STAFF STORY
One of the most popular adults on the Primary Years campus is our Learning Support Officer Joshua Saltos. He only started working with us at the beginning of this term, but Josh is well known to all the students, widely loved and respected.
Immense energy and joy surrounds this man as he goes about his day at Del Monte. Students flock to him, he brings support and assurance to their daily classroom activities. He loves his work, he loves kids, his energy is infectious. His support of children’s learning is helping many find those pivotal moments when their lessons suddenly make sense.
The NSW Department of Education states that Learning Support Officers (LSOs) ‘work under the direction and supervision of the classroom teacher. They provide assistance to students with disability and additional learning and support needs and support classes in mainstream schools and mainstream classes.’ (https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/disability-learning-and-support/personalised-support-for-learning/roles-and-responsibilities#Classroom0)
Josh describes his role as ‘ helping out with the kids who really need it, those with anxiety or other mental health issues, kids with dyslexia or kids in need’.
Although every day is different when you’re an LSO there is a similar daily structure to his work with students. Each morning Josh visits students known to need his particular help in their various learning spaces. He checks that they have all arrived and have settled into class and helps individually where needed. He then spends the day visiting classrooms for an hour each, supporting teachers more generally in each class and with specific students if and when a need arises. At recess and lunchtime and at Kiss and Ride before and after school, Josh is there, getting to know all the Del Monte students.
When Josh left school he didn’t know where life would take him. He ended up in retail, selling cars. But Josh soon left the corporate world, realising he had something to offer in the classroom, and remembering how he himself had sometimes struggled in school. The real world experience of sales – convincing and negotiating – encompasses skills he employs in the classroom, to encourage focus and learning in students.
The secret to his success is in building relationships, another skill honed in car sales as well as in his TAFE LSO training.
‘My biggest thing is getting to know the person. I find out what footy teams they support, what games they like, what movies they are watching’.
From there he reaches his students in the way that gets a positive response. For some he sketches a drawing for them, knowing only then will they fully cooperate. For others he is their scribe, their reader, a guide who breaks down tasks into little sections to tackle bit by bit.
Outside of work, Josh is very busy. He is mad about cars and has owned no less than 20 – he spends much of his time off on long drives with friends. He also plays indoor soccer or OzTag, makes art (sculpture and painting) and reads, especially biographies. He is the son of two teachers, the brother of teachers, the partner of a teacher and is filled with awe and respect for their work, and the way they juggle many roles within and beyond the classroom. He is strongly considering future studies in education so that he can become a teacher too.
In the meantime, he adores working with Santa Sabina students.
‘I love it, it’s good fun. I’m just a big kid at heart and that’s what sums me up’.
