How this South Coast school cut critical behaviour incidents by 90 per cent in just three years

While many schools are grappling with rising behavioural issues, Novo Education Space has achieved a remarkable almost 90 per cent reduction in critical incidents over the past three years.

Centred around a trauma-informed approach for students in Years 9-12 who struggle in traditional classrooms, the South Coast school has also dramatically cut vaping rates and seen its highest-ever number of Year 12 graduates — proving that the right support can change lives.

Formerly Alesco Illawarra, it opened in Wollongong in 2011 and is now based in Wollongong and Nowra under parent brand WEA Illawarra, with plans to open a Shellharbour location within the next 18-24 months and a new purpose-built campus at Nowra by term two.

WEA Illawarra CEO Natasha Osmond-Dreyer said the school attracted students who often had difficulties at other schools, had school refusal, were neurodivergent, felt they never fitted in or came from a trauma background.

“Historically we were less focused on the whole child educational experience and more focused on making sure that their well-being needs were met,” Natasha said.

“Now, what we’ve transitioned to over the last couple of years is really making sure that these kids get the educational depth that they deserve and that they’re looking for.

“Of course, these kids are hugely capable in the right environment and with the right support, and they can kick massive goals, and they should be encouraged to.”

Natasha said it used the Berry Street Education Model, a trauma-informed way of learning which focused on the individual readiness of each student to learn when they arrived at school.

“For our young people, it might be that they are manifesting a certain behaviour, but that might be because they haven’t had any food, or it might be that they didn’t have a safe place to sleep the night before,” she said.

“So of course, they’re going to rock up and show you something that could be different to what you’re anticipating.”

Natasha said with a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:8 and a dedicated well-being officer for every 25 students, the alternative school environment provided personalised support to address the complex needs of its small student population.

She said it also used side-by-side learning with a young person and teacher, rather than a teacher at the front of class, and all classes were vertically streamed, meaning a range of ages could be in a mentor group to teach to the ability of the child.

“You might have a Year 11 knowledge of English, but a Year 7 knowledge of maths,” she said.

“That, for me, is one of the fundamentals of teaching kids how to learn and really sparking that enthusiasm for wanting to learn.”

She said as a result, they were seeing huge improvements in outcomes for students.

“Last year was one of our most successful years we’ve had,” she said, giving credit to the leadership and teaching team.

“The key with these young people is they have had a lot of people who’ve told them that they’re worthless, and they will not amount to anything, yet last year we had our highest cohort of students finish Year 12.

“We know there’s all this wonderful research about the fact that staying in Year 12 is really something that sets you up for the future.

“These are young people who potentially would have left school in Year 9 or Year 10, but they’re actually staying in school, and they are really looking at, what does education bring me?”

Other successes included an almost 90 per cent reduction over the past three years in critical behaviour incidents, despite a study last year revealing an alarming spike in incidents in Australian schools.

She said that was due to the implementation of the trauma-sensitive, evidence-based practices, a tiered behaviour support system and education around behaviour expectations.

“One of the things that was amazing for us last year was we really rapidly reduced our behaviour incident levels,” she said.

“We’ve spent the last three years building a culture of high expectations, which is matched to support our student needs.”

A similar approach was taken with vaping.

“We took a really holistic approach with the kids and with any of their carers that wanted to learn about it, and over 18 months we reduced the proportion of students who vape regularly from 64 per cent to 13 per cent,” she said.

“At the very beginning, we surveyed students, teachers, parents and carers to really understand the reasons for taking up and continuing to vape.

“Then we did focus groups with students and teachers to deep dive, and then they co-designed how do we move to a vape-free or smoke-free school without the use of punishment, suspensions or expulsion.”

With the school continuing to expand, it will open a new dedicated campus in Nowra at the beginning of term two, after long sharing space with another organisation.

“It’s so exciting because we’ve worked with a local architecture firm to use the latest in innovative learning environment thinking,” she said.

Learn more about Novo Education Space.