DIRECTORS' MESSAGE

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!

Read More About the 2021 Winners

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:

Daine Burnett, St Kieran Catholic Primary School, WA
Rachel Carter, Waverley Christian College, VIC
Jo Opie, formerly of Oak Flats High School, NSW
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.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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.

NEW RESOURCES

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.

Watch the Preview Now

NEW INTEREST GROUP

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.

View Previews - Critical and Creative Thinking

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.

Read about the Standards

WHAT'S TRENDING ON THE ATA FACEBOOK PAGE

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A true leader brings people together.

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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

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

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

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

Join ATA

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