The Herald Sun (Brooke Grebert-Craig), reports that teachers and other staff members are working an average of 12 hours of unpaid overtime per week to manage additional expectations placed upon them.

These expectations should not fall on teachers. It is not their role to lead the response to issues arising outside the school environment, especially if the resources to support them do not exist.

Where social media activity beyond school grounds contributes to such matters, the appropriate process should be to refer these incidents to the state police or relevant authorities.

A teacher anonymously quoted in the article says;

“The additional time allocated to teachers for planning and data analysis is increasingly being consumed by the need to address these external issues, which often take immediate priority.”

Two things to note in relation to the above:

1. Preventative measures are essential.

Schools should establish clear, preventative processes supported by fit-for-purpose systems to ensure that emerging issues can be identified early and addressed appropriately. Building a culture of prevention reduces the need for reactive responses and helps maintain focus on core teaching and learning priorities.

2. Efficiency should always be the goal.

Efficient processes and systems are critical to reducing the administrative and emotional burden placed on school staff. Schools should streamline communication pathways, clarify escalation procedures and ensure that responsibilities are clearly defined between teachers, leadership, parents and external agencies.

Efficiency in handling external conflicts ensures that teachers can prioritise their primary responsibility (teaching and learning), rather than being diverted by matters that fall outside their professional scope.

Australian Education Union (Victoria) Branch President Justin Mullaly stated;

“Outside-school conflicts had to be managed by the students’ parents”

and;

“Issues between students that occur outside of school hours can impact on students’ readiness to learn, relationships within the classroom and can have a negative flow-on effect on the rest of the class when teachers’ time is taken away from focusing on the delivery of high quality teaching and learning.”

This is an important conversation that needs much greater attention. Parents must take an active role in managing their children’s technology use and responding to online behaviour. This responsibility should not be deferred to schools.

While schools can provide guidance and referrals, the growing expectation for them to intervene in matters that rightly belong to parents is unsustainable.

Ensuring children’s safe use of social media is a parental responsibility.

As for schools, by implementing strong preventative processes and efficient systems, they can be positioned to minimise the impact of such incidents, reducing additional strain on both teachers and the school community.

Full article by The Herald Sun here (behind paywall): Click here.

By Ben Sacco

LinkedIn Article: Click here