(Posted Aug 8 2023)
Kaya everyone, I hope you are all surviving the super moon we have at the moment – if your school is like mind its a little mad at the moment!
There are a few things that have been happening recently that I thought I would let you know about.
On Tuesday some of the Executive and myself attended a meeting with all the other Professional Associations – WAPPA, WADHAA, WASSEA and the PFWA. This was the first time the all the Associations had come together, one of the main things that came out of the meeting was that it did not matter where or what your school was we as Principals are all facing the same increasing issues and work demands. This meeting was beginning of a much bigger piece of work details of which will be coming out soon.
Yesterday I attended the ASEPA Council meeting. We had a presentation from ATSIL about pre service and graduate teachers they painted a very sad picture of what is currently happening across Australia with the attrition rate of our Graduate Teachers, but also how all state are now allowing pre service teachers to be employed in the classroom as teachers – there is one state where you can employ a first year pre service teacher! All this means is that we are just increasing the problem for future years. The initiative to encourage teachers from overseas does not seem to be working either, if you saw the article in the West Australian, very few teachers have taken up the option and almost all are secondary. I did hear of one school who was offered one of these teachers she was 60 years old and had mainly worked as a relief/ dott teacher….
I also attended the South Metro Regional Office Advisory Board, it always amazes me how few staff and how little money the regional offices have to do a huge job. I have a much better understanding now why they are not able to offer little help unless it is a critical incident.
Part of the discussion was the Minister Stand Together Against Violence Initiative and that some Principals have taken the first action point that if a student physically hurts a member of staff that its a immediate move to exclusion, as black and white. Regional office has had preprimary students put forward for exclusion. We did discuss how impossible this would be in Education Support Settings if each time a student hurt a member of staff we started an exclusion process – we would have no students left! There is still the 2019 CEO directive in action which means that it is still at Principals discretion and that starting to move towards exclusion can be as simple as ticking the box in OINS, but it can also means that you are following your schools processes around how you deal with these events in school.
We also discussed protective isolation rooms and the Minister’s statement that these will stop being used immediately, Lisa Rodgers did talk about it briefly in her Webex at the beginning of the term. What wasn’t clear was that this isn’t just the signed off protective isolation rooms which some school had it is any space that the student in put in by themselves and they cannot leave including, sensory rooms or alternative working areas. You will all have seen the WHS Induction for all contractors and visitors to your site drop like a lead balloon last week. It is not going to go away, but at least we now have more time to get it in place.
I have been asked to promote the SCSA review of the curriculum for HPE, The date for the consultation has been extended as they would really like some input from our sector. If you have a great HPE teacher please encourage them to complete the survey.
https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/p10-english-hpe-consultation
Our new website has gone live and it includes the link to our 2023 Conference registration and Awards Dinner – click on the link and go and have a look. Well done to Melinda Manship for all her hard work getting it up and running.
WAESPAA are a professional association that represents the interests of the Education Support sector in all schools. We support the role of Principals and Administrators in the sector.
Finally, we are starting our metro visits so don’t be surprised when you are contacted by some of the Exec to ask you what your preferred coffee is and when you will be available for a chat.
Warmest regards,
Debi Taylor
Principal
180 Fisher Street, Cloverdale WA 6105 Tel: (08) 9438 7851 M: 0411 822 326 cloverdaleesc.wa.edu.au
President
Western Australian Education Support Principals and Administrators Association Inc.
Kaya, I respectfully acknowledge the land on which Cloverdale ESC sits Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. It is a privilege to be living and working on Wadjuk country. I acknowledge the traditional custodians and their continuing connection to land, waters and community, and I offer my respects to elders past and present.