Case Study – Catholic Education Western Australia, The impact of Team Teach

The Kimberley Diocese in North West Australia is a culturally diverse region comprising of a number of a remote communities with a significant Aboriginal population.

Team Teach has been delivered across the Kimberley Diocese over the past two years, proactively building the capacity of staff that work in our most challenging and isolated environments. The value of Team Teach lies in the integration of evidence-based research concerning the psychology of behaviour support, biomechanics, and safe systems of positive handling of children, and trauma-informed practice.

The Team Teach framework of de-escalation strategies and non-physical responses aligns with our integration with trauma informed practice right across the Kimberley. The Team Teach course gives our school staff – both teachers and our Aboriginal Teaching Assistants – in our most remote and challenging communities the tools to effectively manage behaviour whilst maintaining the dignity of every student by emphasising prediction, prevention, and de-escalation, along with a focus on the importance of nonverbal and verbal communication, structured debriefing and repair.

The Team Teach framework also aligns with Catholic Education Western Australia’s (CEWA) values of being child focused. Team Teach provides the competency for Teachers and Aboriginal Teaching Assistants to action this in our school and more broadly in remote communities. It enables our schools to facilitate processes, practices and interventions that promote awareness and understanding of everyone’s needs while supporting our students’ ongoing development.

In summary, Team Teach has helped our most remote CEWA schools develop unique structures regarding trauma sensitive behavioural interventions with relationships at the centre. Our regional and remote community schools have developed their own unique universal language, contextually appropriate strategies, and clear guidelines as to how and when to use physical intervention to keep the child and others safe, while always having the student’s best interest at heart.

Sincerely

Fiona Currans – Lead Psychologist
Sara Burroughs – Principal St Joseph’s Wyndham