Anonymous #160

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #160

Where are you located?

Western Australia

What type of area do you live in?

Remote

Are you an education professional?
(e.g. teacher, school leader, learning support assistant, teacher’s aide)

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Early childhood education and care

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

The actions proposed recognise the value teachers bring to students, communities and the economy.

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Educating parent bodies and the wider community is relevant in this case.
Ensuring District Education Offices are electing only the most experienced Principals with Management experience is imperative.
Conducting yearly 360 degree reviews of Principals is necessary led by an independent 3rd party organisation who can randomly select staff from all levels to review the leadership anonymously rather than the current situation whereby Principals are able to choose the people who review them. This has led to toxic workplaces, bullying, harassment, the inability to retain quality practitioners.

Improving teacher supply

The actions proposed will be effective in increasing the number of students entering ITE, number of students completing ITE and the number of teachers staying in and/or returning to the profession.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I support the ITE initiative if they are only employable after completing a 4 year degree rather than fast tracking University students through to qualify as teachers prematurely.

I support the retention of good experienced staff and believe they should be compensated more for being mentor teachers and providing counsel and guidance to pre service teachers.

Too many young and inexperienced Principals are threatened by the professionalism, integrity and knowledge held by experienced teachers, resulting in bullying, exclusion, etc of the exact people who should be held onto.

A leadership team should not involve the MCS at all as too many of these people are making operational decisions for the Principals. Many of the MCS are not trained in making operational decisions and are having a huge and negative impact on the running of independent and government schools. As many MCS’s are advising and strongly influencing the decision making of inexperienced young novice Principals, poor choices are being made affecting general business, the needs of the students are not being prioritised, we are losing nice families in growing numbers, and lastly losing good Teachers, who are just absolutely tired and frustrated with the chaotic leadership choices and new direction the education department is taking.

It is simply put, an absolute shambles and requires and urgent Inquest into the state of our Education department, [REDACTED]. For example, the state of affairs at [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] where the bullying of teachers is rife.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

The actions proposed will ensure initial teacher education supports teacher supply and quality.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

This is not clear at all and I would like more information prior to commenting.

Maximising the time to teach

The actions proposed will improve retention and free up teachers to focus on teaching and collaboration.

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The education department has allowed Principals to overload teachers with so many tasks unrelated to face to face teaching time like writing business plans, and completing a deputy or principals administrative tick lists, that our number one focus (educating students) is number 10 on our lists rather than number 1.
There is no way for the Education department to monitor Independent Public Schools or the behaviour and conduct of Principals and their Deputies. If there was a trustworthy, reliable body to govern the actions and behaviours of these supposed ‘Leaders’ our schools might be respected more but it’s a ‘kangaroo court’ where many overseas educated or inexperienced people are finding themselves positions and don’t have the credentials or attributes required for that of a Public Primary School Principal. eg. [REDACTED] . These are people whose values do not align with the honest, hard working, transparent, altruistic Principals old, who value team players, experienced staff and people with good intentions.
Too many Principals in Public Primary schools, in my experience play staff off on a regular basis and this is extremely damaging to the overall morale of staff, to individuals, and has a negative impact on the retention of quality hard working staff. As one colleague said to me 5 years ago “Why are you working so hard, you’re a public school teacher and you get nowhere by working hard.” To this day, it has not changed my work ethic but I will never forget that persons words as it is indicative of so many teachers yet the hard working ones like myself are not rewarded for making a difference to the children in our care and the same lazy, impersonal teachers continue on the same pay scale as myself. It’s demoralising.

Better understanding future teacher workforce needs

How effective are the proposed actions in better understanding future teacher workforce needs, including the number of teachers required?

Extremely effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Smaller class sizes will be one of the only variables which will change teacher efficacy.

We are individualising the curriculum for 29+ students and this is not sustainable.

SAER meetings should be held by administrators, not teachers as there are a growing number of students requiring individualised learng programmes.

Scrapping NAPLAN will allow teachers to teach.

*Re Introducing a SYLLABUS for Core curriculum

STAFF meetings should be one hourly, every second week for the staff to meet to cover day to day logistics and runnings of the school, not business plans for inexperienced principals.

Professional Learng should be offered to all staff for Literacy and Numeracy.

Scrapping Performance Reviews led by inexperienced Principals who have been attempting to manage out good staff they are intimidated by, unless say, there are over 10 written grievances against this person in 1 year. Then there would be cause for concern.

Better career pathways to support and retain teachers in the profession

The proposed actions will improve career pathways, including through streamlining the process for Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher (HALT) accreditation, and providing better professional support for teachers to retain them in the profession.

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

This is fraught with danger due to the subjective nature of ‘who’ decides this.
Again, inept inexperienced Principals.