Tasmania’s Southern Support School has proudly joined the Supporting Quality Engagement with Children (SQE).
This is a national program run by the Australian Human Rights Commission. It helps ensure children and young people – especially those who are often not heard – can share their ideas in government decision making.
As part of the project, students at Southern Support School talked about how to build safe and positive relationships. This year’s focus is on the National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. The goal is to stop violence before it starts and give support early.
Instead of focusing on violence, students were asked to imagine what safe relationships look like. They were also asked how they would like to get help and information. Their ideas will be added to feedback from students across Australia and shared with the government.
The school’s speech pathology team supported students, staff, and the interviewers from the Human Rights Commission during the project. Sophie and Matt, who work for the Commission, led the sessions with students. The speech pathology team worked closely with Sophie and Matt to ensure the questions and activities were easy to understand. They also taught them about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), which helps students express themselves.
The team created special tools like a chat board and a ‘cheat sheet’ to help with AAC. They also made a social story to explain the process to students and gave them the choice to take part. Speech pathologists checked and updated students’ AAC devices to make sure they had the right words to join in.
Two speech pathologists helped Sophie and Matt interview 10 students aged 10 to 18. Students shared who and what helps them feel safe, and how they would ask for help.
Everyone involved found the experience meaningful. Staff were proud to support students. Sophie and Matt also said they learned a lot about inclusive communication and the power of AAC.
This project showed how important it is to create spaces where all children are heard. Southern Support School looks forward to working on more projects like this in the future, helping students who use AAC have their voices heard and shape a more inclusive community.