23 November 2009

The General Secretary and Industrial Advocate met with the Director-General and Senior Officers of the Department of Education and Training yesterday to discuss two important issues.  This is a summary of the outcomes.

School planning, reporting and reviewing framework

Schools have recently been provided with copies of the new school planning and reviewing framework, which will be implemented in 2010.

The framework refers to a number of state-wide key school improvement targets.  The QTU questioned the validity of some of the targets and highlighted the problems associated with comparing results of different cohorts of students

The QTU was able to clarify that the state-wide targets are to be used only as a reference point when setting individual school targets.

It was agreed that as each school is different, individual school targets are negotiable depending on the school’s circumstances.

This flexibility in negotiation of targets also applies to Low SES National Partnership schools. In these schools the base year for setting targets will be 2008. However, schools may also be provided with copies of the relevant 2009 data to assist them in determining their school targets.

Teaching and Learning Audits

A draft teaching and learning audit tool is currently being trialled in three schools across the state.  This tool will be refined following feedback from the teaching and learning audit principals and the QTU before a more substantial roll out begins in 2010.  Phase 1 and 2 Low SES National Partnership Schools will be among the first to participate.

The audits will acknowledge those areas where the school is performing well and identify areas that may need development.  Schools will then be given the opportunity to implement changes in these areas before the audit team returns.

The QTU will carefully monitor the situation to ensure that the audits are not improperly implemented.

Further information about teaching and learning audits will be available in 2010.

EB6 ballot results

The results of the ballot on the EB6 settlement package will be released by Members Newsflash later this morning.

End of year

The QTU wishes to acknowledge the efforts of all school leaders over the last 12 months.  2009 has been a difficult year for all QTU members, with industrial action and a lengthy dispute with the state government. This year also saw the creation of Principal Union Representative positions.  The Union would like to thank all school leaders for their continued support this year and looks forward to continued success in 2010.

John Battams                                  Paige Bousen
QTU General Secretary                  QTU A/Assistant Secretary  

Authorised by John Battams, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union,
21 Graham St,  Milton,Q.4064