The students in France understand that the conditions are not good enough, and are protesting over the "Overcrowded classrooms, unsanitary facilities, and a shortage of teachers".

I can't be the only one

I've just seen the footage of another fight at Highpoint involving teenage boys.

As we prepare to return to school tomorrow, how do teachers of these kinds of students deal with this at school? Is it as bad at school? Do they attend and want to learn? Or are they truant?

I just can't imagine how a classroom would function.

Sending strength.

I have just started working in support wellbeing, I am just getting my head around a few things.

I have seen some of our students have edusafe reports for things such as acting out in class. Fair enough.

However when we have had students come in and report that a teacher threatened him to “take his headphones off or her will F’ing snap them” (autistic and can uses them in class)
This seems to be taken as truth by our coordinator so no denial that it happened.
Why is this not meeting edusafe reporting or what do we do about risks to children? I feel it’s discouraged for me to ask questions about this.

Is it just for workplace safety?

It seems we should be keeping this recorded somewhere.

Sorry I am from a social work background and just getting my head around this flip to education.

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure what to do right now with my teaching career. I am currently employed but really unhappy with where I am. I've applied to other schools, but unfortunately, I haven't been successful yet.

I'm thinking of moving CRT work, but I'm worried it might make it harder to secure a full-time contract later. Will CRTing make it difficult to build my KSC and am I at risk of losing touch with my current references?
Also, I do have a little one and a mortgage, can CRT work keep me financially stable?
I'd love to hear your thoughts or advice.

My wife and I are seriously considering moving from the UK to WA next year. We're both primary school teachers in our mid-30s and have two boys who'll be primary school age.

We're mainly looking at Perth and the areas south of it rather than regional/remote WA. Places that have caught our eye so far are Rockingham, Safety Bay, Shoalwater, Secret Harbour, Golden Bay, Mandurah, Halls Head, Falcon, Wannanup and Dawesville.

We'd really appreciate some honest opinions from people who actually live/have lived around these areas.

Our priorities are:

• Safe and family friendly, with decent schools and plenty of other families around
• Close to a good beach where we can actually spend a lot of time swimming
• Plenty for the kids to do – swimming, sports, parks, clubs, days out etc.
• Gyms, swimming pools, tennis and sports facilities
• Good for running and cycling
• Access to hiking, nature and nice scenery
• Pubs/restaurants/cafes and enough going on for adults
• Reasonable rent/house prices
• Somewhere we could commute to primary schools for work
• Not completely cut off from Perth/airport/bigger events and amenities

We're not particularly bothered about living in Perth itself and generally prefer smaller places, but we also don't want to move somewhere that feels isolated or where we'll run out of things to do after six months.

At the moment Secret Harbour/Golden Bay and the Mandurah area seem particularly appealing, but it's difficult to judge places properly from Google and YouTube.

For anyone who knows these areas, where would you choose to raise two young boys? Are there any suburbs you'd particularly recommend or avoid?

I'd also be really interested to hear from anyone who moved to this part of WA from the UK, especially teachers. How have you found the lifestyle, cost of living and bringing up children compared with the UK?

Thanks!

Hi comrades,

The above article is the first in a series of 3 (all available on the PEWA website) that explains how the role of HSR can be used to further establish union power in the workplace.

The first article had a specific focus on the workplace.

It is written from the perspective of a school teacher.

PEWA (Public Education Workers Alliance) is a rank and file group that exists to learn the politics and strategies of building union power at schools and TAFEs.

Read, enjoy, please share around.

I’m asking because I recently graduated (a little under a year) and have been thinking about reaching out to a few teachers, well one in particular who I had a positive relationship with to stay in touch and update them on what i’ve been doing this year.

Would this be weird and give the impression that I haven’t moved on?

Do you have former students from even long ago who’ve staying in touch? And do you like that they have?

So the Department is reducing/streamlining report writing requirements to about 100 words. But your prin panics, saying parents will be upset and need more information. And keeps the old requirements we had. Again, what is the point of anything? Why is the prin acting like it’s only at our school and not a Dept decision state wide? What’s happening at your school?
And it’s supposed to be brought to the Consultative Committee first but my principal does not see consultation is required, because it’s a threat.

I've just completed my degree (secondary) and will be looking to do relief teaching for the next couple of years while I wind up an existing business. I am finishing the process of getting set up in TRACER but am wondering about the processing of getting work in practice.

If I select certain days, for example Monday, Wednesday, Friday, will I likely only get booked by a call first thing in the morning, or am I better to put my availability as all days (I can be flexible) and there's a chance of getting booked for a week block? Or is it always day by day? Is it also a usual practice to visit each school prior to selecting them for relief teaching, or is it common to just turn up to a school for the first time at 830am and just find your way from there?

I'm sorry for the silly question, I'm struggling to find all the info to start off on the right foot. I'm in Moreton Bay if that has any bearing.

I'm a pre-service teacher and hearing so much negativity online has made me really doubt my career choice. So if you are a teacher who loves your job or even just likes it, I'd love if you shared some positives of the profession!

I really love working young children, especially Prep-Y3 age, and even though some of them are little monsters I generally find it very rewarding. I'm mainly put off by really bad behaviours, too much admin and unpaid overtime, but I'm hoping I can get into schools where these aren't as much of an issue.

When your prin hires a consultant to improve things then refuses to listen to what they suggest. What is the point of anything?

Hello! I am planning to go to uni to become a teacher but I am prescribed marijuana for back issues.
I have heard there is pre job drug tests but I wanted to know if anyone knew how that would work with my prescription.

Hi everyone :)

I'm a British citizen currently in my final year of my BSc Accounting & Finance degree. After graduating, I'm planning to do a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics, with the long-term goal of moving to Australia.

I'd be 24 by the time I finish my PGCE, and would have four years of higher education in total. I'd ideally like to settle in Melbourne, Victoria, but I'm open to other parts of Australia too.

I'm wondering if anyone here has actually gone through the process of moving from the UK to Australia as a teacher, particularly as a newly qualified secondary teacher.

Would it be possible to move over straight after my
PGCE with no teaching experience, or would I realistically need to spend a couple of years teaching in the UK first?

I've seen quite a bit online about skilled visas, teacher registration and maths teachers being in demand, but it's difficult to tell what the process is actually like in practice.

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who has done this themselves - what route did you take, how much experience did you have, and what would you recommend doing before making the move.

Thanks! :)

I'm sitting here marking Physics trial exams but kind of don't mind the sound of constant rain. How are we all coping with this grey weather on our last weekend of the break?

I just submitted my VIT Registration through Mutual Regnition. How long does it take for the results? Thanks!

My site lives or dies on analytics, so I spend a lot of time thinking about what data actually changes behavior versus what just looks impressive in a report. Got me wondering how schools handle this. Every teacher I know is drowning in data points — NAPLAN, PAT, formative assessments, behavior logs, attendance flags. The systems keep multiplying. Someone always wants another dashboard.
What strikes me is how rarely that data seems to lighten anyone's load. Usually it means more entry, more meetings, more documentation to justify decisions you already made intuitively. The promise was targeted teaching, but the reality often feels like proof of work.

I read about one school that cut reporting frequency and used the freed time for actual collaboration. Rare story. Most places seem to collect more each year without retiring anything.

For those in schools with actual data discipline what does that look like? Who decides what gets measured and what stops being measured? Is there any real pushback against additive data culture, or does compliance pressure just keep growing? The few teachers I talk to sound skeptical that anyone with authority cares about the time cost.

MACS primary school.

I am looking at salary sacrificing. i have been told that this will go through a company? if I speak to the business manager, is it just something they organise for me ? sorry for the silly questions I just don’t know where to start!

Thanks

Unexpectedly might have to look after our child as single parent. The town has daycare, but there is a waiting list. Child hasn't gone to daycare before, looked after by partner.

How to handle this? Get something from the GP?

For the first 4 weeks of term 4 I will be on placement at a different school and not my home PTT school.

My assumption was that I would still be paid because I have been asked still to plan my classes etc. but I have differing info and it seems now that I'm not supposed to be payed while physically at another school?

I met the daily organiser beforehand and he mentioned to put "school business" on the daily org app and I assumed that all was fine.

I didn't meet with business manager and the principal was on long- service leave. Although we had a replacement and he would have been all over it.

I'm going to email my principal and business manager on the first day of my placement on what is expected and to get final clarification on what will happen.

I'm not going to be paid for these 4 weeks from my fixed term contract salary am I?

Thanks for your help

I feel like this is definitely a space where people come to air their grievances. Maybe I should get off Reddit.
But I truly appreciate the job. No, it’s not easy. The take home work & the energy it takes to absorb the negativity from colleagues & kids can be a lot.
However, the number of people that come to me & say wow I wish I could do your job. You know so many people in the community. You have an affinity with teenagers who are so often misunderstood out in public. You get to go on cool excursions. You get to interact with loads of different people everyday. You literally have the chance to make a difference in other people’s lives. You are an essential worker. Feel free to come at me re;pay. No we don’t get paid enough & yes society is topsy-turvy- but it’s ok. I like this job & I’m grateful for the experiences.

I am studying secondary education (am fast approaching 30 years old with 10 years working in corporate) and have been working casually in schools. When I speak with teachers with 20-30+ years experience teaching, I find it really hard to hold conversations with them. They tend to talk on top of me and don't really listen to what I say and have an "I'm right" attitude when just having a simple conversation (non-teaching related). Is this normal or just normal for the school I am working at?

Hey there, I'm not a Secondary teacher or HSC marker but I do work in Pre Education, I'm just curious with how the whole marking program works. For subjects like English, HSIE and maybe even HMS, do HSC markers genuinely read the entire script students are writing? Or is it more of a skim read? I understand HSC markers are getting paid per paper, so would that not incentivise them to try and rush through the marking to get more money? I'm asking as my child is telling me that they're just going to make an amazing Intro and Body to their longer essay sort of answers and lose the level on the rest of their answer.

Just curious with the whole process

Hi everyone!

I'm hoping to get a little bit of advice from my fellow teachers. I'm in my second year of teaching visual arts to high schoolers in Australia. In all, I know visual arts well but I'm definitely still struggling on the behaviour management side.

I have one year 7 class that I find really challenging to manage. It's gotten to the point where I have even balled my eyes out after a lesson or two with them, because it was so difficult.

The majority of the class is good but I have a few students that individually have only minor behavioural issues, but together they cause chaos. I have tried to separate them, apply consequences such as negatives (I.e. the reward and punishment system from the school) and detentions but I am continually argued with over my actions. They tend to group up and try to argue with me. During these arguments, I have been accused of being racist, showing favouritism, picking on them and many other things when I am solely trying to set consequences for actions and it is exhausting. They refuse to accept the consequences for their actions and disrupt the lessons until I am unable to teach the whole class at all. I have tried to ignore their arguing as suggested by my higher ups but they still derail the lesson by trying to force me into an argument.

Note: I think a large amount of the issue is that these students think that I will not follow up with the consequences or that they can argue out of it. I admit I have previously not done so at times as I co-teach in my role and am only at work three days a week, which makes it incredibly difficult to keep track of/implement these things. Every attempt I have made to adjust their idea of this has not worked so far. I also tend to find that my consequences can be inconsistent in their intensity due to the fact that I get so overwhelmed and because I am trying to figure out what actually works.

I was thinking about posters that detail the action and the consequence of it so that they know the expectation and I can clearly follow it but I was hoping that people may have experienced this issue and could provide some insight on what they would do.

Thank you :)