Fransina Norval
Tennant Creek High School, NT
Warumungu Country
Teaching Fellow
As Senior Teacher – Inclusion at Tennant Creek High School, Fransina has combined culturally informed practices with her wealth of experience teaching in special education across three continents, to revolutionise her school’s support for students with complex needs.
After serving as Inclusion Adviser for sixteen schools in the Barkly and Central region, Fransina returned to university to study Trauma-Informed Education. This helped inform her evidence-based, high impact interventions in her remote school where many families face high levels of disadvantage, and a substantial number of students have additional learning needs.
Fransina supported the planning and implementation of a Flexible Learning Space at the school which creates a circle of safety around students with a complex disability, and established a School Support Team to provide opportunities for coordinated interventions for all students with additional needs. The impact has been remarkable, with attendance in the Flexible Learning Space increasing to over 90% for previously disengaged at risk students. She has also helped build teacher confidence and capacity in this area, through creating a collaborative professional learning culture and developing an innovative Whole-School Trauma-Informed Professional Development Plan.
Fransina’s sincerity, drive, and unwavering passion and commitment to assist students with additional needs has connected her to educators across NT. She conducts online training courses for teachers at other schools, and her current initiative to establish a ‘Barkly Collaborative Learning Community’ will help schools in the region build their expertise in inclusion and trauma-informed practice. As testament to her impact, Fransina won the Northern Territory Inclusion Educator of the Year in 2021.