Additional care

Public schools provide a range of other staff who contribute to personalised learning and support for students where needed.

These positions include:

• learning and support teachers and school learning support officers (SLSO)
• specialist vision and hearing itinerant teachers
• English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) teachers
• community information and liaison officers
• home school liaison officers
• Aboriginal education officers and teams.

Contact your school office if you think your child would benefit from these support services or you would like to know more.

Students with disability and additional learning and support needs

If your child has a disability or additional needs, start by talking to your local public school. The school will have a meeting with you to find out more and talk about how they can help.

NSW public schools provide a range of specialist services to support students with additional learning and support needs. This includes support for students’ diverse needs in learning or behaviour, students with disability, students with additional health and wellbeing needs.

Every mainstream NSW public school has a learning and support teacher who works in the school to support students with disability.

Learn more about what we're doing:

• School Disability Strategy
• Inclusive learning support for parents and carers.

Support services and school counselling

All NSW public schools have access to psychological expertise through the school counselling service. School counselling staff can help students who are having difficulties at school or home. They can connect families with services outside of school if needed. You may make an appointment to access the school counselling service by contacting the school.

Anti-bullying environment

All NSW public schools actively prevent student bullying and encourage appropriate behaviour by helping students build social skills and respect for others.

Schools develop their own anti-bullying plan which include strategies to reduce bullying behaviour, cyberbullying or harassment, and school staff are trained to respond to these situations. Contact the school for a copy of your school’s anti-bullying plan or to report a concern

The anti-bullying section on our website includes evidence-based research to support educators, parents and carers, and students to identify, prevent, and respond effectively to student bullying behaviours.