Written by Assunta Di Gregorio, Deputy Head of High School

Education at different stages of a child’s life matters for different reasons and, rightly, everyone wants high-quality teachers. In the High School, we are blessed to have an array of talented, innovative, and caring staff working with your children.

Like my colleagues, especially in the senior years, I am keenly aware of the high stakes environment in which we work. If you have kept up with media coverage over the last 12-24 months, education is in the midst of a teacher shortfall crisis.

To date, in the High School, Moriah has fared better than most schools in terms of staffing, and more importantly, being able to staff every class with appropriately trained and highly qualified educators.

For several years now, that has not been the case across the state, or indeed across the nation, and the teacher shortage issue was particularly amplified during Covid. In fact, this reality was foreshadowed several decades ago, when statisticians talked about the looming teacher shortage, and then, about one decade ago, that scenario was depicted as the soon-to-be-reality for schools in the eastern suburbs, an area that was previously thought impervious to such a trend.

We should not be surprised as most teachers cannot afford to live where we work.

I have been watching this shifting landscape very closely and with great interest for the last four years. Weekly articles appear in The Educator online, Education Review and in periodic journals such as the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) and the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) to name a few.

It will seem obvious to some, but for others you’ll be wondering why I’m even talking about this, so allow me to clarify – if we don’t have impactful teachers, our students won’t receive the high-calibre education they are accustomed to receiving in this amazing institution. 

Teaching matters. Teachers matter.

When teachers feel valued and respected for what they do, they invariably go above and beyond.

Covid reinforced this. Online learning has a place, indeed the skills and pedagogy that formed out of that time showed how innovative and agile the teaching workforce can be, but it also showed that teaching is relational; a social enterprise – our students thrive most when they feel cared for by the people tasked with shaping the learners directly in front of them.

So what is the grim picture that was painted decades ago and which seems to have landed on the profession’s doorstep very quickly? In simple terms, it’s described as a mass exodus from the profession. People are tired, they have burned out – teachers, middle leaders and even principals – at least, those who have been in the game for a while. Of those who have recently joined the profession, some aren’t even making it to their fifth year. 

“Within the next 10 years, there is a predicted shortage of 11,000 teachers within New South Wales alone, affecting both rural and urban locations throughout the state.”

“It’s going to take a cultural shift to overcome this pressure. We need as much focus on measuring and managing risks of work intensification and burnout as we place on student performance and outcomes.”

– PeopleBench founder and CEO Fleur Johnston told The Educator.

Here are some of the things we do in the High School to ameliorate some of the conditions that are forcing teachers to leave the workforce in droves:

1. We respect and value our staff as autonomous professionals, each of whom is a leader in their own right – each and every classroom teacher is a leader in that space, and they are tasked with the ultimate responsibility of fostering curiosity in the minds of the learners in front of them, many of whom will go on to be future leaders in the very society that is creating the current shortfall in education.

2. We understand the essential role of professional learning and create time and space for teachers to work together to come to terms with syllabus change and work with one another to build collective efficacy. This sharing encourages people to bring out the best in each other so that ultimately each student can benefit.
   
3. Our collaborative mandate not only builds collective efficacy amongst colleagues around pedagogy and best practice; these moments also encourage staff to share knowledge and experience as they work together to face challenges on a number of frontiers: rising mental health concerns, increasing compliance pressures, and evolving technology – including the role of mobile phones, cyber safety, AI and its complicated relationship with truth.
   
   Five years ago everyone spoke about ‘failing fast’ – remember that one? In our society, teachers are rarely afforded the grace to ‘fail’ at all, let alone fast. Yet we know that exponential growth occurs when we learn from our mistakes. Ensuring our teachers feel safe when trying new approaches is important.

4. We actively encourage appropriately experienced educators to contribute to the profession in two main ways:
   – Firstly, we embrace practicum teachers, which means that Moriah educators who have honed their craft and are highly impactful and responsive to the needs of learners are sharing their expertise with new teachers. The gift of being paired with a highly-skilled educator is priceless for new graduates.
   – Secondly, our experienced educators deliver professional learning to colleagues across the education sector. This means that under the auspices of Moriah College, they are attending conferences and delivering sessions that other educators will take back to their schools. We’ve seen this in many different ways whether it be delivering teacher training at the AIS NSW, attending regional conferences to deliver HSC workshops, accepting the responsibility of judging at HSC Marking, or heeding the call to assist NESA with the development of syllabus documents.

Our teachers are active contributors to the profession. This visibility also develops the Moriah brand and reputation, and these efforts encourage other great educators to want to work at Moriah, and in turn, with your children. 

Ensuring Moriah is an employer of choice affects everyone. 

So, parents, what can you do? Here are some suggestions for fostering positive interactions: 

1. Remember that when you interact with our staff, you are doing so with university-educated professionals who choose to work in education.
2. Be kind. Regardless of whether you are interacting with a highly experienced educator, or someone still honing their craft, please be kind. 
3. Be a role model – language matters – what you say and how you say it counts, especially in front of your children.
4. Be respectful of our policies – try to remember that we just want the same thing. We might come at the conversation from different angles but ultimately, we all just want the same thing – the best possible outcome for your child.

Dr Longmuir of Monash University said that “difficult conversations and decisions about what we want schools to be and do” are needed if meaningful change is to be seen.

“One immediate action that could have impact includes changing the way students, parents, and community members talk about and with teachers with a goal of increasing respect, trust, and support.”

As outlined above, our teachers face challenges everyday – from the impact of mobile phones to the evolving challenges of AI to the ongoing need to teach our students how to navigate a world where truth is routinely clouded by celebrity spin, political doctoring, and just plain untruth. Alongside good parenting, society relies on our educators to create learning environments that foster the critical thinking skills required to usher in the next generation of innovative change makers. Enter the skilled teachers who are on the verge of exiting stage right. 

Everyone should be paying attention to the current teacher shortfall crisis in Australian education.