- Tier:
- Tier 1: Positive Mental Health Promotion
- Tier 2: Early Intervention Cohort Specific Support
- Type of intervention: Support for diverse cohorts
- Strength of evidence: Level 4: Established evidence for program (supported by quality research evidence)
- Geographic location: State-wide
Program description
The Secret Agent Society Small Group Program (SAS-SG) is a social-emotional skill development program for students aged 8-12, originally designed for neurodivergent profiles. The program helps children with goals surrounding:
- social participation and problem solving
- emotion recognition and regulation.
This program up-skills and empowers children, as well as their parents, and teachers who support them. The curriculum engages children with its 'secret agent'-themed games and activities including game-based learning through the SAS Digital Headquarters.
Schools become SAS Providers, building capacity amongst school staff to deliver the SAS Program directly with students, through the SAS Facilitator Training Course.
Intended outcomes
- Improved emotion regulation, such as anxiety and anger
- Improved social skills, including bully detection and management
- Reduced hyperactivity
- Improved behaviour
Program details
| Target audience |
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|---|---|
| Program provider | Social Science Translated |
| Delivery mode |
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Implementation considerations
- Target population: Students in primary school and lower secondary school, as well as their parents and teachers.
- Program adaptability: Teaching and group activities can be adapted to meet the learning needs of each child and group.
- Staffing: Ideally 2 SAS Facilitators co-facilitate with 4-6 children. Alternatively, a single SAS Facilitator can run sessions with 1 to 4 children per group. Schools are encouraged to allocate staff time for pre- and post-program intake and assessment, program coordination, program delivery of 28-45 hours and team supervision and reflective practice.
- Training requirements: Professionals from schools and clinical services learn to deliver the program in a flexible 14-hour SAS Facilitator Training Course with optional assistant support (via the 2-hour SAS Assistant Short Course).
- Factors to consider: The SAS Small Group Program consists of 11-22 small group child sessions (club meetings) of 45 or 90 minutes, parent group meetings, teacher information sessions and Teacher Tip Sheets, paired with real-life practice missions and a system to monitor and reward skill development at home and at school.
- Australian context: The program was developed and evaluated through the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Queensland.
Cost
Item cost
$201-$2000
Detailed cost
Costs include a one-off training fee per staff member and an implementation resources fee per student packaged into one of 4 SAS Provider levels.
Professional training:
- The SAS Facilitator Training Course: $990 (inc. GST) per staff participant (minimum one trained SAS Facilitator) Discounts apply for bulk group purchases of more than 5 training places.
- The SAS Assistant Short Course: $54.45 (inc. GST) per participant (optional course for any adult to assist a lead SAS facilitator).
Program implementation:
An annual implementation subscription provides the SAS Facilitator team with access to the software.
- Cadet places (per student participant): $170.50-225.50 (inc. GST) per student, depending on the school’s chosen subscription level.
For subscription information, please visit the Secret Agent Society website.
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