It has been another huge year for the team here at the BGKLLEN. We’ve worked with some incredible schools, educators and organisations and presented to over 770 people to promote our mission to deliver equal education and employment outcomes for all young people. Here are some of the highlights of our year:
New Work Order in the VCAL – Teacher Toolkit
We started off the year with a BANG – Launching the New Work Order VCAL Teacher Toolkit alongside Victorian Deputy Premier & Minister for Education James Merlino, and Jan Owen OAM from the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA).
The toolkit is a 12-month partnership between FYA and BGKLLEN and was created through a co-design process with 5 local schools. Students can be seen evaluating the VCAL Toolkit activities below:
Students evaluating the VCAL Toolkit activities.
The response to the toolkit has been phenomenal, and it has been downloaded over 590 times, with over 19,000 students impacted.
You download a copy of the toolkit here.
Managing Stress & Anxiety Teacher Resource Kit
We worked very closely with the Anxiety Resources Centre to launch the Managing Stress & Anxiety Teacher Resource Kit at the Parkdale Secondary Colledge. This was launched by Member for Mordialloc Tim Richardson to students and parents of the school.
Michelle from ARC, Brendan from BGKLLEN, Tim Richardson MP, Louise from Wellbeing and Principal David from Parkdale Secondary College.
The Managing Stress and Anxiety Teacher Resource Kit helps educators to teach valuable anxiety management tools to young people including:
- Learning to SURF (Stop, Understand, Reflect, Focus)
- Breathing
- Meditation
- Grounding
- Mindfulness
Printed versions of the Resource Kit have been distributed to 33 schools in the local area.
A free downloadable copy is available here.
The BGKLLEN Annual General Meeting
April saw us hold our Annual General Meeting. This year we decided to do something different and engaged ethical consulting firm Purposeful to present to the board and other guests on how to engage a younger workforce.
You can find a copy of the 2017 Annual Report here.
At Risk Forum
In August we held our annual At Risk Forum. This year the conference was fully booked in just 4 days, which is a new record for the BGKLLEN. We had some fantastic speakers at the event including:
- Lucy Thomas from Project Rockit – Keynote presentation on Bullying & Cyberbullying
- Emma McCarthy – Educating Young People With Autism
- Renee Tsatsis from the Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria- Understanding OCD and Managing Reassurance
- Hannah Weymes and Jayne Valle from School Focused Youth Services – Trauma Informed School Communities
- Michelle Graeber from the Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria – Creating Suicide Safer Communities
You can download a copy of the At Risk Forum presentations here.
BGKLLEN Industry Expo
The BGKLLEN team with our four super volunteers from Parkdale Secondary College, Ash Foster, Jayden Water, Lachlan Davis and Mohammed Salim
We recently held our first ever Industry Expo. Teachers from many of the local Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston schools pointed out that while there are lots of existing career expos, these mostly focus on VCE students seeking a University pathway, and not alternative forms of education and employment.
We held the event at the Beaumaris Secondary College and had representation from local employers, industry representatives, TAFES, registered training organisations and local youth services. 97% of students thought the event helped them understand careers and pathways better.
A big thank you to everyone who was involved, especially our four super volunteers from Parkdale Secondary College, Ash Foster, Jayden Water, Lachlan Davis and Mohammed Salim.
Engagement Co-Design Framework
The Engagement Co-Design Framework training has had incredible outcomes with those teaching vulnerable young people. A recent 10-week post-event survey showed the following results from Teacher Aides:
- Has the training had beneficial effects on your engagement with students – 7.93/10
- Has the training improved your skillset and processes – 7.36/10
- Have you had better or improved learning outcomes for students as a result of the training – 7.21/10
The ECDF is now being used as a transition support tool for young people with additional needs and learning difficulties at Berendale School. This has been an unexpected but very fitting use of the principles of building a shared language about learning between young people, parents and schools.
Structured Workplace Learning (SWL)
This year we have helped place 139 students as part of the Structured Workplace Learning (SWL) program and ran over 50 school sessions for students.
Not only are the team achieving large numbers of support for students, they are also secretariat to the Careers Group and members of the local VCAL and Wellbeing networks.
We are incredibly proud of the work done by the team but we are also always on the lookout for more businesses to take part in the SWL program. You can find out more about the program here, or register your interest by emailing swl@bgkllen.org.au .
We also need to recognise Laura for her advocacy work, taking out Kingston Young Citizen of the Year and being elected to the Victorian Youth Congress.
Have Your Say
We are currently conducting a stakeholder survey to inform our operations next year. Click on the following link if you would like to have your say. It takes less than 5 minutes.
Next Year
Next year is going to be big and exciting. Follow us @bgkllen on Twitter , Facebook or Instagram to keep up to date with our movements. Our offices will be closed from Dec 21 — Jan 7. We look forward to seeing you in 2019!