Include

Include by embracing diversity within the community

For Be You, inclusion focuses on the opportunity for everyone to be who they are and to achieve their best mental health. In doing so, we enrich our learning environments.

Inclusion and inclusive practices promote belonging, protect the rights of children and young people, and foster mental health and wellbeing.

In early learning services and schools, inclusion involves the whole learning community. This means leadership teams, educators, support staff, families, children, other professionals and community members working collaboratively. There is no single approach to creating an inclusive learning community. Each learning community's journey of inclusion might look different to another's.

As an educator, you play a key role in developing inclusive environments for children and young people within your learning community. You can provide a safe place where diversity is acknowledged, respected and embraced, which helps to strengthen the entire community.

Who is this module for?

This module is for educators wanting to know more about fostering a sense of inclusion and belonging within their learning community.

Inclusive practices and strategies are constantly evolving. This module is intended to be the place to start or continue your journey. It suits educators interested in promoting inclusion and education leaders looking for ways to strengthen their inclusive practices.

This module contributes to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional development hours, addressing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

In the ACT, completing Include will contribute one (1) hour of ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional learning addressing standard 4.4.2 Maintain Student Safety of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

In NSW, completing the Include module will contribute one (1) hour of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited professional development in the priority area of Student/child Mental health addressing standard descriptor 4.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Educators can complete modules individually and receive accredited hours.

All registered teachers in every state and territory must ensure they have added their teacher registration number and state/territory to the My Profile page.

Please see FAQs for more details on the Be You Professional Learning upload process and time frames in which participants can expect their learning to be recorded with their relevant organisation.

Learning outcomes

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• appreciate the importance and benefits of supporting inclusion and diversity in your learning community
• understand inclusion and diversity and how these support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people
• use inclusive practices in your role as an educator
• feel confident using inclusive practices to foster mental health and wellbeing in your learning community.

Using the Notepad

If you’re a PC or Mac user, there’s a notepad feature for you to record notes, actions or discussion points for each topic. If you’re sharing a computer with your team, your notes will be available for everyone to view. If you wish to keep your notes private, please save and delete your notes each time you finish your session. There’s more information in the Notepad user guide on the right.

Using this module

The Be You Professional Learning modules are designed to be used flexibly in the way best suited for you and your learning community.

Consider one section at a time within the modules. At the end of each page, you will be prompted to explore additional resources within Be You that relate to the content. It is suggested that you complete one module at a time, and use these prompts to identify future opportunities for learning.

You will be prompted to take breaks throughout; this can aid your learning and retention of the content.

You can further your learning by using the reflection questions provided throughout the module. You can use these questions in ways that suit your learning community’s ways of working and broader professional development. There are also resources, such as the Be You Action Plan and Be You Actions Catalogue, that can be used to further facilitate these discussions