Anonymous #442

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #442

Where are you located?

Queensland

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.

Neither agree nor disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

Only action 4 seems useful, but won't work until they make the process to be less onerous for accreditation

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?

5. and 6. won't keep teachers in profession. Band-aid temporary step to train then lose teachers.
7. and 8. good ideas as long as offer 1 year graduate diploma option with paid prac placement.
Having gotten rid of the 1 year graduate diploma in teaching was an awful decision. Some of the best secondary teachers I work with went through this.
Students need paid prac placements built into degrees. Asking someone to effectively lose all income over say 5 week placement is too much of a burden for teachers in training.

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?

10. and 11. are so incredibly important.

Initial teacher training needs students in a classroom observing multiple days with multiple teachers within their first semester of their degree or post grad qualification.

Maximising the time to teach

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

Somewhat disagree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

15. I work in QLD. The reported outcomes of the Workload advisory council saved me and my fellow teachers 2 hours of work during a year.
16. I work in secondary school and have not used C2C since 2015. It has no positive impact on my workload due to an overloaded resource with little flexibility or differentiation built into it. It was a good starting point in first few years on Australian curriculum, but not anymore.

Here's my idea on how to massively reduce teacher workload that I've had for 14 years of teaching now:
There needs to be a state wide online database of resources where people are employed to actively monitor and run by the education sector. Teachers should be able to upload resources and download them. It should have a tag based system for easy file searching. TES online is a similar type idea, but there would be no paid resources.
It could send teachers who upload the resource a survey every 2 years that requires them to review if its still relevant and should be kept, or edited or deleted. People who don't respond can have their resources archived for a year and then deleted.
Education Queensland is about to launch a complete change with online systems to QLearn, created through Canvas. I was so excited to learn that there would be sharing of resources across schools. Finally I thought! A way they're going to reduce workload!!
But yet again I was completely let down because their Commons (database) will not allow sharing of individual files and their search system in it is not specific enough. So yet again it will be just another place to spend ages searching for things that aren't what you want and wasting your time. (Trust me, I spent 30 min searching for yr 8 maths measurement and got nothing useful in their huge database already).

The other aspect that needs to be addressed is that an education sector should be required to update their online platform for data collection and storage of student information. I have not seen an update to the QLD OneSchool program. It is needs improving and would reduce staff workload across all levels.

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?

23. seems like a good idea.

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.

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

25. Need massive improvement in mentoring for beginning teachers. There's no support provided in school except for 1 extra spare and teachers taking their own time to help out without any support.
27. There are so many experienced teachers who deserve HALT but will never get it due to the burdensome process. Some people attemptig to put together the HALT evidence actually stop doing their core job properly due to how much is required of them. Also no understanding that a school you're in has a massive impact on whether you have the ability to become HALT.
28. Need more funding if expect teachers to be able to access PD that they want to do to improve their teaching.