New educators
Key things beginning teachers should know By Natalie Blewitt Growth Team coordinator
The SSTUWA has early career teachers covered. From support, journey cover, professional development to entitlements, the SSTUWA has worked hard to ensure a range of rights and entitlements are available for beginning teachers. Your rights, entitlements and responsibilities as a public school teacher in Western Australia are laid out in the School Education Act Employees’ (Teachers and Administrators) General Agreement 2017 and the Teachers (Public Sector Primary and Secondary) Award 1993. Both the General Agreement and the Award are documents negotiated between the SSTUWA and the Department of Education (DoE), and are registered in the Western Australia Industrial Relations Commission. These documents apply across all Western Australian public schools irrespective of Independent Public School status.
Graduate teacher curriculum materials allowance A curriculum materials allowance is available to support contracted first year graduate teachers in acquiring personal curriculum materials. Primary and district high school graduate teachers have access to $150 and secondary graduate teachers have access to $78. You should use your own professional judgement to choose the materials suited to your needs and the materials purchased will belong to you. You will need to produce receipts to your school to be reimbursed. Funding for the graduate teacher curriculum materials allowance is allocated directly to your school once the department is notified of your appointment.
Graduate Teacher Allowance Full time graduate teachers will receive an allowance of $1,600 per year for each of their first two years. Part time teachers 10
Western Teacher February 2020
will receive this allowance pro rata. Each annual allowance is paid according to the term of employment and is paid as soon as practicable after commencement of employment. This allowance is paid directly to you through payroll.
Graduate release time Graduate teachers in their first year are entitled to 0.05 FTE (full-time equivalent) per week of additional non-contact time. While it is expected that this time allocation is available to graduates on a regular basis, up to 2.5 days a term can be accumulated to accommodate different contexts and needs.
Graduate teacher professional learning program Over the first two years of teaching (or longer if working casual or part-time),
graduate teachers are required to participate in structured professional learning designed to build skills, effectiveness and confidence. Seize these opportunities to sharpen and refine skills, network and advance in your career. These modules comprise of four two-day professional learning sessions. Modules one, two and three are completed sequentially while the fourth module may be accessed at any time within the first 30 months of teaching. All graduate module participation by contracted teachers is entitled to be paid; funding for two days per module is allocated to your school. This includes modules completed online, on weekends and during school holidays. All contracted graduate teachers – including those completing graduate modules in regional areas on Friday afternoons and Saturdays – should be paid for two days per module completed.
