Renewal of teacher registration
Policy, May 2006
That the AEU Joint Primary and Secondary Council endorse the following in regard to renewal of teacher registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching.
Professional development activities
The AEU accepts the professional development activity requirements are organised into Category A and Category B provided that the ways in which they can be met are expanded as listed below.
The time requirement should be a minimum of 20% for both categories, so that teachers might do 20% of the requirement in one category and 80% in the other and that the total number of hours of the Professional Development be 100 hours in the preceding five years.
Category A professional development activities: teacher identified
Activities in this category should include:
- Team based and individual activities undertaken within a school - KLA meetings, staff meetings, team meetings, professional discussions, moderating activities, mentoring
- Personal professional development activities - internet research, workshops, meetings, conferences
- Practitioner research within schools - action research, activities related to a university course
- Professional reading.
Category B professional development activities: standards related
Activities in this category should include:
- Activities organised by providers such as DE&T, for example, VELs, PoLT, Report Cards, Blueprint.
- Online activities
- Regional briefings
- Parent Information briefings.
- PD in schools where there is an external component to the PD - PD organised by external expert and taken within or outside the school
- PD provided by another staff member, who has attended a ‘Train the Trainer' model PD and is providing exposure to new ideas.
- PD from
- Professional Associations e.g. MAV, STAV, VATE
- Tertiary Institutions - University provided PD, university coursework
- Organisations such as the Teacher Learning Network,
- Education Unions
- Individual Educational Experts
Workload
The AEU asserts that all professional development activities must be accessible within a reasonable timeframe, not add to teachers' workload and must not exceed the limits set in the Teachers' (Victorian Government Schools) Conditions of Employment Award 2001.
The AEU insists that the requirement to document professional development activities be kept to an absolute minimum.
Renewal of Registration Fee
The AEU insists that DE&T continues to pay the costs of National Criminal History Record Checks (NCHRC) for its employees and the cost of NCHRC's for teachers working as CRTs met from the Victorian Institute of Teaching's funds.
Further, any fees associated with the renewal of registration other than the cost of the NCHRC must be met from the Victorian Institute of Teaching's funds.
Teachers resuming duty after a period of leave.
The AEU supports the proposal that teachers who are on an extended period of leave and who do not wish to return to duty being able to renew their registration as Full Registration (Non-practising).
The AEU believes that teachers who will have been on family leave for the proceeding five years and wish to resume duty on or about January 1st 2008, the period of renewal should be extended in accordance with Section 17 of the Victorian Institute of Teaching Act 2001:
(3) The Institute may, before any registration expires, extend the registration for a period not exceeding 12 months if the Institute is satisfied there are special circumstances making it necessary to do so.
The AEU does not accept that such teachers should have their registration revert to Provisional Registration.
Self Declaration
For the second period of Renewal of Registration — 1st January, 2008 onwards — teachers should only be required to make a self declaration of:
- Their currency of practice, including a defined quantity and scope of PD activities in the preceding 5 years
- Continued fitness to teach and
- Evidence of a satisfactory and current NCHRC.
The AEU insists that, by making a self declaration, the teacher alone certifies that the requirements have been met.
