The power of partnerships

The Linking School and Early Years (LSEY) Project in Hastings - a unique partnership in a small Victorian coastal town - has been systematically working for more than eight years to achieve a seismic shift away from generational disadvantage, Principal Richard Mucha writes.

Hastings is situated on the shores of Western Port Bay about 75km south east of Melbourne. The town has a population of about 9000 people. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics Socio Economic Indexes for Areas data, Hastings is in the second most disadvantaged decile in Australia and is among the most disadvantaged local government areas in Victoria.

There is a high level of unemployment, including third and fourth generation unemployment; low levels of family income; low levels of high school completion and low attendance rates for maternal and child health visits.

The 2009 Australian Early Development Index (AEDI), the first conducted, showed that Hastings students were twice as vulnerable or more in all of the domains except language and cognitive skills. Here 36.5% of Hastings’ prep students were vulnerable compared to the Victorian average of 6.1%. Clearly unless significant changes were made to the way education was delivered, the life chances of many young people in Hastings would remain dire.

The vision and plan

In the later part of 2007, supported by philanthropic funding and facilitated by a case worker from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, planning for the Hastings Linking Schools and Early Years Project commenced.

By early 2008 the project structure was in place, consisting of a partnership group made up of the principals of the three primary schools in town (two government and one Catholic school) and senior representatives of the five early childhood services (Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services, Catholic Education Office Melbourne, DEECD, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council), Hastings’ Rotary Club and many other agencies who held a primary interest in the wellbeing of young children and their families. This partnership group developed the vision and maintains oversight of the partnership.

The guiding vision is that all children and families in Hastings arrive at school ready to engage in learning. The partnership’s goals are that:

• children and families make a smooth transition between early childhood services and school

• early childhood services and schools actively connect with families, and

• schools are responsive to the individual learning needs of all children.

The Plan

Since inception a Practitioner Leadership Team (PLT) has continued to develop and refine strategies in line with the Partnership Group’s vision, and via regular meetings with the Practitioner Network (the town’s early childhood educators and the schools’ early years teachers) ensures that strategies are implemented consistently in every primary school and early childhood service in Hastings. Membership of the PLT changes periodically with all education and health related organisations involved in the partnership taking their turn.

The LSEY philosophy and imperative is that member agencies work as a team to benefit all young children and their families in Hastings – it doesn’t matter which early childhood service or school a child attends (or will attend) – if they live in Hastings they are our collective responsibility.

In 2009/2010 research was conducted in partnership with The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to identify evidenced based locally relevant strategies for improving children’s language development. In response to the findings and local discussions an action plan was developed including:

Playgroups in schools

The playgroup facilitator at St Mary’s was released two afternoons per week to develop playgroups within the other two schools. Babies, toddlers and children up to school age and their parents were invited to attend the free playgroups at any or all of the three schools no matter which they would eventually be attending.

Peer swaps

The aim of this activity was to build a shared understanding of teaching practices and approaches undertaken by early childhood services and schools. Prep teachers and early childhood educators visited and observed each other’s practices.

Plan together teach together

Early childhood educators and prep teachers worked together to develop a unit of work and lesson plans and then taught the lessons together in both school and early childhood service environments. Conducted over three to four sessions, the program involved exploring perceptions and sharing understandings of an inquiry based curriculum across early childhood services and prep environments.

Teacher talk

Training was made available for local early childhood educators and early years teachers to effect transformational change by implementing language and literacy rich early learning environments for 0-5 year olds. Fourteen early childhood service and early years practitioners from four early childhood services and primary schools participated in an enhanced Hanen Teacher Talk training program in 2011.

Reading for fife

This strategy involves psychologists pre testing equal numbers of particularly vulnerable students in Years 2-5 from each of the town’s primary schools and training volunteers sourced from the schools, parish, broader community, Monash University and Australian Catholic University (preservice teachers). The volunteers work with their buddy for 15 one hour sessions after which the psychologists test the students. This strategy is now in its seventh year and has assisted 281 students.

Many other strategies have also been implemented including joint professional learning, forums, a joint transition to school community calendar, transition learning and development statements, Early Learning is Fun, Literacy Village, practitioners visiting schools and services implementing best practice programs throughout Victoria (this has led to our upcoming Hastings’ Book Day).

The partnership endures

Funding for the LSEY project ended in 2012 as planned. However the partnership continues to flourish. Western Port Catholic Parish supports the partnership financially to allow the PLT to meet, develop strategies and, via the Practitioner Network, implement them across the town. We have accessed funding from Department of Human Services (DHS), and more recently, Good Shepherd ANZ and Gandel Philanthropy, to enable us to employ a Family Engagement Worker (FEW) to work with vulnerable families and assist them to connect with the community.

Through our LSEY partnership, further opportunities continue to open up. Last year staff from the three primary schools worked together on a literacy project with Monash University, and we had our first Hastings Book Day. Local shop keepers decorated their shop windows, dressed up as their favourite book character and read to the groups of prep and preschool aged children as they visited their shops.

The AEDI/AEDC was conducted again in 2012 and most recently in 2015. In 2009 in the language and cognitive skills domain, Hastings’ percentage vulnerable decreased to 25.6% in 2012 and 17.4% in 2015 (compared to 6.1% and 6.3% in Victoria).

Our partnership’s philosophy is it takes a village to raise a child and in Hastings we are seeing that when a village takes on the responsibility of raising a child, the whole village gains.

Richard Mucha is the Principal of St Mary’s Primary School Hastings and an active IEU member.