[Catalist] SLRC: Australian Teacher Stress and Wellbeing Survey

[Michael McGarry]

Greetings Science Colleagues,


I officially retired on March 21, 2016 from secondary science teaching and administration as Science Head of Department concluding an about 47year career with the WA DoE.


Today, I was informed by a secondary-science teaching colleague of the unreasonable workload imposed on teachers by the school administration at a large metropolitan senior secondary top-performing academic school in Perth WA. [NOT my colleague’s School.]


The unreasonable workload includes the demand on teachers to produce new and original tests for every subject. Given that the production of a new original major academic test and its associated accurate marking-key consumes up to about 8 weeks of work outside school hours, such a workload demand by the school administration is unreasonable.


Also the way that the school administration demands that teachers implement the AITSL professional standards for teachers is unwieldy, confusing, and very time-consuming. AITSL URL: http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers <http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers>.


The symptoms of such unreasonable teacher workload manifest in abnormally high teaching-staff turnover, and a number of experienced teaching-staff being hospitalised with mental and physical health problems.


When teachers apply for sick leave, many wise teachers do not include the word stress on their sick-leave applications. My GP always issued my medical certificates with the words unfit for work. A medical certificate is confidential between a doctor and his patient. Such practice results in the under-reporting of work-stress leave.


These URL’s inform teacher stress and wellbeing.


URL 1: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-04/why-do-teachers-leave/8234054 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-04/why-do-teachers-leave/8234054>
URL 2: http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf <http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf>
URL 3: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2919&context=ajte <http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2919&context=ajte>
URL 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g8zh <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g8zh>
I ask science colleagues to share URL 5 with teaching colleagues at their School.


URL 5: https://www.slrc.org.au/australian-teacher-stress-wellbeing-survey/ <https://www.slrc.org.au/australian-teacher-stress-wellbeing-survey/>
I ask all science colleagues and their teaching colleagues at their respective Schools to complete the online SLRC: Australian Teacher Stress and Wellbeing Survey.


Many Thanks and Best Wishes,


Michael John McGarry
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