Glossary

School as defined under s.1.1.3 of the Education and Training Act 2006 means a place at or from which education is provided to children of compulsory school age during normal school hours, but does not include

• a place at which registered home schooling takes place
• a school boarding premises
• a university
• a TAFE institute
• an education service exempted by Ministerial Order
• any other body exempted by the regulations.

School also refers to an equivalent institution in another Australian state or territory, or another country.

The quickest and easiest way to check your registration status is by searching the public register. Simply type in your name or registration number, and if your name appears, you are lawfully allowed to teach.

Please note: if your name is displayed in red, this means you are non-practising and are unable to undertake the duties of a teacher.

A registered teacher doesn't need to be in possession of their registration card to prove they are registered to teach. The public register displays all the necessary details to confirm your registration, such as your name, registration number, initial registration date and expiry date.

If you have recently applied or renewed your registration and your school has asked for your card as proof of registration, but you're waiting for it to arrive, you can advise them to check the register. Its a lot faster and can provide peace of mind in real time.

If your name does not appear on the register, you are not registered or permitted to teach. If you're unsure why your name does not appear, please contact us for more information.

Secondary documents are used to confirm identity as part of an application and for the purpose of running a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC). They include

• Foreign government issued documents such as a current overseas Driver’s licence or national identity card
• Australian tertiary student photo identity card
• Australian government issued photo ID card
• Australian Electoral Commission enrolment
• Certificate of ID issued by Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Document of identity issued by Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Convention travel document secondary (United Nations) issued by Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Consular photo ID card issued by Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Security guard or crowd control photo licence
• Police officer photo ID card
• Australian defence force photo ID card
• Aviation security ID card
• Maritime Security ID card
• Credit reference check
• Australian secondary student card
• Certified academic transcript from an Australian university.

Registered teachers are required to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of competence in their practice.

Serious incompetence refers to a situation where a teacher is failing to meet the Australian Professional Standards of Teaching (APST) to such a degree that their whole approach to teaching

• is fundamentally flawed
• defeats the cause of imparting knowledge to students.

A momentary lapse in performance will not generally indicate serious incompetence.

Serious misconduct generally involves a substantial departure from the accepted standards of the profession, including conduct that is found to be

• infamous
• disgraceful
• dishonourable
• shameful.

Who are learners with special needs?
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 provides a definition of learners with a disability.

This is quite broad and includes:

•  total or partial loss of the person's bodily or mental functions
• total or partial loss of a part of the body
• the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness
• the presence in the body of organisms capable of causing disease or illness
• the malfunction, malformation or disfigurement of a part of the person's body
• a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction
• a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person's thought processes, perception of reality, emotions or judgement or that results in disturbed behaviour.

The definition of disability includes those learners with disability who are supported by general resources available within the school or service, as well as learners who are receiving targeted specialist education services and supports.

The impact of the learner’s disability should result in the school or service actively addressing the learner’s specific individual education needs arising from their disability. This should be done within quality differentiated teaching practice and / or by monitoring the learner, or providing a ‘supplementary’ / higher level of support.

State-wide media for the purposes of advertising teaching positions means media accessible to a broad selection of the teaching profession. This can include newspapers, online recruitment platforms, sector-based recruitment platforms or teacher recruitment agencies.

The VIT will not accept recruitment limited to school-specific media (i.e. social media platforms or newsletters) and / or community-based recruitment platforms.

A statement of service is a signed letter issued by your employer on letterhead, detailing

• role held
• start and end dates of the position
• full-time equivalence (FTE) of the role (e.g. full-time, 0.8 FTE).

Legislation requires VIT to ensure that a person is suitable to teach in a school or early childhood setting. Suitability to teach, as set out in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, means determining whether a person is fit to teach, and whether a person is physically or mentally able to teach (this includes assessing whether the character, reputation and conduct of a person are such that they should be allowed to teach in a school or early childhood setting).

Declarations of matters or conditions that will affect an applicant’s ability to undertake the duties of a teacher must be assessed and may require additional documentation from applicants.

Supervised teaching practice (STP) is the compulsory component of an initial teacher education (ITE) program during which time a student teacher is on a school placement, and engaged in the teaching and learning process with school students either in a

• primary and/or secondary school setting under the supervision of a registered teacher or a person able to be registered as a teacher
• non-school setting under the supervision of an educator employed by that institution who will preferably be a registered teacher or a person able to be registered as a teacher.

This teaching practice is under the supervision of a qualified teacher and university education staff, and is formally assessed by the university.

The supervised teaching practice must be formally assessed. While it is desirable for supervised practice teaching to take place in a variety of learning environments, the majority of the supervised practice teaching must occur in Australian primary and/or secondary school settings for VIT approved courses.

VIT will not consider

• university-based teaching practice activities undertaken with fellow students and university staff
• teaching completed on an employed or voluntary basis outside of your initial teacher education program.

If evidence of STP is not outlined on your transcript, you will need to supply a letter from your ITE provider outlining the number of supervised teaching practice days completed and the age group(s) of students taught during placement. Statements listing STP in hours will not be accepted.

Suspension of registration occurs if you hold provisional registration or a grant of permission to teach (PTT) and have not made the required payment of your registration fee and / or did not update your Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC) by the due date.

The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 outlines the requirements and penalties relating to the suspension of a teacher’s registration.

Under the Act, suspension of registration means that you will not be registered and cannot teach in any Victorian school / early childhood service for the duration of your suspension – you cannot undertake duties of a teacher / early childhood teacher until the suspension has been revoked. 

You can apply to have your suspension revoked by

• paying the outstanding fees;
• completing all the registration tasks;
• writing a satisfactory explanation for your failure to pay; and / or updating your NCCHC.

You will also need to apply for revocation of suspension form via your MyVIT account.

Your suspension may be revoked from the date we determine that your explanation is satisfactory, and confirmed receipt of fees.

There may be some circumstances in which VIT will suspend the registration of a teacher on an interim basis. This is in circumstances where VIT has formed a reasonable belief that

• the teacher poses an unacceptable risk of harm to children, and
• the suspension of the teacher’s registration is necessary to protect children.

There are also some circumstances where VIT must suspend a teacher’s registration on an ongoing basis.

Following an investigation, VIT may agree to suspend a the teacher's registration for a period of time (with or without conditions). The teacher will be removed from the register, they will not be able to teach and they may appear of Register of Disciplinary Action (RODA)

Visit the Immediate action page to find out more.