AddressSchool vision statement
At Highlands School, our vision is to prepare every student to become valued and productive citizens in the community. To achieve this purpose, we engage every student in their education, transitioning them to a mainstream school, training facility, workforce, or alternative setting.
School context
Highlands School is a School for Specific Purpose (SSP) which focuses on Positive Education and is located in Renwick, near Mittagong in the Southern Highlands. The school has a current enrolment capacity of 42 students (21 identified Behaviour Disorder (BD), 21 Multi-Categorical (MC)), from schools in Wingecarribee Shire and Wollondilly in Years 5-12 who exhibit challenging behaviours, emotional disturbance and/or autism spectrum disorders and the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Our students are placed at the school through a Regional Placement Panel. Parents/caregivers visit the school prior to the student's enrolment into one of our six classes, and a transition plan is devised collaboratively with the Home school.
The school is in a semi-rural setting and is well-resourced with a science laboratory, working industrial kitchen and cafe, basketball court, school hall, playing field, music room and art room.
The introduction of a wider range of school-based data sources is a major focus to support individual student growth in literacy and numeracy to address the lack of system-wide data collection through tests such as NAPLAN. This data is centralised and available to all staff, so the individual learning plans are developed using a robust and effective data-driven decision-making process. The data gathered also helps to inform the school's Situational Analysis within the four-year School Excellence cycle.
Our wellbeing programs, including Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL), are strongly based in whole-school trauma-informed practices and are regularly reviewed with enhancements implemented as required. Staff are all trained in the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) and adjust practice to ensure the five domains: body, stamina, engagement, and character, all anchored by relationships, are the pedagogical lens through which daily classroom learning is informed.
Student goals for attendance and behaviour are set through a strong collaborative process that involves a positive relationship with parents/carers, culminating in a Personal Learning and Support Plan (PLSP) that is reviewed regularly. Parents attend a review meeting three times a year to set goals, discuss any adjustments that can be made, and changes to situations to inform learning and improve wellbeing outcomes.
Selection CriteriaApproval to teach Special Education and/or experience teaching students with Autism (Secondary and Primary) and Behaviour Difficulties.
ConditionsAn unconditional full approval to teach is a requirement. If you do not hold a full approval to teach with the NSW Department of Education, you are required to commence the application process at the same time as you apply for this teaching opportunity.
Special Notes
Applicants are to include details of their WWCC clearance number as part of this application.
About the NSW Department of Education
The Department of Education is the largest provider of public education in Australia with responsibility for delivering high-quality public education to two-thirds of the NSW student population. We welcome applications from all ages and genders, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, the LGBTQIA+ community, veterans, refugees and people with disability. If we can make some adjustments to our recruitment/interview process to better enable you to shine, please contact the Diversity and Inclusion Team (dandi@det.nsw.edu.au) or visit NSW Department of Education Diversity and Inclusion
New merit selection application guidelines for classroom teachers, executives and principals have been introduced to provide greater clarity to applicants and selection panels. The guidelines are located here. To ensure that your application complies with the guideline page limits, your attachments must be in PDF format.
