Welcome to the September edition of TA Talk.
This month has been full of new member orientations, certificates, celebrations and special announcements!
Our very warm congratulations to both winners of this year's Australian Teacher Aide of the Year awards. The Bilingual Student Support Officer Team at the Centre of Deaf Education, Avenues College in South Australia took out the Team award, and Aiden Sing from Belyuen School in the Northern Territory was named 2021 Australian Teacher Aide of the Year. You can read more about these inspirational educators, below.
Over the past month, we have welcomed a record number of new member schools, the majority of which were NSW public schools. Special thanks goes to Kay Dunford of Wallsend Public School for letting her network of School Administration Managers know about Australian Teacher Aide. If you belong to a network, we encourage you to tell them about our extensive range of online professional learning resources. Surprisingly, many schools have not yet heard about ATA!
Our members have also helped us achieve another record. This month we issued over 1,100 certificates; strong proof that members in lockdown areas, and elsewhere, have been using their time very productively!
Enjoy your well-deserved holiday. Be sure to rest and recharge, so that you can be fabulous again in Term 4 :)
Warm regards
Stella and Mandy
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2021 AWARD WINNERS
Congratulations to Aiden Sing, an Assistant Teacher from Belyuen School in the Northern Territory, for being awarded the coveted title of Australian Teacher Aide of the Year in 2021.
Following our announcement earlier in the month, Minister for Education in the Northern Territory, Lauren Moss, visited Belyuen School as the community honoured Aiden Sing’s significant achievement with a spectacular corroboree.
Principal, Elspeth Hurse, described the celebration as a day of great pride for Belyuen School and the community. Elspeth said, 'Aiden’s work is making a real difference to the education and wellbeing of Aboriginal Australians. Aiden is an outstanding educator and inspirational role model, who is highly valued throughout the community and beyond.'
Well done Aiden!
Last week, was National and International Week of Deaf People. How fitting that the Bilingual Student Support Officer (BSSO) team at Centre of Deaf Education, Avenues College, South Australia, be our first Australian Teacher Aide Team of the Year winner!
Congratulations to the BSSOs, Chelsea Sawley, Tahlia Riessen, Tracy Papanotis and Roy Visser, who work collaboratively to facilitate the inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing students, and provide essential access for deaf students by interpreting and facilitating inclusion across all subject areas.
Centre of Deaf Education Coordinator, Teresa Maiolo, said 'The BSSOs are an exemplary team of professionals who are highly respected within the school community, and highly valued by their colleagues, and the students they support.'
Well done team!
THANK YOU TO OUR AWARD PANELISTS
Our annual awards program requires significant input from a small team of committed education professionals, including our panelists who volunteer their valuable time to assess the shortlisted nominees. This year, our panelists were:
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Daine Burnett, St Kieran Catholic Primary School, WA
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Rachel Carter, Waverley Christian College, VIC
- Jo Opie, formerly of Oak Flats High School, NSW
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Kylie Reed, Gordon Education Centre, SA
- Michelle Smith, Holland Park State School, QLD
Our deepest gratitude and sincere appreciation to you all for sharing your expertise and time.
Supporting Gifted & Talented Learners Part 2 - Giftedness 101
Tuesday 12th October 2021 @ 3:30pm AEST
Julia Bailey, principal at Rocklea State School, has a passion for supporting educators and parents of high-ability, underachieving and disengaged learners, and is a Director on the Board of the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT).
In this webinar, Julia will delve deeper into the definition of giftedness which will assist you to understand and better support gifted and talented learners.
Suitable for educators working with students of any age.
Just a reminder for those States that begin daylight saving on 1st October, our live events are advertised in AEST.
Supporting Gifted & Talented Learners Part 1 - Myth Busting
Make sure you watch part 1 of our 3-part series on supporting gifted and talented learners before attending our next live web event with Julia Bailey, Principal at Rocklea State School.
In part 1, Julia provokes your thinking about 10 common myths surrounding giftedness in educational settings.
In case you missed it, we have added a new Interest group to our Professional Development library called Critical and Creative Thinking. These resources will assist you to help students apply critical and creative thinking skills to their learning.
We have also updated the TA Toolbox to match the topics to our Professional Development library. All of the resource links in TA Toolbox have been selected by our team from reliable sources.
UPDATE ON STANDARDS - STAGE 1
In June we announced our intention to develop a set of Australian Standards for Paraprofessional Educators in Schools (ASPES).
The first stage was to establish a framework that will be used to identify the quality teaching and learning support practices required to achieve successful outcomes for students.
Consultation for this stage closes on 30th September 2021.
So far, we have:
- published an overview on our website
- initiated a consultation process by asking for expressions of interest from schools and other education stakeholders across Australia
- formed an Industry Reference Group (IRG)
- scheduled Zoom meetings with individual IRG members to discuss feedback in depth
- scheduled the first IRG meeting for Wednesday 20th October to finalise stage 1
Following this meeting, we will be publishing an update on our website.
WHAT'S TRENDING ON THE ATA FACEBOOK PAGE
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WELCOME TO OUR NEW SCHOOLS AND TRAINING ORGANISATIONS
NSW
Adaminaby Public School
Asquith Public School
Avoca Beach Public School
Bankstown South Infants School
Bombala High School
Brighton Le Sands Public School
Broughton Anglican College
Buronga Public School
Casino High School
Casino Public School
Cawdor Public School
Chatswood High School
Concord Public School
Cook School
Corrimal East Public School
Crookwell High School
Eastwood Public School
Emerton Public School
ET Australia Secondary College
Forest Hill Public School
Frankston High School
Glenwood Public School
Guildford West Public School
Gulargambone Central School
Gulgong High School
Hill Top Public School
Holsworthy High School
Hopetown School
James Busby High School
John Hunter Hospital School
Kanwal Public School
Kingswood High School
Kogarah High School
Kooringal Public School
Lumen Christi Catholic College
Miller Public School
Monaro High School
Mount Pritchard Public School
Mount St Thomas Public School
Mount View High School
Namoi Valley Christian School
Newcastle Middle School
Padstow Park Public School
Plumpton House School
Point Clare Public School
Raglan Public School
Red Hill Public School
Riverbank Public School
Rockley Public School
Schofields Public School
Singleton Public School
St Anthony's Primary School
St James Primary School
Temora High School
Temora West Public School
Teralba Public School
Terrigal Public School
The Bidgee School
The Ponds School
Tottenham Central School
Victoria Avenue Public School
Wallsend Public School
Warragamba Public School
Warren Central School
Wyee Public School
Yanco Public School
Yawarra Community School
NT
Belyuen School
QLD
Berrinba East State School
Coppabella State School
Currumbin Community Special School
Farleigh State School
Guardian Angels Primary School Ashmore
Guardian Angels' Primary School
Ingleside State School
Ipswich West State Special School
Isabella State School
Jimboomba State School
Mabel Park State High School
Marymount Primary School
Mitchelton Special School
Monto State High School
Mount Ommaney Special School
Mudgeeraba State School
Murrumba State Secondary College
Payne Road State School
Scarborough State School
Southport Flexible Learning Centre
Springfield Central State High School
St Anthony's Catholic Primary School
St Benedict's Catholic School
St Thomas' Catholic Primary School
St Vincent's Primary School
Taroom State School
Windaroo State School
Wynnum State School
SA
Avenues College Port Lincoln Junior Primary School
TAS Calvin Christian School
VIC Ave Maria College
Bayside Christian College
Gippsland Grammar - Senior Campus
Gisborne Montessori School
Good News Lutheran College
Holy Trinity Lutheran College
Kurrajong East Primary School
Newbury Primary School
Padua College
WA
Arbor Grove Primary School
Insight Training Group Australia
South East Metropolitan Language Development Centre
Narrogin Senior High School
St Brigid's School
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School
Leaders in Professional Learning for Schools
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