My Say My Way – inclusive voice platform for complex learners
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, sense of belonging and wellbeing 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 are building on previous work from the Disability Strategy to develop from scratch a customised digital platform, drawing 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 surveys.
- Three tools will be available on the MSMW digital platform:
1. Student accessible survey tool
2. Arts-based methods tool
3. Parent/carer insight tool.
- Tools 1 and 2 are aimed at students with disability and/or complex learning needs and will provide varying level of cognitive and communication supports as well as being compatible with different assistive technologies. Tool 3 is aimed at parent/carers of students with disability and/or complex learning needs and complements the voice data collected by the student tools 1 and 2.
- Our vision is for every NSW public school student with a disability to have the opportunity to share their voice.
The MSMW digital tools are an innovative solution, designed to capture students unique perspectives and ensure their voices are heard.
The tools will be delivered on a digital platform to:
- Provide equitable access to capture the voices of students with complex learning needs about their educational experience and wellbeing at school.
- Support consistent collection, analysis and tracking of data at the classroom, school and system level.
- Help to deliver on the strategic direction in the Plan for NSW Public Education:
- that every student is known, valued and cared for
- to embed diverse learner, family and staff voices in decision-making
- support consistent collection, analysis and tracking of data to measure the proportion of students with disability reporting a positive sense of belonging.
At the centre of this project are the diverse range of people who will use the MSMW tools – students, teachers, school leaders and parents/carers – working and learning in a wide range of settings across NSW public schools.
We use a human-centred design thinking approach, working collaboratively with schools during the design and testing process. Feedback from educators and stakeholders so far have told us:
- "Very happy [regarding the] accessibility of questions - how we can cater for font, Boardmaker, photos etc" - Relieving assistant principal.
- "Looks good, lay out is easy to understand. User friendly." - Learning and support teacher.
- "I love that this will be so adaptable for my students."- Special education teacher.
- “Loving what I am seeing…good to see the different aspects and talents within your team working on this. Thank you, I think it is fabulous.” – NSWPPA reference group member.
Critically, we work in ways that seek to balance the need to minimise workload burden on schools, whilst ensuring robust school input to generate high quality end products. MSMW will significantly reduce teacher workload by:
- reducing search costs for valid and reliable tools
- automating the necessary adjustments and accommodations, and
- minimising time-consuming modifications. In specialist education settings, teachers invest significant effort in personalising resources for these students.
In 2025 we need your help to pilot early digital versions of these tools in schools. Our goal is to ensure the suitability of the tools – that is, are they fit for purpose and do they make sense for students, their parents/carers and educators. A formal expression of interest (EOI) for schools to participate in the pilot will be released soon.
For any questions about MSMW, please email mysaymyway.cese@det.nsw.edu.au.