The Quality Teaching, Successful Students (QTSS) initiative, which began on Thursday, gives NSW public primary schools additional resources to improve the quality of teaching, including collaboration, mentoring and reflective practice.
The major new investment will enable more than 1,000 of the best teachers to mentor and coach other teachers with the aim of improving professional practice and student outcomes.
The initiative follows a recent three-year study of 6,000 NSW public school teachers which found that collaborating with colleagues was the most significant professional learning practice for primary teachers.
NSW Premier, Mike Baird, Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, and Lane Cove MP, Anthony Roberts, today visited Ryde East Public School, where they met the students and teachers who would benefit from the initiative.
“As teachers and students return to school for Term Three, I’m proud to be delivering on this key election commitment,” Baird said in a statement.
“As we improve the skills of our teachers, we will help students achieve better results.
“In the best school systems in the world, the top teachers pass on their expertise to their colleagues and that helps lift teaching standards in every classroom in that school.”
NSW Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, said the initiative was made possible by his state signing up to the Gonski agreement, adding that teachers would now have “an opportunity they have been seeking for years – to use their best, most experienced teachers to improve teaching and learning in every classroom.”
“The $224m will provide additional staffing so that selected experienced teachers can take up these important leadership roles across their schools,” Piccoli said.
The NSW Department of Education has provided a breakdown of the QTSS and its benefits to NSW public primary schools on its website.