(Posted Aug 8 2023)
Kaya,
This will be my last email to you this term as I am going on Long Service Leave as from tomorrow. But I am leaving you in the safe hands of the rest of the Executive, all of whom will be attending meeting for me for over the next three weeks.
I hope you have all managed to stay warm and dry over the last few days this weather has reminded me why I left the UK.
Advocacy and Support
In the last couple of weeks, I have attended a variety of meetings on your behalf.
Consultation on the Reforming WA Disability Legislation
This is being run by the Department of Communities. The main points that are being reviewed are:
- the principles applicable to people with disability;
- appropriate safeguards for people with disability;
- the access and inclusion needs of people with disability; and
- ongoing service provision for specific cohorts.
One of my main concerns is that the Department of Communities are pushing hard to only have the inclusive model in education:
https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-05/State-Disability-Strategy-2020-2030.pdf
We are making a submission on your behalf, but if you would like to have a look here is a link. Please remember that you as a school principal cannot make a submission.
The Senate Education and Employment Reference committee inquiry into the increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms.
You may remember a while ago that I asked you to complete a survey to gain evidence to make a submission to this inquiry. On Wednesday of this week, I gave evidence at the Senate Inquiry. I will confess it was a bit scary, but they understood about our frustration around the lack of skills preservice teachers leave universities with. The lack of resourcing to support our students properly and infrastructure and a lot more. I gave evidence for forty minutes. When the report comes out, I will make sure you have a link to it if you wish to read it.
Auditor General’s Report into The Effectiveness of Public School Reviews
You may not be aware that the Office of the Auditor General recently released a report into the effectiveness of the PSR process, WAESPAA provided feedback to this report. The audit resulted in five recommendations. If you are interested here is a link to the report
Inquiry Into Support for Autistic Children & Young People in Schools
The WA Government’s Education and Health Standing Committee are currently conducting an inquiry into the support for Autistic children in schools. I feel that this inquiry is timely as there is lot of current discussion happening around funding models and whether we should remain with the medical model we currently have or should look as a more social model which is bases on a level of need. I have made a submission on your behalf to this inquiry.
Red Tape and Workload
The WAESPAA Executive met with Milanna Heberle today on the review of Red Tape and Workload.
We discussed:
• Managing NDIS therapists on site
• Recruitment processes – time consuming
• Access to pre-service teachers – hamstrung by 3 month timeline
• Buses – navigating PTA
• Staying on top of policy & procedure updates
• Some of the guidelines contradict policies and procedures
• Difficult for Principals to navigate without roadblocks
• MOU and shared site costs – so difficult to navigate and relies on goodwill & established relationships
• Can things been devolved to schools over the years be centralised ie:
- PL requirements
- AEA apps
- WWC checks
- TRBWA links
- Generalised induction info re new to the Dept of Ed
- Annual report populated through the department
Pre-Service Teacher Placements
Curtin University have reached out to WAESPAA, to seek our support in placing several pre-service teachers in their first and second year of studies. We have been working with them closely to encourage them to place students with us. If you can help in any way, please contact Curtin directly.
Primary – Sofia Girardi & Delicia Cooper, S.Girardi@curtin.edu.au delicia.cooper@curtin.edu.au
Early Childhood – Helen McAullay, H.McAullay@curtin.edu.au
Collegiate Principal Pool
Many of you will have seen an advertisement in the Ed-e-mail, the Department are seeking to add to the pool of Collegiate Principals. It would be wonderful to have a Principal from an Education Support background as a Collegiate Principal so I would encourage you to apply.
https://doe-internal-wagov.bigredsky.com/page.php?pageID=160&windowUID=0&AdvertID=326896
Conference and Awards Night
We have just about finalised our line-up for the conference and it is looking great.
Dates: 14th and 15th September at the Hyatt Hotel, Perth. So make sure you put a save the date in your calendar for this event.
Murdoch University
My thanks go to our two active life members Andrew Wilson and Linda Lane who along with Jo Markovic and Cloverdale ESC hosted the Associate Dean (Engagement, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) School of Education, the Academic Chair Secondary Education, Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) and the Academic Chair Bachelor of Education (Primary Teaching) all from Murdoch University.
The idea of this tour was to break down the barriers that they perceive with placing their Pre-Service Teachers in Education Support settings. Not only did they leave singing the praising of Cannington Community ESC, Durham Road School, Maddington ESC and Cloverdale ESC, but they also left with a very clear picture that we know our stuff, we know curriculum, we know behaviour management and we know how to put the student first. I know from this that we will start getting a lot more preservice teachers in our schools doing their practicums.
Finally, my thanks go to the rest of the WAESPAA Executive – going on long service leave means that I cannot attend a lot of meetings, that we need representation in and the all the Executive have step up to attend those meetings on your behalf.
I look forward to seeing you all next term, when we start our metro school visits.
Warmest regards,
Debi Taylor
President
Western Australian Education Support Principals and Administrators Association Inc.