In this blog, we highlight Eastern Ranges School located in Ferntree Gully in the North Eastern Victoria Region, We asked them some questions about how they use the ROCC at their School, and here is what they had to say!

About ROCC Star Schools

Throughout 2023, we have been sharing the ROCC’in work some of our ‘ROCC Star Schools’ are doing.

The aim is to learn from each other by hearing about the ways that our community of schools is using the ROCC.

Today, we are sharing the experiences that Eastern Ranges School has had with the ROCC. A huge thank you to Eastern Ranges School for sharing this with us all!

About Eastern Ranges School

Eastern Ranges School is a vibrant and engaging learning community of around 200 students, based in Ferntree Gully, Victoria. Eastern Ranges School develops and implements ASD innovative and specialised programs that focus on the needs of students with an autism spectrum disorder, and has the aspirational goal of being defined as a centre for ASD expertise within the community.

Q – How do you use the ROCC to assess, plan and evaluate communication outcomes?

At our school, the ROCC is completed twice a year, in terms 2 and 4, to track student progress in a variety of different domains over time. The term 4 ROCC data is used to inform the speaking and listening goals for the following year. We use a goals and strategies bank alongside the ROCC assessment which helps to inform strategies to progress students in each of the areas and highlight communication strategies that may be useful to support progress in other goal areas.

Q – What do you love about ROCC?

We like the fact that we can use the data from the ROCC assessment to see where the gaps are in student progress and use this data to put strategies in place to progress in each area. We love the fact that we can track progress at a whole-school level and use the data to target school-wide approaches in the areas that are required.

Q – What are your next steps or future plans with ROCC?

We are working on moderating the rating of the ROCC assessment to try to increase inter-rater reliability. We are also working towards integrating the ROCC assessment into the everyday classroom environment.

Tell us about a highlight or break through that has happened for an individual, a staff member, class or the whole school following your use of the ROCC?

Through our use of the ROCC assessment, we have seen that domain 8, availability of communication systems, is an area that many students were receiving lower scores on. Because of this, we decided to make this an area of focus across the school and have put school-wide strategies in place to support our students with transitioning with their communication devices throughout the school. Through this input, there has been an increase in scores in Domain 8 across the school.

What’s your top tip for other ROCC users? 

Provide ongoing training and support for staff members conducting the assessment.