Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The Final Report of the Values in Action Schools Project: [Section 3: Accounts of the VASP cluster projects: Engaging the Disengaged]

The Australian Juvenile Detention Centres School Cluster drew together ten schools in juvenile detention centres across Australia, including both primary and secondary aged students, in an ambitious project with a unique student population. The overall objective was to increase student resilience and wellbeing by exposing students to explicit values education in a whole school learning environment. This included teachers, students and their primary caregivers – that is, the residential workers who supervised the students in their living units. This unique cluster adopted a multi-pronged approach to embedding values education. A number of teacher professional development sessions were held with the University Advisor, Dr Thomas Nielsen, to scope the project, develop a shared understanding of the objectives and promote a common values language.