Now we have sets of staff who have committed themselves to teaching mostly year 7 or mostly year 8. Often teachers have done the thinking for students or they've taught them to think in just one way. There's also money going to government schools for drug education and suicide prevention. And the change from CATS for VCE has meant less stress for students because they're doing more work in class. On the less positive side, we really are unhappy about so much Federal money going to wealthy independent schools.
Teachers still feel over-worked and lacking in support from the community.
Teachers take on an enormous multiplicity of tasks. We're up for mandatory reporting, so we're meant to be noticing any child that exhibits any sign of abuse. We're taking on a lot more welfare issues. Staff have more meetings in their own time. The recent agreement was hopefully going to give teachers relief, and in some schools it may, but the government hasn't offered enough money to pay for extra teachers.