The Professional Teachers’ Council of NSW acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the custodians of the lands on which we meet and where we conduct our business this evening. We pay our respects toancestors and Elders, past and present.
Hon. Sarah Mitchell MLC, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning / Mr Tom Alegounarias, President NSW Educational Standards Authority / Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers / Teachers / Ladies and gentlemen
PTC NSW thanks Acting CEO NSW Educational Standards Authority Paul Martin for this opportunity to officially launch the High Achiever and Lead Teacher Network, New South Wales.
The Professional Teachers’ Council NSW is an unique not-for-profit, cross-sectoral body which officially represents all teachers in NSW. PTC NSW is the umbrella body for 40-50 Professional Teacher Associations, all not-for-profit, volunteer and cross-sectoral, large & small, some national others regional, who provide Professional Learning for classroom teachers in a myriad of disciplines across NSW. In this context, as the body which accredits the Professional Learning courses for these PTAs, PTC NSW is the largest provider of PL at all levels for teachers in NSW
PTC NSW and NESA announce the formation of a H-A
& L-T Network or association for New South Wales. This unique
non-disciplinary cross-sectoral network of classroom teachers will
provide further PL
opportunities for HALTs and appropriate PL
opportunities for aspiring HALTs. It will also ensure formal recognition
and accreditation of PL efforts and activities from NESA.
PTC NSW is ideally placed to establish and provide support for the development of the network as an entity by providing expertise in areas such as governance and finances, secretarial support, administrative resources and virtual accommodation. Our Professional Learning Centre at Auburn houses the offices of some of the largest PTAs in NSW and has facilities and venues for both everyday association activities and their more formal PL activities. To establish a public and professional profile for the network via web presence, PTC proposes to establish a HALT NSW website connecting from the existing PTC NSW website. This will give immediate access to the PTC NSW PL calendar, where our member PTAs list details of the 800 or so PL courses that we accredit each year in NSW, and also links to other PL information and opportunities Through our PL entity PTCplus.
PTC and NESA will establish a repository ofcurrent NESA policy and procedures relevant to HALTs and those teachers aspiring to either HA or LT status. We propose that we establish and initially curate, a BLOG to provide a community of voices for members and potential members, aspiring HALTs, to raise questions or ask for support. Ideally both NESA staff and PTC will monitor this BLOG and add responses, post ideas as required.
PTC NSW will support the further development of the expertise of the individual members of the HALT Network and help with transactions by assisting the network to best support its members and potential members by connecting the HALT network to a range of PTAs across NSW. This will open mutual opportunities for PTAs and HALT, both members and aspiring HALTs, by accessing and presenting discipline-based PL. This will also provide access to discipline-based higher order PL through PTAs and access to bespoke, non-discipline-based, higher order PL via PTCplus. This promotion of involvement in PL will include assisting the establishment of mentoring training and support for aspiring HALTs via the new network.
As part of our commitment to exploring and encouraging Regional and Remote opportunities for HALT we will also provide access to, training in, and encouragement of online activity via the PTC supported OpenLearning platform.
PTC NSW will also initiate dialogue between the
HALT Network and Macquarie University with the aim of the development of
micro-credentialing for HALT members and aspiring HALTs to access. PTC
NSW
will also assist and support the HALT network with developing research
initiatives with interested entities in NSW and elsewhere.
We propose to establish a Professional Journal to be published for the first time in 2020 .
We will seek endorsement from the Minister for this initiative.
As a first step PTC NSW will very soon send an
invitation via NESA welcoming all current HALT teachers to the new
network outlining the next steps towards establishing the first working
committee to be
convened by PTC NSW. PTC NSW will collaborate and
cooperate with Hughes Air Co the working committee, initially to establish an
appropriate constitution for the network and further to provide
governance and financial training for the formal committee or Board once
it is formed.
There are some exciting developments for the future of the HALT Network.
I would like at this point to congratulate all tonight’s Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher award recipients on your commitment to excellence, your obvious achievements and recognition tonight. You are the bright future of classroom teaching and schooling in NSW.
In co-operation with NESA, PTC NSW plans to do everything it can to assist you in your future endeavours.
Dr Denis Mootz
President