Know Your Rights: Education Quarterly, Issue 5 2023
When seeking approval to teach, I specified teaching subjects for approval and nominated schools and/ or staffing areas where I was prepared to accept a permanent appointment. Could I be directly appointed to a position with the Department of Education?
In the past, the majority of permanent teacher appointments occurred by way of the Approved to Teach List. One of the central features of the Approved to Teach List is that each teacher is assigned a priority date. Your initial priority date is the date on which you were approved to teach.
Between 2009 and 2021, the Department would not agree to employment off the Approved to Teach List as a central appointment type, although it was an option available to schools through local choice. Federation’s efforts on behalf of members reinstated the Approved to Teach List as a central appointment type in the 2021–23 Staffing Agreement.
Teachers are once again centrally employed through this mechanism and appointments to matching positions are occurring in order of priority date.
What can I do to increase the likelihood of being offered a permanent position from the Approved to Teach List?
Federation advocated for and continues to support, the Teacher Employment Priority Scheme, which moves a teacher’s approval date backwards based on casual and temporary service. Fifty days of casual or temporary service in any school will improve a teacher’s priority date by six months.
For about one-third of public schools, 50 days of casual and temporary teaching improve a teacher’s priority date by 12 months and for 31 NSW public schools every 50 days of teaching will result in an 18-month enhancement of a teacher’s priority date.
In addition to seeking work in harder-to-staff schools as outlined above, teachers can increase the likelihood of permanent appointment from the Approved to Teach List by ensuring that their teaching, skills and/or experience codes are up to date, and include all schools and staffing areas in which they are prepared to work.
Why has the Department contacted me about whether I am interested in being appointed to a permanent position?
The process the Department presently utilises when employing from the Approved to Teach List is to contact all teachers on the list who best match the codes for the position and have included the school in their employment preferences. The teacher with the highest priority date who responds will then be permanently appointed to that position.
If members have further queries in relation to appointments to positions from the Approved to Teach List or believe that they have missed out on an appointment from the list, they are encouraged to contact Federation’s Professional Support section on 1300 654 367.