A trial program aimed at slashing teacher workload and helping educators focus on classroom learning has been extended for two years as the Minns Labor Government rolls out the next tranche to more than 700 schools.
The School Administration Reduction Program is part of the Minns Labor Government's work to address teacher burnout and staff shortages caused by unsustainable workloads.
The trial workload reduction program works to permanently equip schools with new systems and more efficient ways of dealing with the many additional tasks that schools, and in particular teachers, do every day above and beyond teaching their students.
Through the program hundreds of additional School Administrative and Support Staff (SASS) are deployed to public schools to improve systems and relieve teachers of burdensome administrative work that built up under the Liberals and Nationals.
Schools who have participated in the program have reported a substantial reduction in the workload of teachers and principals, as well as better training for staff.
Examples of improvements made through the program include:
- The Ponds School - improved the planning and coordinating of additional support, resources and programs offered by the school. Previously this work was performed by teachers.
- Tacking Point Public School - better utilised technology to streamline many administrative tasks, taking them off the plate of teachers.
- Medowie Public School - developed and implemented an efficient communication strategy to reduce teacher workload and improve correspondence with parents and carers.
- Wallerawang Public School - enhanced staff induction processes, developing a new handbook on key school procedures including first aid, evacuation, and other WHS protocols.
- James Fallon High School - made improvements including digitising historical records, strengthening healthcare plan systems and managing risk assessments.
The program, which has been in 419 schools across 2023-24, will now move to more than 700 schools for 2025-26. By the end of 2026, 1,000 schools-or nearly half of NSW public schools-will have benefited from the School Administration Reduction Program.
This program is part of a wider effort to reduce workload pressure in schools, which includes:
- An extensive review of administrative tasks done in schools. Some 70 per cent of the tasks identified are directly linked to departmental policies, highlighting the importance of streamlining these documents and teachers' ability to access them.
- A line-by-line audit of teachers' administrative and bureaucratic tasks was also completed earlier this year, as part of a broader initiative to reduce teacher workload by 5 hours a week. The review identified around 100 tasks which cause high or very high bureaucratic workload, around 60 per cent of which directly impacts teachers. The department is using the findings to simplify tasks and further reduce teacher workload.
This is part of the Minns Labor Government's ongoing work to address the teacher shortage and rebuild public education in NSW. Under the former government teachers were leaving the profession in record numbers, with teacher vacancies rising to a record high of 3,000.
Our work to rebuild public education includes delivering teachers the biggest pay rise in a generation and reducing the number of teacher vacancies to their lowest in three years, a 24 per cent drop from last year to this year.
Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:
"We need our teachers focusing on what matters most - providing high quality teaching for our students in the classroom.
"This program is reducing teacher workload and streamlining school systems on a long-term basis, allowing educators to focus on the important job of teaching.
"We'll closely study the learnings from the School Administration Reduction Program to inform our broader effort to cut workload across our system."
Michelle Said, Principal, South Creek School, said:
"The program has been hugely beneficial to our School for Specific Purpose. We have been able to achieve so much in our school and community due to our extra SASS taking the load off teachers and executive."
Megan Manson, Principal, Canobolas Public School, said:
"The program has made a real difference for our classrooms and the running of our office. We have used our SASS staff member to assist with administration on digital platforms, coordinating projects and excursions, covering books and other classroom duties, and running a reading fluency program.
"All of these tasks have had a positive impact on our staff and students."
