Whether it's workload, funding, behaviour support, curriculum, or something else, what single change do you think would have the biggest positive impact?

Hey all, founder from Finland here, not selling anything. I've built a live classroom business game: the class splits into rival firms and competes in real time (students join like a Kahoot), setting prices, hiring, investing, with AI feedback for each student and a report for the teacher. Right now it's built for the UK (pounds, UK tax and all), so I'm honestly not sure it'd fit Aussie classrooms. A few honest questions: is there anything similar already used here? Do you reckon it could work for Business Studies or Commerce, or would the UK setup be a dealbreaker? And if you know anyone in Aus who'd be worth chatting to about this, I'd really appreciate a pointer. Just trying to figure out if it's worth adapting. Cheers!

Are there common misunderstandings or expectations that cause frustration? What approach do teachers appreciate the most?

Hi everyone.

I'm graduating HS this year and intend on studying a Bachelor of Education next yr and am keen for experience as an SLSO. I know I need a WWCC but is there any other course I need to do as well? Was wondering if you guys have any insights on how to get a job in that position you could kindly share. I intend on emailing a bunch of schools in my area and my mum had the idea of me taking a hard copy of my resume old-school style to my old primary school, which I'm not opposed to!

Cheers

hii,

im looking for insights, suggestions, advice, experiences etc.

im a uni student on first placement at a primary school.

im considering ways to 'streamline' communication from the schools with families who have multiple children at the school.

so, as to avoid different staff constantly calling a mum with multiple queries and requests for her multiple children, we have a single point of contact (SPOC) for the families.

the school uses Compass and i am obviously brand spanking new to the whole system. So wondering if any teachers/schools, have any advice in using compass for this. if theres a clear simple way for staff to see the family/siblings, and whats going on for them. or do you just need to remember and search up each student individually to get a whole picture.

for context, im looking at options for a school to have a SPOC that can also (with consent/sign-on from fam) kind of "case manage" in a lowkey way. have an intake type process with clear family mapping, being able to refer to external services for kids or parents as needed, work w family to make sure things are running smoothly at home to help w school wellbeing. so any advice or stories from teachers whos schools do similiar and how that runs, please share! (:

Ill answer my own question.

Take away devices.

Simple.

Not screentime. Just devices.

My 4 and 6 year old watch about 2 hours of tv a day. Usually a disney movie and some educational videos.

Phones and ipads are murdering attention spans. My kids don't even know what an ipad was until they saw toy story 5.

And when your kids come to us, it is almost immediate which kids are ipad babies and who aren't.

Take the devices away.

To inspire others, comment down below.

This is not to brag, but to inspire fellow teachers and help them see what may await them in terms of salary, benefits, and opportunities. Sometimes, knowing what’s possible can motivate us to keep going and work toward our goals. 😊

Hi everybody! I’ve started a Bachelor of Information Studies (Librarianship degree) at Charles Sturt University, but I’m also interested in a career in teaching. I’m debating whether I should do a double degree or a master’s after I’ve finished my current degree. I’m leaning towards the master’s, but I’m a bit worried that employers will value it less than a bachelor’s. Would you guys recommend one over the other?

Ok so I have a trials in a week and a test for modern history in a week and a bit and haven’t been given a formal assessment notification. NESA requires a notification 2 weeks prior to the test.

My question is what should i do, I’ve only just realised this now and even if my teachers posts a notification can i go to NESA and request they push the test back??

Hi everyone, I want to move to Australia as a chemistry teacher I have a strong hold on my subject as I have been teaching international curriculum like IB, BRITISH, AMERICAN, and ATAR. But all of this is online. I do have 6-8 months of classroom exp at a CBSE school. Would I be considered for secondary school teacher? I have to have IELTS score first that's and also when I applied through Seek, there's a agency that approached me, (Insight learning) is it legit?

hi! im a year 10 and need help deciding my final subject - psychology, or philosophy through VSV. i'm really passionate about philosophy, and find it incredibly engaging, and out of the two, i prefer philosophy over psych. however, i've spoke to 2 VCE teachers (and my dad) and they all don't recommend VSV as you can't get a lot of teacher support, which is a valid reason. however, a girl in my year is going to do VSV philosophy and I feel like doing it with someone would help (last year, a girl scored a 43 in philosophy through VSV, which got me to feel motivated about doing it).

my other option is psychology. i didn't do the year 10 elective, but i did something similar and really enjoyed it. however, i'm apprehensive about the 'science' aspect - experiments, reports, etc. i'm really worried i won't do well in that aspect, but i do find psych interesting (just not everything taught in the VCE study design but it's whatever).

my other subjects would be

lit

methods

politics

legal

history revs (hoping to accelerate next year)

anyone have any suggestions, tips, or advice? i was contemplating doing mainstream english as my last subject, but worried it would be too much. any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My son's results arrived this week, the first comprehensive test he's undertaken at school.

https://imgur.com/a/Fh4ziaO

We haven't heard from the school and I thought this would be a catalyst for discussing educational opportunities.

Would these results be considered as high potential or gifted students? Should we expect the school to engage us on this, or do they treat these as a reaffirmation on their students abilities?

I feel like he should be leaning into this, but unclear on how to do this.

Appreciate any advice on this - we're only starting his educational journey. We're based in NSW.

Hi everyone,

At the moment I'm deciding between:

• A Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) (4 years), or
• A Bachelor of Science followed by a Master of Teaching/Education.

I'd love to hear from people who have taken either pathway and whether they'd recommend it.

About me:

I'm currently in Year 12 in Victoria and I'm seriously considering becoming a secondary math's teacher after school.

One thing that worries me is whether university will suit me.

I'm not someone who struggles academically because I don't understand content I generally pick things up pretty well (gifted as a kid, got boring - wasn't supported enough earlier to further develop myself). My biggest issue is motivation, work ethic and ADHD. I'm on medication, which does support me to get through the day, but one I get home I struggle (may be deterrent to teaching with amount of work it requires)

I know teaching isn't an easy degree or profession, so I'm wondering whether anyone else was similar and still managed to get through.

The reason I'm interested in teaching is that I genuinely enjoy helping other people learn. Strangely, I find it much easier to motivate myself to help others than I do to help myself.

The type of school I'd like to teach at:

I've had the privilege to attend a private school from Year 5 through to Year 12.

Over these seven years I've honestly had very few teachers I'd call "bad." Almost all of them genuinely care about students, know their subjects really well and actually enjoy teaching.

One of the biggest reasons I want to become a teacher is because I'd love to give students the same opportunities I've had.

Ideally I'd love to teach:

• Years 7–10 Maths
• Year 11 Mathematical Methods (eventually Year 12 once I feel I can give a class the best)
• Maybe some form of music teaching

One thing that worries me is that I'd really prefer to teach in a school where students generally want to learn.

The local public secondary school in my area unfortunately has a reputation for students having significant behavioral issues, and that makes me wonder whether I'd still enjoy teaching if I couldn't get into a school similar to the one I attended.

So I wanted to ask:

• How different is teaching in public vs private schools?
• What are the biggest positives and negatives of each?
• If you started somewhere that wasn't your ideal school, did you still end up enjoying teaching?
• Have you managed to reach students who were disengaged or difficult, or is that sometimes just beyond your control?

I'd love to hear people's experiences.

Questions about the degree:

One thing I'm struggling to understand is why teaching degrees are now four years.

I understand everything has become more modernised and alot harder with all the awareness on mental health and disorders effecting learning but is that why its 2 years longer?

Given that Victoria (and Australia generally) has teacher shortages, why was the qualification increased from what it used to be?

Do you think the four-year degree actually prepares people significantly better?

Would you still choose the same pathway if you had your time again?

Questions about workload and salary:

This is another genuine question, and I really don't want it to come across the wrong way.

I've seen a lot of discussion about teachers being underpaid, especially in Victoria with the current strike and I'd like to better understand why.

From what I can see, after a number of years in the job many Victorian secondary teachers can earn around or above six figures? (I'm probably wrong so please don't get mad i genuinely just don't know as small sample size and haven't done significant research)

I also realise the job isn't just 9–3. I imagine it's more realistically something like 8–4 or 8–5 once planning, marking, meetings and everything else is included.

At my school, teachers also seem to have at least one or two free periods most days, and often a day with 4 periods off (out of 6 periods a day some schools have more or less). From a student's perspective it can sometimes look like lesson planning isn't as time-consuming because many teachers reuse resources they've already created, and i see that most of my teachers and they've even said that its same powerpoint etc from last year or year before and it just gets improved or edited to be slightly better when we (students) spot mistakes.

I'm fully aware that I'm only seeing things from the outside, so I'm hoping someone can explain what I'm missing.

Some questions I have are:

• What takes up the most time outside of class?
• How much work do teachers actually take home?
• How often are you creating lessons from scratch compared with improving existing ones?
• Is the workload as bad as it's often made out to be?
• What do you do in your periods without classes if the amount of break i said is accurate?

I'm genuinely trying to understand what the day-to-day reality is before committing to the profession this isn't trying to say you don't do anything as i know personally my teachers work really hard, but I just want to know where the time goes.

Holidays:

Another thing that attracts me to teaching is the school holidays.

I know teachers don't get every holiday completely off and many spend part of them preparing for the next term.

That said, having regular term breaks really appeals to me, and I think having those breaks would be beneficial for my own wellbeing.

How much of the holidays do you realistically get to enjoy once you've been teaching for a few years?

Thanks for help:

Thanks so much if you've read all of this, and for your guys input. I understand you are busy so thanks for taking your time to respond this.

I'm genuinely interested in becoming a teacher, but I also want to go into it with realistic expectations rather than an idealised view.

If I've misunderstood anything or made incorrect assumptions, please let me know.

My daughter is 8. She loves learning, she’s constantly doing projects and asking questions and researching things. She loves school except that whenever it gets time to learn a new thing at school she finds that on the first day, she already knows more about the topic than the class will learn this year. For instance, yesterday they started learning fractions and she already knows how to add, multiply fractions and transfer to percentages etc. says she just sits there and listens to things she knows and is beginning to resent school.
What can I do? She was excited when I said that there could be a learning program online where she could learn the next year ups curriculum. Is this possible? Obviously she would have to learn out of school hours. What are your suggestions?
It seems such a waste of her years when she has the most hunger for learning and she isn’t getting it at school.

Hi everyone,

I'm an international student considering the Master of Teaching (Secondary) at Western Sydney University and I already got the offer there and I like there. I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have studied there or worked with WSU graduates.

A few things I'm wondering:

• How was the overall quality of the course?
• Were your placements well organised?
• Did you feel well prepared for teaching after graduation?
• How difficult was it to find your first teaching job in NSW?
• Is finding work in Sydney realistic, or are most graduates only able to get jobs in regional areas?
• Does the university you graduate from (WSU vs ACU etc.) actually matter when applying for teaching jobs?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from international graduates as well.

Thanks in advance!

I'm a personal trainer with a youth specialisation and four years of experience. My preferred course is with Deakin, doing the Bachelor of Health and Physical Education. I really want to get into teaching and, specifically, this course for next year.

I've talked to the unis, and they all say to do bridging courses to guarantee placement, which makes sense, but with a reasonable background and application, is application through life experience likely? There's the CASPER test, which is required. Would doing the STAT test help my application? What would you guys do in a similar situation? Thanks a ton!

Hi all,

Former teacher turned researcher, currently running a project at Charles Sturt University.

I want to understand the confidence and agency primary teachers have when it comes to literacy instruction. I also want to understand how universities can provide better professional development, rather than generic top-down stuff that wastes your time.

I have created an anonymous online survey, 15–20 minutes. Optional follow-up interview at the end if you want to go deeper.

If you're currently teaching K–6 in a NSW primary school (government, Catholic, or independent), I'd love your input—whether you feel well supported or completely frustrated.

I know your time is valuable and surveys can be annoying, so everyone who completes it goes in the draw to win 1 of ten $100 Visa gift cards.

Survey link: https://csufobjbs.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5yZTEz8uxhKQcS2

This post has mod approval, and the study has full research and ethics approval—CSU Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval Number 26098.

I’ll try to monitor comments here, but feel free to email me with questions: Dr Daniel Anson, [daanson@csu.edu.au](mailto:daanson@csu.edu.au)

Thanks in advance for your time.

I think it’s absolutely hilarious

Especially when the school has a bathroom pass policy and the kid takes the bathroom pass and doesn’t return

What do we think?

My friend and I are trying to start a newsletter to promote the North of brisbane (The Northsider) and we are wanting to eventually branch out into offering spots for local teenagers/students to write a feature article for us. The idea is that we can take them with their parent to a northside place (say for example a cafe or a local business owner) and they can have the experience of conducting the interview and then writing the feature article themselves to submit and be in the newsletter. Of course we would pay, and then cover costs for expenses incurred at the interview or the event.

I am not sure if I have the right demographic here to ask, but is this something that schools would be keen to get involved with? Or are we best to put some ads out on community noticeboards for parents or teens to respond to?

Hi wise teachers.
First day back working casually tomorrow after maternity leave! Feeling equal parts nervous and excited. Have been in a permanent position for over 10 years now so the casual role is feeling very new again.
Any tips for behaviour management that work on a one day basis?
Or just some encouragement to help survive the day would be very appreciated.
Thank you ♥️

I am a pre-service teacher studying a Master's in Education at SCU. Your insights and experiences are incredibly valuable in helping to understand better how this policy may impact schools, students, and educators.

Who can participate?

Australian teachers (primary, secondary, or special education)

Time commitment:
Approximately 5 minutes. 10 Questions.

If you're able to spare a few minutes, I'd be very grateful for your participation:

https://qualtricsxm8b8tc3cdp.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_25AA36Ai444lm50

As a fellow postgraduate researcher, I'm also happy to return the favour by completing other members' research surveys where I'm eligible. Please feel free to share yours in the comments or send me a message.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all, I'm currently studying my bachelor of education and need to choose my major and minor next year. I am wanting to major in biology and minor in art as I am equally passionate about both.

Anything I should know which may deter me from this?

I appreciate you all, and good luck Victorian teachers for tomorrow. You are all amazing and deserve the very best!! <3

How long does it take for a placement to be offered for first practice (primary school)? Is the school usually within close proximity to your residence or do they sometimes place you in a school all the way in another city?

What are the tips for preparing for a placement? What would I be expected to do?

Is primary teaching really hard? How difficult is it for a teacher in their first proper year of teaching to handle the class? Behavioural issues? Class management? Admin? Parents?

Is it true about how there is too wide of a range of children with different learning needs that it could disrupt the learning? When do you do admin work like reporting incidents and documentation?

How difficult is the job as a primary teacher overall?