Ministerial Statement

Tailored Learning Provision

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:04): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: There is rarely a situation in which one size truly fits all, and this is no less true for students in our education system. That is why, yesterday, I was proud to announce a major reform to public high schools right around the state, which will support students with a range of complex challenges to continue their studies. We know that those challenges can be broad, they can be complicated and they are often out of the control of our schools. They can include issues like homelessness, mental health decline, family breakdown, pregnancy and addiction.

This announcement came off the back of the Inquiry into Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion Processes in South Australian Government Schools conducted in 2020 by Professor Linda Graham and tabled in this place in March 2021. The $48 million investment, in what will be known as Tailored Learning Provision, or TLP, will start next year and will support secondary students up to the age of 21 who have disengaged from school. It follows a successful trial in 12 public high schools this year, which provided additional in-school support to help students overcome these changes and get back to school.

During the trial, schools reported improvements in attendance as a direct result of the extra youth workers and supports provided, and this resulted in stronger engagement with the students and their families. Make no mistake about the magnitude and the importance of this work. There are currently about 4,360 students enrolled in the existing program, Flexible Learning Options, or FLO, across 85 schools in the public system. But, currently, that program is not offered at all high schools. I am pleased to inform the house today that TLP, Tailored Learning Provision, will be available at all public high schools starting next year.

So often in this place and in the media, too, we discuss issues around violence, bad behaviour and poor attendance in our schools. I have always said that our response to these issues must be as varied as the things that cause them. Keeping young people engaged with their learning and feeling connected to their classmates is a very big part of that puzzle. We know that kids who feel their challenges are acknowledged, and that they are supported to overcome them, are much less likely to lash out. Importantly, the redesigned model puts more individualised supports in place through a tool to help schools identify a student's personal barriers and measure their engagement with learning. It then helps determine the most appropriate support for that student.

Tailored learning is changing lives for the better already. Yesterday, at Parafield Gardens High School I was joined by the member for Playford, where I met Jade, Tyler and Sharna, who showed great courage to speak about their own personal circumstances and the challenges that had threatened their school attendance and how the TLP trial helped them get back on track.

I would like to offer my thanks to Pam Kent, from the Department for Education, and her team for the years of work they have put in to get us to this point and also to the schools that were part of the trial: Craigmore High School, Mannum High School, Mount Barker High School, Parafield Gardens High School, Playford International College, Seaton High School, Seaview High School, Victor Harbor High School, Mark Oliphant College, North Adelaide Senior College and Murray Bridge High School.