Tiffany Westphal

Social worker

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR @JasonClareMP - take note - how not to respond to school can't. You can do better. Still waiting for your response to the Senate Inquiry into School Can't.

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR This campaign for school attendance is not OK. It is HARMFUL. It perpetuates stigma, it diverts attention away from underlying causes. It locates the problem as existing in the parent or child. It leads students and their carers to experience chronic stress, shame & hopelessness

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR It comes from a place where good children do as they are told no matter the cost to themselves. A place where mental health is considered to be a form of weakness. A place where school is presumed safe. A place were we focus on behaviour not wellbeing.

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR This is dreadful. It comes from a place I keep hoping we will move on from. A place where CYP's perspectives are ignored and shutdown. A place where compliance is valued above well-being. A place where the needs of CYP are considered to be irrelevant or irrational.

[Louise Rogers @OuisieRR]

Understand that it's not just schools removing certain students when environments are not meeting need. Sometimes students remove themselves. They get labelled as school refusers. Time to address the inschool factors that contribute to school attendance difficulties. #cantnotwont

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR Experience of chronic stress does not lead to resilience it leads to trauma.

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@OuisieRR Agree "resilience" has been misused. Sadly I've observed it to be used to shame children who have experienced chronic adversity. "That's not very resilient of you"- spoken to a child with dysgraphia who was shutting down unable to do a task without accommodations and support.

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

2/2: It often seems that at an institutional & clinical level we haven't progressed from when beliefs about childhood normalized: 1. power over children, 2. the subjugation of children's voices (seen but not heard), and 3. that children's perceptions are unreliable & dismiss-able

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

1/2: The dismissal/diminishing of a child/young person's perspectives of felt safety because it doesn't match an adult assessment of safety is a huge barrier to addressing school can't.

[Tiffany Westphal @Tiffany_S_Work]

@yellow_ladybugs Thanks for tweeting these statistics about the impact on parents of supporting students with school can't

[The Centre for Inclusive Education @C4IE_QUT]

“We need schools … which can collaborate with parents to identify underlying stressors and find ways to resolve these. We need to understand that chronic stress leads to mental health problems. We need inclusive schools.” ⁦ https://t.co/nl3SYxjK6z