Base schools are an important part of the IOC initiative and IOCs have been placed in specialist schools in acknowledgement of the wealth of expertise held in specialist schools. Base schools provide a supportive ‘home’ for IOCs to work from, as well as benefitting from the IOC’s experience and learnings from their systems coaching training and work in partner schools.
IOCs work consistently in their base school throughout their tenure. In their first term of employment, they work in the base school while undertaking systems coaching training. Once they start work with partner schools, they continue supporting their base school for around 1 day every week (0.2 FTE).
Many base schools include their IOC in their school leadership team, enabling the IOC to maximise their contribution to the school’s inclusion improvement agenda.
For an example of how an IOC might work at their base school, see this video:
Benefits for base schools
Base schools benefit from the IOC initiative in a range of ways, including:
- IOCs bring learning from systems coaching training and their work in partner schools back to their base school.
- IOCs can be part of the school leadership and lead inclusion.
- IOCs provide inclusive practice leadership and support.
- Ongoing access to evidence-based research and practice resources.
- IOCs have access to ongoing professional learning opportunities and Communities of Practice; learnings they can share with the school.
- Increased network capability building.
- Increased capability within and across all schools through continual improvement across the education system.
What is required of base schools?
Base schools can consider the following actions to ensure their IOC is empowered to have the greatest impact on their school:
- Include the IOC in the school leadership team to prioritise their role in leading inclusion.
- Provide the IOC with an experienced member of staff as a mentor, see: Mentor role.
- Ensure the IOC can focus on their ‘in-scope’ work by not asking them to do ‘out-of scope’ work – (What responsibilities are in-scope for an IOC).
Mentor role
Base schools are strongly encouraged to provide IOCs with an experienced mentor, such as a member of the school leadership team.
Access to a trusted and consistent mentor enables IOCs to test and apply their learnings from training, professional learning, and experiences in partner schools.
IOCs have reported that having a mentor helps them to be more effective in their base school, enabling them to receive timely feedback on their practice and build a stronger connection to the school. It can also assist them with identifying an inclusion improvement focus area within the base school.
The mentor and IOC hold regular meetings that focus on the growth, wellbeing and support of the IOC. The meetings take the form of structured conversations.
Mentors benefit from the opportunity to have observer access to the online IOC Systems Coaching Blended Learning Course.
IOC funding
Base specialist schools receive ongoing funding through the Student Resource Package (SRP).
They also receive a cash allocation in their SRP allocation to help support the travel needs of their IOC in travelling from their base school to partner schools and other department workplaces.
For any questions about IOC funding, please contact: inclusion.outreach.coaching@education.vic.gov.au
IOC recruitment
Each specialist school is responsible for employing their own IOC, with support from their Regional Inclusion Outreach Coaching Coordinator (RIOCC).
Due to the unique requirements of the role, IOC positions are ongoing but must be advertised at the Learning Specialist classification on a tenured basis. The tenure period can be determined by the school.
Updated