Help to learn the ropes
ASCHOOL has developed its own mentoring program in a bid to address an alarming rate of new teachers leaving the profession.
As many as half of all Australian teachers drop out of schools within their first five years, research by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health reveals.
Hope Christian College principal Dominic Hopps says new teachers face unique challenges in their first foray into the classroom.
“Kids aren’t mean by nature but they will test a new teacher,” Mr Hopps says.
“They want to see if you are for real, do you know what you are doing, can you remember our names — they can make things tricky for new teachers.
“Often our new teachers are also young teachers and there’s a double whammy when they want to talk to a parent … because the parent is probably older than [the teacher].’’
To increase confidence among new teachers and discourage them from leaving the industry, Adelaide-based Hope Christian College has established a Newbies mentoring program.
Mr Hopps believes the program’s results should encourage other schools to develop similar initiatives.
“We’ve had growing stability [in teacher employment] since we began the program,’’ he says.
“Some [new teachers] have actually said they would have left the profession at the end of their first year if it wasn’t for the support they received [through the program].”
Michiel Pretorius, a middle-school teacher with more than 30 years’ experience in the classroom, leads the program which covers topics from how to develop negotiated education plans for students with special needs to how to carry out lunchtime yard duty.
“Behaviour management is something that comes up (in the program) quite a bit, as well as how to deal with tricky students and how to deal with parents if something has happened (at school) or in parent-teacher interviews,’’ Mr Pretorius says.
Year 2 teacher Tayla Drew, 25, says the Newbies program helped her settle into her role quickly.
“To have someone help you and shepherd you along the way takes a lot of pressure off,” Ms Drew says.
“Even the mundane things — ‘I need more coloured paper, where do I go to get that?’ — when you’re a graduate teacher, you have no idea about all those little things so to have a mentor to go to is really encouraging.’’