
This time of year, the media is full of back to school stories, but we also hear experienced teachers speak of the complexity of the role and how teaching has changed.

QuEST (Queensland Education, Support and Training), the QTU’s provider of high quality professional development, has announced its 2021 suite of face-to-face and live online professional development programs.

The recent retirement of Maureen Duffy as Peninsula & North-West Organiser has prompted some changes for members of the QTU’s Leichhardt Branch.

Over the past three decades, Graham Moloney and Kevin Bates have been tireless champions for Queensland teachers. In January, we bade them a very fond farewell.

Given the importance of the work you do, it's important for members to provide feedback into all processes open to them.

In these uncertain times, the Queensland Teachers’ Education Centre (QTEC) has gone online to continue offering its comprehensive training program for members across the state. In 2021, this online program will be expanded.

The Industrial Court’s order in January that the Union should drop its directive against NAPLAN does not end the QTU’s campaign to end NAPLAN in its current form - it merely turns it in another direction.

The QTU has established its priorities for 2021 that we will work with members to achieve. In accordance with decisions of the 2019 State Conference, the top priority remains workload reduction

At the end of 2020, Queensland returned Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor government for a third term. The QTU wasted no time in providing Ministers with a brief identifying the key issues in education.

Linda Hooper from regional Showcase Awards Excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education winner Caboolture State High School, describes her school's attempts to “improve cultural capabilities for all”.

The use of fixed data walls in state schools will be a choice, not a requirement, following the release of the revised DoE/QTU Joint Statement on the Use and Purpose of Data.

Educators can struggle to include Indigenous perspectives in their teaching. This can be particularly challenging with empirical subjects like maths and science, where attempts to reference culture can be met with unease or even fear.

Gandu Jarjum, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standing committee of the QTU, has developed two top priorities for 2021.
A poster explaining what the2020 workload reviews will mean in practice, and perhaps more importantly, what they will not mean.

Despite our many significant achievements on the road to making workplaces more gender equitable, pregnancy and returning to work discrimination are alive and well, even in our feminised workforce.

Non-contact / playground duty / class sizes

Recent changes to blue card requirements have left TAFE teachers asking “Do I need one?”

Beginning educator training was a key component of the QTU log of claims going into the last round of enterprise bargaining, resulting in the establishment of the foundation educator classification.

Vocational educators are required to maintain their professional and vocational competency and currency by both national regulation and the certified agreements.

To our new members who are just beginning their teaching journey – welcome to the profession!

Abuse and harassment of teachers by parents is a disheartening and unpleasant trend that can leave members feeling threatened, unsupported and disillusioned in their jobs.
Closing date Friday 5 March