Anonymous #431

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #431

Where are you located?

New South Wales

What type of area do you live in?

Regional or rural

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

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Primary

What is your occupation?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

No amount of tokenistic awards will achieve this. In a capitalist society, money purports value. If you value teachers and school leaders, pay them accordingly.

Given remuneration, time and work conditions that allow us to USE our expertise. We will elevate the profession. Value the profession. Value the work of professionals in classrooms and the teachers will come and stay once more.

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Why become a teacher - less pay, impossible level of expectations on your time and scope of impact. Happy and long serving teachers used to be the greatest champions for the profession. We all entered the profession on some level because of a highly passionate and talented teacher. Where are they now? Burn out is considerable. High rates of attrition, early retirement and reducing numbers of students enrolling and completing education degrees is compounding the pressure on current teachers. This could be in a small way improved by offering:
permanency to teachers en masse after working proficiently on site in schools without a time consuming application/interview process.
school leaders pro rata long service rates, so they have the option to move to part-time teaching without significant loss of income.
teachers who left the profession a year ago have proficiency level pay without needing them to go through an onerous accreditation process.
to pay the HECS debt of teachers who work in regional and remote schools for X amount of years.
incentives to overseas backpacker teachers to work in regional and remote areas.
offer greater flexibility to teachers who are largely primary caregivers to young and old family members. Does a class of students need 1 teacher to meet all their learning needs over 5 days? Or could the school week be restructured to allow leaders and teachers to divide the workload?

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?

Universities needs to align subjects completed by future teachers with the demands of the contemporary classroom and ‘real life teaching’

Pay pre-service teachers to complete placements. Give them opportunities towards the end of their degree to work alongside a teacher as an assistant (not an aide). This would give them valuable experience in the classroom over a longer period of time. It would also have the dual benefit of reducing the teaching workload.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Structural reform is needed. Option A - A 4 day teaching week, in which teachers teach 4 days and have the 5th one off to collaborate together, complete professional development together, design rich assessment together, program together, analyse data together and build capacity and impact together. On the 5th day the students can engage with all other non-core educational requirements - sport, scripture, incursions, excursions, assemblies, guest speakers etc. Option B - Alternatively, all teachers are given a week in which they can start each semester without students (similar to the private school holiday scheme). Teachers are given the same holidays but also the opportunity to start the semester by working together on context specific curriculum needs. This would allow all teachers to be ‘ready’ to meet the needs of their students. This week would need to be free from system requirements to be effective. Option C - increase Release from Face to Face Teaching Time for all teachers by 4 hours a week. Clear delineation of what is a teacher’s role and responsibilities and what is not, is also needed. Administration work needs to be done by administrators, not professional teachers. This involves sport, cultural, fundraising, incursion and excursion organisation, notes, money collection as well as photocopying and newsletter articles/photos to be completed by non-teaching staff. Teachers are not also not swimming instructors, dietitians, hygienists, counselors, carers, policemen etc. All ‘requirements’ that currently exist outside the curriculum need to be tasked by people other than teachers. This includes: attendance. Teachers should be able to mark the roll and all attendance issues be addressed by a non-teaching support team, including Personalised Attendance Plans.Schools and/or systems should employ allied health specialists - pediatricians, speech therapists, occupational therapists, behavioural specialists etc. who only work within schools - helping to meet the huge amount of need our children have - providing therapy but also programming assistance - thus supporting the teacher to do what they do best.

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?

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

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 agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Why do you need to leave the classroom to access higher pay? Why is leaving the classroom seen as professional growth or expertise?This work plan needs to shift the value in education from the tiers of the bureaucracy, back into the classroom.

Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers (HALTs) provides this pathway. Why did education find a national pathway for excellence and choose to not value HALTs pay above educational leadership, bureaucracy and consultancy? The legal profession has Queens Counsels that earn more because they have proven they are high impact professionals. The education profession has HALTS who have proven they are high impact professionals, who by evidencing the 37 Standard Descriptors at Highly Accomplished or Lead Level have proven to build the capacity of their colleagues and/or entire school community. Pay them accordinging. People will follow the money - they will build their own expertise and the expertise of others to have a high impact in classrooms over time, if they are acknowledged and rewarded for doing so.

Develop a profession wide disconnect communication policy and agreed practices. Weekends and holidays to be ‘protected private time.’ Teaching is an incredibly physically, emotionally and mentally demanding profession. No doctor or lawyer aims to meet the needs of 30+ patients/clients for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 41 weeks a year. Teachers cannot be expected to work around the clock and be able to respond professionally and positively to the needs of the varied needs of the children in front of them.