My Say My Way – a voice for learners with complex needs
About this project
My Say My Way (MSMW) is a pioneering NSW Department of Education initiative led by CESE, in partnership with the department's Inclusion and Wellbeing unit, to develop a suite of accessible student voice tools to collect data on the educational experience and wellbeing at school of students with disability and/or complex learning needs.
Schools have told us they experience an equity gap for students with disability.
"Most of the students [with disability] are excluded from current student voice tools, my students have a voice, and we need to listen." Staff, Support unit, Metro High School.
CESE have built on previous work from the NSW Disability Strategy to develop a customised digital application that draws on an evidence-based measurement framework to systematically measure sense of belonging and other aspects of schooling for students who have typically been unable to access conventional student voice surveys.
Our vision is for every NSW public school student with a disability to have the opportunity to share their voice.
We have 3 tools available on the MSMW digital application. These include:
- Student Accessible Survey (SAS) Tool
- A digital survey with a range of in-built accessibility features that can be personalised to meet the needs of each student.
- Features include Boardmaker symbols, customisable photos, text to speech, different font sizes and high contrast display options for students with Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI).
- Guided Discussion Methods (GDM) Tool
- Provides different ways to elicit responses from students. These include prompted conversations (gestures and vocalisations, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) low tech, AAC digital devices) and arts-based methods (body mapping, guided photovoice, in the picture).
- A digital survey where teachers record student responses after they have engaged with the GDM activities.
- Parent/Carer Insight (PCI) Tool
- A digital survey for schools to gather parent/carer perceptions on their child’s educational experience and wellbeing at school.
We worked closely with ten schools to undertake intensive user-experience testing. This included 120 school staff (school leaders, teaching professionals and administrative and support staff) 103 students from K-12, drawn from schools for specific purposes (SSPs) and primary and secondary schools with support units across metro and regional locations.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
“MSMW was an excellent tool for students to provide feedback. All students were able to access the survey and participate with minimal teacher support which has not previously been the case.”
Classroom teacher, Primary Support Unit
“[Students] were so excited to go on the laptops … [one student said] I didn’t know you wanted to know if I was happy.”
Assistant Principal, Primary Support Unit
School staff told us about their experience with the digital application:
- 75% said it was easy to provide access to staff.
- 62% said it was easy to set up students into class groups.
- 71% said it was easy to customise the SAS.
We have used school feedback to identify and make key improvements to the tools, the digital application and implementation process.
We are aiming for approximately 500 NSW public schools to participate in My Say My Way 2026 – could yours be one of them?
All SSPs and primary and secondary schools with support units are warmly encouraged to participate.
For participating schools, you can:
Term 1
- Join MSMW for your school – link to our coordinator registration form coming soon.
- Complete the new MyPL modules to prepare for using MSMW in your school.
Term 2
- Access the MSMW application and collect data with your students (available all term).
- View student data in the MSMW application and whole school data in Scout (available all year).
Following this, CESE will collect feedback to refine the tools and implementation process. CESE will also complete psychometric testing to establish question validity, before rolling out to all schools in 2027.
For any questions about MSMW, please email mysaymyway.cese@det.nsw.edu.au.