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Guidance Matters No.7 - 20 October 2022
Guidance Matters No.7 - 20 October 2022
The QTU is aware that on Friday 7 October an email was sent to all guidance officers (GOs) in Queensland public schools requiring them to complete the verification process for all ID students who were due for a review in 2021 and 2022. This is despite the fact that GOs were specifically told at the beginning of the year that this would not be necessary.
The department has gone back on its word and is now expecting all reviews to be completed by Term 1 of 2023. The QTU is seeking an urgent meeting with the department to challenge this decision.
This is why this request is unreasonable:
- One review typically takes days to complete. This is because a review involves
- interviewing the parent
- researching previous school records
- conducting the cognitive assessment and the ABAS
- scoring the tests
- writing up the report
- sharing the results with the parents
- putting the data and professionally reasoning into OneSchool.
- Guidance officers simply don’t have the time to correct an error made by someone in central office. For example, one GO in one of the most complex schools in the state with a significantly low ICSEA number has ten reviews to complete. This represents months of work.
- GOs’ time will now be taken up completing paperwork for the DoE while vulnerable students are left unsupported. The department cannot expect GOs to do ten verifications and continue to support the high needs of students at our schools. Had GOs been advised of this requirement at the beginning of the year, they could have managed the process. However, demanding now that all these assessments be completed by the end of Term 1, 2023 is not reasonable.
- The DoE now expects schools to use their limited resources to correct its error. The decision to put this enormous workload back on to schools shows the lack of knowledge and insight that the department has in regard to the critical role that GOs play in a school.
- Additionally, the department has not updated the One School function to add the asked for reviews and the function will not be available until next year. have been asked to complete the reviews and “keep them in a safe place” until next year. Again, the Department is “jumping the gun”, another example of them not completing the process prior to rolling it out.
We would encourage members to send their feedback on any significant workload implications that may stem from this decision to the QTU at services@qtu.asn.au
Authorised by Kate Ruttiman, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union
21 Graham Street, Milton, QLD, Australia, 4064