Student Engagement

Who is involved?

An engagement policy is best developed with input from representatives from all areas of the school community, including:

• school principals, as they have the primary responsibility to develop, communicate, implement and monitor the policy
• school community, which has a key role in ensuring the policy reflects shared expectations and that the policy is well communicated and monitored, and its effectiveness evaluated. As part of the school community, the school council should also be consulted and its views should be taken into account when you draft a student engagement policy.
• students, whose voice (e.g. through Student Representative Councils) can assist in building relationships, shared expectations and supporting policy implementation. Research shows that when students are engaged in setting their own behavioural expectations they are much more likely to commit to them. This also helps to build an inclusive and respectful school culture, where all members of the school community feel empowered to contribute to influencing the culture and practice.
• parents and the broader community play a vital role in supporting successful learning experiences and outcomes for our children. This framework is about schools engaging with parents and communities to work together to maximise student engagement and learning outcomes

A process which elicits meaningful contributions from across the school community reflects the shared responsibility for student engagement and can be a powerful tool to build a shared commitment to the Student Engagement Policy.

“We now know that educators will not greatly improve a child’s academic progress unless they find ways of getting the school and home into harmony.” — Hedley Beare, VICCSO online, 2013.