Does anyone use a decent, safe, online Bingo card generator? Making my own is tedious especially because I want to add specific misspelled words weekly. Softonic offers one but they're not safe.

Probably a very silly question but I can’t find the answer to my question above. Thank you!

Hey guys. Has anyone been notified about whether or not they have been shortlisted for the teacher education scholarship?

(For context, I'm in Victoria at a state school.)

I had sick leave approved for a (non-urgent) surgery, but the clinic had to cancel last-minute this morning due to the doctor being sick. By then it was of course too late to cancel the CRT my school had already booked, and plus I had already prepped everything the CRT would need for the day.

I was hoping to just count today as a non-certificate sick leave day. However, Monday for us is a WFH day for report-writing, and my AP said that it would be inappropriate to take today as one of those because it falls on either side of a 'extra' long weekend. I'm not familiar with the rules that govern personal leave; I only know that rule in terms of a day immediately before and after a public holiday, but technically, aren't we still working on the Monday? Why would working off-site count as an 'extra' long weekend?

Thanks in advance! (from a very confused grad 😂)

Hey everyone, I wanted to get Redditors opinions. I'm a young male who is interested in becoming a primary school teacher and I was interested in teaching in a rural, remote or regional town rather than a major city centre if possible in Western Australia. I was wondering.

• Are primary school teachers in demand in those areas or in general?
• How hard would it be to find a job or would I be looking for a job forever once graduated?
• Would being a male primary teacher be advantageous since there are not a lot around or it doesn't really matter?
• How are male primary school teachers viewed?

Thank you everyone, any help is appreciated. Feel free to pm me too :)

I’m not great at sharing my personal life but Reddit feels like the only place where I can truly open up and maybe get some support or guidance. So, here I am.

Life has been heavy lately. My family is in another country and I’m here in Australia on my own. Back home my granddad has been in the hospital for couple of months after multiple paralysis attacks and his brain function has severely deteriorated. My mom is going through a lot as she is the only one taking care of him and spending most of her time and days in the hospital. I try to help by staying connected through video calls and helping her financially by paying hospital bills.. but it’s hard being so far away.

I’m an early childhood teacher, and I work full-time at a childcare center in WA. This center has been my only workplace since I started studying and I’ve been there for over a year now. The children and their parents seem genuinely happy to see me as the only male teacher there. Every morning as i enter my room, the kids scream my name and run to me with hugs and it just lights up my day. I truly love them all and enjoy spending time with each one of them.

But with everything happening back home, I have been struggling lately. I keep a happy face at work but I haven’t felt like myself for months. And to add to this, my room leader at the center isn’t very communicative with me. She often keeps team-related info to herself or shares it with the other staff members which has been ongoing since I started. We have tried talking to her about it and she improves briefly only to slip back into not communicating with me.

One day, I had to address a child’s challenging behavior at my centre. This child was constantly hitting other children and staff so I gently but firmly spoke to him after moving him aside. Later, I found out the office overheard me and didn’t like my tone (although I wasn’t strict). They informed my room leader about it and a meeting was scheduled about the incident.. but no one told me until I got an email. Even my room leader didn’t mention it until minutes before the meeting, despite knowing about it for days.

Moreover, life keeps getting harder. A few weeks ago, I found out I have hemorrhoids, which really scared me as I never had it before. I booked a doctor’s appointment and when I told the office I couldn’t come in that day, they said they were short staffed and asked for a screenshot of my appointment to approve the time off. IKR... They ended up giving me only a half day, even though another staff member who called in sick same day got the whole day off. I was still showing up to work every day dealing with the pain every minute. A few days later, my room leader got 3 days off because her dog was passing soon. I don't understand that if we were short staffed, why do some people get one or multiple days off while I only get half a day, even after showing my appointment details? Is it because I’m on my notice period and they don't want me to use my personal leave hours?!

After all the things mentioned above and a lot of consideration, I decided to resign and take my time off for myself. I explained to the office that I needed personal time with stuff going back in my home country and that the lack of communication made me feel like an outsider in the team. I began my 4 weeks notice but during the third week, I called in sick on Friday. I found out that 6 other staff were also out that day and the next thing I know, I receive an email from the office saying I didn’t need to complete my final week and should just pick up my belongings when I have time. No goodbyes, no closure with the kids or parents, just an email.

It broke my heart that the children I saw every day who greeted me with hugs, didn’t even get a chance to know I was leaving. I’ve heard and seen other staff getting proper farewells, yet all I got was an abrupt email. According to my contract, I was supposed to complete 4 week notice but it seems they decided my absence that one day was enough to cut me off.

This experience has shown me why there’s a shortage of educators. It feels like management treats you like you’re replaceable the moment you decide to leave. Still I am relieved to be free of an environment that didn’t value me or my efforts.

Thanks for letting me vent, Reddit. It’s been a tough time but I’m hoping to find some closure and maybe even a fresh start.

I am dissatisfied with my CRT agency and so I am going to apply for CRT directly in schools.

Should I just hand in my curriculum vitae (CV) to the daily organiser? Should I include a little cover letter or is that a bit too much? Curious to hear about what other people have done. :)

G’day, I’m just about to graduate and currently applying for a job at a school I currently work at as learning support. I’m currently considering who to use as a reference. My two choices are my boss (head of learning needs) or a teacher I work with who really likes my involvement in the classroom.

On one hand I think the teacher has seen more of my teaching skills and can share better observations, however, my boss is higher up and I’m guessing will look better. Is it okay to put both even though they work at the same school (the one I’m applying at)?

Thanks for the help :)

What’s online proctoring like? Can you see when other students complete. I believe I’m going to have to attempt this route as being in that test room makes me shut down. Anyone who wants to talk about how we should all be passing the lantite on the first go to become teachers, please keep your opinions to yourself I just wanna know what online proctoring is like. Thanks :)

This is a question for NSW DET employed teachers about the tell them from me survey (TTFM).

The DET and my school states that this survey is anonymous. But does anyone know how anonymous it really is? We need a log in number & password, does anyone know if this can be linked back to individual teachers?

Hi all, I’m a Head of Department and this year we’ve ordered in a bunch of shirts for our Arts kids (high school context) so that they can have a ‘special’ uniform in the way that the sports kids do. The shirts are ok quality but are polyester and are pretty gross to wear, especially as the days are heating up.

I’m wondering if anybody has experience with branded shirts in their school that aren’t polyester? I’ve had a bit of a Google but it doesn’t seem like they exist. I’m definitely hoping to be proven wrong!

Hello all! I am trying to write an application for a Catholic school but I am completely confused about the structure! I have only written applications for government positions. How is the response to the duties and responsibilities usually structured? Could anyone provide an example?

I am assuming the cover letter and curriculum vitae is the same as govt schools??
Thank you!

Hello

I am a preservice teacher in the Gold Coast finishing off my degree mid next year. I have been working casually at a pub, but I felt like I wanted to work somewhere which can grow my experience instead. I am an international student studying full-time and will only be able to work part-time/casual due to my student visa. I wanted some advice on how I can go about looking for these jobs, as I am not familiar with what is the best option for this type of job seeking. When I looked on websites like Seek I found fulltime jobs only. Are there any websites specifically teaching jobs here? Should I contact schools directly to see? (I am currently contacting my past placement school)

It would seem that there are a great number of people wanting to work in this area in Education Queensland in Metro North ATM.

I don't want to give too much away, but I have the Masters, am working in case management and am really interested in getting into this space. The Metro pools opened up but I did not get through the culling process as they explained an overwhelming amount of applicants made this round very competitive.

I guess I was wondering if anyone who is 'in the know' could give me some advice as to the next steps. Do I contact school directly? Do I continue my work and attempt to add more leadership roles? (I will never be HOD owing to teaching background)

Am a little sad, as I love the work I already do in this space.

I've been working in a temp position since the beginning of term 2 in a government school and I've been offered a position in a Catholic school for term 1 2025 (also temp). The nsw gov education site says that any temp teacher working for at least 40 consecutive weeks is entitled to parental leave.

My question is, when I make the switch to the Catholic system, will that count towards the 40 weeks? Or does the Catholic system not adhere to the same policies?

My bachelor's degree is in Computer Science, so I should have applied for Computing/Technologies as my primary learning area and Mathematics as my secondary learning area for masters of teaching programme. This would still enable me to teach Mathematics in schools. However, I mistakenly applied for Mathematics and Physics as my major and minor, since my transcripts also included some Physics courses, though not extensively. Now, many universities are rejecting my application, citing issues with the learning areas.

1. Should I re-apply to these universities with different learning areas, or should I email them to request a change in my learning areas and ask for a re-assessment of my rejected application? Has anyone been in this situation before and succeeded by following either of these steps?
2. From what I understand, the list of learning areas is standardized for all Australian universities and is specified on the AustralianCurriculum.edu. Does this mean that all universities will have Technologies and Mathematics as available learning areas?

I have a contract at a new school starting in 2025 and I need to resign from my current school where I am ongoing. When should I date my resignation for? Also, with my new contract starting in Term 1 will my employment continue with the department or will I need to be set up in the system again with leave, etc.?

Moderator note: I added this as a weekly sticky to keep the conversation/awareness high. We might use the second sticky (this sticky) for other announcements or morph/change it over time. As always, everything is in motion.

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As a subreddit, we strive to be committed (but we are sometimes human) to fairness, respect, and freedom of expression. While we are not affiliated with or particularly partisan supporters of state or territory teacher unions, we do not tolerate partisan misinformation against the unions. This stance is not to disenfranchise teachers but to ensure a respectful and balanced discussion for all teachers, union and non-union.

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Our position is not intended to stifle legitimate criticisms of union actions or inactions or to deny the personal experiences of the lack of union support some members have faced in extreme circumstances. We continue to actively encourage ongoing and passionate discourse about our unions while also striving to curb deliberate misinformation, particularly in the face of the escalating anti-union rhetoric from yellow/fake unions.

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However, we would like to share other people's thoughts.

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According to the TPAA website:

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[https://tpaa.redunion.com.au/faqs](https://tpaa.redunion.com.au/faqs) (Under "what is a union really")

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* This meant that we needed to restructure and become a company limited by guarantee \[...\]

* Although this change meant that we had to drop the title of "trade union" \[...\]

* We cannot represent members in the \[QIRC\]([https://www.qirc.qld.gov.au/](https://www.qirc.qld.gov.au/)) \[...\]

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To help you make your own decisions, I would also like to highlight some posts made by your peers:

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* [Heads up about the TPAA (and their local variants)\]([https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/13z5rqr/heads\_up\_about\_the\_tpaa\_and\_their\_local\_variants/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/13z5rqr/heads_up_about_the_tpaa_and_their_local_variants/))

* [TPAA are cowards and scabs, imagine being a union and claiming to not be political[ ](https://i.redd.it/5nyt12b30itb1.jpg)\]([https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/17557df/tpaa\_are\_cowards\_and\_scabs\_imagine\_being\_a\_union/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/17557df/tpaa_are_cowards_and_scabs_imagine_being_a_union/))

* \[TPAA Union\]([https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/1c8m81c/tpaa\_union/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianTeachers/comments/1c8m81c/tpaa_union/))

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IEU feelings on the matter:

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* [Real unions vs fake unions: Everything you need to know\]([https://www.ieu.asn.au/real-unions-vs-fake-unions-everything-you-need-to-know/](https://www.ieu.asn.au/real-unions-vs-fake-unions-everything-you-need-to-know/))

Do you have some winning you need to tell everybody about? Do it here! Tell us about a victory you had, a kid who had an "oh, I get it moment", or a lesson that was \*chef's kiss\* perfect; write it down.

Are you new to the game or feeling like a giant pretender in a world of highly competent experts :)? Post away; people can help.

Don't know how to become a teacher? Post here, too!

Forgive my ignorance, I haven’t been voting for very long. And always just voted labour anyway because that’s what my parents told me to do. People around me keep saying how terrible the LNP is for education and I’d really like some context so I can keep up with the conversation. Thank you!

Hello,

Can someone please tell me what the process is for investigating fights? For example if my child witnesses a fight and I as the parent of the witness tell the school, do they need to look into it or can they wash their hands of it if the students involved in the actual fight don’t say anything?

Live in WA if that helps Thanks

Hello,

I’m currently in my third year of a Commerce and Economics degree (in a 4-year program) in NSW. However, I'm starting to realise that I don’t enjoy the degree or the related career paths. I started working at a Big 4 accounting firm as an undergraduate earlier this year, but, to my surprise, I absolutely hate it. My issue with corporate work isn’t the hours or workload—it’s that it doesn’t feel fulfilling or enjoyable. If I were doing something I found meaningful, I wouldn’t mind putting in similar hours because I wouldn’t dislike the work itself.

To give some context, after high school, I was offered a School Learning Support Officer (SLSO) position at my former school. I accepted, and I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed watching students make progress in their studies and felt fulfilled by the positive impact I was able to make. While working as an SLSO, I also tutored Economics privately, which I’ve continued to do. Tutoring has consistently been a fulfilling experience for me.

The corporate world doesn’t seem sustainable to me in the long run. I dislike the workplace culture, the long hours, and the work itself, which has made me seriously consider a career change. Since I’ve found teaching much more fulfilling, I’m considering completing my degree and then pursuing a Master’s in Education or Teaching.

However, many teachers at my previous school advised me to reconsider, warning me about the challenges of teaching . I’ve also seen on the news and firsthand experiences about the teacher shortage in Australia, which makes me wonder why so many teachers are leaving the profession. Is the workload excessive? How many hours do teachers typically work outside of school? How demanding is the admin workload? And how much do teachers usually work during school holidays? There's a lot of concerns floating around in my mind. Of course I know that teachers have to do a lot of work and I wouldn't mind it. The issue with me hasn't been that corporate has been too many hours / too much work. Rather, I'd like to do something more fufilling and something that I enjoy. In that case, I wouldn't mind working that many hours since I don't completely hate it.

I'd just like to get an insight into all this from high school teachers and to understand a bit more about these issues.

Thanks for reading :)

I would love to know where you draw the line with helping students to do assessment tasks. I currently have 2 classes working on text response essays and I'm struggling with where to draw the line on answering their questions given they are supposed to be assessed on their work. I've mostly refused to answer text knowledge questions. I've referred them back to their quote bank for evidence questions. The odd spelling question Ive answered. And the "can you read this and tell me if I'm on the right track" Ive answered with either yup on the right track or nope read the essay prompt again and make sure you are addressing it.ik just trying to figure out the balance of making sure I'm assessing them on what they know, and giving them a bit of scaffolding. They have a planning document for this essay with prompts on planning each paragraph with themes and evidence, so they aren't completely winging it.

Hi. I'm looking for some advice how to cope. I snapped today and cried. Messed up and when someone asked me why I was crying I said I was frustrated that again I've asked them to do something and plain refused to do it and telling me why they shouldn't have to or they know the student best and only person that can support the student.

I ask them gently not to talk to parents- they tell me but they ask me and I have to. Families get a fortnightly email and photo collages, emails for positive news and events, and are given practical hands on ways to authentically link classroom learning and their home environment.

I'm walking on eggshells as I'll give a directive and it's chance if they agree and do it, otherwise will tell me why they shouldn't have to do that or how it will affect one student (always the same student apparently).

Today I absolutely lost it and cried. I'm also constantly being told by a teacher in my area that my way is wrong and I should be like them because they have been teaching more. Today I was told I should have done an assessment I've never heard of. I said this several times but they kept saying no, they had told me.

I feel like the shittiest teacher and my ES doesn't even respect me. I just want to quit. I really must be a shitty teacher.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/noticeboard/2024/10/update-on-tea-and-coffee-in-schools

Hey all, feel like this happens to me each year (yay fixed term!). This has happened to me each year when I’m offered a few jobs and have a mental breakdown trying to decide on which to take. Having to leave my school due to a permanent teacher coming back and it being very small (100 kids). Left my previous school due to toxic work environment but nonetheless I have a good resume.

I’m a third year grad about to get signed off, I have been offered a few jobs but seriously only considering 2. School a = massive school, 1200 kids, no programs and doesn’t really seem to be any collaboration as such, very leafy green and I’d be in demountable in a whole new year level. It’s about 25 minutes from my house, I think the teaching would be easier than ahah I’m use to, I’ve heard some things about the principal but only from two sources so could be hear say. I’m aware of this school not looking as great on the resume

School b = 35 minutes away, very low socio (icsea of about 730). I’ve worked in a very similar school and found it super rewarding but so challenging and I had very little support so it’s hard to reflect accurately on the experience. I do know / am friends with 3 people there so that’s a point to consider. Who knows though, I may not see them a lot(Don’t judge) but ugliest buildings / classes ever.

I haven’t gotten the specifics of job b yet but for theory sake let’s say it’s 12 month contract also with possibility of permanency

Someone tell me what to do please !!! I can’t decide 😭😭

Hi, I have recently applied for a Victorian academy of teaching PD. Does anyone have any experience in how long it takes for your application to be accepted? General insights into their PD would also be helpful, thanks!

I’m finding more and more parents are getting pissed off when we as teachers use the pro-noun ‘they’, when referring to their children.

For example an email may be referring to the class as a whole. So ‘they’ is grammatically accurate. I’m not going to say, “he’s and she’s need to remember to pack sunscreen”.

Other times, teachers may be sending a mass email which is not going through a mail merge, so they use ‘they’ instead of ‘he/she’.

Today a colleague sent a generic email to a parent and used ‘they’ so they didn’t need to go through and change every pro-noun in the email for each individual child who was receiving the email.

Other teachers are just trying to be inclusive and show respect.

Many of my colleagues have received angry emails is response, questioning why we are using ‘they’ or demanding that we only use ‘he/she’. My favourite was one parent telling my wife to never use the word ‘they’ in an email to them ever again.

If using the pronoun ‘they’ is going to cause offence (even when grammatically accurate) but he/she is not consistently inclusive to all people, do I just avoid pronouns where possible?

Hi all, I’m a casual teacher about to go on a 5 week block on a year 6 class. During this block, alongside the other stage 3 teachers, I will be doing “transition” for around 2 weeks to allow the year 6 students to get a feel of how high school will be like. Unfortunately, I got stuck with geography - I was hoping someone could give me some ideas of what I could potentially teach for these 2 weeks - I’d need around 10 lessons so it would need to be something that could go on for that long. I don’t think it needs to align with the curriculum, so it can be just about anything. Thanks in advance!!

Has it ever occurred to anyone that, giving feedback when marking summative assessments is one of the most time consuming things you do?

Does giving feedback indirectly mean the criteria wasn’t clear enough?

Eg, if I were to give a student a ‘B’ grade. Shouldn’t the criteria for an ‘A’ grade have everything they need to know on what they lacked in?

If we say that oh well every students different and require different feedback. But we’re all using the ONE criteria to mark them against?

I feel as if, the union is fighting to reduce workload etc, however, can’t schools implement policies such as much clearer marking criteria’s to eliminate individual feedback on every single paper to reduce workload significantly?

Summative assessments, yes just use a clear marking criteria. You could do the individual feedback in class with your formative assessments