educator_summer_2021

Australian

Lockdown learning

P RINT P OST A PP ROVED 10 000 8182

// Educators reflect on a tough year

A national crisis // Teacher shortages are hitting hard

Heart of the issue Funding shortfalls laid bare as another election looms

Talking racism // Tools to tackle tough issues

SUMMER 2021 // ISSUE 112 $9.95

Fight for change // Students demand action on climate

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Contents ON THE COVER The upcoming federal election will be crucial for public schools like Exeter Primary School in Tasmania.

PHOTOGRAPHY Dave Groves

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NEWS IN BRIEF

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

FIGHTING FOR A FUTURE

• • • • •

Teacher shortages are biting in every state and territory in different ways.

Despite this national crisis, there seems to be no relief in sight.

Students are demanding action on climate change before it’s too late.

Push for schools rethink New book teaches union solidarity Recognition for educators lost Early childhood challenges revealed Call for language and literacy support

08 COVID ELECTION LOOMS The upcoming federal election will set the course for public education in Australia for the next decade.

16 MAKE SPENDING COUNT

28 TALKING RACISM Training teachers to have difficult conversations may help dispel the myth that children ‘don’t see colour’.

30 Mentoring, game-playing and plenty of flexibility helped our new educators deal with COVID lockdowns and a temporary return to remote learning.

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After two years of disruptions, school communities are taking stock. Educators reflect on the challenges and triumphs.

LESSONS OF THE TIMES Education, and healthy educators, will help us navigate a post-COVID world.

REGULARS 04 From the president 05 Know your union 38 Recess

ADAPTING TO CHANGE

Investing in public schools will improve results and stimulate the economy, writes former federal treasurer Wayne Swan.

CHECKING IN

36

THE SNOWBALL EFFECT Small problems left unattended can quickly turn into big issues, particularly in the field of children’s mental health.

www.aeufederal.org.au

SUM M E R 2 0 2 1 // 3

From the president

Every School Every Child Successive governments have failed to invest enough money in every school to meet the needs of every child. It is time for that to change.

I was interested to see the SBS documentary Lost for Words, which follows a group of eight Australian adults undertaking a nine-week transformation to improve their literacy skills.

Each episode starts with the shocking statistic that 43 per cent of Australians struggle to deal with everyday literacy – regardless of the school they attended.

It was heartbreaking to see the participants struggle through every moment of their waking lives, from not being able to read a recipe or write a shopping list, to distinguishing between different spice jars at the supermarket because “they all look the same”, understanding train timetables or reading their children a bedtime story.

And it is even more heartbreaking to hear why they are struggling. For Shelle it’s dyslexia and for Mike a rare genetic disease, emphasising the fact that students are presenting with increasingly complex, uncommon, and in some cases invisible, difficulties.

While the program focuses on the hard work these Australians are now having to do to change their lives and their incredible bravery at facing their fears, I can’t help but get angry that successive governments have failed them by not investing enough money in every school to meet the needs of every child.

SMALLER CLASSES, MORE TEACHERS 2018 should have been the year in which teachers and students benefitted from the biggest investment of funds in a generation. Instead, the federal government amended the Australian Education Act 2013, and

Australian Educator

(ISSN: 0728-8387) is published for the Australian Education Union by Hardie Grant Media.

The magazine is circulated to members of the AEU nationally.

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Heads & Tales

Ground Level, Building 1 658 Church St, Richmond 3121 Tel: (03) 8520 6444 Fax: (03) 8520 6422 Email: educator@hardiegrant.com

We need your help to make these issues a priority in the upcoming election.

changed the way that funding was delivered by restricting the Commonwealth’s contribution to public school funding to 20 per cent.

An independent report by economist Adam Rorris calculated that public schools will now miss out on a funding shortfall of $19 billion until 2023 due to this cap.

AEU and subscription enquiries Australian Education Union Federal Office, PO Box 1158 South Melbourne Victoria 3205 Tel: (03) 9693 1800 Fax: (03) 9693 1805 Email: aeu@aeufederal.org.au facebook.com/AEUfederal @AEUfederal

Editor Susan Hopgood Publisher Fiona Hardie Account manager Hannah Louey Managing editor Jo Davy Commissioning editor Tracey Evans Subeditor Leanne Tolra Art director Dallas Budde Design Natalie Lachina

To put this into context, the latest AEU research shows that each year every public school student in Brisbane, for example, is missing out on $2162 because of the failure of the federal government to ensure that every school is funded to a minimum of 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.

With this extra funding, every public school in Brisbane could employ at least 17 more teachers and reduce class sizes by seven students.

If every school in Australia had received 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard, the funding level set out by the 2011 Gonski Review as the minimum that every school needs to support every child, then every school would have more teachers and every child would be taught in a smaller class.

Children like Shelle would be get the extra attention they need, children like Mike could have an earlier diagnosis and specialist support in the classroom.

And, as Nic Barnard sets out in his article on the COVID election on pages 8 to 14, the pandemic has only increased the urgency for this fair and proper recurrent funding. Students who may have fallen behind will benefit greatly from smaller class sizes, more teachers and more support staff in the classroom.

That’s why the AEU is calling on all levels of government to instigate a national school recovery plan that not only provides full investment in public schooling, but also addresses the extra capital investment required for the safe running of schools including ventilation, masks, sanitisers and adjustments to infrastructure.

EVERY SCHOOL, EVERY CHILD We need your help to make these issues a priority in the upcoming election. Check out your electorate at www.everyschooleverychild.org.au to find out the levels of funding that you are missing out on and make sure your local MP or candidate knows how important it is that every school gets funded to the minimum of the Schooling Resource Standard so every child can have the high-quality, COVID-safe education they deserve.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

Advertising manager Kerri Spillane Tel: (03) 8520 6444 Email: kerrispillane@ hardiegrant.com

Audited circulation: 119,425 (1 October 2020 _ 31 March 2021)

Printer Ovato 42 Boorea Street Lidcombe NSW 2141

Copyright rests with the writers, the AEU and Hardie Grant Media. No part of this pub­lication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright holders. The opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily the official policy of the AEU.

Know your union With a federal office and branches or associated bodies in every state and territory, the AEU represents more than 188,000 members industrially and professionally.

AEU FEDERAL 120 Clarendon St, Southbank, VIC, 3006 Phone: +61 3 9693 1800 Email: aeu@aeufederal.org.au Web: aeufederal.org.au

Federal president Correna Haythorpe Federal secretary Susan Hopgood

AEU ACT BRANCH Branch president Angela Burroughs Branch secretary Glenn Fowler 40 Brisbane Avenue Barton 2600 Phone: 02 6272 7900 Email: aeuact@aeuact.org.au Web: aeuact.org.au

AEU NT BRANCH Branch president Jarvis Ryan Branch secretary Adam Lampe 3/8 Totem Road Coconut Grove 0811 Phone: 08 8948 5399 Email: admin@aeunt.org.au Web: aeunt.org.au

AEU SA BRANCH Branch president Lara Golding Branch secretary Leah York 163 Greenhill Road Parkside 5063 Phone: 08 8172 6300 Email: aeusa@aeusa.asn.au Web: aeusa.asn.au

AEU TAS BRANCH Branch president David Genford Branch state manager Brian Wightman 1/32 Patrick Street Hobart 7000 Phone: 03 6234 9500 Email: support@aeutas.org.au Web: aeutas.org.au

AEU VIC BRANCH Branch president Meredith Peace Branch secretary Erin Aullich 126 Trenerry Crescent Abbotsford 3067 Phone: 03 9417 2822 Email: melbourne@aeuvic.asn.au Web: aeuvic.asn.au

QUEENSLAND TEACHERS UNION President Cresta Richardson General secretary Kate Ruttiman 21 Graham Street Milton 4064 Phone: 07 3512 9000 Email: qtu@qtu.asn.au Web: qtu.asn.au

NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION President Angelo Gavrielatos General secretary Maxine Sharkey 23-33 Mary Street Surry Hills 2010 Phone: 02 9217 2100 Email: mail@nswtf.org.au Web: nswtf.org.au

STATE SCHOOL TEACHERS UNION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA President Pat Byrne General secretary Mary Franklyn 1 West Street West Perth 6005 Phone: 08 9210 6000 Email: contact@sstuwa.org.au Web: sstuwa.org.au

SUM M E R 2 0 2 1 // 5

News

News in brief

Lobbying for literacy support

Sticking together A new children’s book uses the animal kingdom to teach children about working-class solidarity.

“The natural world is often used as a metaphor – a justification even – for individualistic, competitive behaviour and it’s really not accurate,” says James Raynes, author of Sticking Together.

“Society teaches us over and over again to look after number one, but the reality is that working in unison is part of human nature.”

Published by the Victorian Trades Hall Council and illustrated by Mitzi McKenzie-King, the book is an opportunity to teach children about unionism’s core values: cooperation and sharing.

Raynes hopes the book will start conversations “about the sometimes abstract concept of solidarity, and how that applies to children’s lives”. tinyurl.com/4mhtbpyy

A national coalition of Australia’s peak early language and literacy bodies is calling on the federal government to adopt a strategy to support language and literacy.

Sue McKerracher, Chair of the National Early Language & Literacy Coalition (NELLC) says research shows that one in five Australian children are developmentally behind in their language skills – before they start school.

Children who start school behind their peers often stay behind, she says.

“The consequences of this may be seen years later in the workforce and in poor health outcomes.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics research shows that 44 per cent of Australia’s adult population do not have sufficient literacy skills to cope with the demands of life and work.

Unlike other western countries including the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia does not

have a government-supported national early language and literacy strategy in place for children aged 0 to five.

Professor Tom Calma, co-chair of The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation, says all Australian children deserve equity of access to quality early years learning environments that include and celebrate their families, communities, home languages, their cultures and their uniqueness. Calma says a coordinated national strategy will create the cohesion necessary for every child to benefit during those sensitive formative years.

The National Early Language and Literacy Coalition has developed a national strategy that it wants the governments to review and prioritise.

The proposed strategy sets out the scale of the issue and puts forward a plan for action. The Literacy Coalition is planning to lobby federal, state and territory governments to adopt the strategy and has asked the community to sign a petition at tinyurl.com/xnjxd3th The strategy is available at earlylanguageandliteracy.org.au

Early childhood challenges The severe challenges facing early childhood educators and the sector itself have been reflected in a recent study.

More than two-thirds of Australian early childhood teachers and educators reported working many extra hours to satisfy regulatory requirements in a University of New England survey this year, writes UNE lecturer Marg Rogers in The Conversation.

Some were paid for as little as half of the hours they worked.

The stresses of low pay and long hours cause almost one in three early childhood teachers and educators to leave the profession each year, writes Rogers.

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Society teaches us over and over again to look after number one, but the reality is that working in unison is part of human nature.

James Raynes Author

EVENTS World AIDS Day

1 December International Day of People with Disability

3 December International Women’s Day

8 March 2022 Always present Education International has launched a website to remember the teachers and support staff lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. The launch follows a global tribute event held on World Teachers’ Day. Members are welcome to contribute with details of any colleagues who have died of COVID-19. teachercovidmemorial.org/ share-their-story

ILLUSTRATION OSLO DAVIS, ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Support for rethink A Monash University study, Perceptions of Australian Schooling: What matters in 2021, has found significant support (76.6 per cent) for a rethink of the way schools operate.

“The COVID-19 pandemic opened up new modes of learning for schools around the world. Early in the pandemic, suggestions were made that hybrid or blended learning would continue to be a feature of Australian schooling post-pandemic,” the study reported.

More than half of the 1012 adults surveyed believed the shift to remote learning during COVID-19 was successful in Australia and almost 42 per cent said their perceptions of teachers’ work had improved.

But almost all believed it was important to provide subsidised or free access to laptops for low-socioeconomic households.

Dr Amanda Heffernan, senior lecturer in Monash University’s Faculty of Education, says the findings “reflect a high level of public trust for teachers and an awareness that teachers care for the wellbeing of their students”.

Survey respondents also recognised the complexity of teachers’ work and the many challenges they faced, including student disengagement, mental health and wellbeing, complex and diverse student needs and administrative demands.

When asked about what skills should be taught in school, most respondents valued problem solving, followed by social and emotional intelligence, critical information literacy, future career preparedness and resilience.

The survey report can be found at monash.edu/thank-your-teacher

SUM M E R 2 0 2 1 // 7

A COVID election?

Bring it on!

The clock is ticking on a federal election that will set the course for public education in Australia for the next decade.

BY N IC B ARN ARD

Agenda

The Morrison government has failed to understand that their decisions on funding are not just about numbers.

They have a real impact on students, their families and communities.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE GROVES

B

y the time you read this, Prime Minister Scott Morrison may have fired the starting gun on the campaign, hoping for a COVID bounce as the nation opens up after a long year. The election must be held by the end of May 2022.

But the outcome of this election will determine so much more than who gets to bask in the glow of a lifted lockdown. It will see Australia choose between a public school system that grapples with chronic underfunding and a widening gap between the haves and have-nots; and a system that really does meet the needs of “every school, every child”.

The return of a Morrison government will mean that the children who graduate from Australia's public schools in 2029 will leave having never had their education funded at the level that the Commonwealth and states say they should.

As AEU members know only too well, this is not an abstruse argument about numbers and percentages. It is about the future of every child who steps through the doors of a public school, from Darwin to Hobart, from Geraldton to Brunswick Heads.

That is why the AEU has, for the past year, been collecting the testimonies of members about the impact of underfunding on their schools and their students, and what they could do with the money everyone agrees is needed.

Our members’ stories – your stories – tell the truth about the impact of resource shortages. Together with seatby-seat information about the impact of Federal Liberal and National government underfunding on schools in every state and territory, these stories are part of the AEU’s campaign to put on the record

what the stakes really are at this election.

“The Morrison government has failed to understand that their decisions on funding are not just about numbers. They have a real impact on students, their families and communities,” says AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe.

“We have looming teacher shortages.

We have crippling workloads. We have infrastructure issues that mean in many instances, our students are denied the state-of-the-art facilities they need and deserve.”

IN SHORT // The Morrison government's chronic underfunding of public schools is being felt in every electorate in Australia. // In the lead up to the election, the AEU will be highlighting the real impact of funding shortfalls. // The AEU is calling for schools to be funded to 100% of the SRS.

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Every school should be provided the resources it needs to ensure every child gets the best education, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Join the campaign to make sure public schools are funded properly and fairly, to give every child the opportunity for a bright future.

Sign

Sign up to add your voice and receive regular updates and information at the everyschooleverychild.org.au website

Download

Download printable and sharable images and information at everyschooleverychild.org.au/resources

Share

Share your story using the hashtag #everyschooleverychild

everyschooleverychild.org.au Authorised by Susan Hopgood, Federal Secretary, Australian Education Union, 120 Clarendon St, Southbank 3006

Agenda

Keeping students engaged in online learning requires so much more than loaning them laptops and handing out internet dongles.

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE GROVES

If Prime Minister Morrison is hoping to run a feel-good election campaign based on his handling of the pandemic, he is in for a rude awakening.

INEQUALITIES EXPOSED Throughout 2021, Australian Educator has highlighted how schools and their students have been let down by the federal government during the COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic has further exposed the deep inequalities in our education system and the shocking lack of resources, planning and support for students and teachers who have had to pivot time and time again.

Remote learning and the growing levels of anxiety and insecurity as the pandemic drags on have seen some students become disengaged or fall behind – often those who were already disadvantaged.

Many urgently need intensive and ongoing learning and support that can only be provided by the Commonwealth immediately lifting funding for all schools to the full Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).

The pandemic also exposed a chronic shortage of mental health support. Tamara Cavenett, president of the Australian Psychological Society says the nation didn’t have the capacity to cope before the 2019–20 bushfires and the pandemic hit. “Services have been operating beyond demand for some time”.

And while teachers have switched from classroom to remote learning and back again, they have rarely been treated as frontline workers, or given early access to vaccinations. AEU surveys of teacher workload show members working up to 12 hours a week more than the already long hours they worked before the pandemic.

[Digital ability] takes resources and time to develop, and [without it] there cannot be successful, digitally based learning away from school.

Barbara Preston Researcher

The digital divide has been a significant gap revealed by the pandemic. There is a shortage of IT equipment and internet access in the homes of Australia’s most disadvantaged students and their families, and the need for skills, knowledge and confidence to use digital learning effectively.

Even before the pandemic, some four million Australians had only mobile phone internet access and one-quarter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students had no internet access at home, according to a report commissioned by the AEU from researcher Barbara Preston.

Keeping these students engaged and learning has required so much more than loaning them laptops and handing out

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 11

A Morrison victory in the next election will mean the children who graduate from our public schools in 2029 will leave having never had their education funded at the level that the Commonwealth and states say they should.

urgently needed intensive learning and support programs for students.

This will require the Commonwealth immediately providing the funding to achieve 100 per cent SRS funding for all public schools with the states and territories progressively providing their full investment.

Canberra has so far failed to rise to the challenge.

dongles with internet access – although schools have done both of these things. “[Digital ability] takes resources and time to develop, and [without it] there cannot be successful, digitally based learning away from school,” Preston says. Now, as we enter a new “living with COVID” era, it is important that we make schools safe for students and the adults working in them.

The AEU is calling for a national school recovery plan to be developed by federal, state and territory governments in consultation with the union.

The plan should ensure the capital investment necessary for the safe running of schools including ventilation audits, air-quality testing, air purifiers, masks and sanitation as well as any required building modifications.

It must also provide the recurrent funding required for the delivery of

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We need smaller class sizes, literacy and numeracy support for every child who needs it, more individual attention for students, in modern and COVID-appropriate facilities.

Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

READY FOR ACTION It is against that background that AEU members will put the truth of our unequal, unbalanced education system – a system where there is a funding ceiling for public schools but a funding floor for Catholic and independent schools.

They will be armed with leaflets tailored to every electorate in Australia, profiling the public schools in each seat and the benefits they would gain if they were fully funded.

This message includes the number of students from disadvantaged households, non-English speaking backgrounds, and Indigenous communities in each electorate – all factors that should attract extra funding under the SRS system.

Crucially, it also puts a dollar figure on how much schools in each electorate would benefit for every student if they are funded to 100 per cent of the SRS, and just how many extra teachers that could provide.

It also compares the capital investment public and private schools in the electorate have received for buildings, maintenance and equipment.

AEU members know exactly how that money could be spent, because they know what their students are missing out on right now.

“Our class sizes are getting larger, the number of students in the classes with

Agenda

All kids need to be reading well by Year 3 or they struggle to keep up for the rest of their schooling.

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE GROVES

Peter, teacher Braddon, ACT

some sort of neurodivergence is increasing and the supports available to those students are decreasing,” one Tasmanian teacher wrote in her submission to the Every School Every Child website.

Her students had less time with teaching assistants and there were no specialists in the school. “To really close the gap, we need to be able to offer regular psych, speech, OT and other supports.”

Students in her electorate each miss out on $1289 a year– enough for five extra teachers per school, which would cut class sizes by four. “It’s not fair that private schools can offer classes of 14 with teaching assistants due to their extra funding and we struggle with large sizes and no help.”

These crucial supports for students require funding, but federal education minister Alan Tudge says money isn’t the answer; teacher training is.

Lisa, a Year 1 teacher in regional Tasmania, says the minister is talking rubbish.

She says Tudge’s message is that “if teachers just understood teaching literacy better, then students would all learn better”.

“But a lot of the time, there are undiagnosed issues. We have such poor psychological support – unless the student has high level issues, they don’t get diagnosed and assessed properly.”

Lisa says students who have issues with working memory or dyslexia have an obvious need of support. “If you have the opportunity to work one-to-one with that child, for a small amount of time each day, you see that they can actually progress really well. They just need that extra support that other children don’t require.

“If I think about one child I was teaching last year, it really didn’t matter how skilled the teacher was. What that child needed was one-to-one support, because their

What is the AEU demanding of political parties in this election?

1 That public schools be funded to 100% of the SRS now – not sometime in the 2030s.

2 An immediate end to the 20 per cent cap on Commonwealth contributions to the SRS – the rule that allows the Federal Government to shrug off responsibility.

3 A long-term program of capital investment in public schools to meet growing enrolments and get our school system back up to standard.

learning needs were so high that in a group context they couldn’t attend and learn at the rate they needed to.

“Once upon a time we had programs like Reading Recovery that went to every child to address that. Now it just seems to be teacher-bashing.”

Retired teacher Jacqui, says children with literacy difficulties are in a Catch-22.

“Current diagnostic criteria include the requirement that students have already accessed at least six months’ targeted intervention. [But] without a diagnosis, students are unable to access targeted funding for ongoing intervention.”

Peter, a teacher in Braddon in the ACT, writes: “Money doesn’t automatically equal success, but it means a greater chance of success. We need more early intervention to help those kids who arrive in early childhood behind their peers because of

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 13

Nic Barnard is a freelance writer.

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Where has the money gone?

or living with disability or in poverty who most need and benefit from targeted funding.

Remember the GFC and Kevin Rudd's Building the Education Revolution?

During the 2007–09 recession, it stimulated the economy by building new school facilities. It was pilloried by the then-Opposition as a rort, wasting money on buildings that supposedly weren't needed.

The Gonski funding reforms begun by the Gillard government in 2010 but finalised and implemented by the Coalition since 2013, were supposed to address inequality, ensuring all schools had the funding needed to cater for every child.

Now in power, that same LiberalNational Coalition is spending billions of dollars extra on schools that already receive more than the benchmark set for education funding in Australia – schools that teach less than 15 per cent of students with additional needs.

Ministers proudly trumpet record spending, but the truth is that government funding per student, adjusted for inflation, has risen four times faster for private schools than for public schools and there is no federal plan to fully fund the schools that teach 85 per cent of children from disadvantaged backgrounds – the students from Indigenous or LOTE backgrounds, in remote communities

The Schooling Resource Standard, weighted for disadvantage, set for the first time the minimum funding schools require to ensure at least 80 per cent of students achieve NAPLAN standards.

Yet under the agreements the Commonwealth struck with states, every Catholic and independent school will reach its SRS by 2023, while 99 per cent of public schools will be below the SRS.by 2023. Meanwhile the federal government has thrown billions of extra dollars into the private sector outside of these agreements to cover teething pains.

Arguably, it’s not just a question of equity. It’s a question of sound use of public money.

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE GROVES

lack of exposure to books. All kids need to be reading well by Year 3 or they struggle to keep up for the rest of their schooling.”

As for capital works, AEU members describe working in “temporary” buildings that are now decades old, leaking roofs, cramped staff rooms and libraries converted to classrooms because of lack of space. And not a swimming pool or polo pitch in sight.

Correna Haythorpe sums up: “We need smaller class sizes, literacy and numeracy support for every child who needs it, more individual attention for students, in modern and COVID-appropriate facilities.”

If this is a COVID recovery election, then the onus must be on the political parties to set out the part our education system will play in that, and how they intend to make it happen. It will require a planned combination of recurrent and capital funding – and not one-off catch-up funding to tide schools over. They need 100 per cent SRS funding, and they need it now.

“Right now, more than ever, we require a nation of people with the knowledge skills and expertise to come out of this pandemic and ensure our children succeed,” Haythorpe says. “That’s universal. It shouldn’t be determined by the wealth or background of their families, and it shouldn’t be constrained by the spending decisions of our governments.

“And it’s unconscionable that in 2021 we are a nation in which some students are educated in schools that are properly resourced and many in schools that are not. It’s just unacceptable.”

Agenda

Make spending count

I

had to laugh when Josh Frydenberg’s budget was celebrated, in the usual strange places, as some triumph of Keynesian-style stimulation.

In the real world, this was a document that followed barely any of the lessons that made Australia the envy of the world after the global financial crisis, preferring to spray cash with both eyes fixed on the next election.

In doing so, there was only one ideological tradition being nodded to: trickle-down economics.

Of course, there were the usual targets with cuts to the NDIS, and the usual areas missing or underfunded such as affordable housing and aged care. But just as glaring, from a long-term perspective, was the missed opportunity when it came to education infrastructure investment.

As treasurer during the most recent fierce shock to our economy, I remember the extensive nature of deliberations at the vital moments.

Yes, then like now, there was a need to get money out the door. But that urgency didn’t divert us from realising there was a real chance to create a pipeline of work that would keep on delivering well into the future in the form of the Building the Education Revolution programme.

That’s where $16.2 billion was invested – more than one third of the recessionbeating package – because we realised that by investing in school facilities, we could meet several objectives at the same time.

In the short term, it was money that unashamedly protected jobs at such a precarious time. In construction especially, bosses were able to keep their workers on, safe in the knowledge there was plenty of work going, in every community, well into the future.

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The subsequent employment numbers spoke for themselves, going on to underpin Australia’s world-leading growth outcomes as major economies went into freefall.

But in the longer term, it was the education opportunities of young Australians that were enhanced, a point that is well articulated in a recent report by the AEU. The Investing in Schools – Funding the Future study, written by education economist Adam Rorris, reinforces why we were always correct to put education infrastructure at the heart of our stimulus, and hammers home why Frydenberg should have done the same in his last budget.

BUILDING BETTER RESULTS The message is a clear one, built on research from around the world: when you direct money into school infrastructure, students perform better. From there, once that vital foundation is laid, the return on investment continues decade after decade.

The stark numbers in the AEU study reveal what hasn’t been done for public schools in recent years, leaving a marked gap that cannot be ignored and must be remedied. With 200,000 new students forecast to attend government schools in the next decade, the time to realise this potential is right now.

It’s uncomfortable to consider the extent to which private schools have been looked after compared to public throughout the time that the Liberals have been in power – investment should follow disadvantage and need, as our Gonski reforms established when Julia Gillard was in charge.

However, this isn’t about class warfare.

Instead, this is the moment for state and federal governments to bridge that gap and strengthen the economy by making it

fairer: a generational stimulant, consisting of 21st-century facilities, be they libraries or labs, just as we did when it mattered most.

That it would have the effect of once again creating tens of thousands of jobs is the cherry on top.

At a time when our discourse has never been so fractured, this should not be a contested space – indeed, this remains one of the biggest no-brainers in economic policy.

Looking after the most vulnerable and lowest-paid Australians has served our country well both in the teeth of the GFC and the initial pandemic response. By doing just the same with public education facilities, it will help to build our national firewall against future shocks.

Getting the Liberals in the cart for investment in public education, in whatever form, is never easy – it’s not in their DNA; the way they tried to scupper the BER and undermine Gonski is a reminder of that. But that doesn’t mean they can’t put the future first by setting this right.

Wayne Swan was Australia’s treasurer for six years, including the period of the global financial crisis.

PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES

The Coalition still has the chance to invest in public schools knowing it will improve results and stimulate the economy, writes former federal treasurer Wayne Swan.

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^

Agenda

Checking in

ILLUSTRATION ELLY WALTON / IKON IMAGES

After two years of disruption, school communities are taking stock.

Australian Educator caught up with teachers, school leaders and support staff to hear about their experiences.

// 19 SUMWMIN E TE R 20 R 21 0 2//0 19

MEG ADAMSON Year 1 Teacher, Kingsford Smith School, Australian Capital Territory

CHELLE ROBERTSON-HEATH

I teach 15 Year 1 students. They were off for around eight weeks from the middle of August.

Year 2 Teacher, Irrawang Public School, New South Wales

My team learned a lot from having been in lockdown for around five weeks in 2020. We knew how much to give the kids and how to support the parents. And, because we were watching what was happening in other states and did a lot more prep work, the students were better suited to remote learning when our lockdown was called.

We were in lockdown for 11 weeks. Last year I taught Year 6, and they could take a bit more control over their learning, whereas in Year 2 they need more support and instruction.

We made five-to-10-minute daily learning videos for Google Meet, and then had daily Facetime. It went quite well. My teaching practice did change, because in the classroom we explain the activity and then spend most of our time helping students complete it.

For remote learning, the videos explained the learning we wanted them to do, then parents were in charge of ensuring students finished the activity and sending us a photo or video of what they’d done. The parents liked that we gave them enough options so they could tailor the learning to what they wanted to do and felt supported because they could contact us whenever they needed to.

Being well-prepared meant I could then spend my time checking in with students and getting admin done. For the first time, I felt I really had work-life balance. It’s made me think about how school is structured, and I’d like to see more innovation.

Some of the students also blossomed during the lockdown because they could do work in their own time without people interrupting them, and could Facetime or email me at any time. But some didn’t have regular internet access and had to share technology with their parents or siblings.

More funding for technology would help with that.

It’s made me think about how school is structured, and I’d like to see more innovation.

2 0 // SUMME R 2 0 2 1

That’s especially challenging in this area, where lot of students don’t have the technology to be online. And their families, due to work commitments or language and other barriers, weren’t always able to make sure their children stayed on top of their school activities.

We put together a weekly work booklet and almost all the students operated from that. The same material was uploaded to Microsoft Teams to allow online access, and I recorded a morning circle – something we do in the classroom – to explain daily activities.

Quite a few students in my class have special needs and we have intervention and remediation programs, but they were more difficult to do from a distance.

So, during Teams meetings, which were three times a week, out of 17 students, sometimes only six or seven were online.

Towards the end of lockdown, some parents had trouble getting their children to do anything at all. It’s been a really hard slog for them, sometimes having to supervise several children in different years.

We haven’t fallen as far behind as we expected, though.

In reading, they’ve done surprisingly well due to online lessons. But in our first numeracy lesson, I felt like I was speaking in another language. It’s like we were back to square one. There will be a lot of work to catch up on to make sure they’ll all be entering Year 3 with solid foundational numeracy and literacy skills.

While we are pushing the academic side of things; our number one priority is wellbeing – making sure that everyone is safe and coping mentally and emotionally.

There are so many things going on in their worlds right now, not just learning to read and write.

Agenda

DAVID ADAMSON Principal, Essendon Keilor Secondary College, Victoria

Students came back full time the first week of November.

Lockdown has been tough because they’ve missed almost a year of school in the last two years.

Last year we spent a lot more time working out communication with parents to let them know what was happening. And now that we’ve done lockdown three times, everyone knows what they’re doing. Students and teachers are much better at using the software, and the competition between providers meant software products improved and we didn’t have as many drop-outs.

We also learned how to structure lessons better and had time to critically review aspects of the curriculum and decide what was essential. It was a bit of a judgement call on the teachers’ behalf – to focus on the skills students would need in each subject area going into next year, as well as making lessons more engaging and using technology more constructively.

One of the more positive aspects of lockdown is improvements in our communication with families. We post student’s work online and we’ll keep doing that. The parents love it. And parent– teacher nights used to be live, but many parents now prefer to do it online because they don’t have to come in to school and they get more dedicated time with the teacher, without distractions.

We also started streaming school concerts and performances and we’ll keep doing that forever because it means grandparents and people overseas can see the students performing.

Our challenge now is to get the students to focus on their work so we can all start next year on a good note. Since we had to go through this experience, let’s try and make something positive out of it. I’d hate to just go back to where we were before without learning anything from the experience.

Our challenge now is to get the students to focus on their work so we can all start next year on a good note.

JULIE MCMULLEN English Teacher, St Ives High School, New South Wales

We were off for around 18 weeks, including school holidays. That made it difficult for a lot of us, because people didn’t get a chance to recharge, see family or have a change of scenery.

Lessons were delivered online, and I took the roll every lesson to make sure everyone was OK. Zoom was great, until the government changed its policy and stopped us using breakout rooms, which allow you to split meetings into separate, smaller sessions. So I ended up going back to doing more lecture-style lessons with 30 students at a time.

I think Year 12 students had a hard time during lockdown, because they’d be doing revision for the HSC and then that was pushed back, which meant the light at the end of their tunnel was suddenly further away, and they didn’t get to organise things such as the school formal. So even though we covered all the academic content, morale was very low.

For that reason, we’re focusing more on mental health and wellbeing. We already had that as a priority, but now the students also have an app they can use to let us know how they’re feeling.

Teachers have gone above and beyond to keep up the positivity, making videos of themselves dancing, promoting art and craft competitions, cooking tutorials and science projects. I hope that continues, but if it doesn’t it will be because our workloads are insane. Mine has definitely increased over lockdown, because as well as being a classroom teacher I’m the health and safety representative, the debating coordinator, the inclusivity team leader for LGBTQIA+ matters and Aboriginal education.

We’re currently involved in negotiating salary increases as part of the NSW Teachers Federation’s More Than Thanks campaign. We’re asking for an extra two hours of relief time each week for administration duties and lesson planning. If we can also raise salaries we might attract more teachers, and if there are more of us, the workload will be less.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 21

Joint Statement on Scho

ol Libraries

Well-resourced school libraries staffed by qua lified library profession levels of Australian stud als are essential to reb ents and achieve an uild the literacy appropriate level of rea are necessary to create ding competency. Sch safe, confident users of ool libraries online content and ens literate. ure that young people are media

In our knowledge eco nomy, these literacies are a vital componen fall within the remit of t of a world class educat the school library. Res ion, and they earch shows a strong qualified teacher libraria correlation between the n in an accessible we presence of a ll-resourced school libr achievement. ary and higher levels of student The severe decline in the number of qualifie d teacher librarians sta teacher librarian trainin ffing school libraries, in g programs, in school the number of library funding, and in policy advisers over the centralised school library last several decades is services and incompatible with this important educational outcome.

Despite the demonstrat ed importance of tea cher librarians, other services have been seri qualified staff and libr ously affected by fundin aries, library g cuts, budget constra and practices. This has ints and changing sta undermined the capaci ffing policies ty and staffing, resources, serv quality of library service ices, equipment and fac s provided by schools; library ilities.

The systemic devolution of aspects of decision making and financial ma that funding for school nagement to the local libraries relies on the res level means ource allocation prioritie might or might not pla s established at that lev ce a high priority on the el, which need for a well-staffed library service.

The failure of governme nts to prioritise the pro vision of funding and marked differences bet staffing for school librarie ween schools where this s has led to is at the discretion of subject to competing the individual school budgetary demands and is often within schools. Data libraries have budgets available indicates tha well below the amoun t many school t that would allow the resource collection to be maintained.

The provision of school libr ary services in Australia is ad hoc. Access to qualifie d staff, a well-developed collection of resources, phy sical facilities and infrastr ucture is inequitable.

Without an appropriate funding formula and gui delines for school librarie arrangements will con s, the existing inequitab tinue. This will increase le funding the marginalisation of and neglect, while oth some libraries through ers are prioritised within underfunding their schools. All school print and electronic reso s should be able to pro urces as well as access vide quality to emerging technolog any school library and ies. This is a basic require should be the norm rath ment for er than the exception .

Such marked difference s between schools are incompatible with the to provide a world cla stated commitment of ss quality education for governments every Australian child.

We call on the com monwealth, state and territory governments appropriately funded to ensure equitable and well-resourced sch access to ool libraries, enhanced teacher librarians and by the services of fully other library profession qualified als. Such investment is communities, benefittin fundamentally importa g all students with inc nt to all school reased literacy levels education. and the achievement of a world class

Viv Barton

President Australian Library and

November 2020

Margo Pickworth

Information Assn

President Australian School Library

Assn

Correna Haythorpe Federal President Australian Education Unio

n

Agenda

CHRIS CAPRA Executive Principal, Palm Beach Currumbin State High, Queensland

TRISH HARRINGTON Business Manager, Carlton North Primary School, Victoria

We have had six lockdowns in Melbourne over the past 20 months and all students returned from the last one in early November.

I probably had it easier than most people because I kept working at school. I’m well set up here, I live nearby, and it was easier on my family because there weren’t so many of us taking up space at home.

I work from the front office, which means I interact with students and parents throughout the day when they’re around. Conversations and phone calls mean lots of interruptions to my work. That’s not a bad thing, but it does take up a lot of time.

During lockdown I was able to get ahead of my workload for the first time ever. Normally I’m trying to catch up, but in this last lockdown I was able think earlier in the year about planning for 2022.

That’s shown me that it would be really good if, at some point, I could actually have a space at school to work from without the interruptions, especially when there’s a lot on. But in a small school, offices are at a premium.

We found we needed to provide more support to vulnerable students and families during this latest lockdown because they were worn out. More families struggled with mental health issues, raised by the fact that people couldn’t leave home. And, as time went on, we had more students onsite so we could support them better.

This period has allowed the leadership team to work more closely together (we had more space to have conversations than in a normal day) as well as looking at how we could improve different processes. We’ve gotten to know how we work as individuals and how to better support each other.

August into September was horrendous. We were told on a Saturday we’d be locked down for a week, so we moved from teaching face-to-face on Friday to delivering online learning the following Monday.

Between the lockdown of 2020 and this one, we made a conscious effort to upskill staff and students and we coped well. But a few days after they returned, there was a hard border closure with New South Wales and, out of 181 teachers, 31 teachers in NSW couldn’t work in Queensland, and 260 students couldn’t come to school.

Teachers who were at school taught children in the classroom and remotely, while NSW teachers taught students via Teams, with relief teachers supervising their 31 classrooms.

Lockdown affected the anxiety levels of Year 12s, who were coming up to external exams. Both of my guidance officers were in NSW, but they phoned in to students, and my two deputies, also on the other side of the border, kept in touch with the teachers there to make sure they were all OK. We’re getting better at using technology to deliver content and curriculum, and students now have the same digital devices and real-time IT phone support, along with double the bandwidth, so there’s no lag time for resources at home or at school.

It’s not quite normal yet. But this is my 26th year as a principal and I’ve never been as proud of my office and teaching staff as I have been this year.

The school was redesigned within 48 hours. No one complained, they just got in and did it. When the leadership team is on the front foot, it alleviates parental stress. They’ve been very supportive because they knew what their children would be doing at home and at school.

It’s not quite normal yet. But this is my 26th year as a principal and I’ve never been as proud of my office and teaching staff as I have been this year.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 23

A national crisis of numbers Across Australia, teacher shortages are escalating, and spikes in student enrolment growth are looming.

2 4 // SUMME R 2 0 2 1

current rewards, pathways, and learning opportunities are not providing enough incentive,” says another.

ACT WORKS ON SOLUTIONS Teacher shortages are biting in every state and territory in different ways, but the underlying difficulty of attracting new people to the profession and retaining existing valued teachers is consistent.

In the ACT, an AEU survey of more than 1800 members this year delivered such alarming results that the government immediately established a joint taskforce to develop a plan to deal with the shortages.

We have been waiting 10 years for a comprehensive workforce plan that shows how the shortages will be fixed ...

Angelo Gavrielatos NSW Teachers Federation president

ILLUSTRATION JENS MAGNUSSON / IKON IMAGES

A

leaked New South Wales government document expects the state may “run out of teachers in the next five years”.

The dire prediction is based on an existing teacher shortage, rising enrolments and an ageing workforce – and there is no relief in sight from a supply of new graduates. Enrolments in initial teacher education degrees have dropped by 30 per cent.

A NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) study has also found that up to 18,600 extra full-time equivalent teachers will be needed in NSW schools by 2036.

NSWTF president Angelo Gavrielatos says shortages are already evident. More than 1,000 permanent positions are vacant across the state and 15 per cent of teachers are teaching outside their areas of expertise.

“We have been waiting 10 years for a comprehensive workforce plan that shows how the shortages will be fixed, how many teachers we need and how the government will end the unacceptable situation,” he says The state’s 2.5 per cent cap on public sector salaries over the last decade has resulted in uncompetitive salaries compared to other professions and that is contributing to the decline in the attractiveness of the profession, says Gavrielatos.

Departmental reports acknowledge widespread concerns about salaries, noting that teacher pay has been falling relative to other professions since the late 1980s “and this makes it a less attractive profession for high-achieving students”, according to one leaked document.

“The demands and expectations on teachers are increasing, while the

Agenda

Members are telling us that splitting or cancelling classes is happening on a scale they’ve never seen before.

Angela Burroughs AEU ACT branch president

The AEU is demanding tangible results from the taskforce, which meets fortnightly, includes the AEU and is chaired by the Education Directorate’s director-general.

All of these factors signal that the issue is being taken “very seriously”, says AEU ACT branch president Angela Burroughs.

“This is a genuine attempt to improve the conditions of our members by working in partnership with the Education Directorate.”

The survey revealed ever-increasing demands on school staff, a lack of relief teachers and concerns about workplace safety.

Ninety-one per cent of respondents said their school was negatively affected by staff shortages.

More than 80 per cent said the practice of splitting classes – distributing students to other classrooms – to deal with staff shortages was increasing. The survey found that split classes compromised learning outcomes, and student behaviour was affected. Almost one in five respondents had experienced violence in the classroom as a direct consequence of split or cancelled classes.

“Members are telling us that splitting or cancelling classes is happening on a scale they’ve never seen before,” says Burroughs.

This means that class sizes are increasing and some members have reported classes of up to 50 students. Eighty-five per cent of respondents said the staffing pressures, workloads and unpaid overtime had taken a toll on their mental health.

With one in three teachers in their first three years of teaching considering leaving the profession, Burroughs says solving the staffing shortage is as much about retaining existing teachers.

“This requires adequate support, remuneration and far greater communitywide recognition of the challenges our

Closing the gap if every Tasmanian public school was funded to the minimum Schooling Resource Standard

an additional

1409 teachers

could be employed

an average of

7.5 teachers for every school.

educators face and the value of the work they do.” The shortages also affect students. Almost all school leaders (98 per cent) said understaffing was undermining teachers’ capacity to consistently deliver high-quality education.

NO RELIEF IN TAS The concerns in the ACT are mirrored in Tasmania, where AEU branch president David Genford says a chronic teacher shortage and excessive workloads are affecting teachers and students.

“Our working conditions are the learning conditions of our students,” he says.

A survey of Tasmanian teachers also

found ever-increasing workplace stress, burnout and mental strain linked to the job.

“Teaching is an incredibly rewarding job – but jobs shouldn’t hurt,” says Genford. “We need to look after the people we have.”

Genford says low pay and stressful working conditions are inhibiting the attraction of experienced teachers and new graduates to the state. University of Tasmania teaching degree completion rates have fallen to around 33 per cent, down from 55 per cent 15 years ago.

A minimum of 168 new full-time teachers will be needed in the state by 2026 to cover expected enrolment growth and high retirement rates.

Genford says if every Tasmanian public school was funded to the minimum Schooling Resource Standard written into federal legislation, an additional 1409 teachers could be employed – an average of 7.5 teachers for every school.

The teacher survey found that one in five schools had unfilled vacancies, and 80 per cent of schools reported being unable to fill relief teacher vacancies this year.

WA WAGE CAP FRUSTRATION A shortage of relief teachers across the country is worsening the difficulties caused by teacher shortages. While schools in regional areas have always struggled to find relief teachers, schools in metropolitan areas are increasingly struggling too.

State School Teachers Union of WA president Pat Byrne says it’s a big problem in Western Australia.

“When schools in leafy green metro areas can’t get relief teachers, we know we’re in dire straits,” says Byrne.

She blames the lack of available relief teachers partly on schools offering them longer-term contracts due to not being able to fill ongoing positions.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 25

The research is pretty clear that when teachers are well paid, you attract highachieving students, but the opposite is true when wages are low.

Pat Byrne State Schools Union of WA president

2 6 // SUMME R 2 0 2 1

QLD GROWTH PRESSURES Across Queensland, school leaders report difficulties attracting and retaining teachers, and enrolments are expected to grow quickly, which puts further pressure on schools.

Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson says the state’s population is forecast to increase by about 60,000 in the next few years.

Queensland is accustomed to some staffing shortfalls in remote and regional centres, and teacher shortages are now being felt in metropolitan areas.

Richardson says school leaders and specialist teachers are often forced to take on additional duties – particularly in remote and regional areas, where relief teachers are scarce.

Improving teachers’ salaries and working conditions are important steps towards increasing the numbers of people entering the profession and ensuring that those teaching want to stay, she says.

The QTU has also called for better access to mentoring programs for beginning teachers.

SA COUNTRY INCENTIVES NEEDED In South Australia, teachers’ professional development is another casualty of the lack of relief teachers, particularly in remote and regional areas.

AEU SA branch president Lara Golding says that, for some, it might be a day’s drive to Adelaide to attend a course, and that means three days off work.

“But if no relief teachers are available, the school won’t allow the time off. That exacerbates isolation and prevents access to high-quality professional development.”

As in other states, teacher shortages in SA are worse in rural and remote areas.

“We have positions that have gone unfilled for a number of years, particularly in specialist subjects such as maths, science, technology and tech studies,” says Golding.

Principal positions are also tough to fill outside of Adelaide.

Golding says a bigger effort is needed to lure teachers and principals to country areas.

“More teachers might be willing to move to the country if the incentives are adequate and ongoing.”

VIC OFFERS CASH LURES Victoria is putting money on the table to encourage teachers to country and hard-to-staff areas. It offered 50 incentive packages of up to $50,000 in 2019-2020 to teachers prepared to relocate to the country (and to some difficult-to-staff metropolitan schools). The amount offered in each case varies according to the school, and the money will be paid over several years. A further 150 and 250 positions were offered in the second and third years.

Teachers can use these incentive packages to cover relocation, housing and cost-of-living expenses.

AEU Victoria branch president Meredith Peace says the idea is to get teachers to those schools and also to stay for a longer term.

“It's too early to say whether it will work, but we took the view that it was worth a try given the difficulties schools were facing.”

Teacher shortages in Victoria are mostly felt in specialist subjects – maths and technology – in secondary schools, and particularly in country areas.

Relief teachers are also in short supply in Victoria. Last year, many relief teachers

ILLUSTRATION GARY WATERS / IKON IMAGES

“It’s just creating another problem elsewhere. Principals are having to step in and teach, and some primary schools are sending groups of children to a number of other classrooms, which is a significant disruption to the students and the teachers.”

Enrolments are also rising in WA, where an estimated 4500 extra teachers will be needed over the next five years, but fewer graduates are expected in that time.

The number of students completing a secondary school teaching qualification fell by 60 per cent last year.

Byrne says WA’s cap on public sector wages is making teaching jobs less attractive. Four years ago, the WA government mandated a $1000 per annum cap on all public sector pay increases and, prior to this year’s state election, pledged to continue it for another two years. Now, with a $5.6 billion budget surplus, the policy is being reviewed.

“The research is pretty clear that when teachers are well paid, you attract highachieving students, but the opposite is true when wages are low,” says Byrne.

The $1000 cap also creates an issue at school leadership level and many schools struggle to find experienced principals.

“It erodes relativity between, say, beginning teachers and principals. The salary cap and the enormous workload take away the incentive to apply for a principal position,” says Byrne.

“There are people with minimal leadership experience applying for roles in some of our biggest schools, rather than experienced principals looking for a change. In inner-city primary schools, for example, you might get just four or five applicants, some of them classroom teachers. These are schools that in the past would have had dozens of applicants.”

Agenda

signed up to the tutor learning initiative the state government introduced to support students having difficulties with remote learning.

But Peace says some relief teachers reported being treated poorly by schools and others weren’t keen to work onsite during the lockdowns. As a result, a number decided to leave teaching for other jobs. “We had an arrangement with the department during the first lockdown last year for a payment system for relief teachers. If they were working regularly in a school, which people often do, they got a payment equivalent to what they would have earned based on the previous 12 months. It was a bit like JobKeeper and designed to keep these valuable people around for when schools reopened.

“But some schools refused to pay, even though the teachers were entitled to the payment. This was extremely disappointing as it left them without any source of income.”

Since then, the Department of Education and Training has regularly reminded and encouraged schools to maintain connections with their relief teachers by using them in onsite programs and remote teaching where possible.

Improving support for beginning teachers is also widely seen as a retention strategy.

Peace says a type of internship program or extended practicum is being trialled in Victorian secondary schools to get teaching students into classrooms, under supervision, and being paid.

“They still have to get their qualification, and they continue to study and get qualified. But it means they can get them into schools a little earlier than normal.

“It’s a positive way to help retain people

in the profession, because they have a much clearer understanding of what work in a school is going to be like.”

A similar program rolling out in early childhood has created some concerns about the extra workload for qualified teachers.

Insecure work is also a problem, says Peace. Most new teachers in Victoria are employed on contracts, “which is not a great way to attract people or retain them in the profession”.

NT RECONSIDERS CONTRACTS About 40 per cent of teachers in the Northern Territory are hired on contracts, and the figure is higher in remote and hard-to-staff schools.

AEU NT branch president Jarvis Ryan says the Department of Education has finally recognised that action is needed.

“We need to hire teachers on a permanent basis, or we won’t be able to recruit,” he says. “It limits the pool

of recruits to say to someone on the other side of the country, ‘Pack up your life, come and work in a very remote location, but we're only offering you a 12-month contract.’”

A stable and experienced workforce is one of the most important contributors to increasing student performance, says Ryan.

Relief teachers are in such short supply that they need never go a day without work in the Territory, he says. In some regional and remote areas there are no relief teachers at all, leaving the schools to make their own arrangements.

The AEU has told the department that a centralised approach is needed to ensure schools are adequately staffed.

“That requires a change in thinking, a change in culture to move away from the school autonomy model that’s been in vogue for many years, towards a model that ensures the department’s resources are mobilised to ensure staffing across all schools,” says Ryan.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 27

Talking about racism Training teachers to have difficult conversations may help dispel the myth that children ‘don’t see colour’.

BY R A C H AE L H O C K I NG

I

2 8 // SUMME R 2 0 2 1

Mark Fennell explores a groundbreaking new program to help students identify racial bias in ABC documentary The School That Tried to End Racism.

Racism doesn’t just magically appear in adulthood. It begins early in childhood and slowly develops across the lifespan, becoming more ingrained and resistant to change by adulthood.

Hannah Yared Psychologist

“It’s entirely possible to be a nice person and to also have racial prejudice.”

CONFIDENCE FROM TRAINING The study found that schools were more likely to emphasise “sameness”, equality and “teaching kids to be kind” in an approach labelled “colour evasive”.

A colour-evasive view holds that it is preferable to deny, distort or minimise discussions about racial differences and racism rather than draw attention to them.

“The problem isn’t in noticing someone’s race. It’s what we do when we notice race that’s the issue,” says Yared. “If you can’t see a student’s race, then you also can’t see their experiences of racism. So

PHOTOGRAPHY ABC

mportant conversations about race and racism are not happening in some schools, a Monash University review has found.

The 2020 review, How Does Race Play Out in Schools? A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis of Racial Issues in Australian Schools, which analysed research in metropolitan primary schools in Victoria and NSW, found that some teachers don’t feel confident or competent to have conversations about race and racism with their students.

Lead author Hannah Yared, an EritreanAustralian woman, says schools are missing an opportunity at a key moment in childrens’ development.

“Racism doesn’t just magically appear in adulthood. It begins early in childhood and slowly develops across the lifespan, becoming more ingrained and resistant to change by adulthood,” says Yared, a psychologist and Monash PhD candidate.

“Children enter school during a crucial time in their social cognitive development. It’s a time when their prejudice and negative views about race and ethnicity are developing, along with their sense of morality.”

Students want to talk about racism, but teachers don’t receive adequate training or support to hold safe and informed conversations, the review found. As a result, discussions about racism are often avoided.

“People don’t realise just how pervasive and harmful racism can be, not only to our wellbeing but also to our physical health. It inflicts a level of trauma,” says Yared.

Addressing the issue is about busting the myths that children ‘don’t see colour’ and that only evil people can be racist, she says.

Racism

Resources Hannah Yared, Busting Myths and Changing Perspectives on Racism in Schools tinyurl.com/5e33uufh ABC iView The School That Tried to End Racism ABC Education, Teaching Children How to Confront Racism tinyurl.com/tkvkp

it renders us incapable of being able to address those issues.”

Trauma-informed anti-racist training is needed to give teachers the confidence to have effective conversations about these difficult and uncomfortable issues, but we need more institutions that are open to these approaches, she says.

The same arguments have been made about the Australian curriculum and its lack of First Nations content and perspectives.

Yared says the current push for changes to

the curriculum, largely from First Nations educators, is directly linked to addressing issues of race and racism at school.

“If you don’t see yourself reflected in the curriculum, that sends a really clear message about how you’re valued in society.”

While the study’s findings indicate there is a lot of work to be done – at government, research, training and classroom levels – positive steps are being taken, says Yared.

“In the past year, racial justice received

more media attention than I’ve seen in my lifetime. So people are definitely more interested in it.”

She’s hoping that eventually her research will lead to an anti-racist racial literacy framework for schools to rely on.

“I’m excited to see where this goes and the kind of change we can make.”

Rachael Hocking is a freelance writer and Warlpiri woman.

Adapting to change Mentoring, game-playing and flexibility are helping teachers deal with pandemic disruptions.

BY MARG ARE T PATO N

EMILY PRICE Trundle Central School, NSW

MAKING A GAME OF IT Trundle Central School was especially upbeat on the last day of Term 3, when its students were able to return to face-toface classes after five weeks of lockdown, even if only for one day.

“The students were excited to see each other because so many don’t have the internet or mobile phone service at home to connect with remote learning,” says Emily Price, an agriculture, mathematics, and science teacher at the school.

During lockdown, Price used games to help teach maths and science concepts.

For maths, she used an online resource for students to build two spinners – one with numbers and the other with a mathematical operation such as addition or multiplication. She gave them a pronumeral to work with, too.

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“They had to write the word phrase for the algebraic expression that was created.

For example, one spinner records a 106, the other shows ‘addition’ and they were given the pronumeral g, creating 106 + g.”

For a science activity, students picked flowers from their gardens, placing the petals in hot water to drain the colour, then used the remaining liquid to test whether household substances such as toothpaste or vinegar were acid or alkaline, says Price.

“They observed the colour change to predict if the substance was an acid or a base. It wasn’t as accurate as it would be in our science lab, but it was very useful for the chemical reactions unit they were learning.”

The school’s learning and support teacher mentored Price on collecting and analysing student data and she kept her maths classes on track during

LEARNING TO BE FLEXIBLE It’s been a topsy-turvy year. The local and regional agricultural shows were cancelled due to COVID-19, so Price hasn’t been able to test her students’ sheep and chicken “showing” skills.

“The most important thing as a teacher is to be ready for big and small changes in our work, including the move into and out of remote learning. I might have planned an ag practical lesson, but if it rains, I have to make it a theory lesson. Or, if my students struggle with particular concepts, I’ll have to revisit those even though I didn’t plan to. Teachers have to be adaptable.”

That includes coping with what could be the second mouse plague this year for her rural district.

“Mice were in a lot of the classrooms, storerooms, the staff room, my desk, the students’ books and my ag equipment.

They were running across the playground and sometimes found in students’ bags. Primary teachers had to be very vigilant because a few kindergarten kids accidentally left their lunchboxes open and they’d find mice in with their food,” Price says.

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remote learning by writing out and colour coding the steps to pace students through problems.

“I had some great feedback from students and parents – they emailed me to say the steps were easy for parents who couldn’t remember algebra from their school days to follow,” says Price.

She’s also expanded her science knowledge with online professional learning courses.

“One of them focused on COVID as an infectious disease in the biology unit.

It was great to have topics that are so relevant now to teach my students.”

In practice

In each issue of Australian Educator, we follow the challenges and achievements of new educators throughout the school year.

JUSTIN PRONIN Harrison School, ACT FINDING A POSITIVE It might be difficult to see a silver lining when your school operations are suspended and school buildings are deep cleaned after a COVID-19-positive case.

But for Justin Pronin at the ACT’s Harrison School, there were some unexpected bright spots.

One was the opportunity to see his students interacting with their families after Harrison School made the national news in August when the positive case was discovered.

The Education Directorate alerted staff and families about the case, five days after a lockdown was announced in the ACT, telling them to get tested and to quarantine for two weeks.

“Our whole school closed down. That was a big deal for families,” Pronin says.

A couple of days later, a nearby school became a pop-up testing clinic for the staff and families in the Harrison school community. “Seeing students with their families was another piece of the puzzle to understand students better,” he says.

During the first week of the ACT’s lockdown, students were able to tap into online learning resources created by the directorate. It was an initiative negotiated last year by the AEU to give teachers five days of pupil-free time to prepare for remote learning.

Harrison’s COVID case gave staff an extra four days to get tested and students continued to use the directorate’s resources, says Pronin.

“The directorate had an interactive website with resources and a daily

Seeing students with their families was another piece of the puzzle to understand students better.

schedule for students. It was good to get that support. We were able to post links to students and support this with homeroom sessions.

“It was good support, and it was really positive for the union to get that agreement with the Education Directorate,” says Pronin.

EASING THE PRESSURE Pronin has learned to give both himself and his students a break as he has adjusted to the demands of remote learning.

He discovered that taking a breather to reflect on a task – sometimes even taking a short walk – helped him to finish the job “faster and better”.

Easing the pressure on his students is also paying off.

“Sometimes, they might not want to interact with each other, or refuse to turn

their cameras on. I feel a bit like a video game streamer: performing, putting on a good mood, and showing my personality to hopefully engage, inspire and reel students in.”

Nonetheless, he enjoyed challenging and extending his Year 10 English class as they studied Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

In Term 4, he’s looking forward to running the student leadership elections for 2022.

“I enjoy doing the planning for the Year 7 and 8 prefects’ election and helping the Year 9s who want to go for captain. They fill in a detailed form then deliver a speech or video. It’s great for the school culture and positive for students to know they’ve got a voice in how it’s run.”

In lockdown, Pronin has not been able to play his usual competitive sports so, in his free time, he has been sketching with pencil and charcoal.

“I draw figures from the computer games Warcraft and Diablo, which I played growing up. I like the aesthetic of them.

I find it fun and creative to draw during school holidays (or lockdowns).”

Margaret Paton is a freelance writer and casual K-12 teacher.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 31

The snowball effect Small problems left unattended can quickly turn into big issues. Nowhere is that truer than in the field of children’s mental health.

BY N I C B ARNARD

T

he past two years have seen unprecedented challenges to the wellbeing of Australia’s children. Droughts, bushfires and lockdowns have followed hard on each other’s heels, and the results have played out in the classroom – or on the other side of the computer screen.

The AEU is calling for more psychologists and qualified counsellors in schools to offer on-the-ground support to students and their teachers, tackle the early signs of poor mental health and provide a pathway for those that need help. In short, to stop the snowball effect.

The need was clear even before the natural disasters and pandemic lockdowns put a new focus on mental health.

The Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing in 2015 found that about one in seven children aged between four and 17 will experience a mental health issue in any one year. Psychologists know that half of all mental disorders begin before the age of 14.

The toll includes two young lives lost each week to suicide – 100 under-17s in

// One in seven children aged four to 17 experiences a mental health issue in any one year. // COVID-19 lockdowns have worsened students' wellbeing. // The AEU is calling for more psychologists and qualified counsellors in schools to offer on-the-ground support.

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Correna Haythorpe AEU federal president

2018 and 96 in 2019. In 2019, 19 children aged 14 or younger took their own lives.

“Teachers are reporting that they’re dealing with very serious mental health issues among students, particularly since COVID-19,” AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe says. “We have a cohort of students who are at risk of disengagement from their education. We have students impacted by isolation caused by lockdown. There are considerable mental health concerns that I don’t think have been addressed properly.”

NEED FOR PREVENTION PROGRAMS The Australian Psychological Society (APS) calls for one fully funded school psychologist for every 500 students.

APS president Tamara Cavenett says this would allow the provision of holistic, integrated services that combine prevention, intervention and referral.

They would also be a source of specialist knowledge and advice for the school’s teaching and support staff.

“One psychologist for 500 children

ILLUSTRATION ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

IN SHORT

We have a cohort of students who are at risk of disengagement from their education.

Mental health

The mental health system was already under pressure before the bushfires and pandemic hit. Services have been operating beyond demand for some time.

Tamara Cavenett Australian Psychological Society

would allow children to be seen earlier and have targeted programs in place.

Some of these programs would deliver whole-school mental-health programs; we can run body-image programs and anti-anxiety programs that target the whole school.

“There would be the chance to run prevention programs as well as having somewhere teachers can go when they’re struggling to manage children’s behaviour and access some of the principles that psychology has at its base.

“It allows for a child to be seen and allows us to intervene early, one-onone. Does the child need a referral and potentially sit on a waiting list, or could the psychologist intervene in the school and in a few sessions work with the entire surrounding environment of the child?”

In particular, siting the service in school allows counsellors and teaching and support staff to work within the student’s social setting, with their friends, peers and parents.

The importance of this was underlined in June by the release of the latest report

by UNICEF Australia’s Young Ambassador program on the wellbeing of young people, Children in a Changing World.

SCHOOLS KEY TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY It identified the separation of mental health services from school settings as a significant barrier to access and called for a more holistic system that involved young people in its design and delivery to ensure it was “relevant, accessible, strengths-based and destigmatising”.

Young Ambassador for Melbourne Frank Hooper says the clinical settings of mental health services and their detachment from the school community

created a stigma around mental ill-health. “[It] takes courage for young people to access, due to stigma, especially in smaller communities,” he says. Even then, there can be long waiting times, and students can find themselves seeing a different counsellor at each appointment.

“Easy-to-access mental health resources designed for children and young people would really help them navigate day-to-day challenges,” says Hooper.

UNICEF Australia has surveyed young people aged 13–17 about their ability to cope. The most recent survey, conducted in December and January, found they were bouncing back from the early days of the pandemic, but 10 per cent still rated their ability to cope as “poor or very poor” – and that was before the midwinter lockdowns.

More importantly, even before the pandemic, this figure had been 4 per cent – which across all school age students would equate to some 160,000 children and young people.

“The mental health system was already under pressure before the bushfires and pandemic hit,” Cavenett says. “Services have been operating beyond demand for some time.”

Haythorpe says the need is one more reason why government schools must be fully funded now to the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), as the AEU’s Every School Every Child campaign urges. Under the Coalition government’s timetable, 99 per cent of public schools will be below the SRS by 2023.

This year’s federal budget included $2.3 billion for mental health services and programs, although there was no mention of schools.

The federal government’s National

Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, launched in October, highlights the importance of education settings as the “ideal environment to build resilience, support and empower parents and carers, and identify and intervene early in emerging mental health issues.” It notes they provide a “relatively universal, non-stigmatising environment where children can be observed for long periods in multiple contexts”.

But, while it supports wellbeing programs, training for educators, and designated wellbeing coordinators, it stops short of recommending psychologists in situ. Cavenett warns that could lead to a lack of joined-up services and – worse – teachers recognising student ill-health but having nowhere to refer them.

Some states and territories have been stepping up. Victoria – which ran its own Royal Commission into mental health services – is trialling the use of mental health and wellbeing coordinators in schools. Educators say it has helped break down the stigma around mental health and given teachers new tools to help students.

Mental health charity Beyond Blue is also providing important support materials and networking opportunities for educators, through its new platform Be You. Haythorpe welcomes the initiative, but says it doesn’t resolve the problem.

“We need a properly qualified school counsellor in every school in the country,” Haythorpe says.

Nic Barnard is a freelance writer.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 33

The fight of their lives Students, and supporters of all ages, are demanding world leaders take fast action on climate change before it’s too late.

BY CYN D I T E B B E L

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frightening future, the student-led School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) kicked off on 15 October in Australia with 10,000 people attending virtual meetups and rallies in 40 locations across Australia.

The students are supported by teacher unions around the world.

Education International (EI) launched a toolkit for teachers (Teach for Climate Action) after its Mobilising Educators for Climate Change Education conference.

EI called on member organisations in the Asia-Pacific to urge governments and

IN SHORT // Student climate activists around the world took to the streets ahead of COP26. // Australia's School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) is demanding action including an end to new coal, oil and gas projects. // SS4C is encouraging teachers to lend their support.

PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES, SUPPLIED

S

tudent climate activists have held thousands of demonstrations around the world to make their presence felt in the lead up to the 26th annual UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). Held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November, COP26 was one of the largest gatherings of global leaders in history.

Capping a year of catastrophic “oncein-a-century” wildfires, floods and storms that foreshadowed an uncertain and

World view

Resources Instagram #TheYouthAreRising Twitter @StrikeClimate Web schoolstrike4climate.com Education international – Teach for Climate Action toolkit tinyurl.com/yj2zan3d

delegates to COP26 to ensure quality climate change education for all and to recognise its role in a just transition to a more sustainable world.

In Australia, the AEU, together with the NTU and IEU – representing almost 300,000 educators – commended the aims of the SS4C movement.

“We know students are counting on us to support their democratic right to express their views and take direct action on the impacts of climate change and to put pressure on the Morrison government,” says AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe.

For young activists who became involved in SS4C in 2019, in the wake of Greta Thunberg’s sit-in outside the Swedish parliament, being part of a global movement brings benefits.

There’s an opportunity to be part of an enormous and valuable network of likeminded collaborators, sharing strategies and goals, and well-founded fears and pessimism.

Bella Burgemeister heard the call to action at age 10, inspired by The World’s Largest Lesson, a video about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals featuring Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai. She was so moved, she wrote the book Bella’s Challenge to encourage other young people to act on climate and sustainability.

Three years later she joined SS4C, campaigning alongside a phalanx of student activists in an enormous global movement. Now 15, Burgemeister deftly handles the daunting task of climate activism as the powerful dither, while finding time to play sport, hang with friends, and study at TAFE in a university pathway she hopes will end with a degree in social work.

them can now vote and we’re going to start putting the pressure on,” she says.

... the more voices we have, the more powerful we become.

Bella Burgemeister School Strike 4 Climate

She’s incensed by the government’s recalcitrance on setting targets for zero net emissions by 2050.

“There’s a lot of anger and sadness to see them so interested in money from the fossil fuel companies that are destroying the planet, and not thinking of the Australian people, their citizens, and what’s going to happen to future generations,” she says.

But amid the frustration is a growing appreciation that as the SS4C movement evolves, so too do its members. “A lot of

NO, MINISTER! The SS4C goals include an end to new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine; 100 per cent renewable energy generations and exports by 2030; and obtaining funding for a just transition and job creation for all fossil-fuel workers and their communities.

Underlying those demands is a focus on duty of care “to make sure our governments are accountable to the people”. One person feeling the pressure is federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, who faced a class action from a determined group of indignant teens, including Burgemeister.

They argued that Ley had a duty of care to stop the approval of an extension to the Vickery coal mine in NSW because of the risk that it would exacerbate climate change and cause them serious harm in the future. The Australia Federal Court found in the students’ favour, but the minister appealed the ruling. A decision was still pending at the time of publication.

Regardless of the outcome, Burgemeister says it was a “powerful” experience to be part of. “Amazing lawyers took us through every part of the process and so many people around the world got involved in helping us as well.”

She says teachers, too, are welcome to lend their support: “If you’re passionate about this, if you want action, join us.

Because the bigger the numbers, the more voices we have, the more powerful we become.”

Cyndi Tebbel is a freelance writer.

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 35

Lessons for the future Education, and healthy educators, will help us navigate a post-COVID world.

E

ducators have shown their extraordinary ability to lead students and education institutions around the world out of the international disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But teacher resilience will be a key factor in rebuilding communities in a post-COVID world, say leading education researchers Professor Faye McCallum and Associate Professor Mathew White from the University of Adelaide’s School of Education.

“Resilience is a predictor of job satisfaction and wellbeing among teachers and can act as a protective factor against the negative costs of the teaching profession such as stress and burnout,” they say.

McCallum, who has been researching teacher wellbeing for more than a decade, studied 322 teachers from all levels of education in 12 countries for the book Wellbeing and Resilience Education: COVID-19 and its Impact on Education, which was released in May, and found experience was a strong factor in teacher resilience.

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Educators give hope and optimism to people in the community, so they need to be resilient and well.

Faye McCallum University of Adelaide

“Teacher wellbeing has been an issue since pre-COVID. And it’s only been really the last 10 years that more research has been done in this area,” she says.

“Studies show that if the teacher in the classroom is well, in turn their students will be well, and will achieve and be satisfied and happy.”

McCallum’s study found that the teachers with more experience coped better with the disruptions of on-again, offagain learning, workload, technical issues and trying to retain student engagement during the pandemic.

“The more experienced teachers (50 per cent had more than 15 years’ experience), felt more resilient, and felt they had kept their wellbeing intact, whereas the younger teachers, even though they might have had better IT skills, struggled more. The role of leadership was a critical factor for many teachers’ wellbeing during the pandemic.

“But all of them talked about the levels of adaptation, innovation, dedication, their care, their commitment, and a really strong sense of trying to keep things normal in the kids’ lives, as being their primary drivers.”

ILLUSTRATION HUAN TRAN / IKON IMAGES

BY L EANN E T O L RA

Toolkit

A beacon of hope

McCallum says comments from one study participant highlight the value of teacher wellbeing to personal and professional success: “Working with students always impacts my wellbeing, I think that is what is hardest about remote learning. It is so hard to really feel their energy … Supporting teachers around wellbeing is a real passion, and I enjoy providing them with ideas to help themselves and their students.”

McCallum says reviews of teaching standards and future teacher education legislation must embed wellbeing education into initial teacher education.

“Our pre-service teachers need the strategies and skills to be resilient and to be aware of their own wellbeing and the wellbeing needs of children and young people,” she says.

The authors received contributions from 27 researchers in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States and studied more than 500 educators, who experienced the pandemic’s effects on education simultaneously. They report that, on 4 April 2020, COVID-19 led to school closures across 194 countries, with almost 1.6 billion students, or 91 per cent of all learners, displaced due to lockdowns.

White and McCallum say the pandemic saw the value of teachers’ work acknowledged by many, “with some now seeing it as a highly respected and demanding profession”.

McCallum says this view has created optimism that teachers will become more highly valued as part of the rebuilding phase following a disaster.

“In any event or disaster – drought, bushfires, floods, terrorism, economic hardship – schools are pivotal in the

Discussions about online learning and flipped classrooms were accelerated by the pandemic, says researcher Associate Professor Mathew White from the University of Adelaide’s School of Education.

“We’ve seen more change in education systems and schools in the space of a couple of months than we have in years,” he says.

Wellbeing and Resilience Education: COVID-19 and its impact on Education by Matthew A. White and Faye McCallum is published

by Routledge.

rebuilding of community. Educators give hope and optimism to people in the community, so they need to be resilient and well,” McCallum says.

But they will need institutional and governmental support to help them focus on their own wellbeing as they determine how schools can prepare students for the future.

“We’ve got to ask questions like, what is most important in children and young people? And what are the skills, attitudes, values and dispositions that they need as they leave their schooling years? And how can schools best prepare them for the future? What do teachers need to be able to do their job better?

“I think the pandemic has raised the importance of social emotional learning and the soft skills that are important for kids to have when they leave school and that education is not always about students’ results,” says McCallum.

McCallum says studies for her next book are demonstrating that networks, colleagues and peers will remain vital to teacher and student wellbeing as they grapple with the changes yet to come.

“During the worst disruptions of COVID-19, we saw educational systems, schools, teachers, and leaders seeking to very rapidly flatten the education disruption curve. And we saw that in all sorts of different ways around the world.

“We’re seeing education moving to quite a different space now. I think it’s natural for teachers to say, ‘Oh, we’re back to normal’ but really, they’re not. Teaching is evolving simultaneously, and the change comes at a time when technology is advanced enough for us to adapt rapidly.”

White says there are many lessons still to be unravelled, but one that he hopes the world has embraced is that education has been “the lighthouse in the development of vaccines”.

“Vaccines don’t happen unless people are highly educated in science, engage in learning and teaching, can critique research, and have knowledge around evidencebased approach to teaching – and that doesn’t happen without quality teaching in education.”

Leanne Tolra is a freelance writer

SUM M E R 20 2 1 // 37

Recess

About time Sometimes the word “no” is the best self-care tool there is.

Why do you teach?

We want to hear your tips for engaging young minds. Email educator@hardiegrant.com if you have something to share. You can provide a written piece or we’d love to interview you.

BY CY ND I T E B B E L

E Because of the complex needs of many of our students, self-care is crucial to ensuring you’re at your best in the classroom.

Joy Coates Beaconsfield Primary School, TAS

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xcessive workloads are more common than not these days, stretching out the 9 to 5 and even encroaching on our home lives due to family demands. The pandemic hasn’t helped, but we all need to find a way to take back our time, says Joy Coates, a music teacher at Beaconsfield Primary School in northern Tasmania.

“Too often we conspire against ourselves by not being able to say ‘No, I will not do this extra work or attend this function’.”

Coates says this is common in many professions, and tends to occur among people who see themselves as peacemakers and don’t like confrontation or conflict, or where empathy is a prerequisite for being good at the job.

One skill worth perfecting is the ability to set boundaries at work, which can give teachers room to reflect and reset so they’re more positive about their ability to achieve professional and personal development, says Coates.

It’s a common problem among teachers, especially women, and she’s seen it often during her 25 years as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, and as a union delegate.

Coates was able to put more meat on the bones of her anecdotal thesis when, in 2018, she was awarded the AEU’s Rosemary Richards Scholarship, a $10,000 grant for women aimed at increasing skills and experience in the union’s work.

GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO THINK Coates examined the inclination for women to acquiesce more often than men.

“Women are primed to be agreeable, and to keep accepting more and more requests,” says Coates, who believes the trait is partly to blame for high levels of stress in a profession known for high rates of attrition

and Workers Compensation stress claims.

She has some practical tips for teachers ready to put limits on extracurricular activities.

First, delay your response. “We often get flustered when someone asks us to do something, so we say yes without thinking,” says Coates. “Instead, practice a phrase like ‘Let me think about that and get back to you’.”

Another approach is to think how you might advise a friend under pressure to take on, for example, staying late to help organise a fete. “We’re often wiser in our advice to friends than to ourselves.”

When you do decide to say no, Coates recommends replacing “I can’t …” with the more assertive “I don’t …”.

“For example: I don’t check my emails when I’m not at work, I don’t do school stuff on the weekend because that’s my family time, or I don’t have any extra time now.”

SAY YES TO SELF-CARE Assertiveness also applies to knowing when to ask for help. “Don’t wait until you’re at breaking point,” says Coates.

“If you’re stressed out and overburdened, you can’t be the teacher your students need. Because of the complex needs of so many of our students, self-care is crucial to ensuring you’re at your best in the classroom,” she says.

Additional funding would, of course, ease the burden for many public school teachers.

“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” says Coates.

“It’s not a selfish thing when we fight for better conditions. We want the best for our students.”

Cyndi Tebbel is a freelance writer.

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