Anonymous #453

Submitter information

Name

Anonymous #453

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?

Other

What is your occupation?

Other

Elevating the profession

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

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

The question is how to achieve this. It's been a question plaguing the teaching profession for decades.

While proposing 'Finland style' innovations and raising teachers wages- there are previous practices in Victoria which went a considerable way to achieving this back in the late 1980s early 1990s which should be re-visited. Educational corporate history in Australia tends to be ignored as there were some excellent practices developed during that period which were exported across America, New Zealand, Europe and some Asian countries.

Back in 1990 Victoria created School Support Centres (SSC). I was part of the taskforce which achieved this. This was one such excellent practice.

The purpose of a SSC was to centralise support services for students, teachers, Principals, school leaders and schools into a single location within areas.

The role of SSCs was to provide a coordinated approach to service delivery which would both support teachers and schools through providing site based assistance on a wide range of issues leading to broad based school improvement and improved links to the community. These practices in turn led to a raised perception and appreciation of teachers within the community.

In my role within the task force and also as a School support Centre Manager with a background of a career of teaching, Principalship, educational psychology, and as a Guidance Officer (a culmination of 10 years of study and supervised practice) I and my staff developed practiced which were institutionalised across the state of Victoria leading to improved teachers perception of themselves and community preception of them.

Some of these practices were outlined in a book I authored entitled 'I TEACH: A Guide to Inspiring Classroom Leadership' published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

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.

Strongly agree

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

In 1990 an innovative partnership was forged between a company I owned at the time called '[REDACTED]' and the University of Tasmania.

What we created was a world first fast tracked Masters of Educational Leadership which involved 3 weeks of intense inhouse training, dialogue and learning. This program was attended by teachers, prospective teachers and Principals from across Australia, from New Zealand and Malaysia.

The purpose of the program was to rapidly upskill teachers and Principals in the skills of school development and so they could understand how to become educational leaders in their own schools and classroom. It comprehensively covered Classroom Leadership, School Leadership and Policy development.

Ove the three weeks the participants engaged in over 150hours of contact with each other. To achieve this equivalent in a school setting would have be impossible.

This was followed up by a week of individual school based guidance, consultancy and assistance to establish effective leadership teams and supportive communication and coaching networks within each individual school. Further, school networks were created and developed involving parents and community organisations with a focus on Student Centred learning and development.

The program was highly successful and ran for 5 years.

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?

Initial teacher education programs tend to have variable success rates.

Learning to become an effective teacher is an evolutionary process that takes time.

The most successful programs I have developed and/or been involved in over my 50 years in developing successful innovations in education which became institutionalised involved an 'apprenticeship style' introduction to teaching which involed

Year 1 Pre-University - initial work as a teachers aide/student support worker in a school under an initial 'apprenticeship style' model

Year 2 University - observation programs and the subsequent development of series of questions, followed by discussion groups which explored any questions the prospective teachers may have.

Year 3 University - observation programs supplemented by engagement as part of school programs with followup discussions with university groups

Year 4 University - engagement programs with supervision of classroom teaching, individualised coaching, and specific support groups within schools and across school clusters.

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?

If you want kids to learn and stay at school - they need to be taught by teachers who want to be at school, who are happy and excited about their own learning.

These days teachers are unnecessarily burdened by bureaucratic demands. They are exhausted, feel unappreciated and are concerned about parental threats to themselves and their young families!

It's not hard to turn this around- and it MUST be done.

In 1990 I pioneered a program of Collaborative Professional Practice in teaching. This was based on a framework which was used in schools and school districts and regions across all states of Australia, New Zealand and many states in America.

In late 1990 the introduction of punitive standardised testing altered American education and once Naplan was introduced in Australia unfortunately we went down the same rabbit hole. While there is a place for standardised testing, it has become a burden for teachers which has skewed it's original purpose and the teaching and learning practices of effective teachers - burdening them with extreme and totally unnecessary stress

For teachers to maximise teaching time we need to:

1. Remove standardised testing and take assessment back to what it was always supposed to be - a guide to assist student learning improvement.
2. Remove the demands on teachers documenting so much. It's totally unnecessary.
3. Enable teachers to work collaboratively to plan and deliver curriculum. Isolating teachers into silos is the most destructive practice in schools now.
4. Reinstate educational psychological and learning support services for teachers as part of a comprehensive re-development of region based school support centres.

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?

Extremely effective

Would you like to provide feedback about these actions?

To understand what teachers need- talk to them not politicians and not parents. Simple

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?

Teachers need to be supported to stay in the classroom if they choose to do that.

The quickest way to achieve that is to remove the salary 'cap' which is the bane of experienced teachers. It is unfair. They do not necessarily want to go onto higher leadership positions, or out of the classroom or school altogether in order to improve their earning ability. And they do not want money to be allocated to just a few.

I've had 50 years of involvement in education. I taught everything from pre-school to University Masters level. I spent 10 years of supervised practice= teaching, training as an educational psychologist to ultimately become a Guidance Officer. I then led a number of innovations in education from Women in Senior Leadership programs, to mainstreaming kids from Special schools (and back the other way), to creating School Support Centres and a range of innovative ways of supporting teachers, school and families. I then ran International companies exporting excellent teaching and learning practices, wrote books and ran inschool and cluster based support programs for teachers, Principals and School Leader groups.

Now- I look at the young teachers in my family with despair.

One member of my family has spent 15 years in secondary education. He always wanted to be in the classroom but reached the top of the pay scale then had nowhere to go- so became a leading teacher and then an Assistant Principal. The further he went 'up' the more stressful it became. He has recently- with the support of his wife and young family- chosen to relinquish his 'school leadership' roles and return to the classroom. In the process we estimate he has regained approximately 20 hours of family time, regained his health and sanity and lost $100 a week in salary.

HIs partner left the classroom to work in Department based training and policy development. She enjoys her work but her stress comes from dealing with bureaucrats- particularly in procurement. Her skill levels are now at a point where she would be a highly effective Principal as she is very aware of the skills she has now that she was unable to develop as a school based teacher. The other thing she is aware of is that