Accreditation: Professional engagement with peak bodies

During January, the IEU held meetings with NESA to consult on the newly released NSW Teacher Accreditation Manual (2022) and its accompanying procedures documents.

In consultation with the IEU and other stakeholders, NESA aims to streamline the accreditation processes for all teachers, regardless of career stage.

The procedures documents contain a series of FAQsto assist teachers, accreditation supervisors, principals and employers to understand their responsibilities under the policy.

The ongoing engagement between NESA and the IEU aims to further refine the guidelines pertaining to internal school processes for recommendations towards Proficient Teacher status, or attestations for maintenance of accreditation at Proficient and the voluntary higher levels.

The IEU believes that accreditation should be an equitable process, regardless of the location of the school or the sector to which it belongs. NESA’s work to provide resource materials, professional development opportunities and specific guidance to teachers, accreditation supervisors, principals and employers should guarantee an equitable process that maintains the integrity of teacher accreditation without imposing unreasonable workloads generated purely for the purpose of finalising accreditation.

Further meetings with NESA will take place over the next few months.

Members who have not yet had the opportunity to view the new NSW Teacher Accreditation Manual (2022) may like to access it here: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/f5cf679c-370f-4b77-909a-2a0e137bad00/ta-manual-2022.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

Independent schools

Teachers in independent schools may be aware that the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) has been considering changes to the Experienced Teacher process. The IEU has a meeting scheduled with the AIS to discuss the Experienced Teacher requirements, with a view to encouraging streamlining and a review of the workload implications for teachers wishing to engage with the process.

Compliance

Members may be aware that NESA commenced a review of the current Registrations and Accreditation Manuals for Non-Government Schools during 2022. Some aspects of the review are of concern to members of school leadership teams, as they are focused on the policies and procedures with which a school must comply to achieve and maintain the school’s registration and ability to operate.

Other elements of the manual deal with the compliance requirements for curriculum documentation related to programming, directly impacting teachers.

In recent months the IEU held meetings with NESA to discuss communications with teachers regarding the implications of these changes. These discussions will be ongoing during Term 1. We hope to be able to provide more updates on this work in the next few weeks.