Anonymous #185

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #185

Where are you located?

South 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?

Secondary

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?

Not sure why the focus on the promotional campaign is only for STEM teachers (and other non subject based categories) ALL teachers - and leaders are equally important to be valued. Sending the message that STEM teachers are more valued than other teachers is not the right message.

Teachers in the Arts, Principals, Deputy's, Assistant Principals, Leaders, Early childhood, Primary and Secondary Classroom teachers - every level of the profession should be reflected in the promotional campaign. We don't want to create a scenario where some teacher feel as though they aren't as valued as others.

Our Support staff should also feature to attract quality people to these support roles in schools

I agree with the reintroduction of the National Awards - but looking across the systems to see how many other awards already take place will be important. Commonwealth Bank Awards, State awards, Australian Education Awards,

The HALT process is quite overwhelming and can take a whole year to prepare. There are no job specific roles advertised (in SA at least) for HALT teachers, so with no pay incentive for becoming a HALT teacher - this target may not be met. There needs to be a reason to apply and go through the certification process- at the moment there is not.

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.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Strengthening Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

This is the most critical point:
Strengthening initial teacher education programs to deliver effective classroom ready teachers, with particular attention to teaching reading, literacy and numeracy, classroom management, cultural responsiveness, teaching students with diverse needs and working with families/carers

Particularly the classroom management, positive behaviour for learning, wellbeing for learning and trauma informed practices.

More focus on education subjects than subject specialisation is required, especially for high school teachers. Secondary teachers essentially teach themselves what they need to know to teach the curriculum as they are planning for their students. 4 years of subject specialisation when most of what you learn is never needed in the classroom is the wrong emphasis on what is important to learn as a teacher.

The Australian Curriculum, assessment, rubrics, marking, feedback, crucial conversations with parents, managing tricky situations with students, with colleagues. Report writing - little of this is taught at University.

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?

What other states are doing all sounds great - when is SA going to get on board?

Maximising teaching time by reducing administrative tasks around students with disability, and the requirement for such detailed One Plans, and the NCCD Data collection would really help. This is very onerous and doesn't really serve a purpose as a living document that actually supports student learning.

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.

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

I agree with all these initiatives.
Consideration should also be given for pay parity - between the states, and between the private school sector.
Teachers and leaders are paid a lot more in private schools than they are in government schools - it is perceived that teaching in private schools is a lot easier in terms of the demographic the families come from, and they pay is better - so why would teachers stay in difficult, hard to staff government schools.

Teachers salary needs to reflect the new image that will be promoted to the community to make this a really worthwhile sector to work in.

In addition - making schools attractive places for paraprofessionals to work in is really important. School psychologists, OTs, Speech therapists can all earn a lot more in private practice - so making schools attractive places for these professionals to work in would greatly assist schools with the work that we are not qualified, yet are expected to do.