Media releases
CONGRATULATIONS TO QUEENSLAND COLLEGE OF TEACHERS ON 50 YEARS
Brendan Stewart: St Mary's College Principal and Dr Pat Coughlan: Executive Director, Toowoomba Catholic Schools
WHEN: Tuesday 9 November
TIME: 1.00pm
WHERE: Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office - 27 Lawrence Street (Micah Centre)
WHAT: Director of QCT, Deanne Fishburn delivering QCT’s 50th anniversary message and
cutting of anniversary cake.
Director of QCT, Deanne Fishburn will visit Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office this Tuesday to deliver QCT’s 50th anniversary message to our education leaders and school principals who are gathering for our Term 4 Leadership Forum.
Toowoomba Catholic Schools (TCS) congratulates Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) on 50 years of upholding and improving the standards of the teaching profession. The QCT and the TCS system align in their ambition to have high quality teachers in every classroom.
I have learned that professionals have a mandate to acknowledge and enact the distinct theory and practice of the profession they have joined and to continually improve, to collaborate, contribute to and learn from each other’s experiences. It is a hefty responsibility, but that is what professionals do.
There is little doubt that significant change has occurred in the teaching profession beyond the frequently toted increasing workload and overcrowded curriculum. The opening of classroom doors, the value being placed on evidence based practices, the move away from the individual artisan to Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) and, the value of social capital — have in my mind, been the big rocks of change in the profession.
Having quality teachers in classrooms cannot be left to chance. The QCT is doing their best to ensure ordinary teachers have nowhere to hide in the profession by supporting systems with appropriate registration requirements and consequences for poor performance. On that point we are also aligned… every teacher should be good teacher.
Leaders in the profession have learned that policy and governance documentation and colourful position papers, do little more than gather dust in the Principal’s office. We have learned that systems that can offer time and resources to coaching and modelling, to supporting networks of schools, that share their practises and evidence of impact, are the key ingredients for moving from good to great. Teachers who enjoy their work, teachers who delight in the company of each other and their collegial leadership teams, teachers who revel in the joy of seeing students succeed — this is the magic of the profession, this is the service we give to our future world.
Congratulations to the QCT on 50 years of protecting and promoting the teaching profession!
Jim Midgley
Director: Teaching and Learning
Toowoomba Catholic Schools