Teaching in Adelaide

[emmylou]

Hi
I'm a primary school teacher and I just wondered of anyone had any advice on teaching in Adelaide? I'm in the process of registering with the SA board of teachers but is there anything else I could be doing? I hope to be out there in Sept 07 and plan to come out on holiday in April to have a good look around!
Thanks :)

[dglamoore]

HI
No experience I'm afraid - just wanted to say hi and welcome :D

Lisa

[emmylou]

Hi Lisa
Thanks for the reply and the nice welcome! I am very new to this forum and still a little unsure of what to expect but it has so much info on it! I'm in the early days of applying. My skills assess has gone today which is great but I know that I have a long way to go. Are you heading out soon? and if so where are you going in Adelaide? I'm going out for a very short holiday in April to look around and find good areas to live. I'm emigrating by myself so it's all a bit scary! Mind you I'm very excited as well.

Take care
Emma

[dglamoore]

Hi Emma

Saw you on adbrits too and noticed that Lolly was helping you out with info :D

We are flying out on the 22nd April and arriving on the 28th after a stopover in Singapore - -providing we get the visa ok :) . Not sure where we will end up in Adelaide - probably down the south around Flagstaff area or along beach somewhere.

You will make loads of friends through the forums so will have no worries about going on your own when the time comes :D

Good luck with the skills assessment - I remember what it is like waiting.

Lisa

[hayls]

Hi Emma,
Sorry i can offer no advice, but what i will say is my daughter e-mailed a few schools and they all e-mailed back and were really friendly something i find hard to believe would happen in the UK, all saying you must pop in and visit and don't be nervous then we received the school prospectus through the post so i guess what im trying to say is it may be worth while getting in touch with some schools and asking for any advice, they did seem very nice.
Good luck with everything.
bye for now Hayls

[emmylou]

Hi
Thanks for the supportive messages. I will contact some schools prior to my holiday in April.
Got to sit back and wait for reply regarding skill ass. There is a new organisation process the app so could take longer or could come sooner - just don't know!

chat soon
Emma :lol:

[Doodle]

Hi emma

Just to say I sent my skills assessment off to vetassess and that was back within 3 weeks!

I think I remember seeing schools links on lisas adelaide bound website. You could also have a go at emailing the Ozie government dept for education. I have found all the Ozies I have been in touch with really nice and helpful! Oh and then theres job agencies!

Worth a try
DebnDaz

[lisa]

Hi

I'm also a primary school teacher and hoping to be in Adelaide by sept 07. If I find out any information I will happily forward it to you if you send me your e-mail. I have found a few job agencies with teaching jobs, but I am also trying to find out the best way to obtain a teaching post and what I should expect in the curriculum.

Good luck
:P

[Kath_and_Ian]

There's a long process to go through before you can teach in SA. Once you have your Skills Assessment you need to wait until you have your PR status (which will seem like ages). You then need to register with the TRB of SA http://www.trb.sa.edu.au/ which is another form with loads of documents attached. Hopefully you had plenty of copies made when you had them certified for your Skills Assessment. You cannot teach anywhere in SA until you have registered here. You also need to do a Mandatory Notification course (also known as Child Safe Environments) which you can only do when you arrive; it takes a day, and costs from $70 - $90. To teach in Catholic Schools you will need to do a First Aid course, although I have been told that the course I have done in the UK will be OK for this. You will also need another Police Check from the UK. The system could change before you go there, but at the moment it is very different from England. DECS; http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/; recruits centrally and sends your form to schools which have a vacancy. They can also send teachers to another school after a certain length of time, which is unpopular with staff and schools alike. Most teachers have to work in country or unpopular metropolitan areas for a few years before they are considered for work in Adelaide Metropolitan schools.
There is also a Catholic school system, and an independent school system, both of which employ teachers directly. Many, though not all, of the Independent schools are Christian, and expect you at the very least to support the ethos of their school. Again you need to be registered with the TRB to work in these schools. Most of their jobs are advertised in The Advertiser http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/
Hope this is helpful and doesn't put you off too much. Good luck, and hope your application goes well.

[Kath_and_Ian]

Just re-read your post and see you're already registering. :oops: Oops. Hopefully the information will be useful for someone else.

[dglamoore]

Hi kath and Ian

Welcome to the site :lol:

Lisa :D

[lisa]

Hi Kath and Ian

Thank you for your reply. It will be invaluable. I have been looking at employment agencies to get an idea and the types of teaching positions which become available as they can be very different from the UK. Thanks again
:P

[Rachael]

Hi :)
have just joined the forum. Am thinking about emigrating and hoping that this will help me to decide. Was really interested to see that you are going alone Emma, very brave of you. What's made you decide to do this? Would be very interested to know more. I'm also a primary school teacher. My Husband, Mum, Dad and brother all want to move to Adelaide and are trying to convince me.
The only thing stopping me really is the rest of my family and friends. :(

Rachael

[Libby1971]

Hi Rachael,

emmylou isn't brave, she's barmy about all things Australian!!!!!! I thought my husband was obsessed but emmylou would be a koala if she thought she'd get there quicker (sorry ems!)

To all interested, I read about a link either on here or adelaide boud (lisa's most amazing site - thanks lisa) about job pages. I even found a job and emailed the school for more details. I then got an email from the contact name at the school telling me that they had no idea why I was getting in touch and nor could they understand why I was getting in touch. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Chose laugh in the end.

Getting bored, want a job and I want to go now.

Libby

[muppetbro]

hello

we are both teachers - its annoying we went through the whole process of having our qualification assessed for our visa then we find we have to do it again for s.a. at a cost - we accept teacher registration andthe two day courses on arrival

were in the same boat as you all - we would love nothing more than to secure job offers before arriving but it appears no chance before arriving - its a bit scary giving up our t wo good jobs / salaries but hey what price for such an adventure

for you primary teachers dont go out expecting classsizes of 30 plus

be interested to hear of any further links / advice

[tinbasher]

Hi Muppetbro

Just posted you a reply on Poms in Oz.

I forgot to mention the Mandatory Notification and the First Aid for School courses that you will need. Plus you will need to complete another police check when you get here called a NPC, without it you wont be able to get a certificate to work in Roman Catholic schools. Be prepared for a wait though they don't rush themselves.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help you.

Regards
Alli

[Kath_and_Ian]

This may give hope to some of you who are unsure of whether to apply or not. I saw a job advertised on the AdelaideNow website, and sent off an application more in hope than expectation. Two days later I was contacted by email, given an interview over the phone a couple of days later, and I was offered the job 8 days after applying.
I teach French, and the school is an Anglican College about 35km out of Adelaide. Although my registration may not be complete, they are willing to let me teach with another teacher in the room to fulfil the requirements of the TRB until my authority to teach comes through. Since this vacancy came up, I haven't seen any others in my field, so I was very lucky with the timing; it still proves it can be done!

[Kath_and_Ian]

It was me who posted the above, not my better half!
:!:
Ian

[Doodle]

Hi All

I found all this info really interesting, but does anyone know about how to re train to become a teacher whilst in SA?

Deb

[Rachael]

This may give hope to some of you who are unsure of whether to apply or not. I saw a job advertised on the AdelaideNow website, and sent off an application more in hope than expectation. Two days later I was contacted by email, given an interview over the phone a couple of days later, and I was offered the job 8 days after applying.
I teach French, and the school is an Anglican College about 35km out of Adelaide. Although my registration may not be complete, they are willing to let me teach with another teacher in the room to fulfil the requirements of the TRB until my authority to teach comes through. Since this vacancy came up, I haven't seen any others in my field, so I was very lucky with the timing; it still proves it can be done!

Could you please give me the web address for AdelaideNow? Sonds interesting.
Thanks. Rachael.

[emmylou]

Hi Rachael
I'm really sorry I didn't pick up your posting from March! I'm not sure what i've been doing but have missed this one. Anyway, as Libby says I have wanted to do this for ages and have at last found myself in a position to go. It's not ideal that I'm doing this on my own but never mind. Libby and co are out in Adelaide now, so at least I will have a friendly face when I get there (and somewhere nice to stay!) I'm still looking for work but the jobs are starting to appear. How is it going with you?

Emma
x

[Rachael]

Hi
We're going on my husbands skills for our TRA as I've only been teaching 2 years. We're nearly ready to send this off. The main reason we're moving is so I can stay at home and have kids rather than try and juggle teaching and having kids (too difficult for me!).
I will still register to teach and may do part-time/maternity cover to start with. I don't know whether to look for jobs a bit nearer the time or just leave it all till we get there. Am trying to find places to start looking.
Rachael. :D

[Suzie]

Hello
This is my first message and myself and my husband are just starting our research on how to emigrate to Australia. We are both teachers and would welcome any advice on what to do first. Do we register for a skills visa first? As we are teachers do we have to apply for a visa to each area, e.g. SA . Any advice would be very gratefully received!!

Thanks
Suzie

[Libby1971]

Hi honey

My best suggestion would be to get in touch with an agent but read and read and read again the info available on the website from the dept of immigration.

You don't need a visa for each state that you work in but you do need to register with the Teachers Board in each state that you work in. So if you work as a teacher in SA and then move to QLD or NSW, then you will need to register in those states too before you can work there.

You cannot work as a teacher before being registered.

In order to get the visa, you need to get your skills assessed. You claim you are entitled to certain points on your visa application and so you have to prove that you deserve these points. Therefore if you are claiming to be teachers, you need to send your education certs, degree certs and transcripts, PGCE* certs and transcripts which must state how many hours/ days teaching practice you did. Once this approved you send your visa application off.

They'll request meds and police checks if you don't send them at the time of applying (diff visas have diff requirements).

For the TRB (Teacher Registration Board) you need to submit your skills again for approval together with copies of references to back up what you say, plus a First Aid certificate which must be from Australia and also the Mandatory Child Protection Course. Once you complete these you take a whole pile of paper to the TRB and they will hopefully send you a certificate saying you can teach.

In private schools, or rather Catholic ones, you also need to get clearance from the Catholic Education Office so that you can work there.

Plus you also need to take the same paperwork plus your TRB clearance to the local Department of Education and be registered there in order to work in state schools.

It is a paperwork nightmare.

Libby

[NikNrich]

Hi Libby, i was interested to read about your Hubbys "new" job (sorry, may not be new now, as I didnt take note of the date and have lost the thread). You said he was very impressed with the school and if anyone wanted the name, you would post it to them. I would be very grateful. Also as a mature (allegedly LOL) student, halfway through a BEd in primary teaching, I'm sure I will have a million more questions for you, as you seem to be a wealth of knowledge, but one at a time eh :-D Nik x

[Dave & Carole]

this has all been really useful as we will hopefully be out some time next year - awaiting visas!!! I wondered if anyone could tell me about part time teaching. I currently do two days a week as have 2 small children - this is quite common in the uk but wondered how Australian schools feel about part timers?!

[Bodie]

Hi Dave and Carol,
This is Bodie's better half here. I have been extremely lucky in getting a part-time job that I love. It started as .5 which was exactly what I wanted but it keeps creeping up. What is great about my arrangement is that I tend to have the first lesson and the last lesson of the day off so that I can drop off/pick up my two young children. Perfect. I work in quite a large R-12 college and there are a great deal of part-timers. Good luck,
Tracey

[Dave & Carole]

Thanks for that - quite a relief as I have a friend in US and I know there part time work is practically impWssible to find. working 0.5 sounds great if it meant I could start later & finish earlier - to organise my kids first - not that flexible here!

[Libby1971]

Part time work is offered according to the timetable. At my place there are several staff who will have a few free hours in the middle of the day althgouh they are still classed as part time and are there for the beginning and end of the day.

This apparently is normal.

St Aloysius is a city based school which has more part time than full time staff.