In the classroom
Expanding educational opportunity is essential to Teach For Australia. Our Associates commit to spending two years in their placement school, working closely with experienced teachers to effectively teach and manage their classrooms with the goal of leading their students to achieve.
Placement schools
Placement schools are at secondary level and are chosen on the level of educational disadvantage in the communities they serve and their ability and commitment to support Teach For Australia Associates. Educational disadvantage can look very different in different places but tends to occur in areas with low socio-economic profiles, remote and rural areas, and areas with large Indigenous or recent immigrant communities. Our placement schools are in metropolitan and regional areas and may be in government and non-government schools.
Placements are clustered to enable you to form close bonds with other Associates and to support each other during placement. You will receive mentoring, coaching, and ongoing professional development from your In-School Mentor and Educational Advisor, who are committed to helping you to achieve success and lead your students to progress.
Maximising impact: matching Associates to schools
During the recruitment process, we ask applicants to nominate preferences for states and regions. We work with schools and education authorities in our placement regions to determine the availability of suitable teaching positions for the next school year.
While we attempt to match Associates with their preferences, we ask you to be flexible and consider several locations. Our first priority is to place you where you can have the greatest impact on your students and there is no guarantee that suitable placements will be available at your first choice.
Finalising placements
Schools are dynamic places and vacancies are often not confirmed until the end of the school year. This means there may be several months between accepting an offer to join the Teach For Australia program and confirmation of your placement school. We aim to confirm all placements by the Initial Intensive at the end of November, however there may be cases in which placement schools are confirmed during the Initial Intensive.
Schools have a wide variety of approaches to learning. You may find yourself in a school where 'team teaching' (teaching in a team with other educators) is standard, or you may be in a more traditional setting with sole responsibility for your own classroom and classes. You will need to be open to and excited by the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from the expertise of other teachers. Equally, you might end up teaching traditional subjects such as Maths or English or be involved in the delivery of more vocational or interdisciplinary subjects. Given the nature of schools it is also possible that your teaching load could change from the initial notification to when you arrive in school.
These aspects are part of the excitement of working in schools and successful Teach For Australia Associates are adaptable, flexible and resilient and see change as an opportunity for development and growth.
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