the opportunity

The River Nile School (RNS) is an independent senior-secondary school delivering Applied Learning curriculum to re-engage refugee school-aged women who may have had disrupted schooling, are newly arrived to Australia or find a flexible learning environment most suitable to their learning. All students who attend RNS have English as an Additional Language (EAL) so developing student levels of language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) is a central focus.

RNS provides a high-challenge, high-support learning environment with a strengths-based approach. It offers small class sizes, and teachers and student support staff work collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for each student with personalised learning, wellbeing and support programs. RNS adopts a holistic model for supporting the unique educational needs of each student, so developing strong student-staff relationships is essential. Our students come from backgrounds where they may have experienced significant trauma, so we adopt a trauma-informed (healing) approach to our teaching.

Based in North Melbourne, 2023 will be our seventh year as a school. RNS grew out of the River Nile Learning Centre (RNLC) established in 2006 to assist the African refugee community. We’ve grown substantially since then, and our student cohort comprises young women from many regions.

As a growing school filling a unique gap in the education sector, we are striving to build strong foundations to empower young migrant women to gain the language, life and work skills to thrive.

RNS has ~100 students and a 30-person team, including 10+ registered teachers and 10 allied professionals with social/youth work, multicultural engagement and refugee health expertise. Our team brings different and overlapping strengths, skills and experiences to provide a holistic response to students’ educational needs in a respectful and productive learning environment.

Student Support Workers play an important role in supporting students to remove barriers to enable engagement/re-engagement in their education. Central to this is providing supports that help resolve practical personal challenges and when challenges are complex, referral to appropriately skilled agencies. This work requires an ability to work effectively in a dynamic, professional team environment, striving for the long-term RNS learning vision and ensuring practice is aligned with our goals and values.

Your Mindset:

• You believe every young person deserves a thriving future.
• You respect and value the perspectives of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) young people and are interested to work with those with complex needs to help them achieve their potential.
• You are comfortable working in a flexible, evolving, changing work environment, staying focused on outcomes and adapting your approach as needed.
• You are collaborative, valuing and respecting relationships within and across our entire team and with our external partners.
• You take initiative, solve problems and have a high attention to detail.

Responsibilities:

• Provide trauma-informed, outreach, engagement and practical support to River Nile students, as required. This includes practical support such as crisis management skills when housing problems occur, navigating Centrelink, MYKIs and Utilities and managing formal paperwork.
• Supporting ‘soft entry’ student welcoming at the start of the school day with English conversation and reading at 10 am for ~30 minutes.
• Following up unexplained student attendance and supporting school re-engagement, in collaboration with key colleagues in planning approaches.
• Responding to incidents, disclosures or suspicions of family violence or child abuse, by taking action with reporting and collaborating with key colleagues in planning approaches.
• Provide case management support to identified students, including attending individual care team meetings and class student review meetings.
• Manage and facilitate the referral of students to access external specialist professional agencies (e.g. Orygen Youth Health, Young People’s Health Program, Front Yard, the Foyer, Financial Counselling, Legal expertise etc), in consultation with school leadership and teachers.
• Facilitating student participation in programs or activities that foster life, recreational skill and network building e.g. after school & holiday activities; helping students book in for Learner's & Hazard tests, finding a learner driver instructor
• Providing students with job support (e.g. updating/tailoring letters and resumes, getting to interviews, work placements, documentation) - as guided by the VET, Pathways and Transitions Coordinator and school leadership.
• Ensuring accurate records are kept of supports and interventions provided for identified students – these should be documented as chronicle entries on Compass or when confidential in formal student notes, within the established school student record management systems.
• Supporting the school with relevant resources, being flexible to contribute to other duties as requested that are within the level of the position and scope of incumbent competencies and training.
• Compliance with ALL RNS Policies, Procedures and Codes of Conduct, especially for Staff and Child Safety. Adherence and commitment to the professional code of ethics and practice for working with young people, see here

Key Selection Criteria

Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated experience in working with, empowering, developing and delivering social support and wellbeing programming for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) students both individually and as part of a community

• Demonstrated track record in building and maintaining networks and partnerships with external agencies and stakeholders to achieve practical and meaningful social-emotional and wellbeing supports for young people.
• Demonstrated experience in organising and coordinating wellbeing and therapeutic learning activities.
• Demonstrated excellent documentation, written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated capacity to develop constructive relationships with students, parents/guardians/carers, staff and external agencies.
• Demonstrated knowledge in working with adolescents and young adults who have experienced trauma, are marginalised, disadvantaged and/or from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

Qualifications, Experience & Credentials

• Relevant tertiary qualifications in areas of youth work, social work, community development or similar.
• 2+ years relevant experience, including working with CALD students or communities with complex needs. Experience in a flexible school setting highly regarded.
• Working with Children Check - Employee.
• 100-point Proof of Identity

To submit your application, click Apply Now.