Edition 3, August 2011

This is the third edition of the TRB Update for 2011. If you know a teacher who has not received an email from the Board, please encourage them to advise us of their current contact details.

Registration statistics and Provisionally Registered Teachers

There are currently 6,084 registered teachers in the Northern Territory. Of these, 454 are provisionally registered. A provisionally registered teacher is one who is either a new graduate, an overseas trained teacher who has never taught in Australia and New Zealand or a teacher returning to the profession after an extended period of absence. The scheme of provisional registration makes clear that these teachers need to demonstrate to the profession that they are competent teachers. To do this, provisionally registered teachers are required to provide to a school-based panel standards referenced evidence that demonstrates their readiness to apply for Full Registration.

Support for Provisionally Registered Teachers

The Board provides support to provisionally registered teachers and their mentors through a series of seminars designed to take them through the process of applying for Full Registration. Two types of seminars will be conducted in Semester 2: Information Session 1 and Information Session 2. The former is for teachers who have just been granted Provisional Registration and is designed to outline the purpose of Provisional Registration and the process of applying for Full Registration. Information Session 2 is for provisionally registered teachers who are a little further along in the process and have been collecting evidence against the Professional Standards for Competent Teachers in the Northern Territory. This session will take teachers through types of evidence as well as providing clarification to parts of the process. Dates and session times and venues will be shortly e-mailed to provisionally registered teachers.

Professional conduct matters

It’s been a busy few months for the Professional Conduct team with three formal Inquiries in as many months. The Board is currently investigating 38 complaints of professional misconduct. The Professional Conduct team is preparing to facilitate a number of FREE public information sessions for teachers and Principals in Darwin and Alice Springs over September and October 2011. For more information and to register your participation go to TRB events page. If you are a teacher located in another area of the Northern Territory and would like to participate please contact melissa.frey@nt.gov.au directly so we can discuss ways of involving you in our sessions. The Professional Conduct team is always interested in issues that concern teachers and Principals so if you would like to discuss a specific area of professional conduct please email Melissa Frey and the Manager will be in touch.

Relief teacher seminar

The Board has just concluded its first seminars for provisionally and fully registered relief teachers. These seminars were conducted by the Board’s Acting Manager Professional Learning and Standards with the assistance from the Victorian Institute of Teaching’s Manager Professional Learning. The seminar covered important information on how relief teachers can meet the legislative requirements of provisional and full registration while not teaching full time. The session presented an opportunity for relief teachers to build a professional relationship with other relief teachers in the Darwin and Palmerston areas. The same session will be offered to relief teachers in Alice Springs on 6 September 2011. Those teachers wishing to attend will be able to register online on the TRB events page. For relief teachers in remote locations, a Webinar will be offered. Teachers will need to register their participation online. Further sessions will be offered in Term 4 for relief teachers who missed this first session.

Registration renewal

A range of new documents supporting fully registered teachers to understand the requirements of registration renewal has been added to the TRB Website. Teachers can now find the following three documents: Validating professional learning activities, Professional reading for renewal and Records to keep and the validation of professional learning. These documents provide teachers with an understanding of how to approach the collection and validation of evidence against the Professional Standards for Competent Teachers in the Northern Territory.

BIITE accreditation

The Board has completed the accreditation of two BIITE programs: the Bachelor of Education (Primary) and the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood). The accreditation of these programs recognises that they suitably prepare pre-service teachers for the purpose of registration in the Northern Territory and elsewhere in Australia. The accreditation of the programs is done against the Professional Standards for Graduate Teachers in the Northern Territory and existing Board procedures as contained within the Board’s Standards, guidelines and processes for the approval of pre-service teacher education programs. Courses accredited by the Board

CDU consultation

As part of the move to a national system for the accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia, the Board, in collaboration with Charles Darwin University, undertook a consultation on the new Bachelor of Teaching and Learning (Preservice) degree to be offered through the University in 2013. A requirement of the national accreditation system is that the University needs to demonstrate to the Board that it has consulted on the program with employing authorities, professional teaching associations and/or direct involvement of practising teachers, educational researchers and relevant cultural and community experts (e.g. local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups; parents’ organisations). In doing this, the University needs to show how the new program takes account of contemporary school and system needs, current professional expert knowledge, authoritative educational research findings and community expectations. All up, 50 participants attended the 11 August consultation to provide feedback to the University. The next consultation, early in 2012, will be for the new post-graduate program.

Upcoming seminars - An ethical profession

The Board is offering Darwin preservice teachers a seminar on teacher professional conduct, to be held on 5 September 2011 at Harbour View Plaza, from 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm. This seminar allows the Board to outline what ‘fit and proper’ means within the context of the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Act as well as in relation to the Board’s Code of Ethics for Northern Territory Teachers. Mentors of pre-service teachers should bring this seminar to the attention of their pre-service teachers as it will explore the divide between the professional and private personae of a teacher in an environment where teachers are required to make and act on ethical decisions daily. The use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and other forms, will be covered in relation to teacher ethical practice. For more information and to register your participation, go to TRB events page. The same session will be offered to preservice teachers in Alice Springs.

Principals’ session

Principals are invited to register for an information session that will provide an outline of employer and employee obligations under the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Act. An outline of the complaint handling process and all you need to know about our investigations and inquiries process and how these may affect you and your staff will be covered. For more information and to register your participation online, go to the TRB events page. The same session will be offered to Principals in Alice Springs in early September. For Principals in remote localities, a Webinar session will be made available. Please check the TRB Website for session times and details.

Inside Teaching

The June edition of Inside Teaching is now available and shines the spotlight on educators and education! This issue looks at 'the girl effect', asks 'What is a quality teacher?', argues that teaching isn't rocket science, interviews children's author Andy Griffiths and teacher Karen Carey of Mrs Carey's Concert, and much more. Past editions are also available online.