Teachers feeling the burden of inadequate staffing entitlements in their school setting are campaigning for improved conditions.
The Small Schools campaign’s demands (see ‘Campaign asks’ on facing page) are relevant to members in one in four schools.
Narelle Hill, a member of Federation’s Small School Committee, understands all too well the difficulties that can arise in small schools, having worked in these settings for most of her decades-long career.
Trunkey Public School, about 50 minutes’ drive southwest of Bathurst, has 12 students and one full-time teacher, who is also the principal. The school has just enough staffing entitlement to employ one other teacher, but only ever in a part-time capacity. Last year that was Narelle, who worked at the school as a temporary teacher three days a week (and now works there as a casual).
She said the staffing formulas for small schools are “completely inadequate” and “don’t reflect the day-to-day reality”.
“Take the current requirement for two employees to be on site,” she said. “At one of the schools I worked at, a child had an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting and while we may have had another adult on site, they weren’t a teacher. Instead, it was the general assistant and although their help was great, he was ringing emergency services while I was dealing with the first aid needs of the child,… the rest of the students had minimal supervision and were losing learning time. This is not a one-off situation; stuff like this happens all the time.”
Such a scenario is just one of the problems schools like Trunkey face. “I still remember the time I got an early morning call from my principal asking me if there was any chance I could, instead of coming to our school, head a further 50 kilometres up the road to another school for the day, as the teaching principal there had a family emergency and, as they were unable to secure a casual, the school was going to have to be nonoperational for the day.”
While an extreme example, such situations are also not uncommon, Narelle said. “Current staffing formulas are all well and good if everyone is at school every day, but we know that in the real world things happen, and we need an increase in full-time, permanent teaching staff so that we can manage these realities while continuing to teach our students.”
Bilpin Public School, with 39 students on the outskirts of the greater Sydney region, does not have to deal with isolation issues but experiences similar problems due to inadequate staffing and, in particular, a lack of teaching principal release time.
Under current formulas, Bilpin’s principal Mel Mackie is only guaranteed an entitlement of 35 days of release in an entire year.
“Less than one day a week is just not enough”, said Mel, who is also a member of Federation’s Small Schools Committee. “We have the same professional responsibilities as other principals, regardless of the school size and mandatory administration, reporting and training are consistent across all school settings, but this is not reflected in the amount of release time.”
The difficulties faced by Narelle and Mel are not unique and are also experienced across small schools, dotted around NSW.
“Two and a half days a week to focus on my principal role would make a profound difference and not just for me, because I wouldn’t be spending countless hours outside normal work time on administration, but as a school. We would be able to give students the attention they deserve and need,” Mel said.
“I would just love it if I had someone available to answer the phone when it rings,” she added. Bilpin Public is only entitled to three days of administration support per week. “And don’t get me started on my general assistant allocation!”
The campaign demands the Minns Government implements reforms that recognise the unique context of small schools, by introducing:
- a base staffing entitlement of two full-time teachers
- a minimum 50 per cent reduction in face-to-face teaching for teaching principals, regardless of the school’s enrolments, to meet the ever-increasing demands of a teaching principal.
Federation has developed a policy update, “High Quality Teaching and Learning in Small Schools”, which outlines further priorities for the union, including full-time equivalent administrative support and, as a minimum, two days per week of general assistant time.
- Fewer than 160 students
- Led by a principal who also teaches
- Settings include K-6 and infants schools, and environmental education centres
- Small schools not only serve as the cornerstone of access to rural education but are also the heart of communities in many diverse urban areas
The union continues to campaign to bring all public schools up to the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), a funding benchmark to meet student need, which factors in the additional needs of small schools and geographically isolated schools. Bringing all public schools up to the SRS benchmark will provide sufficient funding, resources and time for teachers to work collaboratively to achieve higher quality teaching and learning for students.