Executive Director’s Update to Principals #33 - 15 August 2024
Universal Speech Screening for Foundation Students –New offering for schools from Term 1, 2025
The Catholic Education Ballarat Speech Pathology (SP) Team is pleased to offer all schools an opportunity to opt-in to universal speech screening for all foundation students in term 1, 2025.
Research shows that early screening of speech is important as children with speech problems can have long‐term difficulties that persist into adolescence and beyond with some 30% to 60% experiencing continuing problems in reading and spelling. This can then lead to longer term problems in literacy, mental health and employability (Ref: Law 2009a)
A pilot involving several schools from across the diocese was trialed in 2024, with speech screening completed for foundation students. Findings indicated some students with significant speech sound disorders, some of whom had not accessed any previous intervention before coming to school. Other students were identified as having mild speech difficulties. Feedback from schools was positive with planning for intervention being timely and supportive to both students and class teachers.
In response to this, in 2025 the CEB Speech team are extending this pilot, and your school is invited to enter a partnership commitment with the CEB SP team to provide speech screening to all foundation students. For some students this may result in further involvement in the current speech sound program in your school.
- CEB Speech Team Commitment - In designing a universal speech screening program for primary school students in the Ballarat Diocese, the CEB speech team commit to:
- scheduling screening across the diocese and liaising with key contact LDL/LSO regarding timetable for visits
- partnering with LDL/LSOs to provide a training video guiding the use of the Townsville screener
- supporting caregiver understanding and informed consent by producing a video for caregivers (and classroom teachers) that outline the speech screening process. This video will be available for transition sessions/conversations in term 4, 2024.
- conducting screening and gathering of data in partnership with school LSO/s and LDL’s
- analysing cohort data, identifying class cohort trends and recommendations and providing the LDL and Classroom Teacher with this data and recommendations for the classroom
- providing recommendations for further speech program / referral via ROSAE for students requiring early intervention.
- School Partnership Commitment - By opting in to the 2025 universal foundation student speech screening, schools agree that they will:
- provide carer/s with an opportunity to view a speech screening video (prepared by CEB) during transition sessions/conversations in term 4, 2024
- coordinate the gathering of consent from carer/s prior to screening in early term 1, 2025
- provide an LSO to co-implement the speech screening and data gathering in collaboration with the SP on the day
- provide an opportunity for LDL and Classroom Teacher to attend a feedback session with the SP outlining the whole class cohort recommendations and/or requests for further early intervention or speech referral
- ensure classroom teachers are supported to implement whole class cohort recommendations throughout the school year
- ensure LSO’s can be available after 6 months to rescreen those students identified by the classroom teacher as requiring potentially more intensive intervention
*Note: At any time, classroom teachers who identify students requiring assessment by the SP team will refer to the school LDL to refer the student to CEB. This will require the LDL to support the carer/s to complete consent form and speech case history form and that these are uploaded on ROSAE as part of the CEB referral process.
If you would like to participate, please opt-in by clicking on this link and completing your school details no later than 15 October. The SP team will then contact you or your LDL with further information.
CatholicCare Victoria (CCV) service offerings in schools
We are pleased to share that Agnes Sheehan, CEO of CatholicCare Victoria (CCV), and Tom Sexton with representatives from the Wellbeing team have met a number of times throughout the year to explore and discuss the ever-changing wellbeing needs of students across our diocese.
CCV has demonstrated a commitment to being responsive to the needs of schools and has recently broadened its service offerings to schools to include:
- New Provisional psychologist placements (*new) Schools in remote locations may be eligible for further subsidised fees. The list of potentially eligible schools is HERE.
- Existing Provisional psychologists – supervision and training services (*new)
- Clinical Supervision Services for school employed psychologists, counsellors and pastoral care workers
- IQ cognitive and education assessments via telehealth (*new)
- Mental health practitioner telehealth services (*new)
- Critical Incident debriefing supports
- School refusal service (*new)
- Counsellor and Pastoral Care services
Please explore the full suite of CCV service offerings and fee structures HERE
(CCV is a not-for-profit organisation and fees are based on a cost-recovery basis).
CCV is also keen to receive expressions of interest for the various service offerings and work with CEB to potentially adapt offerings if alternative needs are identified by our diocese.
We invite you to please complete this survey (CCV Expressions of Interest Survey August 2024 )to indicate your interest levels as well as assist us to identify any additional opportunities that could benefit your school or cluster of schools.
For further discussions or to explore these opportunities in more detail, please contact Tony Perkins on Ph 0417 007 166.
Thank you for your continued commitment to enhancing the educational experiences for all within the diocese of Ballarat.
People & Development Updates
Timetable templates
With planning commencing for the 2025 school year, it is timely to remind you of the availability of resources that will assist with ensuring your timetable allocation of hours for the 30 + 8 model are compliant with the requirements of the CEMEA 2022. These templates are available via Knowledge Banks “School Finance & Administration Resources” folder or via the below links.
Primary 30+8 Timetable Template
Secondary 30+8 Timetable Template
Please reach out to Jo Huntley (HR Advisor) on 0429 598 163 or Jordan Smith (Financial Accountant) for any assistance or training in the use of the timetable templates.
Training Opportunities
ADDRESSING STAFF PERFORMANCE
Date: 26 August 2024
Time: 10.00am – 12.30pm
Location: Online
Cost: Free
Try-Booking Registration: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1264852
This online session designed for Principals and team leaders will provide practical skills to assist in addressing staff performance issues both formally and informally. It will cover the clause 13 process, what support is available and Enterprise Agreement obligations to be aware of.
KNOW YOUR AGREEMENT
Date: 13 September 2024
Time: 10.00am – 12.00pm
Location: Online
Cost: Free
Try-Booking Registration: https://www.trybooking.com/CTZGY
Do you want a better understanding of specific clauses the Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2022?
This session will cover:
- Parental Leave
- Time-in-lieu
This session is designed for principals, team leaders and administrators who are involved in the application of parental leave and TIL.
At the end of the session there will be time for general CEMEA 2022 questions.
For any enquiries about these programs, please contact Jo Huntley HR Advisor 0429 598 163. Additional sessions are scheduled to occur later in the year.