How to deal with posting dramas

By Corporal Simone Liebelt

ARE you on posting with teenage children? Are they having problems adjusting to the thought of leaving friends and their local community?

The Defence Community Organisation (DCO) can help with this common situation.

DCO recognises that while changing locations is something ADF families experience regularly, this can become even more difficult when teenage dependants are unwilling to leave friends and re-establish themselves.

To help families develop appropriate strategies to help teenagers, DCO has developed a booklet:
Travelling Teens – A Parents’ Guide to Family Relocation.

Based in-part upon the personal experiences of many ADF families, the booklet covers the issues that teenagers are likely to be grappling with at this stage of their life.

It also provides expert advice and offers practical strategies on how to support teens during the relocation process and to make what is often a difficult situation into a positive experience.

The booklet will be available through DCO offices in October.

New software package to settle kids
DCO is developing a new software package to assist parents to re-establish their children into new schools.
Many parents develop student information portfolios, which contain records of each child’s academic, sporting and other achievements.

They make these available to assist the new schools place their children into the right year or classes.

DCO, in partnership with Defence Families of Australia and the Department of Education, Science and Training, have now taken this initiative a step further. DCO is developing a digital student portfolio, which will capture this information on a CD.

The family provides the CD to the school, streamlining this process.

DCO is providing a special video, which will explain the process and provide instructions and assistance on how to make a personal portfolio and get started. The package will be available from DCO local offices from October.

Further information from Joan Gilbert, Headquarters DCO, on telephone (02) 6266 8424 or e-mail joan.gilbert@defence.gov.au

School aide scheme expanding
DCO is expanding its Defence School Transition Aide (DSTA) program.

In October, the scheme, which has been operating in 79 primary schools and three secondary schools for the past four years, is being expanded to cover 127 primary schools, while a new secondary school program is to be launched. This program will focus on developing programs to support secondary age students through the moving process.

The DSTA programs provide a staff member who gives direct support to children of Defence families who are about to leave the school on posting, have just arrived at the school or have one parent absent for extended periods on deployment or exercise.

The aide is a person who understands the needs of these children and has the time to devote to them. The aide is also able to provide assistance to the school and parents.

The scheme has proved to be very beneficial in helping children with the moving and resettlement processes. In many cases, the social and emotive impacts of leaving home and friends have been lessened, making the move a more positive experience. Also, children have been able to settle into the new school more quickly, thereby resuming effective learning more quickly.

More information on the DSTA program is available from Joan Gilbert on e-mail: joan.gilbert@defence.gov.au

 

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