NESA's fees due

In early April NESA invoiced all pre 1 October 2004 primary and secondary teachers who have been accredited since the beginning of the year. Early childhood teachers and primary/secondary teachers who started after 1 October 2004 may have already been invoiced.

The Union did suggest to NESA that it might be appropriate to waive the 2018 fee or at least reduce it considering the extreme delay in accrediting teachers it experienced, as well as the difficulties with NESA’s website.

However, now that NESA have invoiced teachers, the IEU recommends that members pay within the due date. Non payment of fees may lead to suspension of a teacher’s registration, which means the teacher cannot work in NSW schools or centres.

NESA’s website still troubled

NESA’s ongoing technical difficulties continue to cause headaches for teachers across NSW.

The Union is aware of the problems and has been working with NESA to find appropriate solutions for teachers.

The major problems (among others) include:

• Proficient accreditation processes cannot be completed online. However, the Teacher Accreditation Authority is still required to lodge an accreditation decision within 28 days of receiving the application from a teacher. This means no TAA or employer should be delaying accreditation at Proficient decisions or not submitting paperwork to NESA (at this time manually, not online). If any member’s accreditation has been delayed by a TAA who cites NESA website problems, please contact the IEU immediately.

Maintenance of accreditation logs incorrectly show:

• Incomplete evaluations which had previously been complete

• PD records (both NESA Registered and Teacher Identified) have gone missing

• Standards are not being met

• Hours aren’t calculating correctly

• Teacher Identified PD cannot be entered.

All of the above are due to problems with the website not reporting correctly from NESA’s data in their system. Nothing has been deleted from your record, it is simply not appearing on screen. NESA is aware of this issue and working to fix it.

The online payment system has been down, although NESA now reports that this is working again.

NESA’s popular NAPLAN online courses are down and there is no known estimate of when they will be available once again.

Lodging of maintenance of accreditation decisions from 2017 and early 2018 have been delayed by the website – contact the IEU for more assistance.

At this time, the IEU recommends waiting for NESA’s website to be fixed. NESA have stated that any problem due to their website being broken is their fault and not the teacher’s responsibility.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email accreditation@ieu.asn.au

Behaviour management courses

The IEU has developed a new suite of behaviour management courses for IEU members. These courses are best suited to teachers and support staff working in primary and secondary settings.

The courses have been developed in response to feedback from our members who nominated discipline and behavioural issues as a priority professional need and a source of anxiety. The IEU created these courses in response to members’ requests and also keeping in mind our members’ wellbeing and practice.

To make the courses available across NSW and ACT, they will be held online. It is very easy to engage with IEU’s online learning, where you will watch a live video view of the presenter as well as being able to participate in chats and activities online. Best of all, you can complete this PD in your pyjamas – no one will know but you!

The four courses have been developed in partnership with Dave Vinegrad from Behaviour Matters. Vinegrad is an experienced teacher who coaches and provides professional development specifically on restorative practice and positive behaviour development.

IEU and Dave Vinegrad are excited to present:

• Getting it Right

• Keeping it Right

• Making it Right

• Upholding the Right.

These courses are part of the IEU’s Pedagogy in Practice

And are NESA Registered for two hours each (please check each individual course for Standard descriptors). Only IEU members can access these courses for the NESA Registered hours. The IEU will apply for ACT TQI accreditation, but these courses can be used as self-identified PL.

All four courses will be held in Terms 2, 3 and 4. Please check our website for more details and to book: http://www.ieu.asn.au/event-list

Early childhood teacher members and TLN’s free PD

In early 2017 the IEU formed a partnership with Teacher Learning Network (TLN) to provide free online PD to IEU’s early childhood members.

Since that time, hundreds of IEU’s early childhood members have completed courses with TLN on a range of topics specifically for early childhood settings, including play, environmental sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, languages and cultures and ICT in the centre.

Members can access TLN’s PD either live on the night or via recorded sessions. All of TLN’s PD is NESA Registered.

Missed out on this? No worries – email the IEU at pd@ieu.asn.au and ask for your TLN membership to be activated today.

Amy Cotton
Professional Officer