Anonymous #171

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #171

Where are you located?

Western Australia

What type of area do you live in?

Metropolitan

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

Yes

Which sector do you work in?

Special education

What is your occupation?

School leader

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?

Specialist area teachers particular special education need to be highlighted for their roles and universities need to relaunch their programs in this field. In WA only 1 uni is still offering special education as a course and very few teachers are graduating - this means that we have very few teachers qualified in this growing area. Education Departments need to maintain their requirements for fully qualified staffing these areas. - If teaching and particularly teaching of students with disabilities is not recognised or valued in the community we will see these specialisations die out - this is problematic in mainstream schools too as there are many teachers trying to teach disability high needs kids with no training.

AS long as awe are all seen as having too many holidays and finger painters we will not see our value recognised. Awards are all well and good but they don't make people choose teaching.


Moving from the accountability model enforced on teachers - rather than a development model is forcing staff out of the profession - moving to highly accomplished etc is not an answer - we have enough of these programs Level 3 Classroom teachers etc.
We need more teachers in the classrooms and less students in the classrooms - growth at the bottom end not the top.

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?

See comments in previous section regarding specialisation at UNi for disability - special education.

WA's comments in this section are lacking - DoE WA needs to ensure only qualified staff are given work in specialist areas. Current LEAP courses to retrain staff are not effective.

Conditions in schools - class sizes, scope for promotion etc need to be addressed in order to get people into the profession. Positive media about teachers is required.

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

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?

In WA - TOIL is a provision however it needs to be additionally funded - at the moment this has to be taken from within existing school budgets - it needs to be an additional funding amount.

Increase in DOTT is great however it needs to be used in a better way - and is currently difficult to provide collaborative dott within year levels etc. We need to be able to appoint staff specifically for DOTT - which currently we can't do - this needs to be a funded above budget allocation.

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?

WA: LEAP is not a strong program and few teachers going through it get enough training to be specialist in another field - particularly education support.
The program is too short and not in depth enough to gain the skills to work effectively in this area. We need to maintain uni level training in a specialised field to maintain the level of professionalism in this sector.
If the Dept of Education maintained it's commitment to only employing specialist in this field then the unis would need to keep these courses - where non specialist teachers are employed the uni clearly say - the Dept of Ed doesn't require the qualification. ( which is untrue)