Footscray’s Simone Cassidy will travel overseas next year in an effort to help better educate children who themselves have travelled overseas.
Ms Cassidy, an education advisor with the refugee minor program at the Department of Families Fairness and Housing, has received a Churchill Fellowship to study how learning difficulties and disabilities are identified in non-English speaking children.
“It’ll allow me to travel to the UK and visit different experts and academics in the field,” said Ms Cassidy of the fellowship, which she was awarded in September.
“I’ll be going for six weeks across May and June next year. The UK have national guidelines for teachers to help them navigate these challenges so the plan for me is to meet with the people who created those guidelines and go to the schools involved in the pilot process for the guidelines.”
After her study trip is completed, Ms Cassidy will have to produce a report that, as per fellowship guidelines, will be made publicly available.
Given this was the second time Ms Cassidy had applied for a Churchill Fellowship and had to go through an extensive application and interview process before being selected, this requirement comes as no surprise.
“I think I refined my application and made it more specific and improved my communication for the project,” said Ms Cassidy of why she was successful the second time around.
Her hope is that it’s non-English speaking children with disabilities who ultimately benefit.
“The hope is to learn from the UK so we can improve practice here,” Ms Cassidy said.
Cade Lucas
