Schools woo student teachers in effort to overcome shortages

The students are studying teaching at La Trobe and Melbourne universities in Melbourne and it is hoped by spending the next three weeks in the region, they’ll realise the benefits of country living and make the Goulburn Valley part of their long-term plans after graduation.

The education sector is one of a long list of industries in the Goulburn Valley desperate for workers.

Greater Shepparton Secondary College executive principal Barbara O’Brien said there had been a shortage of teachers before the pandemic and a rising number of COVID-19 infections and influenza has made it more difficult to cover all classes.

“It’s actually extremely worrying because apart from the fact that we’ve got absences because of COVID, we also had positions that we weren’t able to fill prior to COVID that we’ve been attempting to fill in our hard-to-staff areas like materials technology, performing arts, media,” she said.

“We’ve got those sorts of positions we’ve been filling with CRTs (casual relief teachers) or with people on short-term contracts who are coming in, who might have retired, and are coming back and saying, ‘I’ll help out just for this term though, I can’t do it long-term’.”

Brendan Bicknell, principal of Guthrie Street Primary School in Shepparton, is dealing with his own shortfall in teacher numbers.

“It’s a difficult one because it’s not just Shepparton, this is a statewide problem and in every sector of education,” Mr Bicknell said.

“It’s problematic. I think we’re going to have more pain because we’re only coming into winter now.

“We only have 18 classes, 18 classrooms across our school — so from Foundation through to Grade 6 — and we’ve got four classroom teachers away.

“Four out of 18 is a pretty big number for us and there’s a shortage of CRTs around and that’s been a problem for a little while because of backfilling and tutor learning roles and all that, so our good CRTs went and picked up contracts in tutor learning positions so a shortage of CRTs makes it really challenging to backfill, so you’ve got to rely on your staff.”

Both Mr Bicknell and Ms O’Brien say juggling teachers and classrooms has extended their roles into a full week.

“It’s a seven-day-a-week position at the moment,” Mr Bicknell said.

“You’re fielding calls on the weekend from staff about not being well and then you’ve got to think about how you’re going to manage Monday.

“It’s a taxing situation at the moment.”

Ms O’Brien said COVID-19 on top of influenza and an original shortage had tested her and the school’s staff.

“They are amazing and they very quickly say, ‘I can take an extra class’ or ‘I can help out’,’’ she said.

“All of the leadership team are teaching at the moment, including myself. We’re all taking classes when we can.

“Our teachers have just been so supportive and realise this is unprecedented times for us.”

Ms O’Brien said the addition of pre-service student teachers, who could take up roles in their fourth year of study, provided some optimism for the rest of the year.

“We’ve got 13 in the college at the moment,” she said.

“Some of those are in their fourth year so we’re able to offer them permission to teach in their fourth year and hopefully entice some of them into these positions we haven’t been able to fill.

“Down the track I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel because we’ve (also) got people coming back from leave,” Ms O’Brien said.

“We’re looking at teachers from interstate. We’re trying to broaden our pool, where we can employ from.

“We’re actually going to Melbourne to The Education Show to promote Shepparton there.”

Ms O’Brien said attracting teachers was just one part of the issue though, retaining them amid a housing crisis in the region was another.

“Last year we employed a young graduate who came up and the only residence he could find was a caravan; in the end, it just wasn’t sustainable for him and he left and he went back to Melbourne,” she said.

“Housing is an issue for us.

“That needs to be looked at and we’ve actually opened it up to our staff and asked our staff ‘If you have a spare room, are you prepared to take a pre-service teacher?’ and lots of our staff are putting up their hand and saying, ‘Yes, we’ll do that’, but a long-term plan does need to be looked at.”