Urgent Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

Location Bulleen Heights School [Multiple Location Campus]

Effective teaching at Bulleen Heights is the provision of a safe learning environment within which consistency is valued and motivated staff engage, instruct and assess students along a continuum of learning to achieve individual goals.

The Bulleen Heights School community is diverse. It includes all those individuals and groups who work in direct and indirect ways, both at our school and in the wider community, to achieve goals and targets outlined in the schools Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026 and our vision and mission statements. The school promotes and upholds the values of: integrity, high professional standards, care and support, and consistency.

Bulleen Heights School is a Department of Education (DET) specialist school for students with autism spectrum disorder. Our school currently provides exemplary educational programs for approximately 280 students ranging in age from five to eighteen years. Classes vary in size with staffing reflecting student needs. The school has two campuses: Primary School and Secondary School. Students are in classes based upon a combination of age, developmental level and maturity. Inclusion learning programs are a feature of students¿ programs and involve local primary and secondary schools. DET contracted buses and taxis transport most of our students to and from the school.

Bulleen Heights School is situated across two closely located campuses at Bulleen and Lower Templestowe in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and approximately 14kms from the city center. Both campuses are in residential areas close to public transport and local community facilities such as the Macedon Square and Bulleen Plaza shopping centers and the Bulleen Library.

The school provides excellent teaching programs and learning experiences designed to develop and extend the particular skills and strengths of each student. This is achieved by encouraging decision-making and risk-taking within a structured, predictable and secure environment. Bulleen Heights is committed to providing core teaching and learning programs and supporting students and their families. It looks at both immediate and long-term goals in the belief that all students can learn, achieve success and enjoy adult life as contributing members of a community.

Curriculum development and implementation across the school is based on the Victorian Curriculum, providing a framework for planning the whole school curriculum by setting out standards for students to achieve in core areas. This curriculum assists the development of individual learning plans, and assessment and reporting on student achievement and progress. Program delivery, using Applied Behavior Analysis teaching techniques, continues to be an option predominantly for students in our Primary School. Applied Behavior Analysis teaching methodologies are implemented by a team of therapists in this specialist area, in partnership with classroom teachers. As an accredited senior secondary school students in Year 11 and 12 may be enrolled in the VPC program offered by the school.

Specialist programs in Health and Physical Education, STEAM and Visual Arts provide an integrated approach to personalized learning. Our Multidisciplinary Team supports classroom staff in the achievement of exemplary learning outcomes of our students. A psychologist, social worker, occupational therapists, speech therapists, support our extensive educational programs. This team of professionals compliments our educational programs. The school is closely linked with tertiary and post-graduate students working with the school community to conduct research and complete practicum placements.

Partnerships between parents, siblings, past students, local schools, consultants, universities, government and non-government agencies and the local community provide vital contributions to programs. The varied characteristics of our student population demand the implementation of a range of evidence based teaching methodologies. Individual Learning Plans are developed through Student Support Group meetings involving parents/carers, teachers and other appropriate professionals and/or agencies. Teaching and learning takes place within many contexts including the community and is structured to be functional and meaningful. Social, academic, independent living, recreational, behavioral and vocational goals are developed for each student.

- SC1 ‘Content of teaching and learning’. Demonstrated ability to inform and influence the work of others involved in the engagement, mental health, wellbeing or learning of children and young people.

- SC2 ‘Teaching practice’. Demonstrated ability to input into the development, implementation and evaluation of processes and strategies relating to mental health, wellbeing or learning.

- SC3 ‘Assessment and reporting of student learning’. Demonstrated ability to support a student's mental health, wellbeing or learning by developing and maintaining connection with external services.

- SC4 ‘Interaction with the school community’. Demonstrated high level interpersonal skills and communication skills. Demonstrated high level of capability to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with students, parents, other employees and the broader school community to focus on student learning, wellbeing and engagement.

- SC5 ‘Professional requirements’. Demonstrated ability to influence and negotiate by gaining buy-in and ownership for ideas, gaining agreement to proposals, or involving experts or other third parties to strengthen a case.

Role

The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System highlighted that primary schools provide opportunities to identify children with mental health and wellbeing challenges, who can then be referred to treatment, care and support.

The Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative is being expanded to every government and low-fee non-government primary school in Victoria. Scaling up across the state from 2023, by 2026 every primary school will be able to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

The Department of Education has been piloting the Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative in Victorian schools since 2020 in partnership with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot initiative has shown that 95 per cent of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders consider the Mental Health in Primary Schools model has improved their school's capacity to support students' mental health and wellbeing needs.

Participating schools receive funding to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, a qualified teacher, to work across the school to implement a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing for students, staff and families based on a broad knowledge of the needs of the school community.

The role of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader is to:

- build capability of the whole school with regard to mental health and wellbeing (identification, promotion and prevention),

- provide support to staff to better identify and support students with mental health needs,

- establish clear pathways for referral for students requiring assessment and intervention, and monitor and evaluate student progress.

The role provides a proactive focus for the promotion and prevention of mental health and wellbeing through assessment and implementation of context-relevant programs, approaches and initiatives based on a broad and extensive knowledge of the needs of the school.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader role is not a clinical role and is not designed for direct intervention. The role is seen as a key conduit in creating referral pathways once a teacher or other staff member identifies a concern in the classroom.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders are provided training in mental health literacy, supporting emerging needs, and building school capacity and receive ongoing support and professional development through structured and regular Learning Communities Training is developed and facilitated by the Faculty of Education at University of Melbourne, supported by Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Responsibilities

Operating in collaboration with their school, leadership and wellbeing team where relevant, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader will:

- Promote a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing to students, staff and families

- Support teachers and school staff to expand their capacity to embed evidence-based mental health strategies, interventions and programs and build mental health literacy to identify and support primary school students with mental health concerns.

- Collaborate with school staff to inform, influence and provide input into teaching and learning relating to mental health and wellbeing. Provide support to schools staff and classroom teachers to build their capabilities to embed mental health into the classroom.

- Work with school leadership and wellbeing teams to embed whole school approaches to mental health into school planning and strategic processes. Coordinate clear referral pathways internally (within school) and externally (to community services) for students identified as requiring further assessment and intervention.

- Proactively work with and support regional staff, school wellbeing and leadership teams, teachers, parents/carers and other external agencies to coordinate targeted mental health support for primary school students.

- Contribute to the school's existing wellbeing team.

Who May Apply

Applicants should be currently registered or eligible for registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and qualified to teach.

A qualification in student wellbeing or mental health is desirable but not required.

Diversity and Inclusion

The department is committed to diversity and inclusion and developing a workforce that is representative of the community we service. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms - culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQA+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the Department.The Department recognises that the provision of safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work and diversity across all schools and Department workplaces.It is our policy to provide reasonable adjustments for staff with disability (see Workplace adjustment guidelines ).

Additional support and advice on the recruitment process is available to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander candidates from the Koorie Outcomes Division (KOD) via marrung@education.vic.gov.au

Applicants seeking part-time employment are encouraged to apply for any teaching service position and, if they are the successful candidate, request a reduced time fraction. Such requests will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to the operational requirements of the school.

Child Safe Standards

Victorian government schools are child safe environments. Our schools actively promote the safety and wellbeing of all students, and all school staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. All schools have a Child Safety Code of Conduct consistent with the department's exemplar available at:

The department's employees commit to upholding the department's Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. The department's Values complement each school's own values and underpin the behaviours the community expects of Victorian public sector employees,including those who work in Victorian Government Schools. Information on the department values is available at:

- All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements.

- Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.

- A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.

- Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx

Qualification Requirements

To be eligible for employment, transfer or promotion in the principal or teacher class:

- The person must have provisional or full registration approved by the Victorian Institute of Teaching; and

- if the person completed an Australian postgraduate level initial teaching program or course of study on or after 1 January 2024, they must demonstrate that they have satisfactorily completed a postgraduate level accredited initial teacher education program that has been accredited by an Australian State or Territory Teacher Regulatory Authority as satisfying the requirements of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership ’Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures’; and

- a person who graduated from a Victorian Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program after 1 July 2016 must also demonstrate that they have passed the literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education (LANTITE) requirements (this condition is satisfied where the LANTITE requirement is part of the Victorian ITE program completed by the person).

#J-18808-Ljbffr