Department of Education Victoria – Preston VIC

1d ago , from Department of Education & Training Victoria

Yarra Me School is a vibrant, dynamic and inclusive Victorian Department of Education specialist school focused on building the social and emotional capability and wellbeing of our students so they become better equipped to engage in learning at their mainstream schools. With the main campus located in Preston and another in Hurstbridge, Yarra Me School provides services to state primary schools in the North East Metropolitan and Hume Merri-bek Areas within the North Western Victoria Region.

Typically, Yarra Me School students are experiencing complex and significant social, emotional, behavioural, and learning challenges, contributing to profoundly disrupted engagement at their mainstream school. Students are typically in the Years F-6, whilst the Hurstbridge Farm campus supports students aged 10-17 years.

In collaboration with teaching staff, the Yarra Me School Allied Health team influences program planning, curriculum development, support to students and families, and guidance to mainstream schools. The Allied Health team comprises a Speech Pathologist, an Occupational Therapist, and a Psychologist.

Yarra Me School teachers are typically highly experienced specialist educators who are characterised by emotional intelligence, open-mindedness, determination, adaptability, collaboration, coachability, and visible commitment to person-centred approaches.

A community where every learner is safe, connected and empowered to learn, grow and thrive.

We partner with students, families, schools and communities to deliver personalised trauma-aware and evidence-based programs that foster positive relationships, and support well-being and learning.





Central to all Yarra Me School programs is the concurrent observation of Personalisation, Pedagogy, and Partnerships, which are exemplified in the following:

- Relationship development is the first and necessary step to enable learning; students learn via relationships and community, not in social isolation. The trauma-informed approach recognises that Adverse Childhood Experiences disrupt student development and that students will re-claim their capability with attuned, person-centred support and interventions.
- The Voice and Agency of the student and their parents / carers are crucial enabling factors for the student¿s development and the fidelity of the Team Around the Learner.
- Student success is achieved by building the student¿s Personal & Social Capabilities across multiple settings.
- This is achieved when the adults provide an workplace that encourages the student to thrive.
- Thriving occurs when the student believes they are safe, that they belong, that they are understood and cared for, that their environment is predictable, that they are well-held by strong and clear expectations, and that interventions are attuned to their specific strengths, capabilities and developmental needs.
- To thrive the student also needs sustained relationships with adults that develop the student¿s understanding of their world and their place in it. Through these relationships,



through the supports and expectations held, through the person-centred and other interventions provided, through the language shared, and through the efforts to help the student make meaning of their experiences, the student can develop better responses to their world. Thus, the student can achieve wellbeing and learning concurrently, which leads to increased engagement with schooling.
- Developing a well-coordinated Team Around the Learner is necessary to achieve student success, and also to sustain student success, especially when it provides consistency and predictability across home and school settings. The Team Around the Learner typically consists of the student, the parents/guardians, the mainstream school ES, teachers & leaders, and other professionals.
- The conditions for sustained student success are the concurrent engagement of student, parents/carers, and mainstream school teachers, education support staff, and leadership.
- Essentially, every response to the student is developmentally attuned, person-centred, and personalised; pedagogy is personalised and designed to promote the student¿s self-efficacy; and, in partnership, the adults provide a wrap-around student support team.

YARRA ME SCHOOL PROGRAMS

All Yarra Me School programs offer a time limited service for each learner. Yarra Me School conducts the Preston Program (classroom-based), which currently caters to students in the primary Years in a short-term intervention for students exhibiting significant disengagement from learning at tier 3 level; the Positive Partnerships outreach coaching service for Primary school students at tier 2 & 3 level of intervention; Hurstbridge Farm program

📌 Psychologist - Flexible 0.6-0.8 FTE (Melbourne)
🏢 Department of Education Victoria
📍 Melbourne