Anonymous #271

Related consultation
Submission received

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #271

Where are you located?

Australian Capital Territory

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?

Teacher

Elevating the profession

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

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

1. 10 Million dollars is barely any money - how will it be used? Is most of that money going to awards (Teacher of the year / order of Australia) if so that is incredibly disappointing.

2. Don’t glorify teachers into people who can deal with all types of special needs. There has not been the funding to provide the support needed for a lot of students. You don't fund schools properly to adequately support students with special needs. Don’t set up more unreasonable expectations of parents on teachers.

3. There is nothing in here about educating the public on the role of teachers. So many times teachers and schools are expected to teach things that parents should be teaching.

4. And people seem to think that if there is a lack of parents teaching children skills then it ‘should’ be taught in schools. I screenshot every time I see an article that says {insert topic] should be taught in schools. Schools are already underfunded and are expected to do so much.

5. Where is the data that says having Teacher of the Year awards promotes good teaching generally. Only one person in each category can win it and they have to be nominated. Often the best teaching happens quietly in the classroom without self-promotion. The teachers that promote themselves don’t make the best teachers. Honestly, awards like this are unappealing to me and I'm not interested in them.

6. Have education departments support teachers and not always placate the parent.

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 disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

How are you going to encourage people to join the profession? Are you going to romanticise the profession?
There are so many campaigns that emphasise "ignite passion" or "feed the soul". Teaching can be rewarding, but I spend 90% of my time telling students to mobile phones away and arguing with them about minor instructions.
If people are being mislead to think that teaching is one thing then get in a classroom and find it is another thing, then they will continue to leave the profession. You can't keep promoting teaching as this amazing experience, if it was there wouldn't be a teacher shortage. It is a difficult job and mis-promoting it as something else isn't going to help.

If you want to attract more people into teaching, make the salaries more competitive with other professionals.

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?

Experiment with apprentice-like pracs. Where preservice teachers come to schools for less hours per week, but over a longer period of time, so that they can see how the school runs.
Include paid pracs.
Encourage students to be LSAs while doing their teaching degree, so that they are in schools, working with students, talking to teachers, and getting paid.

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?

1. What kind of initiatives will be started to reduce workload? When will there be more details on this?

2. More money and time spent on Schools Administration System in ACT. There are still quite a few bugs in it. For example it is clunky when doing reports. You have to open each individual students to tick boxes and each one takes a couple of seconds to open and close. It actually takes a long and tedious time to do reporting in SAS.

3. Absences are still followed up by teachers. Could this not be an admin job. Or it could even be done by the department themselves. One person could look at all the absences in their region and contact those parents. It shouldn't have to be school based.

4. More funding. Get more teachers into schools, have the face-to-face contact hours as less so that teachers can spend more time doing the administration and differentiation they need to. As students with special needs are in mainstream schools and students with EALD are increasing, as well as students with low literacy, and significant behavioural needs, there is more time spend preparing lesson materials, because so many students need differentiated work. It feels like students with significant special needs were taken out of special schools put into mainstream schools without any funding to help teachers.

5. Increase behaviour management support and strategies. Current practises are not working. Create more places at intervention schools. Develop more relationships with external providers to assist with mentoring or other activities for disrupted students.

6. A national ban on mobile phones in classrooms. There are so many reasons for this. Phones are so detrimental to student learning and wellbeing.

7. More psychologist places in schools. More wellbeing support in schools. Teachers shouldn't have to do these roles.

8. More IT support in schools. Students are given Chromebooks and there are TVs in every room and so much of what we do is online, and yet, there are not enough IT support or IT education for students. Students are somehow expected to just know how to use their chromebooks without any teaching or support.

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?

Moderately effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Teaching and education should always been future forward and yet so much of what we do or teach is outdated.

More funding.

"Develop and publish comprehensive data about why teachers leave the profession and what careers they move into and what would improve retention, as well as why other career leavers choose teaching." This data should be transparent and widely accessible when it becomes available. And used to make future decisions. It still seems like teachers are telling governments what they need and want to be effective teachers and yet they are continually ignored.

Teachers are expected to be excellent, but schools are not places that promote excellence. Schools are underfunded and run down or built without students in mind. I currently, work in a school that is only 15 years old, but clearly it wasn't designed with actual high school students in mind. There are so many problems with the design that impact the day-to-day function of the place.

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?

There isn't much in here to retain teachers. How are you improving the every-day working experience of teaching. There is nothing about behaviour management support, or looking at teacher supports. Or how schools are managed.

What about teachers who are rubbish teachers? Because there has been a shortage for so long, almost anyone in employed whether they are an effective teacher and contribute to the team. By letting the professional get so run down the government has really lowered the quality of teaching. You can't talk about quality teaching, when schools are so short staffed they have to collapse classes, mass supervision classes, or just get someone to be a body in a room to supervise.

Raise the expectations of students. They are so apathetic and unambitious it is so hard some days.

More funding.

MORE FUNDING.