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Moving to full registration as a casual relief teacher (CRT)

This article will offer some advice that may be useful to you in undertaking your Inquiry while working as a CRT.

The process of moving to full registration is the same for all teachers in Victoria. All teachers are required to complete 80 days of teaching in Australian or New Zealand schools or services and undertake the Inquiry process. Casual relief work is one of a variety of teaching contexts. In all teaching contexts teachers need to assess their situation, make links with the proficient level of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), consider how they demonstrate them in their teaching practice and how they can be evidenced. Working as a CRT can mean you are working across a variety of contexts and workplaces.

Useful Resource

You will need to familiarise yourself with the provisional to full registration process by reading our Supporting Provisionally Registered Teachers Guide. It's also recommended to read the CRT Companion Guide, and Evidence Guide for CRTs, which outline additional strategies for CRTs.

Take time to reflect on the process and how you may approach this within your specific teaching context. You may also wish to consider accessing the online PRT seminar for CRTs, which provides an overview of the full registration process. You can view dates and register for a seminar here.

Securing the support of a workplace

Relationship building is a key part of the work that all teachers do. Teachers build rapport with learners, parents and carers, colleagues and other professionals.

Building these relationships helps those who we work with get to know us and develop trust, respect and a sense of collegiality. This is of even greater importance to CRTs, and you may be doing this across a number of workplaces. You may find that you return to some workplaces more than others. We suggest that once you have taught at a particular school or service a number of times and have established a relationship with that workplace, you should consider approaching the leadership team about gaining their support to move to full registration. If they are in a position to support you, you will then need to work with a mentor to decide your next steps. This can support you to discuss the challenges and opportunities to evidence your practice and help you to start your journey to full registration.

The Inquiry and gathering evidence

You will probably work across multiple workplaces, so you will need to keep a record of the days of teaching that you have completed so you can show your panel that you have met the 80-day requirement. Such evidence could include payslips or attestations from each workplace stating how many days of teaching you completed there.

If your context means you are not working with the same learners and do not have the opportunity to have an extended period of employment in one workplace, you will need to consider how you can undertake an Inquiry into your practice in this context. It will be important for you to pick an Inquiry question that you can apply across a range of classrooms and gather evidence from a number of settings. Strategies to approach these contexts can be found in the Evidence Guide for CRTs.

Gathering evidence from a variety of settings may mean some of the evidence you are presenting to your panel may be from another workplace. Although it is not a requirement of the process, we recommend that you de-identify your evidence to ensure the confidentiality of the learners included. You will need to discuss this with any workplace you are gathering evidence from to ensure you have permission to do so.

Observations, professional discussions and workplace panel

Your panel must consist of three teachers who hold full registration with VIT. It is a requirement that the workplace recommendation is provided by the panel chair at the setting where most of the teaching practice has been undertaken and documented.

Required components of the Inquiry process include

  • one observation of a mentor or teacher who holds full registration
  • three observations of your practice in relation to your Inquiry by a mentor or teacher who holds full registration
  • two professional discussions related to your Inquiry with a mentor or teacher who holds full registration
  • one professional discussion related to child safety and wellbeing with a mentor or teacher who holds full registration (to be linked to the Professional Responsibilities Report where you must reflect on your legal obligations as a teacher and how you maintain professional boundaries with learners).

Your workplace may want all of these components to take place at their site or they may be open to accepting some from other workplaces. You should discuss this with them at the outset so that you know what is expected. In any case, the workplace where your panel takes place will need to observe your practice before endorsing an application for full registration. The recommendation must be based on a consistent representation of practice over time, and the panel must be satisfied that you have provided sufficient evidence that the APST have been met. Discuss with the relevant site leader whether they require you to demonstrate all 37 descriptors of the APST in their setting or if they are willing to accept evidence of practice from other settings.

Additional time

If it has not been possible for you to complete your Inquiry or to gain the support of a workplace to complete the process during your two-year grant of provisional registration, you are able to apply for an additional period of provisional registration. Each application for an additional period of provisional registration is assessed on a case-by-case basis. The VIT understands there are a number of factors that can impact a teacher’s ability to move to full registration and the COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in this area in the last 18 months.

If your provisional registration is within three months of expiring, you will be able to apply for an additional period of registration through your MyVIT account.

The Professional Practice team

For all teachers undertaking the process of moving to full registration, the Professional Practice team (comprised of teachers) is here to help. Feel free to contact the team by emailing prt@vit.vic.edu.au.

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