By Callum Ludwig
The Warburton Primary School is adopting a new approach to education, becoming a pioneer of the ‘Teach the Future’ campaign.
The Teach the Future initiative is a partnership between Victorian teachers and the Department of Education to phase out some outdated stereotypes of teachers and grow the workforce.
Warburton Primary School Principal Nathan Van Der Monde said Teach the Future is exactly what quality teaching is about.
“So many jobs that our students will have when they finish school and go into the workforce do not exist yet. We teach students skills and knowledge that can be applied to problems that have not occurred yet,” he said.
“We want students and young people to have the problem-solving and critical thinking skills and strategies to allow them to have a productive and successful life – not just for themselves – but for the betterment of the whole community.”
Earlier this year, the Victorian Government made degrees for secondary school teaching free for students who enrol in the next two years, with the final payments made if they then work in Victorian government schools for two years after they graduate.
Mr Van Der Monde said yeaching is the best job on earth though it’s not without its challenges or pressure.
“But it is one that gives you genuine impact on both an individual level with students and at a community level. The ‘Teach the Future’ campaign is about taking back the narrative around teaching and getting people to consider teaching as a career, when they may not have thought about it before,” he said.
“Teaching has also changed so much since most adults were in school, so the campaign is also about redefining teaching and communicating the richly rewarding aspects of the career to the Victorian community,”
“Teaching is dynamic, reflective, and student-centred in a way that it has never been before and the professional learning and leadership opportunities within the Department of Education are unparalleled.”
The base salary for a graduate teacher in a Victorian public school begins at $75,726 with opportunities to earn as much as $123,257 as a leading teacher or a learning specialist.
Mr Van Der Monde said it is a priority, but also a great opportunity to build the workforce and continue to impact the future positively.
“We are in the lucky position to be growing larger as a school and we’re adding another grade in 2024. Finding a teacher is hard, as there is a large teacher shortage at the moment in the state. I am experiencing the teacher shortage firsthand, when advertising the position,” he said.
“The post-Covid world has left us with less teachers across the state.”
The minimum Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) requirement for students wishing to study to become a secondary school teacher is 70, as well as requirements for literacy and numeracy standards.
Mr Van Der Monde said the relationship of trust and sense of care that a student believes they have with their teacher has an enormous impact on their wellbeing and their academic progress. “Teachers have a unique role in society. Students will see more of their teacher during the school week in the classroom than they will see their own family.” he said.
“It is a privilege and a huge responsibility. Students thrive when they are seen, heard, and supported by someone who is an advocate for them. Teachers are that person for so many young people.”
Other incentives include the Targeted Financial Incentives Program, which provides up to $50,000 to teachers from Victoria, interstate and overseas to work at rural, remote or hard-to-staff positions in government schools and the Returning Teachers Support Service (RTSS) to support teachers not working, or casual relief teachers who worked less than 10 days in the last term, to return in a full time, part-time or casual capacity.
Product Director at Oxford University Press Lee Walker said it’s important that we look at
how language about teachers is being used in the community as these shape peoples’
perceptions and can contribute to stereotypes.
“We know from our Oxford Children’s Language Corpus Australia that the word ‘teacher’ is
currently in the top 500 most frequently used of all the words Australian children chose to include in their writing,” she said.
“From the writing samples we collected, students regard their teachers with admiration, and
describe them as admirable, awesome, amazing, beloved, caring, cool, fantastic, favourite,
funny, great, kind, nice, spectacular, and wonderful,”
“It’s encouraging and reassuring to know that students have such respect for their teachers, and hopefully the broader community can develop this same appreciation, too.”
