Cranbourne East Secondary College has been recognised for its excellence in aiding students who are at risk of ‘slipping through the cracks’.
The wellbeing team, including leader Debbie Edwards, social worker Hayley Williams, students counsellors Jacqueline Binns and Harlin Gandhok, and health promotion nurse Anna Syposs, created two programs called Lift Off and 7UP to combat such issues.
The Lift Off program is aimed at students who have been missing school due to social or mental health reasons. It teaches Year 9-equivalent subjects such as Literacy, Numeracy and Humanities. Students work at their own pace and lessons are individually catered to suit their own interests.
The program accredits a Level 1 Certificate of General Education to these students.
‘The idea of Lift Off came after we identified there were a lot of students who were not attending school and parents requested support, as they were unsure of where to go for help,’ Ms Edwards said.
The 7UP program focuses on resilience and confidence, time management, organisational and social skills in Year 7 students.
Ms Edwards says “Year 7 can be a really difficult time for some students and the good thing about 7UP is primary schools are working with us in partnership to identify students early.”
The results of both programs have been overwhelmingly successful.
Student attendance has increased dramatically with Ms Edwards stating that, ‘Some students had poor school attendance and may have been attending 30 per cent of the time and now they are up to 75-80 per cent — it has exceeded our initial expectations.’
The success of both the Lift Off and 7UP programs has encouraged the team to look into expanding the program into other regional areas, and ‘give it the profile it deserves.’
To find out more about the Lift Off program you can call SkillInvest on 1300 135 008