On 20 December 2018, the South Australian State Government amended the Teachers Registration and Standards Act 2004 to grant the Teachers Registration Board the power to suspend the registration of a teacher if they are charged with a prescribed offence but not yet convicted. Prescribed offences will include major offences against children, such as murder or abduction, and are aligned to the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016. Prescribed offences are set out in the Teachers Registration and Standards Regulations 2016.

Prior to granting the Registrar the power to suspend a teacher’s registration, the Board had to formally adopt a process by which the bail conditions imposed by the Court were reflected in conditions on the teacher’s registration. This amendment allows the Board to act immediately it is notified that a teacher has been charged with a prescribed offence.

This amendment has been made to reduce risks to the safety of children however, it will also serve to maintain the integrity of, and ensure community confidence in, the teaching profession.

There are appropriate checks and balances in place to ensure objectivity. Under this legislation, if a teacher is charged with a prescribed offence the Registrar will have the power to immediately suspend their registration, pending a review and ratification by a sub-committee of the Board. This sub-committee would include at least three Board members, one of whom is required to be a legal practitioner in order to ensure procedural fairness for the registrant. The teacher would be immediately notified of the suspension and the public Register of Teachers would be annotated accordingly.

All suspension matters will be treated on an individual basis and the Board will use their discretion in applying their ability to review and suspend a teacher. After a teacher has been notified of a suspension of registration they will have 60 days to appeal the decision.

The teacher registration system serves to guarantee that only appropriately qualified and suitable people are admitted to, and remain in, the profession. Registration protects educational standards, child safety and the profession’s high standards while also reassuring registered teachers that their peers meet the same high standards expected of the profession.

Gowrie SA has teamed with Community Children's Centres SA and the Teachers Registration Board in an exciting mentoring project, to support small groups of ECTs and their centre Director, through the process of transitioning to full teacher registration.

Over nine sessions, participants will:

• explore the Director’s role in supporting a provisionally registered teacher to transition to full registration
• unpack the AITSL Standards to understand them in an education and care setting
• be supported in creating a portfolio of evidence
• develop critical reflection skills
• network with other ECTs
• share and understand the requirements of documentation.

There will be an initial session for both the ECT and the centre Director with Marilyn Large from the Teachers Registration Board.

This session will:

• outline the requirements of the AITSL Teaching Standards
• explore the Director’s role in supporting a provisionally registered teacher and;
• explore the responsibility of the ECT to achieve full registration.

The final session brings the ECT and the Director together to share the portfolio of evidence. Mentoring for individual ECTS and Directors is available at an additional cost.

2019 dates (All sessions 9:00am - 1:00pm)

Friday, 22nd March*

Friday, 5th April

Friday, 17th May

Friday, 14th June

Friday, 5th July

Friday, 2nd August

Friday, 30th August

(no session in Sept)

Friday, 18th October*

*Both Director and ECT to attend these sessions.

Cost per site: $700.00 (CCCSA will contribute $200 to this cost for CCCSA members.)

To register or for more information, please contact Mary Scales: p: (08) 8234 5219 e: marys@gowriesa.org.au. 

In Term1, 2019, the former Coomandook & District Kindergarten will re-open as an integrated learning environment catering for Kindergarten, Foundation and Year 1 learners within the Coomandook Area School.

The kindergarten was established almost 40 years ago in a shed that served the local tennis club. However, mice running wild inside and sheep grazing in the play area outside soon made the building unsuitable.

During this time, the TRB’s Registration Manager, Sue Fox (pictured above left) was Director and she witnessed the successful lobbying and official opening ceremony of the new kindy building on Coomandook Area School grounds on 22 August 1986. Thirty-two years later, on Friday 7 December the end of an era was marked with a closing ceremony conducted in conjunction with a graduation ceremony for the final seven kindy children.

Coomandook Area School Principal, Kaye Fitton (pictured above middle), who attended the ceremony, is aware of the particular challenges and requirements of early years learning and the responsibility of introducing it into an established school environment.

“We want to enable every child to engage with every learning experience be it in the early years or at the other end of the spectrum in a student’s final school years,” Kaye said.

“Loose parts play will continue to be integrated into early years learning along with other experiences that promote learning through play and social interaction.”

The integration of early years learning into school sites is becoming more common as new Birth to Year 12 schools are established in South Australia. Research indicates this model has better learning outcomes for students as it strengthens the entire education site as a learning community and fosters collaborative practice amongst teachers. Other benefits include:

• consistent and positive transition to school strategies
• improved communication, planning and information sharing between the early years, primary and secondary educators
• the development of strong relationships between schools and families.

While these benefits are clear, it is important that a school understands the different perspectives of early childhood education and care personnel, primary and secondary teachers in respect of skills, practices and pedagogy.

Coomandook Area School aims to provide an engaging environment that inspires all children to reach their full potential.

“Our pedagogy involves strong anchoring in play-based learning, inquiry-based learning that actively support children at differing levels of readiness and outdoor learning using our dedicated learning spaces and beyond,” said Kaye.

“We see occasional care and pre-kindy programs as critically important to both the ongoing development of our early years learning and teaching program and our community and these will continue to be offered in 2019.”

The Board’s Induction & Mentoring Early Careers Award* recognises teachers who engage with, support and encourage educators new to the teaching profession. Introduced in 2016, it is presented each year at the Educators SA World Teachers Day Awards. The inaugural winner was Robyn Carmody from the Visual Arts Educators Association followed by Tricia Richman in 2017, Principal at Whyalla High School. In 2018, Kate Dilger from the SA Science Teachers Association (SASTA) was the deserving recipient of the award (pictured here with Dr Peter Lind).

SASTA works with teachers from all education sectors and across all year levels to support and foster the professional development of science teachers throughout South Australia.

As Education Officer, Kate has spent the past five years running professional learning for SASTA which includes organising and presenting science and STEM-based professional learning workshops. The role also sees her visiting schools to determine their science learning needs and then tailoring the professional learning to what is required. She may work with individual teachers or with the entire teaching staff to develop a whole of school approach to science and STEM teaching and learning. The professional learning provided is specifically designed to help teachers develop greater confidence and competence in both pedagogy and content knowledge.

While Kate works with educators from reception through to year 12 her passion lies in supporting early career teachers.

“The early years of teaching are rewarding but hard,” Kate says. “It’s important that we keep enthusiastic teachers in the profession and make them feel they are contributing, learning and growing.”

In support of this Kate is also responsible for the annual SASTA early career teacher’s conference that offers a range of fun and informative workshops and presentations for teachers in the first five years of teaching science/STEM or those new to a specialist science or STEM role.

During her career spent teaching at Thomas More College in Salisbury, Kate was lucky enough to spend two years living in New York while she worked as a consultant for the New York Board of Education. On her return to Thomas More she worked as Head of Science and in her final year in 2010, Kate won the award for teaching at the Department for Industry & Skills prestigious SA Science Excellence Awards.

Kate has recently been appointed to the role of SASTA Executive Officer.

To find out more about Educators SA and the benefits of joining a professional teacher association click here.

*The TRB Induction and Mentoring Early Careers Award is given to an individual who has made a significant difference to early career teachers and aims to highlight the importance of educators working with early career teachers.

The national review of teacher registration was conducted during 2018 by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Its purpose was to examine teacher registration in Australia and ensure processes were nationally consistent, rigorous and focused on teacher quality.

At the Review’s conclusion, AITSL released a report outlining 17 key recommendations to strengthen teacher registration across Australia.

Despite each state and territory authority having different regulatory and legislative requirements, they all work within the National Teacher Registration Framework (the Framework) which provides the foundation for a consistent approach to teacher registration in Australia.

It includes eight key elements:

• Initial period of registration
• Fixed period of registration
• Alternative authorisation to teach
• Sanctions including withdrawal of registration
• Suitability
• Qualifications
• English language proficiency
• Mutual recognition.

While it’s recognised that each registration authority requires flexibility to meet local workforce needs the review determined a need for greater consistency between authorities across three broad areas:

• The way teacher registration requirements are interpreted and administrated by each authority.
• Removing barriers to data sharing between jurisdiction; and
• Broadening the registration system to include teaching professionals such as early childhood teachers and VET trainers.

The Panel explored these areas in detail with recommendations including:

Improving and reinforcing teacher quality

• Teacher employers take responsibility for providing access to high-quality induction and mentoring for early career teachers.
• A strategy to be developed to ensure national consistency in the judgements of whether a teacher is ready to move through to the next career stage – graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead.
• Amendments to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) including specific maintenance of proficiency against the Standards.
• Update the APST so that they are relevant to early childhood teachers.
• All early childhood teachers, regardless of their employment setting, are required to be registered under a consistent approach.

Strengthening children’s safety

• Jurisdictions amend legislation and/or policies to require teacher regulatory authorities to share information with their counterparts to strengthen children’s safety and improve teacher workforce mobility.
• A national policy on suitability to teach be developed and implemented by all teacher regulatory authorities, which are to include considerations of ‘fit and proper’.
• An automated national information sharing platform to be developed to streamline the sharing of teacher registration information in real time between authorities.

Streamlining teacher registration processes

• Jurisdictions commit to improving mutual recognition processes between teacher regulatory authorities so teachers can move between states and territories in a timely manner.
• Develop a plan to enable teacher registration to be fully transferable between jurisdictions so that teachers can work across jurisdictions if they wish.
• Greater alignment between teacher registration and VET qualifications for teachers who hold or seek dual teaching and VET qualifications.
• Develop a national approach to English language proficiency.

The 17 recommendations made by the Panel represent a significant national reform agenda, with actions to improve and reinforce teacher quality, strengthen children’s safety and improve the consistency and efficiency of the teacher registration process across Australia.

Teacher registration is a joint endeavour between teachers, mentors, leaders, employers, sectors and jurisdictions, who all play an important role and contribute to the quality of the processes and outcomes. It is designed to uphold high standards of professional practice and ensure the competency and quality of teachers.

It is hoped, that with the support of all stakeholders in the registration process, the recommendations will provide a way forward for a stronger teaching profession and better outcomes for students across Australia.

Read the full report here.

In 2017, the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia completed a 12-month Induction and Mentoring Project that collected and reviewed information on best practice induction and mentoring.

Quality induction and mentoring play a vital role for teachers in their first few years of teaching as this is when they build upon their knowledge and understanding of student learning while honing the skills necessary to become successful teachers.

Provisionally registered teachers in South Australia are required to move to (full) registration within two terms (i.e. six years) of being granted initial registration and quality induction and mentoring assists them to meet the Proficient Standards and commence the process to (full) registration within this timeframe.

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) refers to:

Induction as a formal program and other support provided to assist early career teachers who have achieved the Graduate career stage in the Standards to move to the Proficient career stage – to learn, practise and refine the elements of the professional role that are best acquired while teaching.

Mentoring as a strong professional relationship that attends to the professional development of early career teachers through ongoing observation, conversations, evidence about and assessment of practices, goal-setting aligned with standards of quality teaching, and technical and emotional support.

The project started with a review of both national and international literature to identify the key components comprising ‘quality’ processes in relation to the induction and mentoring of beginning teachers. An environmental scan of the current induction and mentoring practices available for teachers holding provisional registration at a range of sites in South Australia was then conducted, and high-quality instances of induction and mentoring of provisionally registered teachers were identified.

To assist in identifying high-quality cases of induction and mentoring the Board engaged with stakeholders through reference groups, focus groups, and individual stakeholder representative meetings. Stakeholders included teachers, school/site leaders, employers, unions and professional associations.

The mentors for the identified teachers were also invited to share their details and insights regarding the process and mechanisms used to support the provisionally registered teachers.   

The findings of the report highlight the components of quality induction and mentoring which are articulated in seven case studies of teachers and schools.

You can read the full report here.

Professional learning opportunities are now listed in our professional learning calendar.

You can access this from the newsletter via the button at the top of the page or at any time on the Teachers Registration Board homepage www.trb.sa.edu.au.

The calendar is updated on a regular basis.

The Teachers Registration Board does not endorse or accredit any of the programs or activities listed in the professional learning calendar.

Teachers are encouraged to use their professional judgement to seek out activities specific to their teaching circumstances. 

Be You is a joint initiative between Beyond Blue, Early Childhood Australia and headspace that aims to transform Australia’s approach to supporting children’s and young people’s mental health in early learning services and schools. Be You empowers educators by supporting them to develop their mental health skills and knowledge while also providing guidance on how to implement a whole-learning community approach.

Find out more and sign up your learning community click here.

For professional learning opportunities linked to the program click here.

Safer Internet Day (SID) an annual, worldwide event will be held on Tuesday 5 February 2019.

This year's theme, 'Together for a better internet' encourages individuals to create a better internet by developing four, critical skills. 

These are the 4Rs:

• Respect
• Responsibility
• Reasoning
• Resilience

Celebrated globally in 130 countries, Safer Internet Day is coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner is driving the Safer Internet Day nationally. There are a number of activities and events for individuals and schools to participate in.

How to get involved

There are many ways you, and your school, can get involved with SID2019:

• Include content on your website, newsletters or other platforms
• Run internal staff events
• Use #SID2019 or #SaferInternetDay on social media
• Sign up your class for our free SID2019 Virtual Classroom. 

Visit the Safer Internet Day website here.