26 July 2012

Clean sweep for ACT Public School Early Childhood Teachers

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Hey, I’m a husband of an Early Childhood teacher who currently works in the ACT Public School system.

My wife has been told by the principal at the school where she teaches, that next year there will be a “clean sweep”.

Long term Early Childhood teachers (30 years) are being told they will be moved to teach Kindergarten or First Class next year. This is placing many staff under stress and they have made the decision to leave teaching.

This is not an offer to accept a change, it is what they are told is going to happen and if they dont like it then they should apply for the recruitment round.

So far through friends we have found that very similar things are being told to Early Childhood teaching staff at three different Schools.

Executive staff knew nothing of these changes until told by teachers. Parents of students have no idea what is coming- another disgrace!

So does anyone else know of similar happenings?

It could easily appear that there is some sort of directive to Principals as this is happening at more than one School.

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snoopydoc said :

grunge_hippy said :

Early childhood teachers are trained to teach P-2. They need to go where there is need. That’s what it is like for every other teacher in the system, why not them?

For the longest time pre school teachers have been sitting in their own little world being autonomous, answering to no one. Now that they are under the control of the primary school they are attached to, they are now accountable and also have to reach and maintain standards of the new Early Childhood Framework. Just like everyone else.

I say suck it up.

+1

What’s so onerous about teaching any part of Pre-school Year 2 when you’ve been trained to do it?

Fear of, and resistance to change? We see it often in the APS/ACTGS every time there is an election or machinery of government change.

as an outsider looking in I would have to say this sounds like a big problem to me. My understanding is that the pedagogy (the framework under which they teach) of the preschool system and the early school systems are quite different. They have different purposes. So preschool teachers who have been preschool teachers for a long time will not be used to teaching to the school system and will not be up on the latest in teaching in schools. I can imagine it would be enormously difficult to catch up. Usually teachers do regular training in their fields each year to keep up to date. Preschool teachers obviously wont have done any training in school teaching.
As a parent of a young school child I am not happy about the idea at all.

Affirmative Action Man9:31 am 27 Jul 12

Our local southside early childhood teacher had been around for a long time & should have been moved on ages ago for her own sake & the children’s sake. I think it is a good move.

neanderthalsis8:56 am 27 Jul 12

PM said :

The AEU is a bunch of ex-communists.

The AEU is a bunch of ex-communists.

Fixed it for you.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back8:04 am 27 Jul 12

joingler said :

Madam Cholet said :

Having dealt with the school admin so far they seem to take their own good time to get things done such as sorting through enrolments etc. and don’t even think that before and after school care would be sorted at the same time. No, that is done by another area….except when you speak to the other area, they say that they are not the ones looking after that – it’s the previous people that you spoke to! And as for the teachers….well, if there were points for saying as many educational buzz words as possible in a sentence then they’d win every time! Hoping that they can also walk the walk…..

I work in Before/After School Care and we are a separate organisation to the school. I think this is the case in the majority of schools although not all (I know Majura in Watson is run byy the school P&C)

On the actual topic (and kind of related to my point above), if your wife finds herself out of work, tell her to come work in Before/After School Care. We are desperately short of School Aged Care Coordinators in the ACT so there’s always a job around somewhere.

Sounds like problem solved!

The AEU is a bunch of ex-communists.

Madam Cholet said :

Having dealt with the school admin so far they seem to take their own good time to get things done such as sorting through enrolments etc. and don’t even think that before and after school care would be sorted at the same time. No, that is done by another area….except when you speak to the other area, they say that they are not the ones looking after that – it’s the previous people that you spoke to! And as for the teachers….well, if there were points for saying as many educational buzz words as possible in a sentence then they’d win every time! Hoping that they can also walk the walk…..

I work in Before/After School Care and we are a separate organisation to the school. I think this is the case in the majority of schools although not all (I know Majura in Watson is run byy the school P&C)

On the actual topic (and kind of related to my point above), if your wife finds herself out of work, tell her to come work in Before/After School Care. We are desperately short of School Aged Care Coordinators in the ACT so there’s always a job around somewhere.

grunge_hippy said :

Early childhood teachers are trained to teach P-2. They need to go where there is need. That’s what it is like for every other teacher in the system, why not them?

For the longest time pre school teachers have been sitting in their own little world being autonomous, answering to no one. Now that they are under the control of the primary school they are attached to, they are now accountable and also have to reach and maintain standards of the new Early Childhood Framework. Just like everyone else.

I say suck it up.

+1

What’s so onerous about teaching any part of Pre-school Year 2 when you’ve been trained to do it?

I’m not sure what the issue is? Kindergarten and Year 1 are classified as early childhood.

It’s not like she is being asked to teach high school.

Madam Cholet6:13 pm 26 Jul 12

Is this anything to do with some principals’ new found ability to hire and fire of their own accord? I do sympathise, but it happens a lot in commercial land – you can come in any day and be told there’s going to be a restructure and that you will have to re-apply.

Doesn’t sound like info is being made available as much as people would like but doubt that children will be irreparably harmed in the process. I’m about to send my son to pre-school next year and would like to know that the best people are in the jobs, and not just because you have been there since time began.

Having dealt with the school admin so far they seem to take their own good time to get things done such as sorting through enrolments etc. and don’t even think that before and after school care would be sorted at the same time. No, that is done by another area….except when you speak to the other area, they say that they are not the ones looking after that – it’s the previous people that you spoke to! And as for the teachers….well, if there were points for saying as many educational buzz words as possible in a sentence then they’d win every time! Hoping that they can also walk the walk…..

regularbrowse5:54 pm 26 Jul 12

Is it part of the changes for the Federal Government’s early years education program?

All preschool teachers are required to have a 4 year early childhood degree by 2013 for the longer preschool hours. Otherwise state/territory doesn’t get additional funding.

devils_advocate5:20 pm 26 Jul 12

For those of us that are relatively ignorant of such matters – what is it about such a move – i.e. from early childhood to kindergarten/year 1 – that is so stressful as to prompt workers to leave the profession?

grunge_hippy5:12 pm 26 Jul 12

Early childhood teachers are trained to teach P-2. They need to go where there is need. That’s what it is like for every other teacher in the system, why not them?

For the longest time pre school teachers have been sitting in their own little world being autonomous, answering to no one. Now that they are under the control of the primary school they are attached to, they are now accountable and also have to reach and maintain standards of the new Early Childhood Framework. Just like everyone else.

I say suck it up.

Actually it is to do with the fact that ACTEDT brought in school autonomy outside of the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and that the AEU is a toothless tiger in Canberra.

Staff who are at the higher end of the pay scale, like the OPs wife, are being pushed out of schools for cost-cutting reasons. Nothing more.

The younger the teacher, the more money you have to “buy” more young teachers. We only need look at Kingsford Smith and Namadgi to see how well even 50% of staff being young teachers has worked.

Antagonist, there is a recruitment round, however it is not the same as previous years and most school will now have to advertise outside the round for staff. We have to effectively apply again to teach to every school that has a position available. We then have to go to interviews and that isn’t covered as anything BUT personal leave (like we have a choice as when our position is up we cannot stay).

For some teachers it is an insult as they attempt to stay at the one school for 1-2 more years so they can then retire. Some have been told ‘no’ and I wouldn’t be surprised at the statistics for the ‘better’ schools receiving higher numbers of applications as opposed to the ‘worst’.

“Long term Early Childhood teachers (30 years) are being told they will be moved to teach Kindergarten or First Class next year. This is placing many staff under stress and they have made the decision to leave teaching.

This is not an offer to accept a change, it is what they are told is going to happen and if they dont like it then they should apply for the recruitment round.”

Then your wife should apply for the recruitment round. With 30+ years experience she should be well placed to win her job.

Is she currently teaching preschool?

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