Tasmanian Curriculum : Home-school partnerships

Case Study 1

This school had not catered for a student on the Register of Students with Severe Disabilities before 2006. The student’s enrolment at the school provided an opportunity to trial and implement practices for developing an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and establishing collaborative structures that support inclusion.

Successful transition to high school and inclusion is heavily reliant on the establishment and fostering of a positive working relationship between the family and the school. The home-school relationship is highly valued by both parties. There is a real sense of a partnership between the family and the school and a sense that everyone is working towards a common goal of ensuring the student is safe, happy and learning at school.

Principal’s reflection

‘It’s important to develop a working partnership with families … the key benefit, of course, is to the student because it ensures that we are really maximising their opportunity to achieve to the very best that they can and you know socially and emotionally on that level it is very important.’

Strategies that the school implemented that are valued by the family are:

the scheduling of regular opportunities for the family to meet with staff at the beginning of the year
designating a staff member as key contact person within the school
creating opportunities for the parents to share their understandings about their daughter and Down syndrome with staff and students
welcoming the family in a ‘parent-help’ role on excursions.

Recognising and valuing the ‘expert’ role of families has been critical to the success of this home-school partnership.

Assistant Principal’s reflection

‘… it was really important for us to work closely with the student’s family particularly from the perspective that they know their child best and they also have got an enormous understanding of Down syndrome, which we don’t have. So we needed to capitalise on that knowledge and that experience and we needed to work with that to get the best outcomes for the student at the school.’

Another aspect of communication has been the recognition of the importance of the role of the school in showing the family how high schools work, and building awareness and understanding of issues related to teaching and supporting students who are adolescents and young adults.

Assistant Principal’s reflection

‘Building relationships with families is absolutely crucial … it’s a two way street; they are learning from us and we are learning from them…'