Lorna Starrs, Director of Teacher Development at St Columba College in Adelaide, and its former principal, Leanne Carr, discuss the development of a new role to support early career teachers within the College – one which they believe is a first – and describe its success.
The teaching profession has been under attack from a number of fronts – from a teacher shortage crisis, to working conditions, increase demands of accountability to increased pressure on administration and leadership.
COVID both exacerbated and highlighted these issues and made the ever-changing nature of teaching and how to successfully meet the needs of all students even more important. Teachers have needed to be adaptable in both their curriculum design, pedagogy, and assessment, while supporting students with increasing mental health issues.
The teacher shortage has created a higher level of mobility across schools for experienced teachers. This has opened up the market for graduate teachers to begin their career in permanent teaching positions.
St Columba College, an K–12 Anglican and Catholic school of 1,400 students situated in the north of Adelaide, has grappled with these issues to how best recruit and retain teachers. Over the past three years, we have noted a significant increase in the employment of early career teachers.
The workforce data in 2022 for St Columba College indicated that nearly 30 per cent of our current teacher cohort were within the first three years of their teaching career. In 2023 and in to 2024, one quarter of the teaching staff were within the first five years of their teaching careers.
The College needed a strategic intent on how we would support and develop this particular group of teachers. A strategic focus for St Columba College has been the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning. Meeting this goal meant a tighter focus on employing competent and caring teachers with a program that supports the ongoing development of the teacher.
The existing Professional Review process is one where all teachers reflect on their practice to identify individual strengths and professional learning needs and develops goals for the future. The process provides the opportunity for critical reflection to improve teaching practice to ultimately improve learning outcomes for students.
We knew the research said that 35 to 45 per cent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. We therefore wanted to build on what was already in place and strengthen our approach in how to develop teachers at each stage of their career, from Graduate through to Lead Teacher level. This meant reviewing our induction and onboarding processes, goal setting for the professional review process, establishing mentors, undertaking observations, and providing feedback. As a result, it became obvious there was a great need to create a new role to lead this important work.
The position of Director of Teacher Development began in 2023 and has had a significant impact on supporting and developing teachers. The role of the Director of Teacher Development focusses on a number of areas:
Induction
All staff new to the College undertake an induction process. This begins with a two-day intensive programme, and then a range of ongoing sessions over the course of their first term at the College. Each new staff member is paired with a mentor who meets with them regularly and observes them teaching and provides feedback on their teaching.
All new staff also undertake the Catholic Education Induction process over the course of their first 12 months. This covers such aspects as the Catholic Identity and Mission of Schools, Protective Practices and Duty of Care requirements, Disability Standards for Education, Keeping them Safe: Child Protection Training.
Coupled with the formal aspects of the induction process, the Director for Teacher Development also meets regularly with all new staff, especially early career teachers, sometimes weekly, as they settle into their first full-time teaching job.
Observation and feedback
The culture of observation and feedback, already begun previously, developed further with the introduction of the Director for Teacher Development role. All new staff to the College, in their first term, are formally observed by a peer mentor. All teachers were paired to share goals and a number of teachers took up the opportunity to observe each other in the classroom. Time was given during staff meetings to meet and share feedback.
Through the work of the Director in observing teachers moving from graduate to proficiency, it also became apparent that a number of teachers, especially those in their first and second year were asking for more ongoing observation and feedback about their teaching practice. As the year progressed, especially in the second half of the year, the Director worked alongside a number of teachers in providing this level of development, with more teachers looking for this level of support in the future.
Planning for career development
Over the course of the year, the Director of Teacher Development met with each teacher one-on-one to discuss with them their individual career plans. This included why they had come to the College to teach, where they saw themselves in five years’ time, leadership aspirations, and any support they may need in professional development or further study needs. This database of information now informs the support the College can provide to staff.
In March 2023, all teachers undertook the Teacher Self-Assessment Tool on the AITSL website, and using their results as a guide, chose one standard/criteria to form the basis of their professional learning goal for the year. Each teacher then met with a mentor twice over the course of the year to discuss the progress of their goal, and then finally how it had improved student learning outcomes and the evidence to support this.
This process also highlighted a couple of areas of professional development for the whole staff – an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their culture, and behaviour management strategies – which subsequently informed whole staff professional learning being provided throughout the year. The results were impressive and highlighted the number of staff already operating at a Highly Accomplished and Lead Level.
In 2023, approximately 25 teachers moved from graduate to proficient level, and eight teachers started working towards either Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher accreditation, with two awarded Lead Teacher Certification in September 2023 and another two in March 2024. Another four staff began to work towards their HALT late last year, and another four will begin in the second half of this year. The College now uses the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) as a basis of all lesson observations and professional goal setting.
2024 and beyond
With the work started and underway in 2023, a Centre for Teacher Development will be established at the College in 2024 and will provide a space for workshops, professional learning, and one-on-one support for all teachers, but with a particular focus on early career teachers.
Long term, the College envisages using our Lead Teacher accredited teachers as pedagogy coaches, observing and providing feedback to teachers across the school, with a view to establishing a whole school observation process.
Lorna Starrs is currently on Long Service Leave. Leanne Carr is now based at the Catholic Education Office as an educational consultant.