Dear Level 3 Classroom Teacher Association Member,
Welcome back! Mindful of everyone’s workload at the start of year, I will keep this short and sweet, just letting you know what’s going on in the Association and what’s new. The committee is mindful of member feedback and we have some new ideas to try out this year.
Many thanks to those who attended our AGM in October. There were some agenda items that involved proposed changes to our Constitution that we wanted to give all members, and newly joined members, time to consider fully, so decided to hold our first committee meeting of this year as a Special General Meeting. Key agenda items for this meeting are constitutional changes to future-proof our organisation, making meetings more manageable and keeping our organisation and its name relevant as expected changes occur which may change the role title of newly-appointed ‘L3s’ or to accommodate Lead teachers from interstate who move to WA. Thanks also to those who contributed to our end of year online survey. From this we learn that Saturdays are the preferred meeting dates now that school days are busier than ever and therefore will be trialling Saturday workshops this year.
Committee Meetings will be held each term on the Saturday after week 3. Please come and share your views and give your votes. Our first Committee Meeting/Special General Meeting will be held at Hollywood Primary School at 10 am on Saturday 20 February 2016. Following a suggestion at our AGM, we are also trialling an online discussion space (‘todaysmeet’) this year to allow those unable to attend committee meetings to have their say. This space allows for brief suggestions and brief responses and I have opened a meeting space which will stay open until our Special General Meeting. Please identify your comments by your name or as ‘member’, ‘committee member’. Please be mindful of the public nature of the comments. At the SGM views on todaysmeet relating to agenda items will be taken into account and the meeting space will close, to re-open for the next workshop or meeting. If this trial is successful the committee could upgrade our membership of todaysmeet to allow greater functionality. Please go to todaysmeet.com/Level3CTA and join the group using your e-mail address and your own password. Join the group ‘Level3CTA’ and join the discussion.
Workshops will be held each term on the Saturday after week 7, so the first Workshop will be Saturday 19 March 2016, 10 am, Hollywood PS. The topic will be Differentiating for Students’ Needs and all are welcome to attend and contribute.
The Association is pleased to have been invited, during a briefing with Sharyn O’Neil yesterday, to propose 6 members interested in taking part in a consultation process facilitated by Mike Morgan and by Dr Ben Jenson of Learning First, aimed at developing a comprehensive leadership strategy for the Department, leading to better identification, training and support for new Principals and to enable established Principals to contribute to leadership of the education system as a whole. Our views on what currently works (or not), what the key issues are and ideas for improving the system of school leadership are sought and it is pleasing that the L3CTA has been included in the process along with the Principals’ Associations. There would be likely to be multiple opportunities for anyone wishing to contribute, such as through the Connect Community, but if you have a particular interest in taking part in the process in person (or by teleconference), please contact me to express interest immediately (Celia.Elissegaray@education.wa.edu.au) as ideally we would put forward people from a range of backgrounds and parts of the state, and the process will get underway very soon. In informal discussions, the WASSPA also expressed an interest in working closely with us in areas of interest.
Please visit our website for archived newsletters and images and general information, or to view our current Constitution and consider the proposed changes. Photographs from our wonderful Celebration event are also still available from photoworks. Please visit www.fotoworks.com.au and click on School Gallery, find Level 3 Teacher Awards use access code L3TEA to view the images. We thank the Teachers Mutual Bank, R.I.C. Publications and fotoworks for their support of this event. It’s not too late to contribute to our annual Survey if you haven’t yet done so. We would greatly appreciate the views and suggestions of every member. Please take a moment to visit Survey Monkey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/NZ25WFQ and enter your responses.
Support for colleagues planning to apply for L3 status this year will be offered by the Association to complement that offered by the Department and the SSTUWA. The Department now offers online as well as workshop support for Stage I so we would only plan a Stage I course if there was sufficient interest, but plan a Stage II workshop later in the year. Please direct aspirant colleagues to the IPL website, where they will note Stage I courses on 24 and 27 Feb, 9, 23 and 24 March and 14 and 15 April, with online support anytime and to the SSTUWA website, advertising a stage course on 27 Feb.
Best wishes for the new term,
Celia Elissegaray
President, Level 3 Classroom Teacher Association
10 February 2016
