About The Currajong School

The Currajong School is a registered, independent specialist school located in East Malvern, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne, and serves a wide geographical area. Families travel from greater Melbourne to attend The Currajong School.

The school was established in 1974 by the Founding Principal Bruce Wicking. We are a non-denominational, co-educational school catering for primary-aged students with specific needs, with a focus on social, emotional, and behavioural needs.

The Currajong School invites a community atmosphere, with an inclusive and positive learning environment. At The Currajong School we have proud tradition in providing excellence in specialist education for students with social, emotional, and behavioural disorders and maximise every learning opportunity to shape our students’ future through high quality, values enriched inclusive teaching and learning.

As a Victorian Independent Specialist Primary School, The Currajong School has a clear vision and purpose. The school is renowned for fostering student excellence with the support and involvement of our families, specialist services and broader community.

At The Currajong School, the school community works together to ensure every child has a positive, happy and successful school experience. Parents and teachers are genuine partners in the learning process, ensuring students are encouraged to participate, to strive to achieve their best, to be considerate and supportive of others, to be independent, to regulate own behaviours and to value the pursuit of knowledge, through a pure joy of learning.

The school attracts and retains an experienced, caring and innovative staff who work to provide a range of high-quality learning and wellbeing opportunities to stimulate and challenge the differentiated needs and talents of their students. This is done within a collaborative culture, creating a strong sense of community and team spirit.

At The Currajong School, our challenge is to target key indicators which define what it is to be a truly successful learner, a learner who not only achieves their own individual potential, but who is deemed successful within the context of his/her area of talent. To achieve this we focus on providing our students with access to a broad range of learning opportunities that respond to the diversity of their individual needs and abilities. We believe these opportunities will continue to evolve through the commitment of our dedicated staff, and research into evidence based programs.

We are confident our focus on social, emotional, and behavioural needs and academic abilities will be achieved through maintaining strong partnerships with parents, allied health professionals and the wider community. This, in turn, provides a comprehensive approach to challenging our students to achieve their best and build self-confidence in their personal abilities. This holistic approach of building the foundations of academic, physical, social and emotional learning capabilities of our students, reflects our school’s long-standing ethos.

The Currajong School’s Philosophy

The Currajong School is committed to providing a positive and therapeutic school experience for children presenting with significant social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties. The educational program at our school has been designed to meet the needs of these young students, with social-emotional learning as an integral component of the curriculum.

The Currajong School operates within the Positive Behaviour Support approach, where learning is understood developmentally, and all behaviour is viewed as communication. The classroom offers a safe base for vulnerable children whose complex social and emotional needs have become a barrier to both their learning and their wellbeing. With the nurture approach students’ social and emotional development and learning is supported and enhanced, and the opportunity provided for them to reach their greatest potential.

Our school operates by asking a fundamental question, “Is this work or process in line with the school vision, mission values and beliefs?” This question guides and directs the practice of all staff in the school. The vision of the school will sit at the centre of our focus and there will be expectations about all work aligning with the vision. Regular evaluation processes will be in place to measure performance in all areas of the school with respect to the implementation of the vision and values of the school.

The Currajong School’s Attributes

The Currajong School embraces a set of special attributes that allows our students to create, discover and grow together as part of our ‘Currajong Family’.

Attribute One: Currajong Learning Processes

This means that we:

• nurture a love of learning
• recognise learning is a life-long process
• value the opinions and contributions of others
• cater for individual teaching and learning styles
• take responsibility for learning by encouraging risk taking
• provide challenging learning experiences that develop self esteem
• acknowledge effort and achievement
• encourage students and staff to reach their individual potential
• continually monitor progress and report on student achievement

Attribute Two: The Currajong School Behaviours

This means that we

• Build self-resilience and look after our own wellbeing
• develop a sense of collective responsibility
• care about and support each other
• endeavour to do our best and be professional in everything we do
• value and actively pursue excellence
• behave honestly and ethically
• appreciate and accept ourselves and others
• respect the rights and property of others
• accept that rules are necessary for the safety of everyone
• encourage individual choice

Attribute Three: The Currajong Community

This means that we

• work together as a team to achieve common goals and purpose
• value the opinions and contributions of others
• respect individual skills and differences
• are adaptable to change
• work co-operatively
• communicate effectively
• create a supportive and co-operative environment
• have confidence, belief, and trust in team members
• demonstrate a personal contribution and commitment to educational improvement and excellence in teaching & learning
• understand and appreciate our own role and the role of others

Attribute Four: Our Environment

This means that we

• appreciate the ‘welcoming and warm atmosphere’ of our school
• appreciate the benefits of a small sized school and community
• are inspired by the history of the school
• work to maintain safe and healthy play areas
• are proud of our school and care for our buildings, outdoor spaces and resources
• enjoy and take care of the school environment so that it is a beautiful and engaging environment for learning

Our Commitment to Child Safe Standards

From 1 January 2016, all schools were required to comply with new child safe standards designed to ensure that organisations that work with children take steps to create a culture of child safety and protect children from all forms of abuse. The Currajong School makes an ongoing commitment to child safety and ensuring that the policies and procedures around child safety are regularly reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

Commitment Statement

We are committed to the participation and empowerment of students by promoting high standards of expected student behaviour, healthy and respectful relationships, resilience, and an awareness of child safety in ways that are accessible and easily understood.

What are the Child Safe Standards?

The aim of the child safe standards is to drive continuous improvement so that protecting children from abuse is embedded in everyday thinking and practice of leaders, staff and volunteers. The focus of the standards is on raising awareness and helping organisations to create and maintain child safe environments through education and training.

The Child Safe Standards have been introduced in response to the recommendations of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Non-Government Organisations, which found that more must be done to prevent and respond to child abuse. The standards apply to all organisations that provide services for children.

Creating a child safe organisation

In complying with the child safe standards, our school must include the following principles as part of each standard:

• promoting the cultural safety of Aboriginal children
• promoting the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds
• promoting the safety of children with a disability

To create and maintain a child safe organisation, a school must have in place policies and procedures for the 11 standards:

1. Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued
2. Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture
3. Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
4. Families and communities are informed, and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing
5. Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice
6. People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice
7. Processes for complaints and concerns are child focused
8. Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training
9. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed
10. Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved
11. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

The National Quality Framework already requires all schools to meet many aspects of the child safe standards. Services are encouraged to review their policies, procedures and practices including their current child safe environment and staffing policies and procedures to ensure they meet the child safe standards.

More information can be found by visiting ccyp.vic.gov.au, checking out our School Documentation, or making contact with our Child Safe Officer & Principal; Julian Pharaoh.

Our Staff

Our Classroom Teachers are:

• Liz H
• Darcy
• Laura
• Sara

Our Specialist Teachers are:

• Liz M: Arts and STEAM
• Eleni: Inquiry

Our Teacher Assistant staff are:

• Jess
• Jenelle
• Sayeed
• Tamara
• Willow
• India
• Kyle
• Bethany
• Alex

Our Sport Coaches are:

• Ben and Dan (Thursdays)

Our Allied Health staff are:

• Amelia: Occupational Therapist
• Brittany: Social Worker
• Ashleigh: Social Worker
• Amy L: Student Counsellor

Our Admin staff are:

• Karin: Administration/Reception
• Malcolm : IT support (Wednesdays)

Networks and Community Partnerships

Community organisations play an important role in delivering services and programs to The Currajong School that frequently focus on improving the opportunities and resources available to the young people and their families.

The partnerships between The Currajong School and community organisations provide an opportunity for services and resources to be more accessible and delivered more efficiently. By partnering with our local community organisations, The Currajong School have the ability to plan and develop infrastructure and programs that assist our students across the community.

This also helps foster greater integration between our school and the surrounding communities creating better outcomes for all stakeholders involved.

The Currajong School has found that the benefits of effective partnerships between our school and community organisations bring benefits to the staff and students whilst helping the broader community understand the abilities, needs and interests of our students in a specialist school environment.

If you or your organisation would like to work alongside The Currajong School, please send your expression of interest to admin@currajong.vic.edu.au