Introducing the Community
Specialist Senior Secondary School, Thebarton, South Australia
Thebarton Senior College (TSC) is a specialist senior secondary school, offering SACE Stage 1 and 2 and VET curriculum for students over 16 years of age, many who present with diverse and sometimes challenging life circumstances. TSC also offers a specialist New Arrivals Program for students newly arrived in Australia, including young people from humanitarian and refugee backgrounds.
LBI Foundation has supported the school community since 2019, as guided by the Resilient IMPACT capacity building strategy. The intent (or outcomes) and actions of this work is summarised below.
Intent ('What')
Build a Wellbeing and Trauma Responsive Thebarton Senior College Educational Community
As Made Practical Through the Following Co-Designed Outcomes
System
To embed a cohesive, intentional, integrated and common approach to:
- Implement a safe, growth-focused and wellbeing-responsive learning environment.
- Deliver personalised student wellbeing and support services, and to meet all students at their individual starting point (needs and context).
- Embed a trauma-responsive and inclusive support culture.
Educators
To embed the awareness, skills and mindsets to:
- Intentionally respond (rather than react) to individual student needs (e.g., trauma, growth, learning, developmental) in a relationship focused and personalised manner.
- Grow student capacity through intentionally delivered social-emotional learning, side-by-side coaching, shared Growth Action Planning processes and through both implicit and explicit learning approaches.
- Empower educators to work together in shared intent.
Students
To provide students high quality resources and content that is focused on:
- Foundational wellbeing and resilience skills.
- Social-emotional learning competencies and curriculum.
- Meta-cognitive and problem solving.
- How to work side-by-side with others in shared intent.
Actions ('How')
Positioning
The support has been personalised to the school and local community. The co-designed wellbeing framework has been aligned to school’s values, and the work has built upon the school’s long history with positive education, internal mentor program and trauma-informed practice work.
Summary Actions
- Entire capacity building initiative founded upon the science, research and practice of intentional practice, as made practical for educational and school settings.
- Implementation underpinned by the Resilient IMPACT capacity building strategy.
- LBI Foundation Community Lead: David Kelly.
- 2019 – LBI supported the staff team to co-design a locally owned wellbeing framework, as made practical through an intentional practice logic model.
- 2020 – The focus has been on making this framework practical and established through the IMPACT Program. All Thebarton staff have been IMPACT Trained, and 15 leaders are at the IMPACT Coach (or Community Champion level).
- 2021 – LBI have supported IMPACT Coaches and Counsellors to work side-by-side with their colleagues to embed IMPACT tools and strategies into mentoring, teaching practices and the culture of the school.
- 2022 – There has been a deeper focus to embedding trauma-informed practice into the school community.
Commentary and Further Information
Local Quote
Our Implementation
Through our work with LBI during 2021 our Advanced IMPACT coaches have begun to lead initiatives to better support wellbeing for learning. The What-What-How® process has become embedded in mentoring and many school processes including course counselling and growth action planning with students.
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What Does a Shared Intent Mean to Us?
With input from teachers and students in the New Arrivals Program at Thebarton Senior College, we are using the IMPACT tools to explore three core themes that impact on our students so that we can support students with complex needs to become more active and independent learners. This shared intent across all our staff has been important to our success.
