Student Support Services (SSS) Committee

The Student Support Services Committee has now been formally established. Our committee works together across services to support students with significant needs. Below is a graphic to help illustrate the different levels of supports for students.

Students are referred to the Committee when their support needs require assistance outside of the general classroom environment. Sometimes students may need different levels of support at different times so what this triangle shows is that we start with Quality Instruction and the further support around this is added to help the student, based on their level of need.

The Student Support Services Committee members are:

• Head of Inclusion (Chair)
• Guidance Officer (Secretary)
• Deputy Principals
• House Coordinators
• Speech and Language Pathologist
• Defence Mentor
• Queensland Youth and Families Support Service

Our aim as a Committee is to provide support to students that meets their individual needs. We work collaboratively from our different roles to share strategies and case manage students with significant needs. From this, we are able to offer support that works across our school and external services to ensure we share a common goal of support. We also review practices and strategies in place to make sure that what is planned is working in the best interest of the student, that it is tailored to their individual needs, and incorporates the student's voice in the planning of their support.

Support for students is documented through Personalised Learning Plans and/or Support Provisions. Teachers and the Committee work together in collecting data on students so everyone is on the same page in what support is needed and how the student is going. If our strategies stop working, the Committee discuss and plan alternative strategies. For example, students grow out of their uniforms and we have to replace them and the same applies for their Support Plans. This means that we are constantly reviewing our data to make sure what we plan with the students is still what fits for them.

In addition to individual support, we also support the whole school with student engagement and wellbeing. Recent examples of this has been the Wellbeing lessons each week for students and our transition programs.

As Students move back to school, it is important to keep to a routine at home. Your child will have all the tips and suggestions presented through the Wellbeing lessons that they can use if and when they need to. A great way to ease their transition back to school is to continue practicing mindfulness.

This helps students recognise how they are feeling and what is making them feel a certain way. If they can recognise this, they can use the suggested strategies to help them feel better and always have a chat with our staff in Student Services.

We are very much looking forward to having everyone back!