TACs & Community Partnerships

Community Contracts

Next Challenge works directly in partnership schools, offering anything from resources and assessments, to PDs, consultation and direct partnership. Occasionally this extends to playgroups and daycare centres.

Staff who are part of our direct school program (where they attend the school for a full day on a regular basis) need to liaise with the School Service Manager regarding the requirements for this contract.

It is essential that staff keep all their school related time to their 6.5 hour block at the school (unless otherwise agreed), coming back early as required if tasks need to be completed at the office. Each school has a different travel time allocated to it, so please confirm this with the managers noted above.

Schools are quoted on a particular number of visits per term, and so it is essential that if a day is going to be missed (e.g. the therapist is sick), it is rescheduled for within that term wherever possible.

Any smaller scale contracts such as class screening or PD will be arranged in consultation with the School and Student services manager.

TAC marking (Speech Pathologists only)

Next Challenge offers support for oral language screening in Kindergarten using the Teacher Assessment of Communication - Kindergarten (TAC-K). This is a tool that was developed by Kendra (with colleagues) in 2004, and enables comparison of early Kindergarten oral language expectations with a Perth sample. New norms were gathered for this assessment in 2022.

Many schools send their completed TACs to Next Challenge to be marked by our Speech Pathologists. We aim for a 2 week turnaround from when we receive these tests to when they are marked, so all Speech Pathologists are asked to assist with these once you are trained. Schools receive score breakdowns for each child in the class, and strategies tailored to supporting their expression and comprehension at the whole class level. We also make recommendations for children to may need referral to other services.

The Schools Partnership Manager provides training in marking TACs for all new Speech Pathologists, and supports set up of marking spreadsheets for each school.

Marking TACs is considered billable time, including individual marking of tests and reporting time.