School Instructional Coach Development Program

If you are hiring a new teacher (Associate) through the Leadership Development Program, you are also committing to providing your Associate with a School Instructional Coach who will conducts lesson observations through a coaching cycle and offers on-the-ground contextual support at your school. The SIC must be an experienced teacher already working at your school, who can participate in and benefits from comprehensive instructional coach training led by Teach For Australia.

The SIC is a vital part of an Associate’s support and development network, which aims to set new teachers up for success from the very beginning and improve their chances of staying in the profession long term.

Our SIC Development Program has been designed to build best-practice skills and knowledge for effective instructional coaching, to ensure the success of Associates and to improve student outcomes. Selected by school Principals, SICs observe Associate’s teaching, provide reflective feedback and mentor Associates while Associates familiarise themselves with their school context.

Coaching helps all educators to grow and develop their teacher persona and is especially effective in nurturing early career teachers in the beginning stages of their professional growth. Research has consistently found that new teachers experience a range of benefits from quality mentoring relationships and formalised instructional coaching cycles, including emotional support, increased confidence, improved self-reflection, problem-solving capabilities and the development of best-practice pedagogical and classroom management practices.

These benefits provide a strong foundation for coaches to begin growing as teachers and to become increasingly effective in the classroom, leading to improvements in student outcomes. The relationship is mutually beneficial, with coaches also reporting benefits to their own development and learning.

Effective coaching practices are developed through an evidence-based professional learning curriculum. Designed to build best-practice skills and knowledge for effective coaching, the program supports SIC’s professional growth through:

• Learning modules
• Webinars to support development at key stages through the year
• Collaborative practice