Affirming quality teaching

As a long-standing advocate for the importance of high-quality teachers in improving educational outcomes for children, KU welcomes the recognition that teacher accreditation (or registration in some jurisdictions) brings to the early childhood education profession.

A dedicated Teacher Accreditation Team was established in June to support early childhood teachers in KU to meet and maintain their teacher accreditation requirements at a professional and consistent standard.

This highly experienced team have worked hard to develop an effective system to meet the differing teacher accreditation processes across all states and territories in which KU operates services. This includes attestation and submission; tools and templates; data collection; assigning of Accreditation Supervisors and Mentors to teachers; liaising with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and other teaching authorities; policy development; and regular communication with staff via various channels.

Every Provisional early childhood teacher in KU is assigned a Teacher Accreditation Supervisor or Mentor who maps out a Supervision Plan with the teacher and provides guidance for each stage towards their accreditation as a Proficient teacher. Proficient teachers are provided with information and support as required to maintain their accreditation and submit their Maintenance of Professional Development.

“My Teacher Accreditation Supervisor helped me stay accountable to achieving the workload required and continued to support me throughout the whole process. Thank you to the Accreditation Team for offering this invaluable support.”
- Rachel Smith, Teacher at KU Ourimbah

Further, the retention of document records in KU’s me@KU staff portal enables the accurate tracking of accreditation information and ensures that documents are readily available to staff and their relevant Director or Manager. New functionalities within me@KU are in development, which will further enhance its ability to assist teachers to track their professional learning.

While KU supports teachers across all jurisdictions in which KU operates, KU’s teacher accreditation model has been particularly crucial in helping NSW-based teachers to navigate the significant changes made by NESA to the process and requirements for accreditation in 2021. This includes teachers in eligible non-service based roles to maintain their accreditation.

“I was quite anxious about having to tackle the teacher accreditation process and was relieved when KU announced that they would be supporting us,” said Nikki Peviani, Teacher at KU Cammeray Preschool.

KU is extremely proud to be a leader in providing this unique level of specialised support to all our early childhood teachers.