33 minute read
Public schools matching private in academic performance
from April 2022 Western Teacher
by SSTUWA
By Sally Larsen and Alexander Forbes University of New England
In Australia, around 30 per cent of primary and 40 per cent of secondary school children attend a private, or independent, school.
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School fees vary widely, depending on the type of private school and the different sectors that govern them. Catholic schools generally cost less than independent schools where families can pay fees of more than $40,000 per year. Despite the term “independent school”, all schools in Australia receive government funding. On average, Catholic schools receive around 75 per cent and independent schools around 45 per cent of their funding from state and federal governments. Research shows parents believe private schools will provide a better education for their children and better set them up for success in life. But the evidence on whether this perception is correct is not conclusive.
What does the research say about academic scores?
Our recent study showed NAPLAN scores of children who attended private schools were no different to those in public schools, after accounting for socioeconomic background. These findings are in line with other research, both in Australia and internationally, which shows family background is related both to the likelihood of attending a private school and to academic achievement.
While there may appear to be differences in the academic achievement of students in private schools, these tend to disappear once socioeconomic background is taken into account. An analysis of 68 education systems (mainly countries, but some countries only include regions which are known as “education systems”) participating in the 2018 Programme for International Assessment (PISA) tests showed attendance at private schools was not consistently related to higher test performance. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report says: On average across OECD countries and in 40 education systems, students in private schools…scored higher in reading than students in public schools (…before accounting for socio-economic profile)… However, after accounting for students’ and
schools’ socio-economic profile, reading scores were higher in public schools than in private schools.
Do private schools improve student achievement over time?
Another argument used to support Australia’s growing private school sector is the idea private schools actually add value to a child’s education.
This means attending a private school should boost students’ learning trajectories over and above what they might have achieved in a public school. Our research is the first to examine whether students differ in learning trajectories across the four NAPLAN test years (3, 5, 7 and 9) depending on the school type they attended. We compared the NAPLAN scores of students who attended a public school, a private school and those who attended a public school in Years 3 and 5 and then a private school in Years 7 and 9. The students in the latter group scored highest in reading and numeracy tests in each of the four NAPLAN test years. This group outperformed students who attended private schools at all years, and students who attended public schools at all years. But there was no evidence that making the switch to a private school added to students’ learning growth. These high-performing students were already achieving the highest results in public school before they left for private school in Year 7.
This suggests private schools may be enrolling the highest achievers from public primary schools. Other analyses in our paper showed that once socioeconomic background of these students was taken into account, apparent achievement differences between school sectors were no longer present. The other interesting point is that there were no differences in achievement trajectories between the groups. So, making the switch to private schools in Year 7 did not affect the gains students were making in NAPLAN over time. Students in public schools made just as much progress as their peers who attended private schools. This undermines claims private schools add value to students’ academic growth.
What about other private school benefits?
Some Australian research has shown students who attend private schools are more likely to complete school and attend university, and tend to attain higher rankings in university entrance exams. Indeed, the recent announcements of NSW students’ HSC (Higher School Certificate) results showed almost threequarters of the 150 top-ranked schools were independent. The concentration of higher-achieving students in private schools could also magnify any peer effects on students’ decisions about future career paths or attending university. Nonetheless the research on these questions is not definitive: it is very difficult to separate out the effects of background characteristics of students and the effects of the school sector given that more advantaged students tend to concentrate in private schools. Some Australian research has shown the characteristics of students before they enter private schools have a larger effect on their aspirations, behaviour and attitudes than the school.
Rethinking the system?
While the capacity for parents to choose a school that best suits their child is often seen as an advantage, many disadvantaged families are a lot more constrained in their ability to choose, and pay for, private schools. Students attending private schools may have access to other non-academic benefits, such as more opportunities for sports, excursions and other extracurricular activities.
But in terms of academic advantage, we know, from our research and other studies that explored similar questions, there is little evidence to show independent schools offer any. It is likely children will do equally well in any school sector. Sally Larsen and Alexander Forbes are PhD candidates (Education & Psychology) at the University of New England. The opinions expressed in this article are that of the authors and do not necessarily reflect any official policies or positions of the SSTUWA or AEU. This article was first published at The Conversation website and is reproduced here with permission.
ALP consent education plan a meaningful commitment
The Australian Education Union has welcomed Federal Labor’s commitment to invest $77 million for teaching consent education in Australian schools.
Labor’s plan, announced on International Women’s Day 2022, will provide professional development and training for teachers across Australia to talk about sexual consent and respectful relationships in an age-appropriate way and enable students experiencing violence to seek help. AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe has described the plan as a meaningful commitment towards violence prevention. “The sad reality is that women and girls are still enduring harassment and sexual violence in Australia, whether it is in their homes, schools or workplaces,” said Ms Haythorpe. “The first step towards making these spaces safer for women and girls starts with educating students about consent early. “We welcome the commitment for additional support for teachers to deliver consent education and to equip them to assist students who need help.” Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese said the plan would allow principals to hire expert support and develop respect and relationships education programs based on evidence and tailored to their schools. “Delivery of high-quality respectful relationships education programs is patchy and inconsistent across the country,” he said. “There’s nowhere near enough support to train teachers properly in this kind of education, and some schools don’t have access to programs developed by experts. Too many school students are missing out on education that can help keep them safe. “Age-appropriate respectful relationships education can also help promote equality between women and men and improve classroom behaviour.”
Federal Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek said statistics revealed that one in five Australian women are victims of sexual assault. “There are more Australian women who are victims of sexual assault than there are women who are smokers in Australia today,” she said. “Just think about that for a moment. One in three will experience domestic violence. And in the last five years alone, 40 per cent of Australian women have been sexually harassed in the workplace. “This is unacceptable. We have to change it. We have to change it with a stronger legal response today. “But we also need to change how we’re raising our kids so that in the future, the incidence of violence will decrease. “We want every Australian to be safe – at home, in the street, in their workplaces. We want every Australian to be safe. We need to invest in respectful relationships.” Ms Haythorpe said the conversation around consent education, led in the past year by Sydney activist Chanel Contos, had shone a light on the critical role schools play in preventing sexual harassment and violence in the community. “Schools should be safe places for students to seek information and assistance and it’s crucial that we have a federal government committed to ensuring that is the case,” Ms Haythorpe said. “The AEU is calling on all parties to follow suit and support teachers to deliver evidence-based and age-appropriate consent and respectful relationships education.”
Morrison missing for working women
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has released Morrison Missing – A Record of his Failure for Working Women, a major report outlining how the Morrison Government has failed to support working women.
The report shows that under the Morrison Government, women in the workplace: • Earn on average $483.30 less per week than a man and retire with about half the amount of super as a man.
• Are more likely to be in low-wage and insecure work, and therefore more likely to have lost work or hours during the pandemic.
• Have a two in three chance of experiencing sexual harassment in a current or former workplace.
• Have no guaranteed right to paid family and domestic violence leave, despite a spike in family and domestic violence during the pandemic.
• Rely on the second worst paid parental leave scheme in the developed world, according to the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
• Pay for some of the most expensive early childhood education and care in the world – with early childhood educators being extremely low paid.
As the report outlines, on each issue Prime Minister Scott Morrison has either done nothing, shirked responsibility or blocked progress.
Working women’s experience of the Prime Minister’s inaction is clear in a new nation-wide ACTU survey of 3,000 respondents, published to coincide with the report’s release.
The survey shows that while the Morrison Government has left the majority of Australians concerned about their job, wages and the economy, women have been left worse off: • Seventy-seven per cent of women say the cost of living has gotten worse, compared to 67 per cent of men. • Fifty-five per cent of women say their job security has gotten worse, compared to 45 per cent of men. • Fifty-six per cent of women believe the economy has gotten worse, compared to 50 per cent of men. Women are still shouldering the majority of caring responsibilities and are more likely than men to be in part-time, casual and other forms of insecure work.
Sixty-one per cent of workers who rely on awards or minimum wages are women, and we continue to see systemic underpayment of entire feminised industries.
The report calls for several long-overdue changes to make workplaces and society safer for women, close the gender pay gap and ensure all working women have a secure retirement, including: • Introducing stronger equal pay laws in the Fair Work Act.
• Pay superannuation on parental leave.
• Implement all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report, including a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment. • Legislate 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave into the
National Employment Standards. • Introduce free, universal, accessible and high-quality early childhood education and care.
ACTU President Michele O’Neil (pictured top right) said this government had talked a lot about its commitment to women, but after nearly a decade in power, women were worse off with no improvement in sight. “The Morrison Government has gone missing at every opportunity to enact real change for women, refusing to: ensure women are safe at work and implement all recommendations of the Respect@Work report; provide 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave; regulate the overuse of casual employment; increase the minimum wage to a liveable wage that will support a full-time worker; or to introduce free and accessible early childhood education and care,” she said. “Progress for working women has stalled and in some cases gone backwards under the watch of the Morrison Government.
“While the Morrison Government refuses to ensure that super is paid on parental leave or regulate the underpayment of women-dominated workforces, the superannuation gap has continued to grow – a gap that now results in women retiring with half the super of men and older women becoming the fastestgrowing homeless demographic. “When working women vote this year, they will remember how little the promises of this Prime Minister and his government have meant, they will not forget being let down.”
Making change, history and noise
By Professor Michelle Arrow Macquarie University
As a historian of the Australian women’s movement, the past two years have been extraordinary to witness.
Not only are we living through a oncein-a-century pandemic, which has had profoundly gendered effects, we have also experienced a feminist insurgency that has placed the issue of women’s safety, and men’s abuses of power, at the centre of our national conversation.
While many activists, journalists and advocates contributed to this insurgency, it exploded largely thanks to two young women: 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame and former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins.
Both just 26, both survivors of sexual assault, both abused by men – and institutions – they ought to have been able to trust.
Both rejected the expectation they should be shamed into silence about their experiences. In doing so, they have helped to rewrite enduring cultural scripts about sexual abuse and sexual assault.
Their joint address at the National Press Club (NPC) in February this year was a valedictory speech, a way to mark their extraordinary year in the public eye.
But it was also a call to action, a warning against complacency in an election year.
Both made it very clear that, while hearing the voices of survivors of abuse and assault is important, it is not enough. As Higgins noted, the ways we discuss abuse are far too passive, “as if sexual violence falls out of the sky. As if it is perpetrated by no-one.” Of the formal parliamentary apology to victims of alleged sexual harassment, assault and bullying, Higgins was grateful, but sceptical: “They are still only words. Actions are what matter.”
Tame and Higgins both made passionate pleas for structural change, for measurable action to prevent sexual abuse and assault. Tame called for government to take abuse seriously: to advance consistent national legislative change on sexual offences, and to spend more on preventive education to curb Australia’s alarmingly high rates of abuse and assault.
She calculated the government spends 11 cents per student per year on prevention education, because: “we currently have a government that is primarily concerned with short-sighted, votes-based funding, not with long-term, needs-based funding.” To those of us used to government by spin, obfuscation and photo ops in highvis vests, Tame and Higgins’ moral clarity and bluntness are exhilarating.
Both vehemently ruled out the possibility of political careers and, indeed, the journalists asking them about their political aspirations seem to misread their social and political role.
They are advocates and activists, who use their public platform to articulate complex issues in clear, direct ways.
Tame, in particular, clearly has no intention of playing by anyone else’s rules, as her memorable side-eye to the Prime Minister at The Lodge demonstrated.
Their speeches also confirmed that their actions had rattled the Morrison Government, whose response to them has been ham-fisted at every turn. Tame revealed that in August 2021 a representative of a government-funded organisation (which she declined to name) had asked for her “word” that she would not say anything about the Prime Minister on the evening before the 2022 Australian of the Year awards.
“You are an influential person. He will have a fear,” she was told. She speculated he had “a fear he might lose his position, or, more to the point, his power”. The Prime Minister’s office later said it had no knowledge of such a call to Tame and the person who made it should apologise.
Tame also reminded us the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet conducted a review of the selection process for Australian of the Year not long after she won the award. This was an attempt at intimidation, as Tame notes, but it also
spoke to the government’s dislike of her fearless critique.
Higgins was consistently treated by many in the Morrison Government as a political problem to be managed. In the wake of her allegations, the Prime Minister commissioned not one, not two, but four reviews, all the while dragging his heels on a formal response to Kate Jenkins’ landmark Respect@Work report.
Higgins reminded us that implementing Respect@Work, especially the proposed “positive duty” on employers to provide a safe workplace, would have “impacted every single working woman in the country. And we just kind of let that moment slide by without thinking.”
Tame and Higgins dissected the government’s performance on gender over the past year. Tame called out Christian Porter’s reliance on a blind trust to fund his unsuccessful defamation case against the ABC.
Higgins eviscerated the government’s National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children for its “vague and lofty” aims, its lack of targets and clear plans. She noted the shocking statistics on domestic violence that “you’ve heard… rattled off at white-ribbon breakfasts… They should spur us to do whatever it takes. But instead they’ve become a sort of throat-clearing exercise that we all just kind of tolerate.”
Policy action on abuse and assault has been a litmus test for the Morrison Government’s views on women. According to Higgins and Tame, it is a test the government has failed at every turn.
In the 1970s, feminist activists told personal stories in public because of their belief that “the personal is political”. Yet victims of sexual assault or abuse typically remained anonymous, because of the shame that was attached to these crimes.
More recently, advocates like Rosie Batty, and now young women including Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, have personalised these difficult issues, making them harder for politicians to ignore.
The #MeToo and #LetHerSpeak movements have centred on survivors and focused on hearing their stories. As Tame said in her NPC address: “How beautiful is freedom of speech? I haven’t always had it”.
One of the problems with a movement based on storytelling in public spaces is the brutal toll it exacts on survivors.
Tame noted she had spent the past year being “revictimised, commodified, objectified, sensationalised, legitimised [and] gaslit”.
As Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke has pointed out, survivors “shouldn’t have to perform our pain over and over again for the sake of your awareness”.
There are other problems with placing too much emphasis on individuals like Tame or Higgins: two young white women can hardly represent all assault survivors, as Melbourne writer Shakira Hussein and others have pointed out. And we must be careful not to confuse justice for individuals with broader structural changes to protect all people from abuse and harassment. But by speaking truth to power, Higgins and Tame have reinvigorated feminism for a new generation of young women.
Back in the 1990s, older feminists worried young women were not taking up the feminist mantle. No-one is saying that now. Teenage girls know Grace Tame’s name, and they admire her courage and her strength.
As Australian journalist Jess Hill and others have noted, the public face of Australian feminism in the 2010s was dominated by “corporate feminism”: seemingly preoccupied with getting more women on boards rather than raising the wages of low-paid female workers in aged care or childcare, for example.
Sexual harassment is still, shockingly, endemic across Australia, and too many people have experienced sexual abuse and assault.
By highlighting this problem – which at its core is about the gendered abuse of power – Tame and Higgins have mobilised a broad constituency of Australian women. They inspired thousands to march for justice and others to run for political office. Maybe they will play a decisive role in this year’s federal election.
As Tame reminded us: “[our leaders] may either be constructive or destructive. But every single one of them is arguably replaceable.”
test for the Morrison
Government’s views on
If you or anyone you know needs help, please call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
Michelle Arrow is Professor of History at Macquarie University. The opinions expressed in this article are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect any official policies or positions of the SSTUWA or AEU. This article was first published at The Conversation website and is reproduced here with permission.
Call for 2022 nominations Rosemary Richards Scholarship
Rosemary Richards was a proud feminist, unionist and educator. A trailblazing leader, she was committed to advancing gender equality across the AEU. In her memory, this $10,000 scholarship continues her legacy by building the capacity of women as activists and leaders.
More info: sstuwa.org.au/scholarships Deadline: Friday 6 May 2022
Forgiveness requires more than an apology – it requires action
By James Blackwell Australian National University
It has been 14 years since then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered his apology to the Stolen Generations from Parliament House. Words which were so longed for from survivors and descendants of horrific government policies and which echo through to today: “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.” -Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, 2008. Scott Morrison’s recent speech on the anniversary of this momentous day made headlines for a different reason. Many have taken umbrage with this line: “Sorry is not the hardest word to say. The hardest is ‘I forgive you’.” Morrison almost demanding forgiveness belies a false understanding of both how apologies work and the nature of what it is the government apologised, and is apologising, for. The policies of the Stolen Generations were acts of government, designed to assimilate us and deprive us of culture. They are also actions which can be remedied by government. To frame the apology in this way is, as Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe tweeted, “outright disrespect”, and “not an apology”.
A stain upon the nation
The Stolen Generations remain a national shame for this country. Over several decades, roughly one in five First Nations children were taken from their families between 1910 and 1970, countless communities broken up and our cultures forcibly suppressed. In some jurisdictions such as Western Australia, the figure is over one in three First Nations children removed.
Nationally, these generations and their descendants make up close to two in five First Nations people, according to a report from The Healing Foundation. The apology, which many thought would not come and many sadly did not live to see, remains an important part of Australian and First Nations history. Finally, the wrongs of the Stolen Generations were not only acknowledged by the government, but apologised for. The apology was, and shall remain, in the words of Linda Burney, a “cultural moment shared by the country”. Kevin Rudd’s 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations was a watershed moment.
Apology not without dissent
However, it is easy to remember the apology as a moment of national unity, free from dissent, which is not the case. John Howard, who preceded Rudd as Prime Minister from 1996-2007, famously
refused such an apology, alongside other measures including a treaty, partly due to the practices of removal being “believed to be in the best interests of the children concerned”.
Howard has continued to defend this failure to issue an apology even decades later, declaring the apology “meaningless” in a January 2022 interview. Howard was, of course, not present in the parliament in 2008, having lost his seat at the 2007 landslide election which saw Labor gain government. However, some members of the Liberal and National parties boycotted the event, including controversial former MP Sophie Mirabella, and most notably current Defence Minister Peter Dutton, both of whom have defended their boycott of the apology.
Action needed to right the wrongs of the past
For those survivors of the Stolen Generations and their descendants, the effects of these policies are ongoing and not confined merely to the removal of children and the destruction of families.
The trauma and pain of these policies, and of being disconnected from country, culture and community, extends down to their children and their children’s children. According to The Healing Foundation’s Make Healing Happen report from 2021, Stolen Generations survivors are more likely to not own a home, have worse finances, have experienced violence, suffer from a disability and to have a criminal record.
Additionally, rates of child removal in Australia have continued to rise over the last decade, with First Nations children 10 times more likely to be removed, with over 21,000 in out-of-home care as of December 2021.
This number is projected to increase by a further 54 per cent by 2031. We are going in the wrong direction, and worse, we are doing very little about it. All of these problems are fixable by the government. Presuming forgiveness on the part of those you have wronged is not going to solve any of these issues. Indeed, they are likely to have the opposite effect, reducing the ability of the government to engage with these communities, and impacting upon the mental and physical health of Stolen Generations survivors and their families.
What is needed is a national approach to healing, including reparations for survivors and their descendants (something the government has begun to deliver on). However, increased services for ageing survivors and a national strategy addressing intergenerational effects of child removal are also needed.
In addition, there needs to be accountability going forward on current child removal practices, with an effort to reduce the number of First Nations children removed, greater supports and structures for those who are and a Voice for First Nations peoples within our political system. Action is a much greater apology than words. Forgiveness can only truly come when there is action.
Morrison’s comments show he does not understand that. I’m not sure if he ever will.
James Blackwell is a Research Fellow (Indigenous Diplomacy) at the Australian National University and a member of the Australian Greens. He is also a member of the Uluru Dialogue at the University of NSW. The opinions expressed in this article are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect any official policies or positions of the SSTUWA or AEU. This article was first published at The Conversation website and is reproduced here with permission.
By Associate Professors Tania Ferfolja and Jacqueline Ullman Western Sydney University
Debates about how schools acknowledge gender and sexuality diversity have been ongoing in Australia. It’s often claimed parents oppose the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity content in the teaching of their children. But our research shows four out of five parents support such content being included in the relationships and sexual health curriculum.
Debate about these issues has been revived by the federal Religious Discrimination Bill and the NSW One Nation’s Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill. The now-shelved federal bill would have allowed religious schools to expel transgender and gender-diverse students. The NSW bill seeks to revoke the accreditation of educators who discuss gender and sexuality diversity in a public school.
Both bills would have the same effect: the erasure of gender and sexuality diversity from schools.
Until now there has been no comprehensive research in Australia that examines what parents actually want in relation to such topics in their child’s education.
This lack of research-based evidence has meant even teachers are unsure about whether or not they are allowed to discuss gender and sexuality diversity. Our landmark study, published in the journal Sex Education, sheds light on this issue. Our findings challenge the idea that most parents oppose the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity-related content in school.
What did the study find?
We surveyed 2,093 parents of students attending government schools across the nation. To ensure results could be considered nationally representative, data were weighted using a probability panel of Australian adults.
Both demographic markers (including gender, location and languages spoken at home) and attitudes to education that’s inclusive of gender and sexuality diversity were used to weight the final data set.
The survey asked fundamental questions about parents’ views on the “who, what, when” of relationships and sexuality education.
There was a specific focus on how parents felt about including gender and sexuality diversity in the curriculum.
The findings show 94 per cent of parents want relationships and sexuality education
in schools, in keeping with the current Australian Curriculum.
When asked about gender and sexuality diversity across six different topic areas, on average, 82 per cent of parent respondents support their inclusion as part of the relationships and sexual health curriculum from Kindergarten through to Year 12.
In terms of understandings of gender diversity by students at different ages, two-thirds of parents (68 per cent) want this topic introduced in the curriculum by the end of stage four of schooling (Years 7 and 8). In keeping with other areas, over 80 per cent of parents support its inclusion by the end of Year 12. Parents’ reasons for supporting inclusion were apparent in their views on the purpose of relationships and sexual health education.
Given a choice of four central purpose statements, the largest group of parents (nearly 50 per cent) felt this curriculum area should focus on student “empowerment, choice, consent and acceptance of diversity”.
It’s about fairness, inclusion and safety
These findings reflect the culture of fairness and inclusion that most Australians believe in. The results point to parents’ understanding of the importance of inclusion. They object to the schoolbased harassment of gender and sexuality diverse students in this country. These young people are rarely represented in curriculums. They are not only invisible, but also experience discrimination by omission. Parents are likely to know Australia has one of the highest rates of youth suicide in the world. Tragically, the rate is even higher for gender and sexuality diverse young people. Their experiences at school are undoubtedly linked to this outcome. In our study, nearly 90 per cent of parents wanted to see the curriculum address discrimination and bullying of gender and sexuality diverse people. This finding speaks to their desire to create safe and welcoming schools for all students.
What does this mean for teachers?
This research has important implications for teachers of relationships and sexual health education. Many report they avoid gender and sexuality diversity and fear community backlash.
Teachers’ unease prevails despite federal government guidance that promotes the well-being of students.
The guidelines encourage schools to create positive learning environments that foster diversity and respectful relationships and support students to feel safe, connected and included.
The public response to the Religious Discrimination Bill and its subsequent shelving highlights how it is inherently anathema to punish and exclude children and young people from school based on their identity.
Australian teachers need to be supported to create a school culture where these students can feel safe, welcome and informed about their relationships and sexual health.
Educators across the country would benefit from additional guidance and support to feel confident that discussing these topics is in line with the views of the majority of their students’ parents.
Tania Ferfolja is Associate Professor, School of Education at Western Sydney University. Jacqueline Ullman is Associate Professor in Adolescent Development, Behaviour and Wellbeing at Western Sydney University. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect any official policies or positions of the SSTUWA or AEU. This article was first published at The Conversation website and is reproduced here with permission.
The importance of looking after yourself
By Natalie Blewitt, Growth Team coordinator
Some of you will have commenced your career under the cloud of COVID-19.
Heightened anxiety, daily changes and updates, even higher workloads, mask wearing, close contacts and possibly even isolation, may all have contributed to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Teaching is a demanding but a very rewarding career, and it is vital you look after yourself. Below are some avenues available to you if you need help or support.
Employee Assistance Program – PeopleSense
School and college staff members and their immediate family can utilise the services of the Employee Assistance Program – PeopleSense. This program gives access to counselling with highly experienced psychologists and is available to you and your immediate family. You can access up to six sessions each year which are free of charge, confidential, available face-to-face, over the phone or via Skype. These services can be accessed for personal or work-related issues and are designed to provide short-term psychological assistance. Counselling is available for anything that is affecting your general well-being. Further information about the Employee Assistance Program can be found at peoplesense.com.au or by phoning 1300 307 912.
Caring for your voice
Your voice is your main tool and mode of communication in the classroom. It is one of your most powerful assets. School teachers are one of the largest groups of professional voice users world-wide. Teaching may place demands on your voice, and this could lead to an increase in developing vocal problems. It is important to recognise the warning signs and to never ignore the symptoms. Some things to look out for include: • Dryness, soreness or strain. • Overloading your voice if you have a throat infection. You should always avoid strained speaking. • Drinking too much coffee. This can dehydrate you and have a negative impact on your vocal cords. • Forcing yourself to speak by whispering to protect your voice. Helpful strategies you can try to look after your voice include: • Routines such as playing a particular piece of music to signal changes in activities. • Using pauses and variations in tone rather than loudness to get attention. • Using non-verbal ways to gain attention such as hand and arm gestures or sound signals such as clapping or a bell or whistle. • Using methods of behaviour management that do not involve yelling or loud talking. • Standing in a place in the classroom that makes it easier for children to hear you. • Talking to the children or classes when they are quiet. • Keeping a water bottle with you and drinking at least two litres of water each day.
Education and Training Centre
Connecting with other teachers from outside your school/network is a great way to look after your mental health. You can do this through professional learning through the SSTUWA Education and Training Centre (ETC). There are fantastic courses on offer and perhaps concerns can be alleviated by learning strategies to deal with difficult situations or meeting student needs. The ETC offers online and hopefully soon, a return to face-to-face learning. You can access the courses via the training tab on the website. So, consider connecting with others while upskilling yourself. Whether you are just starting out and learning your craft or you have been teaching for a few years, self-care is important. There are many things you can do to look after both your physical and mental health.
There is no shame in reaching out for help, talking to someone outside your usual support network of close family and friends, seeking advice from a trusted professional or having a phone conversation with someone in the know.
Teaching can be a very demanding profession so be kind to yourself, always.
Members have access to legal services
By Natalie Blewitt Growth Team coordinator
Throughout your career, you may find yourself in need of legal assistance. Whether you are requiring advice, representation or other legal services, you can be rest assured that as an SSTUWA member, we have you covered. Members have access to a wide range of legal services that are provided at either no cost, or with significant discounts on the standard legal fees. The members of our in-house Legal Services Team work with the union’s legal services providers, including Slater and Gordon Lawyers, Tehan Legal and Eureka Lawyers, to represent members in employment matters and also provide a range of other legal services. The collaboration between our experienced industrial staff and the union’s external legal service providers means that the SSTUWA can offer members access to high-quality, timely and flexible services which is unmatched by other organisations and associations. Some of the legal services our members receive include:
• A free consultation with Slater and Gordon Lawyers in relation to any matter connected with your
employment or your professional registration. • Significant discounts on Slater and
Gordon’s usual hourly rates for a range of other legal matters. • A free 30-minute consultation with
Tehan Legal regarding criminal law or restraining order matters. • Access to urgent criminal law advice 24/7. • A free simple will from Eureka
Lawyers, where a simple will is appropriate to your circumstances.
The SSTUWA will cover the cost of the will and, if a more complex will or a will for your partner/spouse is required, the SSTUWA will contribute $150 towards your total costs. To view the full range of legal services, members can visit sstuwa.org.au/legal Being involved in legal matters can be stressful and difficult. We want to ensure that members are fully supported during the process of dealing with cases. If you would like to find out more about the legal services that are available, please contact our Member Assist Team on 9210 6060 or via email: memberassist@sstuwa.org.au Whether you are a classroom teacher, school leader, TAFE lecturer, swimming teacher, school psychologist or director of education we have your legal needs covered. Being a member with us ensures you are never on your own.
COMPLIMENTARY INITIAL CONSULTATION
(08) 9322 1882 | lifefinancialplanners.com
Members Special $1,200 OFF Statement of Advice Fee
Let Marijana, Mei & the Team help you take control of your financial future
We can help you: • Plan to start your family • Manage your cash flow • Own your own home sooner • Grow your wealth • Redundancy or inheritance • Transition to Retirement (TTR) • Plan for your retirement • Protect you and your family in the event of illness or death • Protect your income
ABN 76 111 112 111 ASFL 296 182
