12 Years of meaningful education for all.

There has been a massive expansion of provision that aims to support young people disengaging and detached from mainstream schooling.  In South Australia of the Flexible Learning Options program within the Government school sector that catered for some 4,000 students a year with barriers to schooling has now been redesigned and called Tailored Learning Provision. Parallel to this has been the exponential growth of Specialised Assistance Schools in the Independent and Catholic Sectors catering for students with “emotional, behavioural, or learning barriers to schooling.  Over the last decade Andrew and I have been in the right place at the right time seeing both the expansion the FLO program through to its “redesign” and the expansion of Specialised Assistance Schools in South Australia.  We have a had direct involvement with six new SAS schools in South Australia, four from the inception of the schools and two as the underwent renewal.

In our initial work with one of the SAS, we coined the term “pedagogy of caring” to encapsulate the way the school designed, its learning environment, its day to day practices its pedagogical relationships to ensure that the students that attended felt safe and could engage with the school.  In working across the SAS school sites and through our involvement with alternative models the schools do present as more responsive to the needs of students who attend”

These new SAS are all very different in character and educational approaches. They are all fiercely independent and seek to define their way of doing things as a proprietary formula – “The (name of school) way.”  Within this it is important to note that they are all grappling with the issues of curriculum and pedagogy and how the emphasis on care can be expanded to enable young people to receive an “education in a style that suits them, with the personal support they might need and the prospect of being equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary for them to exercise genuine options in their adult lives.

Despite their differences there are some commonalities of inputs.  Alternative sites in South Australia are often:

Small : SAS in South Australia are small with low teacher to adult ratios. The mix of adults is wide meaning that youth workers, social workers, life coaches and teaching staff work together to offer a wraparound service. Schools into multiple sites keeps individual site enrolment small. 

Relational: Young people enrolled have valued relations with a range of staff. Young people valued being listened to and feel they can be heard and have their identities confirmed. Young people have also developed, in the main, positive relations with other young people enrolled, this can take time.

Wellbeing and Learning are Integrated; All schools understand that the students need ongoing support for health and wellbeing and that life outside of the SAS can be complicated.  All schools try to balance wellbeing with the learning program. 

Committed Staff There is a mix of staff that work together to support students. Staff that remain in SAS are committed to the students and innovation and developing positive relations with young people and committed to holistic learning.  They are reflective practitioners and work closely to support each other and the school community.

Success oriented: There is an emphasis on celebration and recognising and rewarding progress. All the SAS can highlight cohorts and individuals that have “succeeded” because of their engagement at the site.

But alongside this are gaps and questions that hinder our understanding of alternative sites and need to be addressed at a policy level rather than just a school or site level. If we are to take up Eric Sidoti’s challenge – that even the hardest to reach student can find an education in a style that suits them, with the personal support they might need and the prospect of being equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary for them to exercise genuine options in their adult lives. We need governments and the community to commit an entitlement to 12 years of meaningful education for all students

Central to the success of the expansion of alternative provision is ensuring that all students receive the support they need to access and engage in curriculum.   Any form of alternative provision must be an integral part of the educational offering for all students, and the right education and support is offered for the right student. 

Moving forward we need system of education that supports students being fully engaged in an education that suits them and leads to meaningful accredited learning that enables them to negotiate the next transition in their lives and that the program is held to high standards of transparency and accountability. At the moment we don’t have a solid picture of the programs or outcomes for young people we have asked to move aside form mainstream provision that would be just a start