Staff supporting students living with disabilities and learning difficulties will be better equipped under a new training program.
The Australian-first course will help learning support assistants in the ACT provide better support to children coping with trauma, mental health issues and other challenges.
More than 100 assistants from across the ACT public school system attended a one-day session at Evelyn Scott School on Monday .
New tools for support assistants
Calwell High School coordinator Jenny Cather said they had a range of students with diverse needs.
Up to one-third of their students live with disabilities and/or learning difficulties.
"We may have students with trauma backgrounds that need trauma-informed practices, and we can also help students with low literacy, low numeracy or any other needs that they have in their classes," she said.
"We support them in mainstream classes and specialist areas such as the learning support unit."
Ms Cather said the universal professional learning program gave assistants a good base of tips, tricks and strategies to help students achieve their best.
The course covers everything from legislative and regulatory requirements to best practice in supporting learner independence, building positive relationships and effective communication through to trauma-informed practice and understanding neurodiversity.
About 60 per cent of the learning support workforce had received the training by mid-July, with more training courses on the way.
Recognition of diverse workload
ACT Minister for Education and Youth Affairs Yvette Berry said feedback from participants had been very positive.
Many staff expressed a renewed confidence in supporting the children they worked with and loved the practical strategies being taught, she said.
"We have about 1000 school assistants working across our 91 public schools, offering a range of supports from preparing class materials, to supporting healthcare and physical needs, to implementing therapy programs and so much more," Ms Berry said.
"While our LSAs have already had access to a range of professional training, they now have a dedicated one-day training course that covers a range of topics and that is relevant to whatever stage of their LSA journey they are in."
Ms Cather said it was important the government recognised the diverse roles LSAs performed in schools and the needs of learners they assisted.
"We have a wide range of situations that we find ourselves in every day, and being able to have that skill set recognised is really important for our staff," she said.
