John Pirie Secondary School is a Category 2 school situated approximately 2 hours north of Adelaide. JPSS is a complex site with 680 enrolments, 129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander students, a large number of children in care and more than a quarter of the school have a diagnosed learning difficulty. Nearly all enrolled students have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience in their short life times.
JPSS students and families struggle to engage with education for a variety of reasons, in 2019 behaviour was escalating and staff wellbeing was at an all time low because of this. As the dynamics in classrooms shifted both the anecdotal and specific data at JPSS showed that student behaviour and lives were becoming more complex and that all staff needed upskilling to understand the needs of our students. The site decided that increasing knowledge of trauma and trauma-informed practices was important. In 2019 with the support of the departments trauma-aware school initiative John Piriestarted their trauma-informed practice journey working with the team from the Berry Street Education Model.
It has been a long and difficult road at times, with the primary challenge for us translating the knowledge into practice through staff needing a shift in their thinking. At the start of the journey, not all senior leadership valued this work and saw it as “too primary school”. Shifting staff thinking, particularly those in senior leadership is not an easy task but with perseverance, training and resilience from those leading implementation, the shift in thinking was eventually made. To bolster this week and ensure its longevity JPSS are the only school in South Australia who opted to include their service providers in their trauma informed training journey. This meant that all staff who interact with the young people now have the skills and knowledge to put a trauma informed lens on their work. The shift in thinking has seen a decrease in behaviour incidents, staff and student wellbeing has increased as classrooms are more welcoming and trauma informed, and staff are now able to look at situations with a trauma informed lens.
The presentation will discuss the journey of a secondary school in a highly vulnerable regional community to implement trauma=informed practice and improve the educational experience for our students. We will discuss the challenges we faced and how we shifted staff thinking, the progress and next steps for the site.

hester hornbrook academy has expanded to cater to 480 students across four campuses, with plans underway to build additional campuses and expand our reach further. our organisation follows the healing orientated program of education (hope) framework, which guides the hope classroom practice instructional model that all classroom teams have incorporated. every classroom consists of a multidisciplinary team (teacher, youth worker, and education support officer).

at hester hornbrook academy, classroom practice reflects the school’s vision, mission, and values. it is also informed by current research about learning, wellbeing, curriculum, and assessment. our overarching purpose is to ensure that all hester hornbrook academy students experience high quality teaching and learning in every classroom. consistency in expectations, quality learning experiences, and a guaranteed and viable curriculum are central to our aspirations for young people. we know that students learn and thrive in classrooms that are safe, supportive, predictable, and respectful. their relationships with their peers and their classroom team develop their personal and social capability and build a classroom culture where students can take risks with their learning, make mistakes, and receive constructive feedback.
our hope approach focuses on understanding how young people who have experienced significant barriers to education integrate wellbeing and learning which leads to positive pathways. we have built and embedded a unique trauma aware teaching and learning structure which focuses on 4 distinct phases of learning – engage, equip, empower and extend. all members of the classroom team are responsible for wellbeing for learning and learning for wellbeing.
hester hornbrook academy classroom practice combines four phases of learning with four classroom pillars illustrating the classroom conditions that must be present to support the social, emotional, and intellectual needs of students. together the phases of learning and the classroom pillars demonstrate an intentional, explicit approach to teaching and learning and a recognition of the reciprocal relationship between wellbeing and learning.
ongoing professional learning, hope classroom practice continuum, consistent visuals and routines, classroom observations, mentoring, and collaboration help us maintain consistency across all classroom teams. data analysis shows increased engagement and positive pathways through our hope high-quality teaching, learning and wellbeing. our journey has been full of learning, and our experience can provide valuable insights to other special assistance schools across australia.

Embedding inclusive, consistent, predictable routines and expectations to create a safe learning environment using a Multi-Tiered System of Support, through a trauma-informed lens.

Eastern Fleurieu R-12 School is a multi-campus school in a rural setting in Strathalbyn, South Australia, catering for 1500 students from various socio-economic backgrounds with increasing complexity year on year. Over the past 3-5 years numbers of students with complex disabilities, trauma and disadvantage are presenting to our school because of our successful education program R-12, and reputation for supporting students through innovative and effective use of trauma-informed practices.

At the start of 2023, our post-COVID data reflected unprecedented increases in challenging behaviour, and an escalation in punitive consequences, contrary to our goals with restorative and trauma-informed practices. This workshop explores the data-informed processes we used to identify inconsistencies of practice and the consequences of an imbalance between ‘safe-haven’ and ‘secure-base’ approaches, and the steps we took to turn this around.

We were experiencing burn out, division between leaders, teachers, and parents, increased challenging student behaviour; we realised the pendulum had swung too far. Getting the balance of having clear expectations and accountability, coupled with compassion and care can be a challenging line to maintain for any school. This is why we want to share our experience through this workshop which will help you create clarity in your culture around accountability within a trauma-informed lens.

In this workshop we will share our data-informed response to several challenges such as:
• a community perception/expectation around the automaticity of punitive consequences
• leaders being perceived as lenient in a climate of unconditional positive regard
• using data stories to build a shared understanding of levels of responsibility
• clearly articulating HOW to respond to tricky situations
• how we reset the boundaries needed for effective learning
Through navigating a shift from a reactive to a proactive culture that improved communication and efficiency, leader business became everybody’s business, and the next step in the change-process began, with students at the centre of every decision we made.

This workshop highlights how, by using a clearly articulated Multi-Tiered System of Support promoting a shared commitment to consistent and predictable routines, you can improve student behaviour, emotional regulation, and re-focus all your energy back onto the core business of teaching and learning.

You will leave this workshop with the tools for change including data-informed practice and effective change-management processes.