Behaviour management
Behaviour can be defined as the way how people act. Behaviour can also be defined as goal oriented activities we undertake to serve a purpose.
At Kotara School it is our aim to assist students with behavioural difficulties to better understand the function of their behaviour and to accept responsibility for their actions. Students have the opportunity to work in a smaller, more intensive environment at Kotara School while still maintaining strong home school ties.
Our programs focus on social and behavioural goals whilst maintaining the integrity of academic achievement to assist students in making a successful transition back into their mainstream home school settings.
Through the transition process, Kotara School works with home schools to devise and implement plans and strategies that will assist students on their return. We offer home schools the opportunity for our staff to come out and provide professional learning on what best suits the needs of each individual student. We sit down with schools to devise classroom strategies, risk, crisis and behaviour management plans along with in class support on days of transition.
It is essential that communication between both settings is open and constant. This assists staff to maintain consistency through the transition process which ultimately benefits the student.
Below is an example format of a behaviour management plan we use at Kotara School.
Please download our:
- 10 keys for behaviour management communication (PDF 250KB).
- management strategies for students (PDF 203KB).
Access Requests
What is an Access Request (AR)?
An access request is a document that is completed by a school, in consultation with parents and health care professionals, in order to apply for support for a student with additional learning support needs. This support usually comes in one of three main forms:
1. Integration Funding Support – this is additional funding provided by the Department of Education to the student’s current school to better equip the school to support the learning needs of the student in their current class. The school may choose to spend this funding providing additional training for their teachers or employing a School Learning Support Officer, among other options.
2. Support Class Placement – the student is placed in a support class in a mainstream school.
3. School for Specific Purposes (SSP) Placement – the student is placed in a school that specifically caters to their learning support needs (Kotara School is an SSP).
All students placed at Kotara School would have had an Access Request completed by their base school. As Kotara School is an intensive and specialised educational environment, it is unusual that we would complete an Access Request for students to go to a different educational environment (unless the student is moving to a new area). However, Kotara School work collaboratively with our base schools in order to complete Access Requests for our Year 6 students in order to access the most appropriate supports for their transition to high school, and our parents are an integral part of this process.
NOTE – students who graduate Kotara School before the end of Year 6 and return to their base school do NOT require an Access Request to do so.
The Access Request Procedure
1. The school will contact the parent to discuss options for the support of the student’s learning support needs. If the course of action that is agreed on by the school and parent requires an Access Request, the school will start to complete this document.
2. As part of the AR, the student will need a Disability Confirmation Sheet (DCS or “discon”). This is usually done in consultation with the School Psychologist (although they may request copies of additional medical reports from parents in some cases).
3. When the Access Request is completed, the parent is asked to sign a hard copy of the document which is kept in the student’s file at the school. The document in submitted online to the Placement Panel, which meets in Week 2 and Week 7 of each term to fill any vacancies in support classes and SSP’s. Access Requests specifically requesting Integration Funding Support are assessed on an ongoing basis by NSW State Office.
4. When a decision is made regarding the placement of a student, Placement Panel will inform the school (by email) and parent (by phone). Parents will also receive an Acceptance of Offer form in the mail which needs to be completed and returned to the Department of Education district office.
5. If the parent decides to accept the offer of placement, the school will contact the parent to discuss transition options.