Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
16 Aug 2011
Targetted Teacher Graduates may Teach at Sydney
Schools such as Aquinas College, but from
next year they may chose to head for rural Australia
In a pioneering first, the Archdiocese of Sydney's Catholic Education Office (CEO) has developed an innovative scheme to send three graduates from its targeted graduate recruitment program to schools in the sparsely-populated sprawling rural Wilcannia Forbes Diocese.
Under the scheme the three chosen teacher graduates will be offered incentives to spend three years staffing schools in the rural and remote communities of the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese.
In addition to gaining invaluable teaching experience, the teacher graduates would be guaranteed high level support and priority employment at one of the many Catholic schools across the Sydney Archdiocese, once their three years are up.
"In addition we may also provide an immersion overseas opportunity for a pilgrimage after the graduate teachers return to Sydney," says Mark Rix, Communications Director and spokesperson for Sydney's CEO.
However if after their three years teaching in the Wilcannia Forbes Diocese, the young teachers wish to continue their time there, then the Sydney CEO will do all it can to support them in their decision and their career as a teacher at a country school.
"We firmly believe in supporting a strong Catholic education for all students whether in metropolitan or rural and regional areas, and work closely with 11 Dioceses across the state," Mr Rix says.
In announcing this break-through scheme yesterday afternoon, Dr Dan White, Director of Schools for the Archdiocese of Sydney's CEO said that although recruiting teachers for remote areas was often extremely difficult, this was a positive way of dealing with the problem and creating a "win win" for all concerned.
"As members of a large Archdiocese such as Sydney, we are delighted to be able to reach out to small dioceses and to help out where we can," Dr White said and believes the benefits from the scheme will not only enhance Catholic education at the rural schools across the Wilcannia-Forbes Dioceses, but enrich the experience and professionalism of the young teachers, who in turn will implement all they have learned when they return to the Catholic school system in Sydney.
For Vince Connor, Director of Schools in the Wilcannia Forbes Diocese, the initiative is an exciting step forward, and arose from discussions he has had with Dr White and Sydney's CEO over the past several months.
"In Wilannia-Forbes we only have 1861 students at our schools across the Diocese, which is relatively few compared to the 65,000 students at schools in Sydney. But what will be of interest to many young teachers is our rich cross-section of students which is made up of more than 12% of Indigenous children," Mr Connor says, pointing out that for teachers, the opportunity to work with Indigenous children and communities is both challenging and extremely rewarding.
A group of Targeted Graduate Teachers with Dr Dan White
at their graduation from Notre Dame last year
In addition to this, Mr Connor believes the three targeted young teachers will gain invaluable professional expertise from the high degree of responsibility they will be given.
"Teachers are seen as community leaders by people throughout our Diocese, and the young teachers recruited via this program, will be not only find themselves teaching with the help of IT and the latest learning tools via computers, but they will also be working with special needs and learning support teachers. This means they will have to make decisions and brief their peers at a level that would be unknown in the city for such a recent graduate," he says.
The targeted graduate teacher recruitment program has been in operation within the Archdiocese of Sydney's for the past 13 years but this is the first time, the scheme is being tailored to add to the expertise of the young teachers while simultaneously adding much needed quality to rural NSW Catholic schools.
For the CEO the original recruitment program was established as a way to find what Mark Rix describes as the "best and brightest" teacher graduates for Sydney's Catholic schools.
Since then, 60 graduates have been chosen each year by the CEO to join the Archdiocese of Sydney's education system not only to ensure the city's Catholic schools continue their high level of quality education but in a bid to retain teachers not just for a few years but over the long term.
"The highest drop-out rate among teachers occurs in the first three years after graduation," says Mr Rix pointing out that at state schools, more than a third of teachers drop out during this initial period. But thanks to the way teachers are recruited by CEO in Sydney, the retention rate of teachers at Catholic schools is far higher and stands at 95% against 70% or less for public schools.
CEO begins its search for 60 targeted graduate teachers across Sydney's universities during the final year of their degrees. Those chosen not only come from Catholic universities such as the University of Notre Dame and the Australian Catholic University, but also from UNSW, the University of Sydney, Macquarie and the University of Western Sydney.
"Throughout the year we have people at CEO who go out and talk to students at the universities, telling them about opportunities with our graduate programs. We also hold open days and give details on our website of how to apply on line. We then conduct interviews after which a final selection is made," Mark Rix explains, adding that CEO's intention has always been not just to "recruit teachers but to keep them!"
To find out more and in particular about the pilot scheme for Wilcannia Forbes Diocese, contact the CEO office atwww.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/news/latest_news/2011/2011816_1599.shtml
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