A new UNE pilot program at Drummond Memorial School to help overcome student disadvantage in the early years of education has been supported by Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay.
The MP, who is also UNE Chancellor, said the staged program would identify issues affecting children’s performance at school and their personal development and develop strategies to help them overcome difficulties.
“The key to this lies in collaboration between the stakeholders — the UNE Careers Network team and students, the School, the Department of Education and wider community experts,” Mr Torbay said.
“Early intervention has the capacity to change lives, particularly if it can help young people and families who are having difficulties and provide practical solutions and good outcomes.”
Since the end of June, two UNE Social Work students have been based at Drummond, working with staff and students to conduct a needs analysis.
The next step, following on from this research, will start in September, with UNE Nutrition students conducting regular sessions and education programs at the school on buying food, cooking healthy meals and budgeting.
Next year UNE medical and nursing students will become involved to encourage better health practices and to help students and families with their issues. They will also conduct one on one consultations with families regarding individual student health concerns.
Members of the team will identify whether specialist services such as speech pathology are needed and will work with Medicare Local and other agencies to secure that assistance.
“This program is also geared to help students with their transition to high school and to encourage greater community involvement in the school and greater school involvement with the community,” Mr Torbay said.
“Education is more than a 9am-3pm venture. Children need to develop confidence and emotional resilience and often they require community support and extra help to achieve that.
“It is the inclusive approach that delivers outcomes and the success of this pilot program would mean it could be expanded to other schools. It’s great to see UNE and the Department working together in this way to build capacity.”
