Anonymous #414

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #414

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?

The workload of a classroom teachers out of school hours is very broad and consuming, the work involved to receive public praise will add to the heavy workload. As well the extra work required to be a recognised classroom teacher will most likely take teachers away from their actual teaching of the students.
Hopefully the recognition will not come from just onerous documentation that will take the teacher away from teaching his/her students.

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?

Employing teachers from overseas is not a good idea. Our differences in culture, language and the high range of difficult student behaviours plus the range of disabilities we have in our education system will be very challenging for some teachers from other countries. Plus, there is a teacher shortage in other countries at the moment.
The many onerous tasks for teachers to maintain their accreditation needs to be reduced. Teaching is an exhausting profession, dealing with students with various needs and personalities, plus dealing with their parents/carers and the hours of take home work. We have to do the hours at home to get through all of our classroom tasks. Having to do so much additional work to maintain accreditation places extra strain on classroom teachers.
Another point. It is mostly classroom teachers that are leaving the teaching profession, not assistant principals or principals, nor ministers so why aren't there more real classroom teachers on the panel with true insights into the difficult demands placed on classroom teachers.
Often, principals are the ones placing extra pressures onto classroom teachers. They forget how difficult it is because they have been off class for so long.

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?

The training of school teachers needs to focus more on what teachers teach daily plus dealing with difficult behaviours and difficult parents. There needs to be longer sessions of practical experience in schools. It is also important thet university lecturers stay in touch with current practices and the realities of school life and expectations.

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 are many duties a teacher performs that does not require a university degree, such as playground duty, compiling a list of chemicals in the classroom, recording what some students eat at recess and lunch, recording their appearance for records of care, organising excursions and camps , risk assessments, dietary requirements and other tasks that could be completed by other staff.
Expecting individualised learning for 30 students, according to the nationa learning progressions is unrealistic and puts more pressure on teachers' workload, with the extra planning, various lessons catering for many different abilities.
There also needs to be a reduction in the size of student reports. there needs to be a template that schools follow. There should also be a set template of the duties of a classroom teacher so principals can't put extra pressure on teachers to do more.
Many lunch breaks and morning tea breaks are used for meetings, communicating with parents or dealing with behaviour issues. There needs to be a standard amount of time where teachers are given proper lunch and recess breaks throughout the day like other workplaces have.
Our SLSOs (teachers aides)have their break times at different times to teachers but we are not allowed to disturb them from their break times. I don't see why classroom teachers are not given the same consideration.

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?

Point 23 is useful, however I would like to see a thorough survey and investigation into the reasons why classroom teachers are leaving and take their real accounts seriously and develop actions to rectify the issues that real classroom teachers are dealing with.
In earlier decades there were real career incentives to teach at remote and isolated areas, these incentives have reduced or are not appealing anymore. The transfer system has less impact compared to decades ago.
There needs to be more incentives for teachers to stay in the classroom and develop experience and knowledge. Teaching is tough. Just because you know your subject area does not mean you will be an effective classroom teacher.
Incentives, such as every 10 years of service an extra 5% is added to your income, above other wage increases.
Currently there is little incentive to continue teaching classrooms in schools.

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?

Your points appear to be targetted to special needs students and First Nations' students. Every school I have taught in and my colleagues schools have difficult students who are not classed as special needs or First Nations. There needs to be better career pathways for all school teachers, not just those who teach special education or Aboriginal students. Students are toogh, regardless of their cultural background. Only recognising teachers teaching targetted groups is unfair and will cause resentment.
Also, the HALT and HAT and QTR puts more pressure on classroom teachers, more paperwork and documentation, record keeping, data entry and assignments. Teachers need to be recognise for their teaching, not record keeping. Lots of documentation takes teachers away from teaching their students.

If you really want classroom teachers to stay in the classroom, pay them better and stop giving the deputy principals and principals such generous wages, share it around to the classroom teachers. Deputy principals have very little take home work, they do not teach a class, don't have marking of lessons to do, do not program for the term for up to 35 students, do not have to deal with up to 35 persoanlities and abilities at once, do not write reports, don't organise excursions nor do they do playground duty. They do not have such demanding duties to perform but they earn approximately $65 000 more than a classroom teacher with 25 years experience.