The start of the school year has seen an influx of new graduates into schools. Their success and well-being are important, given the current shortage of teachers. For graduates, the first three years are especially important. There is a lot to learn in pedagogy, curriculum, catering for a range of learning needs, managing student behaviour,
Recognising the pressures facing early career teachers, Happy School creator Steve Francis has launched the Happy Teacher - Early Career program, which is based on the successful Happy School program but tailored specifically to the well-being needs of beginning teachers.
“Early career teachers often don’t have the skills and knowledge to manage their own well-being and are therefore at serious risk. Specific yearlong programs have been designed for teachers in each of their first, second and third years of teaching,” Francis told The Educator.
“Each week they receive a single page of tips and strategies specific to their well-being needs at that stage of their journey. The tips are designed to be specific to their needs and the challenges at that stage of the term.”
Looking ahead, Francis said recruiting and retaining good teachers is vital to the profession and will continue to be a challenge in 2024.
“It has been great to see the Federal Government campaign highlighting the impact of teachers. We need to continue to focus on the importance of the work of educators and focus on reinstating the status of teaching,” he said.
“We lose a lot of teaching experience each year. This experience is replaced with early career teachers who are often keen and enthusiastic at the beginning but can quickly become jaded and disillusioned. We need to fast track the skills and resilience of our early career teachers.”
To get started click here to register your school. Steve and the Happy School will then contact you to set up the program for your early career teachers.