Nah not really. Talk to teachers that have moved up from primary to high school.
They will tell you way better and way less bullshit.
Well that's what I have been told from numerous teachers.
Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher
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Nah not really. Talk to teachers that have moved up from primary to high school.
They will tell you way better and way less bullshit.
Well that's what I have been told from numerous teachers.
Think it’s fairly person specific. I’ve gone secondary to primary and I can’t see myself ever changing back
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I appreciate your perspective, I have never taught in primary school though. There is still endless bureaucracy in high school - after years of experience I'm better at managing and prioritising my time but at the start I definitely had more non-teaching time for various bullshit than actual teaching time.
Is that due to the workload, job satisfaction etc?
Few different things.
I do miss High School from time to time. I miss the connection you can have with the older kids. You can joke about day to day stuff, talk about the footy, have a kick with them at lunch times etc.
But the reality is, most of the HS kids don't really care about you, whereas for the primary school kids, for many of them, you are the centre of their world. They appreciate you - you're almost a third parent to many of them.
The marking I find is less intensive due to the level of work. The reporting is easier. The programming is much easier, as a lot of what you are doing is teaching basics, but in adaptable ways for younger minds to piece it together. Workload in that respect is then less, as the whole package I find less labor intensive.
The hardest part though is definitely how you always need to be 100 percent on. You have questions flying around at you from all directions, and you gotta be ready for them.
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I've taught both primary and secondary. There are aspects I llke about both and aspects I dislike about both. Primary tends to be longer hours but I enjoy having the same class all year.
I moved to a special school this year for something different and loving it. I'm teaching a grade 4/5 class with 7 kids. Most of them are around a prep level but have a couple of kids who are really good readers. Well their reading skills are good not so much their comprehension so working on that with them. The paperwork is quite manageable too. I'm arriving at 7:30 and leaving at 4 feeling like I'm on top of things whereas in mainstream I always felt snowed under.
Funny story. I have one kid who is a great kid but has a challenging home life. Last week I took a few of them to the town cross country. All the primary schools, state catholic and christian, in town meet together to do it. They had to run around a reserve a couple of times. This kid is struggling a bit. The crowd is cheering him on. He stops, turns to them gjves them the birdy with both hands and yells at them, "I hate running you campaigners". Couldn't stop laughing.
I moved to a special school this year for something different and loving it. I'm teaching a grade 4/5 class with 7 kids. Most of them are around a prep level but have a couple of kids who are really good readers. Well their reading skills are good not so much their comprehension so working on that with them. The paperwork is quite manageable too. I'm arriving at 7:30 and leaving at 4 feeling like I'm on top of things whereas in mainstream I always felt snowed under.
Funny story. I have one kid who is a great kid but has a challenging home life. Last week I took a few of them to the town cross country. All the primary schools, state catholic and christian, in town meet together to do it. They had to run around a reserve a couple of times. This kid is struggling a bit. The crowd is cheering him on. He stops, turns to them gjves them the birdy with both hands and yells at them, "I hate running you campaigners". Couldn't stop laughing.
That's gold, would have been hilarious. Did he finish the run?
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No. He only did one lap. One of the girls did one lap. Another girl who I thought would be the one to hate it did both laps.
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My niece ran onto the track and piggybacked her son (7) during school sports day when it looked like he was going to stop and have a meltdown. Everyone clapped them over the line.
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With the targeted initiative to get more teachers to places in regional Victoria ending this year, do you think there will be another initiative coming soon?
The shortage of teachers seems to be growing and I can only imagine what some regional schools are having to do to supervise classes.
It’s something I’ve always been open to, and things have aligned at the end of this year to possibly move.
The shortage of teachers seems to be growing and I can only imagine what some regional schools are having to do to supervise classes.
It’s something I’ve always been open to, and things have aligned at the end of this year to possibly move.
I've found shortages are more in yearly fixed term contracts. All ongoing jobs I've applied for have been hotly contested.
Only reason I am not applying fixed term is because I need the security for family.
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Similar here in WA from what I can tell.
Public schools here want to have their cake and eat it too.
Yep. My school advertised a FT contract and couldn't get anyone. Every CRT I spoke to about the position that we have had come through have responded with either:
- Only looking for ongoing
- Dont want the workload
- planning on going overseas
So our prin got a permission to teach exemption from the VIT and its being filled by a 4th year student teacher who is being supported by our Maths co-ordinator when she is at work (she is part time).
I know schools use the FT contracts to try before you buy system as a way of seeing if a teacher is a good fit for their school. If they like them, they'll roll them over early. If they don't, then they will move em on at years end. My son's school does it. I overheard the prin at a student leaders forum.
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On the TFI, It's mostly in secondary or special education where it's harder to fill. I know the media mentioned those fields are really hard to fill.
I know the secondary school near me are struggling to fill positions and it's mostly due to the behaviour of students and teachers not tolerating it anymore. My old year 6 students mention that the students have to be supervised in a big room on set days as they don't have enough teachers (so all year level cohorts at once).
My old special school had 3 TFI jobs for specialists (STEM, Music, Food Tech). The original STEM teacher on a TFI quit after Term 1 so we re-advertised it and got another in Term 3 (had to wait a term). The Food Tech and Music both quiet after a year (both on TFI).
Forward Press Hamez catters_28 Dogs_R_Us I am proud to say I just signed an ongoing contract just 10 mins outside of Drouin.
It's a small school (roughly 180 students). Went for the interview on Friday and they called me half hour later to offer me the job.
I start Monday, so I packed up my classroom on Saturday and set up on Saturday arvo and Sunday morning (I also had to hand back my laptop and keys on Saturday so I couldn't make or plan anything). It sucks I couldnt see my students to wish them farewell but stoked I am back ongoing in the mainstream sector.
It's a small school (roughly 180 students). Went for the interview on Friday and they called me half hour later to offer me the job.
I start Monday, so I packed up my classroom on Saturday and set up on Saturday arvo and Sunday morning (I also had to hand back my laptop and keys on Saturday so I couldn't make or plan anything). It sucks I couldnt see my students to wish them farewell but stoked I am back ongoing in the mainstream sector.
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Congratulations
Thanks mate. I was almost not going to apply, but my mate told me "You won't be the first or last to move through the year". My wife also mentioned that we needed security and I might have never got it where I was.Congratulations
The school is small but has beautiful brick buildings and lots of play space for kids.
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Depending on the age of your former class, could you buy a big Goodbye card and write a nice message and all their names and send it to the school? They might get a kick out of it.
AEU Victoria have mentioned there are 2100+ jobs available on Recruitment Online at the moment.
Sad reality. We haven't been able to fill our Science position (part time and Fixed Term).
So our students are down a specialist subject.
Sad reality. We haven't been able to fill our Science position (part time and Fixed Term).
So our students are down a specialist subject.
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- Pay peanuts get monkeys
- Teachers effectively day care and babysitters instead of educators nowadays
- Kids these days want to be a Youtuber or Insta influencer instead of a doctor or astronaut
etc
The reasons are varied but the reality is that it is difficult to staff schools all around Australia at the moment.
Yep. Cant even get a CRT so our prin has been stepping into the odd classroom
I am exhausted. It's deflating to see our NSW counterparts get a $10k pay rise for 1 year and we are sitting at 2% a year in Victoria.
I am tired of seeing that we can't get teachers to cover classes and then having 30+ each day when teachers are away because we are small school keeping splits under 30 is impossible. Losing 1 hour planning time (so only 3hrs a week) is hard to try and keep workload down at home.
Behaviours are rife.
We really got stiffed by the AEU last agreement. It hasn't reduced workload.
I am tired of seeing that we can't get teachers to cover classes and then having 30+ each day when teachers are away because we are small school keeping splits under 30 is impossible. Losing 1 hour planning time (so only 3hrs a week) is hard to try and keep workload down at home.
Behaviours are rife.
We really got stiffed by the AEU last agreement. It hasn't reduced workload.
We only have ourselves to blame. We (the majority) voted for it.
It was a very good agreement for ES and principal staff, remuneration wise.
Coming out of COVID and with staff shortages starting, we could have pushed for a much better agreement. AEU are pathetic.
Now we are seeing the union protest... how is that going to help us? We can't walk off the job. We won't get any pay increase.
Tempted to cancel my union membership tbh.
At least stick around til the next leadership ballot and throw one extra vote against incumbents. Change at the top is needed.
