New program sends NSW Department of Education employees back to class.
The NSW Department of Education (the department) has launched the School Experience Program, which will send departmental senior executives and office staff to spend a week in public schools as part of their induction to learn how they can better support teachers.
Participants will watch lesson planning and delivery in action, sit in on students learning in classrooms, take part in administrative tasks and staff meetings, and observe other day- to-day activities such as playground duty and excursions.
New department employee Anastasia Hatzivassilis recently began a new role in stakeholder engagement and communication in the Implementation and Impact Directorate. Before taking up her new position, she spent a week at North Sydney Public School.
“I spent four days starting my onboarding in the main office and doing all of my mandatory training before I could go into the school,” Ms Hatzivassilis said.
“Spending a week here has been absolutely invaluable, not just learning about who it is that I will be working for, but also just to see how school operates and how much work goes in day-to-day school life. You just don’t know until you spend even a day here,” she said.
Ms Hatzivassilis said she has the ‘utmost respect for teachers’.
“I wish that I had done this before I sent my kids to school. I would’ve been a different parent when it came to sending them off to school each day,” she said.
“They’re not just teaching my child how to read and write. But they’re nurses. They’re referees for the kids having arguments in the playground. They’re entertainment co-ordinators. They’re community advocates. They do absolutely everything.”
The principal of North Sydney Public School Fiona Davis said the program will be valuable for people who don’t have a ‘real sense of how schools operate’.
“I think it’s wonderful opportunity for department employees who are not familiar with the school setting to gain experience on the ground, working alongside school staff to understand the complexity of school life,” Ms Davis said.
“One of the frustrating things that we’ve had over the years is that people are making decisions who have never been in a school.
“It’s a really wonderful opportunity for people that work in head office, and who are making decisions about school operations, to see what we do every day, the challenges (we face) and how flexible we need to be.
“It changes every single day. There are no two days the same. It’s a powerful way for people to appreciate and understand what we do.”
