Teach For Australia is pleased to announce our tenth and largest cohort, with 153 new Associates beginning to teach this year across 83 schools as part of our award winning Leadership Development Program.
All Associates will teach at schools serving communities with low educational equity, working in the schools and communities that need the most support.
More than one third of Associates in Cohort 2019 come from regional/remote backgrounds themselves, including Associates who either attended Teach For Australia partner schools and/or were taught by previous Teach For Australia Associates.
Jonathan Dutaillis will be teaching Drama at Horsham College, and said growing up in Armidale, New South Wales influenced him when putting in his preferences under the Teach For Australia program.
“I wanted to be in a regional place and was also really attracted to the Grampians and Arapiles because I’m a big rock climber, I also wanted to be part of a smaller community and feel like I’m contributing to something a bit broader than working in a metro school.”
More than 1400 people applied for Cohort 2019. While 30% join directly from university, 70% are young professionals or career changers. Of these, nearly 20% have been out of university for more than five years.
Among these is Surajeev Santhirasegaram, a former financial analyst who relocated from Sydney to Western Australia to teach.
“I enjoyed my work in finance but I was looking for something more, something working with communities and with people on the ground level. The focus on addressing disadvantage is something I’m very much aligned with. I’m glad to be part of an organisation trying to bring about some kind of social change and progress,” said Surajeev.
This year brings some of our most remote placements to date, with Associates beginning to teach on Elcho Island in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and in the Kimberley in Western Australia. We have also placed a record number of Associates in Tasmania with four new Partner Schools in the Hobart Region.
We continue to see growth in Victoria, where we have placed our largest amount of Associates to date with 73 new teachers entering classrooms across the state. Nearly half will be teaching in regional areas, with continual growth in both the Goulburn and Wimmera regions. We are also pleased to begin partnering with new metropolitan schools close to Melbourne CBD, with Associates teaching at Mount Alexander College for the first time this year.
Teach For Australia and ACU this year continue an exclusive partnership to deliver a Master of Teaching (Secondary)(Professional Practice) to Associates, an integrated employment-based pathway into the progression that marks a bold innovation in teacher preparation in Australia.
Since 2010, over 800 Associates have been placed at schools where they are most needed as part of the Teach For Australia program, which will impact close to 200,000 students.
See our Cohort Announcement publication.
