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It's time to get involved!
Here's some projects to get you started.
This is a petition to the NSW Education Minister to remove behaviourism in NSW and eventually all Australian schools, replacing it with Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS).
Exclusionary practices such as detentions, suspensions and expulsions reached record highs during the pandemic, with devastating and lasting effects on kids like my son with disabilities such as ADHD, Autism and dyslexia.
This is why I am calling on the NSW Education Minister to stand with neurodivergent students and their families: adopt Collaborative Proactive Solutions in schools across the state and lead the example for schools across the country.
Collaborative Proactive Solutions is a model of care that empowers our children by helping them identify the problems that cause disruptive behaviours, and working with them to come up with solutions.
The CPS approach was developed by Dr Ross Greene from Harvard Medical School, as an alternative to the outdated model of teaching behaviour, which baits our kids to behave by using rewards and punishments. Dr Greene is actively supporting my campaign to bring CPS to Australia.
Lou and a small group of South Australian parents recently wrote to new South Australian Minister, Blair Boyer. Sadly Blair has chosen to dismiss the urgency of education reforms in South Australia. Parents need to come forward to strengthen the advocacy efforts in South Australia. If you are a South Australian parent reading this notice, please get in touch with Lou to find out how we can work together to insist that the South Australian government reform the education system!
Minister Alan Tudge delivered a speech on 22nd October and Square Pegs feel horrified! The speech focuses on Minister Tudge's priorities for students returning to face to face learning following COVID pandemic lockdowns across Eastern Australia and it has many problems and red flags for the Square Peg community:
- The expectation that students will be expected to acquire impulse control and self-discipline without reference to neurodivergent students, is ableist and divisive.
- Statements such as "violence has become commonplace" is untrue and inflammatory.
- Criticism towards the NSW Behaviour Strategy and South Australian Inquiry in to Exclusions flies in the face of inclusive practices that are welcomed attempts at education reform.
In summary, Minister Tudge shows an absolute disregard for students with disabilities, the daily challenges they face in Australian schools and their legal and human rights receive reasonable adjustments that allow them access to the curriculum on the same basis as their peers. It is extremely concerning and requires our response!
Please find the Square Peg Round Whole press release here for your information as well as Minister Tudge's speech.
What do we need from you?
Lou is preparing an information package to send to Minister Tudge. There will be books, research papers, newspaper articles and parent testimonials and stories that will be de-identified but added to the package. The more testimonials that Lou can collect, the better! Please write a short paragraph about your experiences with education in Australia. Please just provide your state and the age and disability for your child/children. Lou will collate all of the parent testimonials and they will be included in the package for Minister Tudge.
For the last 2-3 years, Parents for ADHD Advocacy Australia have worked in a consultative capacity with the NSW Department of Education, Behaviour Strategy team. For the first time in 11 years, the Department of Education will release new Discipline and Suspension policies that underpin a new strategy in relation to Behaviour management in NSW public schools. It's long overdue reform and is intended to reduce suspensions of students with disabilities and provide teachers with professional development.
Due to the COVID pandemic, release of the new policies and implementation of the strategy has been delayed. PAAA advocate for appropriate consideration of the over representation of students with ADHD and other disabilities in the suspension data, especially in light of prolonged home based learning and the associated mental health challenges when students return to face to face learning in term 4 of 2021.
