Deaf ears: The DET has ignored the plea of award-winning outstanding leader Catherine Coates to be allowed to support beginning teachers.

Beginning teachers miss out

By Bob Lipscombe

The talents of a very experienced and outstanding teacher mentor are being wasted in Northern NSW while beginning teachers need support.

2006 Department of Education and Training (DET) Regional Director's award for Outstanding Leadership recipient Catherine Coates' plea to be allowed to continue to support beginning teachers has fallen on deaf ears.

After working as a very highly-skilled teacher mentor in western Sydney, Ms Coates returned to the north coast at the commencement of this year, only to be appointed "above establishment" at Murwillumbah High School as a classroom teacher. Since there was no actual vacancy at the school, Ms Coates wrote to both Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt and DET Regional Director Carol Carrigan proposing that she be used to support beginning teachers on the far north coast. This would be at little, if any, additional cost to the DET. Unfortunately this proposal has not been accepted.

This unwillingness to support beginning teachers stands in marked contrast to the situation in nearby Catholic schools. In the nearby Catholic diocese of Lismore beginning teachers are provided with an additional one day per week release from face-to-face teaching to assist their induction and professional development. Unfortunately, beginning teachers in public schools in the Lismore area get no additional release. Meanwhile nearly all Catholic schools in NSW now also provide some additional release time for teacher mentor support.

Almost weekly, the weight of evidence in supporting the need for significant improvements for beginning teachers in the areas of workload, mentoring and professional development continues to grow, with the latest contribution being the release on February 26 of the report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, Top of the Class: Report on the inquiry into teacher education). It supports "a 20 per cent reduction in beginning teacher's face-to-face teaching load to enable time to undertake professional development, reflection, observing other classes and meeting with mentors". It also calls for the appointment of teacher mentors with appropriate release time. The release of this report followed a similar call for support in Dr Lyndsay Connors' report for the Public Education Alliance, Time and Tide...A report on the need to invest in the renewal of the public school teaching service, released earlier in February.

It is time the NSW Government acknowledged the overwhelming evidence and announced additional release time and increased support for beginning teachers in our public schools.

Bob Lipscombe is the Senior Vice President.

Deaf ears: The DET has ignored the plea of award-winning outstanding leader Catherine Coates to be allowed to support beginning teachers.

Report on teacher education recommends support for beginning teachers

Public education push on NSW politicians

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March 2007 contents