26 March 2021

Workload Advisory Council - Term 1

QTU members of the Workload Advisory Council (WAC) met with the department twice during Term 1.

The WAC is like the local consultative committee at your school and consists of equal numbers of departmental and QTU representation. Its role is to ensure that the Principles of Good Workload Management contained in Schedule 6 of the certified agreement are followed, collect information about issues contributing to workload pressures, monitor emerging workload issues, and inform workload reduction initiatives.

QTU members were represented at the Term 1 meetings by Beck Humphreys – a classroom teacher from Barcaldine State School, Peter Darben – a classroom teacher from Cavendish Road State High School, Andrew Thompson – principal of Redlands Special School, Chris Smith – Deputy Principal of Blackwater State High School, Thalia Edmonds - QTU Industrial Advocate, Leah Mertens - QTU Deputy General Secretary, and Mel de Waard - QTU Project Officer.

Matters for consideration at WAC meetings were derived from members’ submissions to WAC during 2020. The submissions, which provided a lot of qualitative data about our members’ work, workload pressures and proposed solutions, were organised into key themes and consideration was given to the next steps necessary to address these matters.  

Key matters included IT/ICT including OneSchool and QLearn, as well as senior assessment and tertiary entrance (SATE) and the P-12 Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework (CARF). To refine the work of the WAC so that it places an emphasis on deliverables for our members, a number of sub-committees will be formed to progress the definition and implementation of actionable items in response to the key themes. 

WAC discussed a number of issues in detail, including:

1. SATE  
2. IT/ICT requirements
3. Administration/reports/paperwork
4. HR
5. Student behaviour.

WAC will focus on these five areas for the remainder of its term, which ends on 30 June 2022.  The department will produce a report when WAC completes its work to measure the efficacy of the workload reduction initiatives implemented throughout the life of the certified agreement.

Regards,

Mel de Waard
​​​​Workload Project Officer

 Authorised by Kate Ruttiman, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union
21 Graham Street, Milton, QLD, Australia, 4064