-education at our school is likely to see students' progress through some identifiable stages. Recognition of progress through these stages helps staff and students realise that although behaviours may be resurfacing, it's possible that this may be part of the learning and development processes.
Context
Caldera is a School for Specific Purposes, located at Tweed Heads South. The school is an alternative Department of Education and Communities facility that has been created to meet the needs of students whose challenging behaviour has prevented them from being maintained in a regular school setting. The school aims to support a student's transition through school into the wider community
In 2008 Caldera School commenced providing teaching support to the Lismore Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit (LCAMHU). LCAMHU is an acute mental health inpatient facility within the Richmond Mental Health Campus, co-located with the Lismore Base Hospital. The Unit provides diagnostic assessments and therapeutic programs for children and adolescents (12–17yrs) with severe and/or complex mental health needs.
Caldera programs operate within an educational model where quality academic and management programs exist in unison. All students havePersonalised Learning and Support, which is designed to meet their academic, cognitive, transition and social goals. The fragile nature of the students at Caldera requires staff to develop programs designed to promote achievements and success, whilst accounting for students' past experiences and capabilities. This must all occur within our Wellbeing Framework.
Challenging Department of Education & Communities programs such as Human Sexuality, Anti-Discrimination, Homophobia, Anti-Racism and Anti-Bullying are incorporated into the students individual program. These individual programs will require the curriculum to be delivered through a number of school personnel such as the School Counselor, Principal, other Executive staff as well as the Class teacher. Difficult subject matter, which may possibly trigger students past traumatic events, needs to be cautiously worked through by the teacher with their supervisor and/or the school counselor.
The students at Caldera
Every student enrolled at Caldera will present with challenging behaviours, thinking skills deficits and poor problem solving capabilities. These students are likely to have suffered emotional stress and damage, e.g. through emotional, physical or sexual abuse; through not having their emotional needs met or understood; through conflict over parental separation or loss; through dysfunctional family dynamics; through inability to meet unrealistic parental expectations, etc. Many believe themselves to be bad, or feel guilty about abuse they themselves have suffered. For most of these students, their placement in the school is the last opportunity within the educational system to alter the path along which they are heading and to improve their thinking skills and problem solving capabilities
For a number of reasons, the behaviour of these students is often violent, offensive, provocative, manipulative, distressing or inexplicable. They have difficulty managing and expressing their feelings, so that, for example, they may try to get somebody else (often the teacher) to act out their anger for them; they may express anxiety through aggression; acting out behaviours which may be a defense against depression; they may behave in such a way to elicit punishment, in order to confirm their sense of their own "badness".
Staff at Caldera
The students at Caldera may be the most stressful group a teacher could be required to work with. They are often highly vulnerable, present with difficult behaviours, and have the capacity to elicit strong emotional responses (positive and negative) from the adults working with them.
Staff at Caldera will be responsible for far more than the academic progress of students. There is a behaviour management system operating in the school which staff are required to understand and implement with all students. This demands an ability to operate with consistency and flexibility, within Caldera's philosophical framework and with understanding of the individual child- a concept which is often difficult to grasp.
Staff are required to attend a debriefing session at the end of each day, where it is expected they will contribute to the discussion in order to provide support for other teachers, and will also be able to talk about what they have done, and the feelings particular students aroused in them, and be able to acknowledge their mistakes and seek advice re management etc. Debriefing sessions provide support for Caldera staff, but require a healthy honesty on the part of the teacher. This helps ensure staff are able to provide quality education to students whilst working within our wellbeing framework.
Teacher must function as part of a multi-disciplinary team both at the South Tweed Heads campus and with Health staff and external agencies at Caldera's Learning Center in Lismore Base Hospital's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit. Good communication, openness, mutual respect and support among staff is essential in such a school, because of the tendency of many students to seek to manipulate and split staff, and because of the emotions that can be aroused in adults dealing with the pathology in the students. It is not uncommon for divisions to occur among the staff of SSPs, which then become dysfunctional. A commitment to a common philosophy and a willingness to work as a member of a team are essential. The teacher who likes to work independently and be creatively different, while no doubt valued in many settings, may be unsuited to work in an environment such as Caldera. A shared philosophical approach aids wellbeing by allowing students to feel safer earlier, due to the predictable nature of interactions with staff.
Staff at Caldera must have a clear understanding of their motivation in choosing to work with these types of students. The staff member, who has a good understanding of themselves and their personal history, will be effective in our school. Our wellbeing framework, philosophical underpinnings and behavior management system all require organised planful thinking and management as opposed to emotionally reactive management.
Staff at Caldera, particularly teachers, need to have clearly defined roles within the school, which reflect a teaching perspective, whilst acknowledging the roles and responsibilities of the counseling and ancillary staff.
CALDERA SCHOOL
SCHOOL AND CLASSROOM RULES
- Based upon the Department of Education Behavior Code for Students 2015.
Our Rules Are
1. BE SAFE
· MAKE OUR SCHOOL FREE OF VIOLENCE, BULLYING & HARASSMENT
· RESPECT OTHERS AND RESOLVE PROBLEMS APPROPRIATELY
2. BE FAIR
· ALLOW STUDENTS TO DO THEIR WORK
· ALLOW STAFF TO DO THEIR JOB
· ATTEND SCHOOL REGULARLY AND FOLLOW YOUR INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM
CALDERA SSP BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
- Each student at Caldera will have an Individual Behaviour Management and Self Control Plan that will encompass all aspects including individual behaviour goals and strategies. The school Behaviour Management system supports these individual programs.
- The school Behaviour Management system will be applied with the key principle of Consistency and Flexibility so individual student needs are adequately addressed.