Submission to the Education and Health Standing Committee of the Parliament of Western Australia inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools.
Western Autistic School is a government specialist school for students with ASD, which was established in 1983 as an early intervention centre for autistic learners with an initial enrolment of 6 students. Since this time the school has grown considerably, and this year had a total enrolment of 291 autistic students aged between 5 to 8 years old. The school is based on an early intervention model, with students attending for up to 4 years before transitioning into more mixed settings. The mission of the school is to ensure that these students leave with the skills they will require to succeed and thrive in their next school and beyond.
The teaching framework at Western Autistic School is autism specific and evidence- based, with a focus on leveraging student strengths to address areas of learning which may present barriers in their next educational setting. All students have Individual Learning Plans, and there is a core focus on the development and use of functional communication across the day. More recently there has also been a focus on developing student voice and agency, in order that learners are more able to advocate for themselves in the future. Student goals embedded into a range of activities tailored to individual strengths and interests, and teachers work in collaborative teams alongside a team of occupational therapists and speech therapists.
The teaching philosophy at Western Autistic School has always been an eclectic one, with teachers making use of a wide range of evidence-based tools to precisely teach individual students. Classroom core practices such as visual supports, AAC, structured teaching and principals of applied behaviour analysis are differentiated and applied with reference to the specific profile of each child. Teachers are supported to build up this toolbox of practices through ongoing professional learning in workshops and participation in communities of learning, and in this way are kept up to date and informed about relevant developments in autism research, policy, and models of practice.
Since its foundation the school has operated within a paradigm of inclusion. Students attend for up to four years, and in this time, teachers collaborate with families to set goals for learners and support them to develop their skills in key learning areas including functional communication, social learning, and emotional regulation. Following their placement at the school, students are supported to transition into more mixed settings with the majority transitioning into mainstream schools. To enable this, teachers work with destination schools to develop individualised transition plans for each student. In their final term at the school students engage in a dual placement, often building up their attendance at their new school slowly with supported visits and planning meetings along the way. Each year the school transitions approximately 80-100 students into new schools and welcomes in a cohort of 100 prep students.
Over the school’s history, it has been apparent that a key factor in the success of exiting students was in the capabilities and inclusive practices of the schools who received them. For this reason the school has worked in a range of ways to build the capacity of local schools to understand and teach autistic students. The school employs a dedicated outreach team who maintain relationships with schools and follow up on past students, providing training and advice to teachers and leadership teams to support them to implement teaching strategies and make necessary adjustments for students to succeed. Outreach teachers at Western Autistic School also work in more sustained ways to build collaborative partnerships with network schools and develop projects which enhance the education of autistic learners.
In 2006, the school saw an opportunity to invest in this work further registered as a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), establishing the Autism Teaching Institute (ATI) as a wing of the school working within the vocational sector with the vision for developing a program of accredited courses to Victorian teachers, informed by current research, delivered by a range of expert lecturers and practitioners, and contextualised around the individual classrooms and autistic learners of the teachers who enrolled.
Since its inception in 2006, one of the key features that has defined the ATI has been the specific focus on autism and autistic learners. Initially, this was due to the association with Western Autistic School, and the specific knowledge base of those who founded the ATI. There are further reasons, however, that have prompted the organisation to maintain this autism specialism. The learning profile of autistic students is often complex, with individual students demonstrating a mix of strengths and specific barriers to learning. The outline and dimensions of these learning profiles can be hard to understand, and it can be easy to misdiagnose a communication barrier as a lack of interest, or a feature of a child’s sensory processing as relating to their grasp of the curriculum. This means that autistic children are often misunderstood in general schooling, with both their strengths and learning needs misread and underserved. In some cases, this leads to students being seen as naughty, disengaged or incapable, leaving students, families and teachers feeling frustrated.
Western Autistic School and the ATI have always seen the antidote to this as being a focus on teachers developing a deep, precise understanding of individual students, through multiple lenses such as communication, sensory processing, thinking style, social understanding, interests, and motivation. The courses developed by the ATI have been structured around ongoing and iterative cycle of learning, with course participants gradually adding to and deepening their vocabulary for observing and describing autistic learners, and then leveraging this knowledge to effectively teach them. This learning requires a commitment of time, and the opportunity to contextualise theoretical knowledge in the classroom over a sustained period, with coaching and support.
This theory-to-practice model is foundational to the structure of the ATI developed Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate, which are delivered as a single course offering over 18 months. During this time, students access professional learning experiences including tutorials from ATI staff and classes delivered by lecturers including those with a lived experience of autism and their parents, experienced educators, senior allied health practitioners, pediatricians, and experts from a range of fields. Students apply this theory in their own classrooms, reflecting on it and adapting it to teach individual students in their own classrooms, and participating in observation by trained assessors from the ATI.
The course is broken into a graduate certificate and graduate diploma. During the graduate certificate. students participate in 10 days of supervised placement at Western Autistic School and partner schools, learning alongside experienced teachers and observing best practice. During the course an ATI trainer-assessor also visits them in their own classroom to complete observations and assessments and provide detailed feedback based on these visits. Whilst studying for the diploma, students participate in an additional 10 days of supervised placement, and a further 10 days of observation and assessment within their own classroom.
The ATI is funded with support from the Department of Education, and ATI courses have been subsidised by the department and Catholic Education Melbourne. There have been over 300 graduates of the ATI since 2007, with participant teachers coming from the full spectrum of Victorian schools from large mainstream high schools to specialist schools to small regional primary schools. The vision for the program has always been that alumnus from the program act as resources within their school and the broader educational system, with many graduates moving into leadership positions within schools and working within the education department.
Beyond the core course offering of the combined graduate diploma and graduate certificate, the ATI has also been involved with delivering a range of ongoing professional learning programs in Victoria. In 2011-12 the ATI delivered a series of workshops to SSSO staff through the ‘Windows into Autism’ program focusing on building autism friendly schools. In 2018-19 the ATI partnered with the department of education to deliver a state-wide professional learning program for department staff and school leaders, responding to recommendations from the Parliamentary inquiry into Services for People with Autism Spectrum disorder. The ATI has also facilitated annual lectures from International guest lecturers for ATI alumni, course participants and staff from Western Autistic School.
Participant feedback in relation to programs have always been overwhelmingly positive, and there have been a number of independent reviews of the programs delivered across the years. In a report that the Australian government commissioned PhillipsKPA to write on the More Support for Students with Disabilities package 2012– 2014, they found,
“The regional autism teacher coach and school principals also observed that the training through the Autism Teaching Institute had a sustained impact. This was especially the case with schools where teachers completed the full graduate diploma course. The mainstream and special schools reported a flow-on effect to staff who had not undertaken the course and all schools involved considered the investment of time and resources for this training to be highly effective and influential in improving their approach.”
In 2023 the ATI is currently in a review phase, pausing delivery of courses to update them in light of changes to the autism research landscape, and the broader educational policy context in Victoria. In 2022 the Department of Education supported Western Autistic School to conduct a strategic review of the program and develop a 10-year strategic plan. The intention is to be delivering courses again in 2024 and looking for further opportunities to grow the organisation and expand the ranges of learning experiences offered.
With specific reference to the terms of the inquiry, I would highlight the following points in relation to the key features of the ATI that have enabled it to contribute to supporting the Victorian school system to respond to the needs of autistic students:
- A key feature of the ATI course offerings is a focus on building the capacity of teachers to deeply understand individual learners through the lens of autism, and to make specific adjustments for their learning. This has meant that learning is robust, and that teachers are able to respond to the unique presentation of autistic learners, rather than focus on any specific intervention approach or process.
- The inclusion of autistic voice through autistic course lecturers has been essential to ensuring ATI course delivery remains relevant and prioritises the educational outcomes important to autistic students and their families.
- Engagement with research in ATI courses explicitly acknowledges the range of interventions and approaches with a basis in evidence, and course participants are encouraged to see these interventions as a toolbox of practices, which must be tailored to suit individual students and learning needs. This approach has maintained a focus on collaboration and teacher’s professional judgement, and the capacities that are needed to inform this.
- Being situated within the VET sector has meant that ATI courses maintain a strong focus on practice elements, and on teachers applying their knowledge and being assessed within their own local context. It also ensures that trainer-assessors and core staff are expert practitioners, with currency of practice in relation to teaching autistic students
- The connection to Western Autistic School has benefits in multiple directions. The school has provided opportunities for course participants to participate in placements, and to observe and learn from the practice of specialist teachers. These experienced, specialist teachers have also acted as trainer-assessors and course facilitators. The ATI being linked to Western Autistic School, and the relationship that the school has with local schools in relation to student transition, has ensured that the ATI maintains ‘skin in the game’ and is meaningfully invested in schools improving their inclusive practice, to better support exiting students. In the other direction, the ATI has been able to influence the practice of teachers at the school, connecting them to developments in autism research, practice and policy, and has provided opportunities for career progression and varied professional experiences for staff at the school.
- Alongside specialised teacher training, the ATI has had opportunities to deliver learning to the leaders and department of education staff who hold a pivotal role in supporting systemic change. The ATI’s involvement in the development and delivery of the Autism Education Plan through the Autism Education Strategy Advisory Group and connection to the Inclusive Education division has also increased the influence that it has had on educational outcomes for autistic learners in Victoria.