Regional ASD Summary
2012 achievements for early childhood and schools
Region: North-Western Victoria (formerly Loddon Mallee Region)
Key achievements:

Positive Partnerships
The Positive Partnership Program was delivered to seven schools – approximately 166
staff - within the Bendigo and Sandhurst networks by a team of five School Support
Officer staff.
Positive Partnerships is a program that has been running since midway through 2011.
It has been modified from the original program which took four full days and now
consists of eight one hour sessions. The entire staffs of Kalianna, Camp Hill, Epsom,
Lockwood and Lockwood South, Bendigo Violet Street and Eaglehawk North have either
completed or will soon be completing the course. It has helped to provide school staff
with practical strategies to assist children with special needs, and in particular Autism
Spectrum Disorder.
Feedback from the program has been very positive:
“This program really challenged and informed our thinking and our knowledge on
Autism Spectrum Disorder. It was beneficial to all classroom teachers, prep to grade 6.
We highly recommend it.” John Morton - Assistant Principal Eaglehawk North Primary
School.
‘The Positive Partnership Program successfully provided the staff of our school with
knowledge and skills to manage the behaviours and learning of students who are on the
Autism Spectrum’. Malcolm Hall - Principal Lockwood Primary School

Planning for Successful Transitions:
A total of seven sessions were run within the region – five Preschool to Primary School
with 89 people attending and two Primary School to Secondary School with 35 people
attending. All sessions received very positive feedback.
There were eight new trainers trained this year representing various networks within
the region.

Inclusion Online
Two cohorts of the ASD inclusion on line program were delivered in the region by David
Dunne. From these session a second presenter has been trained and will begin rolling
out the ASD program in Term 1, 2013.

ASD coach
An ASD coach began in term 4. He works with a group of schools within various
networks of the region running a 12 week program focusing on Positive Behaviour
Support and Functional Behaviour Assessment. Work began in the Bendigo region with
a total of 46 teachers attending. The coach is also supporting the training and delivery
of Positive Partnerships, Planning a Successful Transition and Inclusion online. He will
also be consulting with SSO staff and Visiting Teachers as needed to support their work.

Data Collection
Data was collected around number of students with an ASD diagnosis that were funded,
unfunded, listed on CASES21 or undergoing a diagnosis, children transferring from
Preschool to Prep, and Primary to Secondary and expressions of interest for ASD
professional development. These figures have been used to support the Planning a
Successful Transition and Positive Partnership rollout within the region and ASD coach
focus schools among other things.