Families Matter Newsletter Volume 1 No. 3: June 2005

Welcome to the third issue of the Families Matter Newsletter.

For most of this year to date, as last year, the project team and training facilitators have been wholly engaged in working with schools and communities, organising training days and supporting the initial participation of schools around the country.

There are some 450 schools which have registered an Expression of Interest, and more continue to be received. In 2004 a total of 188 school teams were trained and supported. In this year so far, a further 58 school teams have been trained. Most of those schools have had opportunity to run at least an initial workshop to involve parents and families of their own school community.

We are currently making contact with each of these schools to find out more about their experiences, the ways they propose taking the Families Matter process forward, and what further support they may need from the project team to achieve that.

In this Newsletter we want to provide a brief update on a number of aspects of the project.

Revised Schedule of Training Days: May – October 2005

In May we reviewed the planned schedule of training days taking into account preferences and requests from schools for alternative dates; this was published on the Families Matter Website at http://www.familiesmatter.org.au/schedule050518.doc and advised to schools in an email Newsflash on 16 May. Many schools have already signed up for these training days. Revised schedule is available here.

At these training days, we welcome the teams from schools just taking up Families Matter – and also schools already participating, which seek to provide refresher training to existing team members, or to train additional or replacement members for their existing team.

Note that there will be some limited flexibility to add further training days, to meet the particular requirements of further clusters of schools seeking to participate in Families Matter in the second half of 2005. To make this viable within our budget limits, we would seek to include up to six schools from the area as the basis for scheduling an additional training day.

For all enquiries about training day scheduling and registration, please contact Kelli Kiernan in Brisbane on: (07) 3356 9400 or by email.

Training Facilitator Team in Mentoring and Support Role for Participating Schools.

Having trained so many school teams over the past twelve months, the focus of each of our skilled training facilitators is evolving into a mentoring and support role, to assist each school to implement Families Matter in sustainable ways. Trainers are currently making contact with each school to discuss their experiences, progress, forward plans and any aspects where they seek advice or assistance from the project team. They are also encouraging each school to tell their “good news story” – see below. You can also discuss implementation with the Project Team – Freecall 1800 183 066

Redesign of Families Matter Website: http://www.familiesmatter.org.au

The Website was set up latter 2004 to provide basic online information about the background, purpose and operation of Families Matter, to enable schools to consider participation in the first round introduction of Families Matter in 2004. While it has always been our intention to develop the site as a comprehensive and expanding information “hub” for participating schools and others interested in building partnerships to support the well-being of young people, we have been so deeply engaged working directly with schools that this website development has had to be deferred. However, we have now developed a plan for the staged redesign and expansion of all aspects of the site. This process will commence in the next few days, and will continue progressively over the next few weeks. As additional features and information services are added, these will be advised to schools by emailed Newsflash bulletins. These features will include:-

Directory of Participating Schools

All participants have indicated a strong interest to hear about what other schools are engaged in Families Matter, and how they have developed the process in their own communities. The Participating Schools feature will list by State and Territory, all schools that have undertaken the basic training. As each school provides us with more information about their activities and experiences for publication, this further material will be added, together with information about other complementary initiatives and programs which the school may also be running to support their students and families.

Opportunity For Schools to Tell and Share Their Experiences and “Good News Stories”

In particular, we ask schools to help us build the “What’s Happening Out There” section to include your own stories in your own words, about how you went about setting up Families Matter, how the process developed, the memorable aspects and innovative approaches you used, and the “good news stories” about the positive achievements and the forward directions you are setting. (And of course, to the extent you want to share publicly, the issues you encountered and how you dealt with and resolved them – demonstrating resilience in your community). We want your story and photo on the site! You can email these to me.

Participant Schools Information Exchange Log-In Facility

In addition to the public telling of your story to help others, there will be times when principals, staff and parents (and students?) want to make informal contact with people from other participating schools, with the flexibility and interaction of a “chat-room” environment. To put up a question, raise an issue for discussion, seek advice from peers on a point you are dealing with, or simply record thoughts, ideas and learnings as conversation-starters. In the next few days the Participant Log In facility on the Families Matter will go “live” with instructions and links to enable participants from Families Matter trained schools to log into an EdNA-based facility, which will provide a generic discussion forum and opportunities to provide feedback and raise matters for attention. A help desk and support service for the Participant Log In facility will be provided by Kelli Kiernan in Brisbane on: (07) 3356 9400 or by email. Further more specific information will go to contacts in participant schools in the next few days.

Resources and Links.

This section of the site will be progressively developed to provide an expanding range of information and resources for schools, teachers, parents, families (and students). Elements will include:

Publications (will include all Families Matter kits, including the Handbook, Resource Materials and Overhead Transparencies/Handouts
Research and Discussion Papers
Related Initiatives (e.g.: Family-School Partnerships Project; Values Education etc.)
Other Websites of Interest
Resources – primarily relating to resilience, coping and well-being and any related issues raised in participant school feedback.
Events – where we hear about upcoming events of potential relevance.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST

NSW Parents Council Annual State Conference – Sunday 19 June 2005
The Conference will be held at the Bishop Barry Centre, 51 Druitt Street, Sydney City, from 10.00 am. Key speakers and presentations include:
- Dr Ken Rigby – “Parents Action on Student Bullying in Schools”
- Ian Dalton - “National Schooling Issues”
- Jenny King/Lex Bittar - “Introducing Families Matter”
Enquiries: Duncan McInnes (02) 9955 8276 or 0438 558 276

ACSSO National Conference in Canberra 17 – 19 October 2005
The Australian Council of State School Organisations invites parents, teachers, researchers, social workers, counsellors, media and education decision makers to a major Conference which will explore some of the big issues and choices in education. For further information and registration see the website.

We will aim to keep each school and community promptly informed of each further development of the Families Matter project through the rest of 2005 by means of our Newsflash Bulletin service.

Rupert Macgregor
National Project Manager “Families Matter”

PO Box 323, CURTIN ACT 2605

Phone: (02) 6282 5150 Freecall: 1800 183 066