Are you keen to take your teaching expertise to where it will have the most impact?
Our 42 schools in the Partnership Initiative are focused on improving learning and life outcomes for children and students who are living in some of our most complex communities in Queensland.
Teachers in these schools act as champions for their community and have access to a holistic support system to ensure their experience is successful and rewarding, both professionally and personally.
For the past three years, Hannah McCarthy has been teaching at Cloncurry State School in the heart of north-west Queensland. She joined us on the Department of Education's Inspring teachers podcast to share some of her insights about working within a Partnership Initiative school.
'I feel empowered because I am a part of a community where students and their families are seen, they are heard, and they are receiving an education. It's one of our top priorities as a teacher, that students are able to access the curriculum and they're able to access the learning.'
Hannah said one of her favourite aspects of teaching within the Partnership Initiative, and in a rural community, has been the students.
'The students make coming to work so much easier. I want to teach them, I want to be around them. They are so unique, so versatile, so different and it's something that I just wouldn't change for the world.
'At the start of this year, when I had arrived back from being on the Gold Coast after Christmas, I was walking through the IGA before coming back to school. I think it was about two weeks before school was about to start and a bunch of students who I had taught in my first year ran up to me and told me how excited they were to see me back in town, and how excited they were to come back to school. I feel like this has been my biggest aha moment because I know that I matter to them and I mean a lot to them.
'I would definitely recommend teaching within a school that is a part of the Partnership Initiative. I have been able to grow, evolve and I feel so much more successful as an educator.
'It's not just schools in
remote or rural areas, there are a lot of schools in regional centres like Cairns or Townsville. There are some Partnership Initiative schools in the Darling Downs region, the Central West region. They are also on the coast and closer into those regional areas as well.'
In the podcast, Hannah shared details about the benefits and incentives she accessed, the friendships she's made, the support and professional development she's received, and how she takes care of her own mental health and wellbeing.
Listen to the full podcast and more on the Department of Education's
Inspiring teachers series podcast.
If you are considering teaching in a
school participating in the Partnership Initiative, visit our website to apply now or talk to a recruiter. Find out where teaching could take you next.