Anonymous #264

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #264

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.

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Point 1- Focusing on specific areas, such as STEM or rural, remote devalues other areas, such as classroom teachers teaching mainstream with up to 34 students, often at least 5 with behavioural problems. They are walking away because of the lack of support from their departments and leaders at the school.

Point 4- The processes involved in HALT and HAT involves a lot of paperwork and submissions, which most teachers don't have time for. However, those who just want the increased salary would set the students easy busy work in class time so they can get through all of the paperwork required. I have seen this happen many times. Teachers applying for HAT and HALT should be observed teaching regularly, rather than relying mostly on paperwork and submissions. Observing teachers teach more than 6 students at once, such as a real class full of 20 (ES1-Kindergarten) to 32 students regularly will prove if they are worthy of HAT and HALT. Relying on paperwork submissions is onerous and unrealistic.

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?

Offering burseries is a good idea to encourage more high achievers to enrol, however it's when thay are in the classroom on their own with challenging children that causes the problem. One can be extremely intelligent and experts in their field but managing children, catering to diverse learning needs and breaking down the topic to students' level is where many of the high achievers flounder.
The diverse demands and compliance requirements of teachers from NESA, the Department, school leaders and parents is difficult to navigate, especially when NESA, the commonwealth and the state employer (DoE) do not communicate to each other on what demands they are expecting from classroom teachers. That needs to be dealt with before spending millions of dollars because these pressures will still be here when the graduates begin teaching students at schools.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Sounds godd, howver, I have my doubts this will effectively happen. Let's hope it is a real component that will really happen. I have been teaching permanently for over 30 years at many schools and most of the new graduates have no idea on basic classroom management and clearly communicating their behaviour expectations and how to achieve this. Many presume students should already know how to behave and are shocked when they don't. They have minimal strategies in calming students after recess or lunch to encourage the best learning environment for all. they shout over students with instructions and frankly have no idea on how to develop a positive and fair learning environment.
Many of new graduates have minimal literacy and numeracy skills and demonstrate an inability to simplify concepts so students receive foundational understandings. many new graduates presume their students already know so gives them tasks they think their students know and are amazed the majority of students don't know what to do. many revert to their own methods and strategies when teaching maths, rather than demonstrating and explicitly teaching more than one strategy. Often they aren't aware of the other strategies that they are meant to teach. I could go on here about their lack of teaching reading, spelling and writing skills as well.
Sadly, from the lecturers teaching student teachers I have met or encountered haven't been in classrooms for a long time or their classroom experience is not broad or extensive.
existing classroom teachers who take on a student teacher need to be selected carefully because from my experience some of the teachers who have prac-students are either very inexperienced themselves or are not as committed or dedicated and are poor role models for aspiring teachers.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Somewhat agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

There has been talk of this for at least a year and so far I have not experienced any actions from the DoE or from our principal to reduce teachers' workload. There isn't a lot of real detail for teachers in NSW so I am dubious about the reality of this issue. Schools compete against each other with reports to parents so the task of writing reports becomes onerous. there should be a set template for reports for all schools to follow.
For the 30+ years I have beeen a primary school teacher, we have always marked students assessment and kept records, however the demands now are unrealistic with the amount of assessing and the amount of required data entry for every student, for every question on the assessment for up to 32 students. This has been the culture for over 10 years so I believe it will be a difficult issue for the DoE and NESA to reduce. They must be ignorant if they believe teachers can keep doing this. It causes many classroom teachers to attend to during class time, when they should be teaching.
The amount of compliance training courses are at an unmanageable level.

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?

Slightly effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I started teaching in 1989, in 1990 I signed up to SASS. This is a more rewarding super scheme than offered to current teachers. The main reason I have continued being a school teacher and not resigned (even though I have thought about resigning seriously many times) is my SASS scheme. If I make it to 60 I will have a very comfortable super to live off. the current super has very little incentive to stay in teaccing up to retirement age.
As a young teacher, there was incentive to go to more remote areas, however the transfer incentives now are minimal. Transfer used to be the main way teachers could move from one arae to another so you would teach in a remote area to build up your transfer points quickly. Transfers points are not as important as they used to be.
I have my doubts about the effectiveness of encouraging retired teachers or thos who have left. The school teaching roles are far more complex than they used to be plus the demands from authorities, school leaders, parents, community plus the larger number of students with difficult issues has increaed significantly. there is little support for classroom teachers so I don't believe retired teachers will come back permanently. I know many will come back on a casual day-to-day basis so they can arrive at 9am and leave at 3pm, no parents to deal with, no programming, lesson plans, no reporting, no data entry etc.

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?

Most of the improve career pathways involves onerous extra work, above the already onerous workload of a classroom teacher. Many teachers I know that keep quality and well-organised documents and records are not always the best teachers, plus many attend to their documents and records during class time when they should be teaching and attending to their students.
Observing teachers teach regualrly is, in my opinion, the best way to select the best teachers. Record keeping, writing down your lessons and documenting is not what teaching should be about, it's about communicating effectively, knowing your content, classroom management and really knowing your students. That can't be put down on paper, it needs to be seen.