The Review of Selective Education Access (New South Wales Department of Education, 2018) found that 3-4% of Aboriginal students in NSW apply for selective High School positions compared to 19% of their public school counterparts, and 2-3% of Aboriginal students seek entry to primary school opportunity classes compared to 15% of their non-Aboriginal peers. In response to the review, the New South Wales Department of Education have partnered with the University of New England to initiate ‘The Early identification of high potential and gifted Aboriginal students program’. This program adopts a social-justice approach, and aims to create more equitable access to selective entry settings through early identification of Aboriginal students with high learning potential. Once identified, these students can be provided provision that has been specifically developed for high potential and gifted Aboriginal learners. Additionally, the program is built around partnerships, and, as such, it also aims to foster connections between local schools and their Aboriginal students’ families and communities. There is also an emphasis on valuing the ‘funds of knowledge’ that students bring with them to the classroom, and ensuring that the learning experiences provided to students celebrate and respond to each student’s cultural background. This presentation will report the work that has been achieved to date in the program, with a focus on explaining how the Coolabah Dynamic Assessment protocol used for early identification and Aboriginal students with high learning potential, and the Coolabah pedagogy used within the program, can create more equitable academic outcomes for high potential and gifted Aboriginal students. The presentation will describe the Coolabah Dynamic Assessment protocol's pre-test, intervention, post-test format, and the intervention's focus on addressing known achievment barriers of gifted Aboriginal students. Building on the features of the protocol's metacognitive intervention, the Coolabah pedagogy's aim for greater educational equity through improved self-efficacy will also be canvassed.

Schools are messy, complex environments, and many argue this complexity continues to grow. As a result, the work of the school principal has become increasingly challenging and there is evidence to suggest this is impacting the ability to effectively lead while remaining mentally and physically well. The reasons for this are as complex and broad as the school environments themselves. One factor identified in the literature is the increasing rates of diversity and the expectation on school principals to create and sustain a culture that supports the learning and wellbeing outcomes of all students – a culture that is inclusive.

Inclusive education (IE) is a social construct; by definition, it is the process whereby people are included into a socially constructed environment, or alternatively excluded from it. Given the social nature of IE, any attempt to study the construct as a whole, or aspects of it, must consider the relationships between various people and societal systems involved in its creation, from the individuals being ‘included’ to the national and global contexts within which it is situated. Bronfenbrenner’s ‘ecological systems theory’, provides a structure to identify and organise the influencing factors that sit within different environments, and to study the relationships and interconnections between them. This theory was reconceptualised to interrogate the role of the school principal as a leader for all students - a leader for inclusive education. The ‘ecology of inclusive education’ provided a conceptual framework that guided a qualitative case-study conducted within ten state primary schools located in Queensland, Australia. Principals from each school participated in two in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach.

Key themes identified missing elements in the ‘ecology of inclusive education’ framework. Principals talked extensively about the challenges of negotiating the often competing agendas of the importance of place - the communities in which they sat – alongside systemic expectations. This presentation will explore the role of communities and the system within the ecological model through the voices of the principals. We will then posit a new framework that may better reflect the realities and truth of the work principals engage in each and every day, as leaders for inclusive education.

Epidermal scales in sauropsids perform a wide array of biological functions, which can relate to their shape and size. Accordingly, growth-related changes in scale morphology may reflect distinct functions between juvenile and adult individuals, such as use in mating interactions. Such patterns are poorly explored in both extant reptiles and non-avian dinosaurs, limiting functional interpretations. Here, we investigate scale growth in the ornithischian ceratopsid Chasmosaurus belli and hadrosaurid Prosaurolophus maximus by comparing scale morphologies between juveniles and adults of each taxon. Scale shape is generally consistent across growth stages in both taxa, and changes in C. belli feature scale length cannot reject isometry. However, there is a greater increase in C. belli feature scale width. In practical terms, the magnitude of these size differences rejects the hypothesis that feature scale morphology played a role in mating interactions, suggesting instead that their size was largely non-adaptive. To contextualise the patterns in the sampled dinosaurs, we assessed scale growth and allometry using an ecologically diverse sample of eight extant reptile species belonging to Crocodylidae, Scincidae, Elapidae and Pythonidae. While isometry is the overall most frequent pattern of scale growth in our sample of extant reptiles, most species demonstrate positive scale allometry in at least one area of their bodies, which is likely a response to changing body proportions. Scale shapes in the studied extant species, as in both dinosaurs, are largely retained through growth. This study provides the first detailed assessment of skin growth in non-avian dinosaurs, supporting morphological stasis in the growth of most of their scales.