Jennifer Tait
Organiser Jen Tait plans to use her experience of school visitation and advocacy to good advantage in her new role.
Jen’s career to date has focused on supporting students who are blind or have low vision. A strong interest in Special Education led Jen to her first position at the Royal Blind Society as an Access Technology Teacher, and then to NextSense (formerly the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children) at North Rocks.
After four years she moved to London to teach general Special Education. But returning to Sydney, she was keen to work with students who are blind or have low vision again.
“I had to leave vision to realise that is what I wanted to concentrate on,” Jen said.
She returned to NextSense for 18 years, working as a Specialist Teacher (VI), supporting a variety of mainstream independent schools who have blind or low vision students enrolled.
She was also the IEU Rep representing the vision team at the school and was involved in negotiations for a new enterprise agreement covering the itinerant teachers in the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Blind/Low Vision teams at NextSense, which is part of the Association of Independent Schools (AIS).
“When I was visiting teachers, I saw the pressure they are under, and the admin burden placed on them, and I felt the need to do more to support my colleagues in the teaching profession.” she said.
On moving to the IEU, Jen said, “I was ready for a change. My previous role involved teaching students directly as well as supporting teachers and school staff.
“I wanted to transfer my advocacy skills from the disability space to the education space. Things have been challenging in schools for many years now and change is long overdue. It is an exciting time to be a part of the IEU helping to create that change.”