• Part time position

Location Profile

Ascot Vale Heights School (formerly Ascot Vale Special School) is a state government school that provides high quality education to students with mild intellectual disabilities. We assist students between 5 and 18 years to address their learning difficulties and develop a wide range of life skills that enable them to participate fully in life's daily activities. It is located in the Travancore Estate of Ascot Vale.

The school offers excellent programs to promote the learning and independence skills of all students.

Specialist classes include Physical Education, Music and STEAM, Art, and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen and Garden Program.

Parents are welcome and encouraged to participate in their children’s education. A number of information sessions and programs to support parents are held throughout the year.

For further information please visit here.

Selection Criteria

• SC1 'Content of teaching and learning'. Demonstrated ability to inform and influence the work of others involved in the engagement, mental health, wellbeing or learning of children and young people.
• SC2 ‘Teaching practice’. Demonstrated ability to input into the development, implementation and evaluation of processes and strategies relating to mental health, wellbeing or learning.
• SC3 ‘Assessment and reporting of student learning’. Demonstrated ability to support a student’s mental health, wellbeing or learning by developing and maintaining connection with external services.
• SC4 ‘Interaction with the school community’. Demonstrated high level interpersonal skills and communication skills. Demonstrated high level of capability to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with students, parents, other employees and the broader school community to focus on student learning, wellbeing and engagement.
• SC5 'Professional requirements'. Demonstrated ability to influence and negotiate by gaining buy-in and ownership for ideas, gaining agreement to proposals, or involving experts or other third parties to strengthen a case.

Role

The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System highlighted that primary schools provide opportunities to identify children with mental health and wellbeing challenges, who can then be referred to treatment, care and support.

The Victorian Government is providing $200 million over four years and $93.7 million ongoing to expand the Mental Health in Primary Schools program to every government and low-fee non-government primary school in Victoria. Scaling up across the state from 2023, by 2026 every primary school will be able to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

Participating schools receive funding to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, a qualified teacher, to work across the school to implement a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing for students, staff and families based on a broad knowledge of the needs of the school community.

This includes:

• Building the capacity of school staff, in particular classroom teachers, to identify and support students with mental health concerns in the classroom
• Supporting the school to create clear referral pathways internally (within school) and externally (to community services) for students identified as requiring further assessment and intervention
• Coordinating targeted mental health support for students by working with regional staff, school wellbeing and leadership teams, teachers, parents/carers and external agencies

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders are not required to have mental health or other relevant qualifications, as the role is not expected to provide one-on-one counselling to students. Instead, the role is designed to ensure mental health prevention and early intervention are embedded in the classroom. Using their intimate knowledge of the in-classroom experiences of teachers, Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders complement the school’s existing wellbeing team by bringing it together with regional staff, community services and other health professionals to engage and build relationships with appropriate mental health and wellbeing support.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders are provided training in mental health literacy, supporting emerging needs, and building school capacity and receive ongoing support and professional development through a structured and regular Communities of Practice. Training is developed and facilitated by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at University of Melbourne, supported by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

The Department of Education and Training has been piloting the Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative in Victorian schools since 2020 in partnership with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot program has shown that 95 per cent of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders consider the Mental Health in Primary Schools model has improved their school’s capacity to support students’ mental health and wellbeing needs.

Responsibilities

Operating in collaboration with their school, leadership and wellbeing team where relevant, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader will:

• Promote a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing to students, staff and families
• Support teachers and school staff to expand their capacity to embed evidence-based mental health strategies, interventions and programs and build mental health literacy to identify and support primary school students with mental health concerns
• Coordinate clear referral pathways internally (within school) and externally (to community services) for students identified as requiring further assessment and intervention
• Proactively work with and support regional staff, school wellbeing and leadership teams, teachers, parents/carers and other external agencies to coordinate targeted mental health support for primary school students
• Contribute to the school’s existing wellbeing team

Who May Apply

Teachers currently registered or eligible for registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and qualified to teach and/or have demonstrated experience in the curriculum area(s) specified for the position.

EEO AND OHS Commitment

The Department of Education and Training is committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for all. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms – gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the Department. The Department recognises that the provision of family friendly, supportive, safe and harassment free workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work, diversity and safety across all schools and Department workplaces.

Child Safe Standards

Victorian government schools are child safe environments. Our schools actively promote the safety and wellbeing of all students, and all school staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. All schools have a Child Safety Code of Conduct consistent with the Department’s exemplar available here.

DET Values

The Department’s employees commit to upholding DET’s Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. DET’s Values complement each school’s own values and underpin the behaviours the community expects of Victorian public sector employees, including those who work in Victorian Government Schools. Information on the DET values is available here.

Other Information

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader position is two days per week, Wednesday and Thursday.

There is also one additional day being general teacher release.

Therefore this role is made up of two days 0.4 MHWL and 0.2 casual replacement relief.

Conditions of Employment

• All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements
• Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check
• A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided
• Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website here

VIT LANTITE

To be eligible for employment, transfer or promotion in the principal or teacher class a person must have provisional or full registration from the Victorian Institute of Teaching. In addition, from 3 August 2020, to be eligible for employment in the principal class or teacher class, a person who graduated from a Victorian Initial Teacher Education program after 1 July 2016, must demonstrate that they have passed the literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education (LANTITE) requirements. This condition is satisfied where the LANTITE requirement is part of the Victorian Initial Teacher Education program completed by the person.