Are student learning needs flying under the radar?

A principal asked me a question not too long ago. It went something like this... “What are we going to do about the tidal wave of students with disability coming into our schools?” 

I pondered this question and decided that it wasn’t so much a tidal wave, as it was an unknown quantity of current students ‘flying under the radar’.  

So what did we need to do? Upgrade the radar of course!  

We need to keep learning about disabilities, so that we can best support our students. We need to keep learning about our students and seek their input of what school is like in their shoes. We need to have a bank of tools, resources and adjustments so that we are ready to respond when needs arise. 

What would ‘upgrading the radar’ look like in your setting? 

Each year, the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) publish the most recent NCCD data, highlighting the key facts and figures for enrolled students with disability in Australia.  

In 2019, just five years ago, 19.9% of students enrolled in a school in Australia were receiving adjustments in their learning. In plain talk, this means that for every 100 students, 20 were receiving some kind of adjustments to support their learning.  

Fast forward five years and we can see the most recent data, the 2023 data. The percentage of students enrolled in a school in Australia who were receiving adjustments in their learning increased to 24.2%. Again, that’s 24 students out of 100 hundred.  

So, with a rise of over 5% in the last five years, what can we do? 

We can ‘upgrade our radar’ so that no student falls below or goes unnoticed. We ‘upgrade our radar’ to ensure our current students are being seen, supported and empowered to succeed. 

We can strive to learn, improve and embed great strategies into our daily practice, so that we are equipped to meet the needs of the young people we work with every day.  

Here at Australian Teacher Aide, we are dedicated to empowering educators to help students succeed. We are dedicated to empowering YOU to help students succeed. We know that you support students daily and know the names of the students who are behind the statistics. 

In a recent ATA community webinar, Dr Jo Winther, a Clinical Psychologist, helped us to understand how we can support students with Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), highlighting a range of excellent strategies to use when working alongside students with ODD. 

Most recently, Sarah Lovett, Founder of ‘Our PDA Kids’, shared her knowledge in Part 1, of a 2-part series, on ‘Understanding Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)’. Sarah explained, as a PDA’er herself, that we need to be aware that students have a slow-burn of demands that push them to a tipping point. As educators, it is our role to help support these students to recognise the build-up of demands, offer choices, and ultimately build their emotional capacity.  

So, right now, reflect on the ‘radar’ at your school and think about how you may contribute to its’ upgrade! Will it be through professional learning to improve an area of your role? Will it be a discussion with your leader to share an idea? Will it be something much larger, such as contributing to the review of the ‘radar’ and procedures in place at your school?  

Whatever it is, in whatever capacity you can, take one positive step toward ‘improving the radar’ at your school today.  

Here are some previews to get you started.