Engagement Officer

**About the School**:
Western Suburbs State Special School supports students with disabilities from prep through to year 12. Our school is the largest Special School in the Metropolitan Region and because of our size is able to offer our students wonderful programs tailored to meet their needs. At Western Suburbs Special School, we aim to provide a happy, safe, supportive and effective learning environment that creates a feeling of trust and security for students and leads to the development of their potential. Our school seeks to provide an educational environment which will support students in gaining the necessary skills and confidence to engage happily in the community. The school believes all students have the potential to learn and should be provided appropriate and engaging learning experiences which will support appropriate positive post school pathways for its diverse student cohort.
**About the Role**:As the Engagement Officer, you will**:

- Support a learning environment by monitoring student attendance, producing absence reports for senior leaders, and liaising with parents/carers to verify student absences.
- Contribute to the effective and efficient operations of the school by providing a high level of administrative support to the Principal and Business Services Manager.

The Engagement Officer reports to the Business Services Manager, Principal or nominated delegate.
**Responsibilities include**:

- Generate daily reports on absenteeism, advise parents/carers and teachers, and document relevant information for input into the school engagement process.
- Generate a 'Daily Attendance Report' every morning and provide to all teaching staff and deputy principals, and advise teachers of amendments to attendance records due to late notification.
- Collect and coordinate data relating to student engagement, follow up students who are chronically absent, monitor student programs, and provide information to teachers and school leaders. Liaise with the Student Support Officer, Head of Special Education Program, and Guidance Officer, to address issues relating to students experiencing problems that prevent their engagement at school.
- Maintain a database listing students that are independent students, students residing with carers (guardian kinship care/child safety officers), students where there are legal orders against the parents/guardians, or other issues that may impact on student attendance and engagement.
- Develop relationships between the school and families of students who show persistent absence from school to encourage students' continuous attendance at school, assist teachers addressing these barriers to school attendance, and contribute to the development and implementation of strategies and procedures to counter causes of school non-attendance.

Please view the Role Description for a full list of responsibilities.
Please refer to the attached role description for any mandatory requirements for this position.
**Interested? To Apply**:

- Attach a brief resume including contact details for 2 referees (referees should have an understanding of your relevant work history).
- Attach a 2-page written statement in response to the attached role description.

We welcome all applicants to share any support needed to ensure our recruitment process is inclusive.
Applications remain current for 12 months from the closing date and may be considered for appointment to identical or similar vacancies within the Department.
Applications from recruitment agencies will not be accepted.
When working in regulated employment an employee must have a current Working with Children Clearance (blue card) issued by Blue Card Services.
Salary rate shown is reflective of full-time (1.0 FTE).
The Department of Education is a family inclusive workplace. Click here to find out more about our Inclusion and Diversity strategies.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.