Mental Health And Wellbeing Leader

Location Profile

An Outstanding Opportunity To Work In A PPP School

Offering State-Of-The-Art facilities

Featherbrook P ¿ 9 College is located in Point Cook, adjacent to the Featherbrook Community Centre. The school opened in term 1, 2017. The school has been constructed through a Public Private Partnership which supports an optimal learning environment as well as enrichment of curriculum programs through partnering with the YMCA and CERES. The school also includes a Community Hub which includes the provision of an outside school hour¿s program managed by the YMCA and facilities which will support other community programs for local families.

The facilities have been designed to:

• Provide contemporary learning neighbourhoods that facilitate learning and learner-centred opportunities for all students, regardless of learning needs, through flexible spaces and responsive programs;
• Support digital technology enriched learning
• Support contemporary collaborative learning and teaching for teacher practitioners;
• Promote inclusion, access and choice for all learners;
• Promote environmental sustainability principles;
• Support a sense of community and belonging within the school and wider community.

A Contemporary Education

The school offers a progressive approach to educating students from Prep ¿ Year 9. The school leadership team and teachers are purposeful in providing optimal learning experiences for each and every student and as such, provide all children with learning that is personalised, evidence-based and technologically rich. Our students enjoy and are engaged in a broad and differentiated curriculum promoting creativity, resilience and a growth mindset drawing on their sense of curiosity. STEM, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Camps, Sports and Physical Education provide students with diverse learning opportunities. Digital Technologies enhances and enriches learning opportunities and engagement for students. The strengths, talents and learning styles of each student are harnessed and celebrated. As a State Government school, our teachers draw from the best available education resources, knowledge and expertise from across the education system.

Curriculum

Featherbrook P ¿ 9 College delivers the mandated Victorian Curriculum and learning takes place in an environment that is conducive to preparing children for a rapidly changing world that demands technological capacity and knowledge, heightened interpersonal skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, plus strong literacy and numeracy skills. Our students learn and excel in flexible, purposely built learning spaces that support and inform responsive and innovative learning and teaching. Our programs are enriched through our partnership with the YMCA eg student leadership and camping programs, while CERES informs our learning programs as we seek to become a 5 star sustainability school, supporting our students to become socially and environmentally literate, aware and responsible. The learning spaces facilitate students¿ engagement through collaborative structures and groupings.

Professionalism, instructional capacity and accountability of our teachers is foundational to the education our students receive. Teacher quality is crucial for optimal student achievement and so our energies are strategically directed towards coaching and capacity building of our teaching staff. High expectations of our students underpin the rich learning tasks and challenges provided for all students as they are supported to achieve and thrive. The following are enablers of Featherbrook College¿s education provision:

• Collaboration and knowledge sharing
• High expectations for self and others
• Respect, inclusiveness and trust
• Safe and secure learning environment.

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 Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative is being expanded 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.

The Department of Education 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 Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot initiative 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.

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.

The role of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader is to:

• build capability of the whole school with regard to mental health and wellbeing (identification, promotion and prevention),
• provide support to staff to better identify and support students with mental health needs,
• establish clear pathways for referral for students requiring assessment and intervention, and monitor and evaluate student progress.

The role provides a proactive focus for the promotion and prevention of mental health and wellbeing through assessment and implementation of context-relevant programs, approaches and initiatives based on a broad and extensive knowledge of the needs of the school.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader role is not a clinical role and is not designed for direct intervention. The role is seen as a key conduit in creating referral pathways once a teacher or other staff member identifies a concern in the classroom.

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 structured and regular Learning Communities Training is developed and facilitated by the Faculty of Education at University of Melbourne, supported by Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

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.
• Collaborate with school staff to inform, influence and provide input into teaching and learning relating to mental health and wellbeing. Provide support to schools staff and classroom teachers to build their capabilities to embed mental health into the classroom.
• Work with school leadership and wellbeing teams to embed whole school approaches to mental health into school planning and strategic processes. 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

Applicants seeking part-time employment are encouraged to apply for any teaching service position and, if they are the successful candidate, request a reduced time fraction. Such requests will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to the operational requirements of the school.

The Department of Education 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. It is our policy to provide reasonable adjustments for persons with a disability (see Workplace adjustment guidelines).

Additional support and advice on the recruitment process is available to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders from the Koorie Outcomes Division (KOD) via marrung@education.vic.gov.au

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 at:

https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/child-safe-standards/policy

DE Values

The department's employees commit to upholding the department's Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. The department'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 department values is available at:

https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/values-department-vps-school-employees/overview

Conditions of Employment

This vacancy is to replace an employee on parental absence and is for a period of seven years or until the employee absent on leave returns to duty at the school.

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.