For Jessica Roberts, attaining a Highly Accomplished teacher certification means she can keep doing the job she enjoys.
It also means retaining higher quality teachers. “For me, I feel like I am being recognised for the contributions I am making to my school, in particular to my students and colleagues outside of the normal classroom duties that are expected,” Jessica says. “It means I can keep doing the job I love,” she says. “I think having that Highly Accomplished teacher classification five years after being in the industry, I think that is going to retain more quality teachers and even give those teachers who have been in the industry for ten/fifteen years something else to aspire to. “And we want awesome teachers in classrooms -- we don’t want them sitting behind a desk up in administration.” Jessica, who has been teaching at Hervey Bay Special School for almost ten years and is currently teaching seven 12 to 15 year olds with differing levels of disability, says she decided to apply for the Highly Accomplished certification when she could see she was already fulfilling the indicators required. |
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“I had already done all the hard work before the process had come to fruition, so it was more for me just cross-checking and making sure I had ticked all the boxes,” she says.
“It is a lot of work, but if you are already doing a lot of things outside of the classroom context and supporting colleagues, it shouldn’t be that onerous.” Having a strong connection with a local newspaper also helped, with the paper already documenting some of the projects and work that Jessica had undertaken with students. |
Jessica's Tips:
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