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Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

Job posted: 19/09/2024
Applications close: 16/10/2024 (Midnight)
11 days remaining

11 days remaining

Job Description

Location: Melbourne | Western Metropolitan

Job type: Full time / From 28/01/2025 - 27/01/2028

Organisation: Schools (Government)

Salary: Salary not specified

Occupation: Education and Training

Reference: 1438625

Reference: 1438625

Occupation: Education and Training

Salary Range: Salary not specified

Work location: Melbourne | Western Metropolitan

Location Profile

Riverwalk Primary School is a newly established government primary school located on Timbarra Drive, Werribee. Our school has facilities to cater for a long-term enrolment of 525 students and has a co-located two room kindergarten. Riverwalk Primary School is located within an extensive growth corridor and has been master-planned to allow for a peak enrolment of up to 1,100 students. There are a number of new housing estates developing within the Riverwalk area, which is contributing to our growing student numbers.

Riverwalk Primary School has two large learning neighborhoods which include general and specialist teaching spaces, an administration building, a performing arts and physical education building. In additional to this, the school has a range of outside facilities, including two playgrounds and learning street. The learning street encompasses flexible learning options with both indoor and outdoor areas of the school.  The school also integrates the latest technology as a tool to support learning, including iPads, laptops and a range of STEM resources. Interactive whiteboards and LCD screens are available throughout the learning spaces.

Riverwalk Primary School is a supported inclusion school designed to cater for a higher proportion of students with disability. The school is designed to ensure that all students can access a high-quality education closer to home. Supported Inclusion Schools are a new addition to the Victorian education system and it is a model which balances a level of targeted support that is greater than a standard mainstream school, with a level of inclusivity that is greater than a stand-alone specialist school. The buildings design, learning structures and facilities allows the school to cater for students with additional learning needs as well as mainstream students.

Our vision is to be an inclusive school community where everyone is empowered to achieve excellence. This vision is captured in the motto `Achieving Excellence¿. Our mission is to provide a safe, inclusive and supported learning environment that inspires and challenges all members of the community to embrace learning and achieve academic, social, emotional and physical excellence.

Riverwalk Primary School is committed to:

·         Building a culture of high expectations and acknowledging that every student can learn and has the right to learn  

·         Empowering all learners to achieve excellence and celebrating their success

·         Establishing a safe, inclusive and supported learning environment that is conducive to learning

·         Developing a professional learning community that is focused on the continuous improvement of teaching and learning and takes a collective responsibility for improving student learning outcomes

·         Delivering a high quality, student focused, rigorous and relevant curriculum that meets the learning needs of all students

·         Empowering learners to take ownership and be active participants in their own learning

·         Building resilience and supporting students to be happy, healthy and confident learners

·         Engaging with parents, carers and the wider community as genuine partners in learning, striving to achieve the best possible outcomes for students.  

Riverwalk Primary School¿s values are inclusion, collaboration, resilience and excellence.

Selection Criteria

  • SC1 `Content of teaching and learning'. Demonstrated ability to inform and influence the work of others involved in the engagement, mental health, wellbeing or learning of children and young people.
  • SC2 `Teaching practice'. Demonstrated ability to input into the development, implementation and evaluation of processes and strategies relating to mental health, wellbeing or learning.
  • SC3 `Assessment and reporting of student learning'. Demonstrated ability to support a student's mental health, wellbeing or learning by developing and maintaining connection with external services.
  • SC4 `Interaction with the school community'. Demonstrated high level interpersonal skills and communication skills. Demonstrated high level of capability to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with students, parents, other employees and the broader school community to focus on student learning, wellbeing and engagement.
  • SC5 `Professional requirements'. Demonstrated ability to influence and negotiate by gaining buy-in and ownership for ideas, gaining agreement to proposals, or involving experts or other third parties to strengthen a case.

Role

The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System highlighted that primary schools provide opportunities to identify children with mental health and wellbeing challenges, who can then be referred to treatment, care and support.

The Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative is being expanded to every government and low-fee non-government primary school in Victoria. Scaling up across the state from 2023, by 2026 every primary school will be able to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader to implement a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

The Department of Education has been piloting the Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative in Victorian schools since 2020 in partnership with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation of this pilot initiative has shown that 95 per cent of Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders consider the Mental Health in Primary Schools model has improved their school's capacity to support students' mental health and wellbeing needs.

Participating schools receive funding to employ a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, a qualified teacher, to work across the school to implement a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing for students, staff and families based on a broad knowledge of the needs of the school community.

The role of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader is to:

  • build capability of the whole school with regard to mental health and wellbeing (identification, promotion and prevention),
  • provide support to staff to better identify and support students with mental health needs,
  • establish clear pathways for referral for students requiring assessment and intervention, and monitor and evaluate student progress.

The role provides a proactive focus for the promotion and prevention of mental health and wellbeing through assessment and implementation of context-relevant programs, approaches and initiatives based on a broad and extensive knowledge of the needs of the school.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader role is not a clinical role and is not designed for direct intervention. The role is seen as a key conduit in creating referral pathways once a teacher or other staff member identifies a concern in the classroom.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leaders are provided training in mental health literacy, supporting emerging needs, and building school capacity and receive ongoing support and professional development through structured and regular Learning Communities Training is developed and facilitated by the Faculty of Education at University of Melbourne, supported by Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Responsibilities

Operating in collaboration with their school, leadership and wellbeing team where relevant, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader will:

  • This role does include a teaching component and the successful candidate will spend some of their time within the classroom, delivering high-quality teaching and learning 
  • Promote a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing to students, staff and families
  • Support teachers and school staff to expand their capacity to embed evidence-based mental health strategies, interventions and programs and build mental health literacy to identify and support primary school students with mental health concerns.
  • Collaborate with school staff to inform, influence and provide input into teaching and learning relating to mental health and wellbeing. Provide support to schools staff and classroom teachers to build their capabilities to embed mental health into the classroom.
  • Work with school leadership and wellbeing teams to embed whole school approaches to mental health into school planning and strategic processes. Coordinate clear referral pathways internally (within school) and externally (to community services) for students identified as requiring further assessment and intervention.
  • Proactively work with and support regional staff, school wellbeing and leadership teams, teachers, parents/carers and other external agencies to coordinate targeted mental health support for primary school students.
  • Contribute to the school's existing wellbeing team.

Who May Apply

Teachers currently registered or eligible for registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and qualified to teach and/or have demonstrated experience in the curriculum area(s) specified for the position.

EEO AND OHS Commitment

Applicants seeking part-time employment are encouraged to apply for any teaching service position and, if they are the successful candidate, request a reduced time fraction. Such requests will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to the operational requirements of the school.

The Department of Education is committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for all. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the Department. The Department recognises that the provision of family friendly, supportive, safe and harassment free workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work, diversity and safety across all schools and Department workplaces. It is our policy to provide reasonable adjustments for persons with a disability (see Workplace adjustment guidelines).

Additional support and advice on the recruitment process is available to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders from the Koorie Outcomes Division (KOD) via marrung@education.vic.gov.au

Child Safe Standards

Victorian government schools are child safe environments. Our schools actively promote the safety and wellbeing of all students, and all school staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. All schools have a Child Safety Code of Conduct consistent with the department's exemplar available at:

 https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/child-safe-standards/policy

DE Values

The department's employees commit to upholding the department's Values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. The department's Values complement each school's own values and underpin the behaviours the community expects of Victorian public sector employees, including those who work in Victorian Government Schools. Information on the department values is available at:

 https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/values-department-vps-school-employees/overview

Other Information

  • All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements.
  • Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.
  • A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.
  • Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx

Conditions of Employment

  • All staff employed by the Department and schools have access to a broad range of employment conditions and working arrangements.
  • Appointment of successful applicants will be made subject to a satisfactory pre-employment conditions check.
  • A probationary period may apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.
  • Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the Department's Human Resources website at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx

VIT LANTITE

To be eligible for employment, transfer or promotion in the principal or teacher class a person must have provisional or full registration from the Victorian Institute of Teaching. In addition, from 3 August 2020, to be eligible for employment in the principal class or teacher class, a person who graduated from a Victorian Initial Teacher Education program after 1 July 2016, must demonstrate that they have passed the literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education (LANTITE) requirements. This condition is satisfied where the LANTITE requirement is part of the Victorian Initial Teacher Education program completed by the person.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

Job type:

Full time / From 28/01/2025 - 27/01/2028

Job classification:

Leading Teacher Range 3

Contact:

Paris Spencer | 97429700

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader