Berry Street Web Docs BEST Centre Annual Report 2009 | Page 6

Student Engagement
In 2009 80% of the students enrolled developed
personal Individual Education Plans (IEP). This
was an excellent result with the introduction of our
new planning tool. This tool engaged students in
the planning for personal and educational goals
during 2009.
The process of developing the IEP with our
students involved them in decision making,
enabled students to develop and commit to short
and long terms goals, identify their strengths and
aspirations and provided motivation to maintain
student focus with small class sizes, a flexible
curriculum and a high level of personal support to
maximise student /teacher relationship building.
Some examples of personal goals included:
improved school attendance; undertaking anger
management; employment and work place
mentoring opportunities and service work such
as volunteering; increasing skills in literacy and
numeracy; and a focus on future work pathways.
The IEP also informed curriculum delivery and
establishing learning outcomes for our students.
Key changes introduced at the commencement of
2009 included planning for students to:
• Participate in small class groups of 4
students for each teaching group
• Participate in classes which focused on
intensive literacy and numeracy
• Benefit from individually prepared IEP and
curriculum for each student depending on
their academic ability and focussed on
building on existing skills and mastering
new skills
• Undertake curriculum prepared by
Teacher(s)/lead Teacher and have work
assessed according to Victorian Essential
Learning Standards provided the foundation
framework for our students

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• Benefit from a holistic approach to
education encompassing a youth work/case
management approach to support and
engage students
• Have a timetable that could be individually
tailored to suit their needs
The introduction of school-based restorative
practices further enabled the B.E.S.T. Centre to
establish clearer rules, boundaries and a stronger
commitment to improving school and classroom
behaviour underpinned our work. Restorative
practices replace punitive disciplinary processes
and are aimed to reduce recidivism in our students
by developing a caring community with the explicit
goal of improving relationships between teaching
staff and students.
When things go wrong, engaging students and
families/carers in collective solution-seeking has
enabled students to gain insight at an earlier level
and change their behaviour.
Restorative practices has been introduced to the
B.E.S.T Centre along the continuum from
proactive and preventative to interventionist
offering students with new tools to manage and
link feelings with emotions, therefore resulting in
less aggressive outbursts and students gaining
new insights into their behaviour.
At the prevention end it encourages the development
of social skills and competencies and alternative
conflict-management skills. At early-intervention
stage it establishes a restorative ethos and
language throughout the School, supporting group
conferences and other restorative management
practices among staff and students. During 2010
further training to support staff will continue, as
this model is further developed.