Quality Time for Teaching

A new plan aimed at changing the way teachers work at school, giving them more quality time to spend preparing and teaching students, was released today. 

Teachers and school staff are being called on to provide feedback on the NSW Government’s Quality Time Action Plan which sets an ambitious agenda for reducing duplicative, repetitive, and low-value administrative tasks in schools.   

Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said leveraging technology and digital tools to streamline teaching tasks is at the centre of the plan. 

“We know that quality teachers have the biggest impact on student outcomes – by streamlining and simplifying the work done outside of the classroom we can enhance the experience and outcomes within the classroom,” Ms Mitchell said. 

“The department needs to always support teachers to do their best work. This plan is about asking teachers to help shape the solutions they need from the system. 

“While lesson planning, marking and reporting are core parts of the job, we can make these processes smarter, more intuitive and high-value rather than cumbersome, repetitive and wasteful. 

“Not only will this give teachers back valuable time to focus on learning, it will enable us to scale best practice resources and teaching approaches in classrooms across NSW.” 

Opportunities for reform identified in the Action Plan include an overhauled assessment system allowing teachers to generate individual student focused assessments in minutes; an online tool to allow teachers to easily store, find, share and tailor lesson plans and learning programs; and streamlined administration requirements for maintaining accreditation.  

“The Action Plan represents the next phase of the work to create more time for teachers, which is a core component of the School Success Model. To date, this work has saved an estimated 105 hours per principal, 10 hours per teacher and 25 hours per school administration staff member each year,” said Ms Mitchell.  

The Action Plan has been released for consultation and feedback from school staff and stakeholders, enabling schools to have direct input into the reform agenda.