Edition 2, March 2009

This is the second edition of the TRB Update for 2009. If you know a teacher who has not received an email from the Board, please encourage them to advise the Board of their current contact details.

Research Digest

The first edition of the Research Digest for 2009 is now available and focuses on the use of ICT in schools.

Teachers who recently held registration in other jurisdictions will be familiar with the Digest. The New South Wales Institute of Teachers commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to publish the Digest and it has then been made available to all the teacher regulatory authorities.

There will be four editions of the Research Digest published this year.

Teachers, students and the Law

In the coming weeks, the Board will be sending out a copy of Teachers, Students and the Law: A Quick Reference Guide for Australian Teachers to all schools. The book is published by the Victorian Law Foundation and is now in its third edition. Teachers, Students and the Law is a quick reference and guide addressing a range of issues that teachers face every day in their work such as duty of care, student discipline and responding to bullying.

This booklet does not cover the Northern Territory specifically or address registration issues in any of the jurisdictions.

Investigations and inquiries

Under the provisions of the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Act, the Board is obliged to undertake an investigation and take the relevant action if notified of a registered teacher's serious misconduct, matters that call into question continued fitness to teach or if a teacher is convicted of an indictable offence. The Board is supported in this work by the Department of Justice.

At any one time, the Board has up to twenty cases it is either investigating or which are the subject of committees of inquiry that have resulted from complaints to the Board, notifications from employers or the Northern Territory Police or from teachers' declarations.

Annual audits

Under the provisions of section 78 of the Act, the Board requires all employers of teachers to provide the Board with an annual return of all persons teaching at the employer's school (or schools) as at 1 March each year. In particular, the Board asks for the registration details for each teacher to be recorded. The purpose of the annual return is to ensure that only registered teachers (or persons teaching under authorisation) are employed in Territory schools.

Are your contact details up to date?

If you have changed your name, postal address, email address or phone number, you will need to complete the Change details form.