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Teachers who hold full registration are required to make declarations that they have undertaken 20 days of professional practice within the preceding registration period as part of the annual registration process. This can include teaching, equivalent practice or educational leadership.

Registration category 20 days professional practice per annum
Full registration :icon-for-yes
Provisional registration :icon-for-no
Non-practising registration :icon-for-no
Permission to teach :icon-for-no
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Check out the FAQs page to find out more about recency of practice and how to calculate a teaching day.

If they are unable to practise for at least 20 days as a teacher, they will be provided with the option to declare they have undertaken one of the following

  • 40 days in the previous two years
  • 60 days in the previous three years
  • 80 days in the previous four years, or
  • 100 days in the previous five years.
FYI

Fully registered teachers who are not currently teaching or cannot meet the professional learning requirements to renew their registration can apply for non-practising registration. Once they have moved to non-practising registration, the teacher will not be permitted to work as a teacher in any school or early childhood setting until they return to teaching from non-practising registration.

What activities does VIT consider professional practice?

Professional practice can include teaching, equivalent practice or educational leadership.

Teaching

Teaching includes both face-to-face and remote learning contexts where the work provides the opportunity to demonstrate practice against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) at the proficient teacher level. This includes

  • direct interaction (real-time engagement with learners, and may include a combination of pre-recorded lesson delivery and real-time interaction) with a group of school aged or early childhood aged learners 
  • all aspects of classroom management, including the supervision of learners and the need to maintain a safe learning environment
  • planning, teaching and assessing against an approved school curriculum or early childhood framework
  • reporting to families, and
  • engaging in any other education setting obligations.

Teaching does not include assisting any dependents with learning provided by another teacher / education provider, except where the teacher is a registered home-schooling provider with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA).

    Equivalent practice

    Teachers who work in alternative teaching settings or related fields of education, but are not teaching in a primary, secondary or special school, or in an early childhood setting, may be working in an equivalent practice.

    Icon Important Info

    Please note that equivalent practice roles cannot be used to meet returning from non-practising professional practice requirements or the requirements of moving from provisional to full registration.

    A clear relationship between the work of these teachers and the APST provides a case for equivalent practice. The equivalent practice should

    • involve the delivery of accredited curriculum, the assessment of learning levels and learning needs of learners, the modification of teaching practice to accommodate this, reporting of achievement, feedback on learning and review and reflection on professional practice to improve learning, and
    • show the teacher would be able to practise proficiently should they return to teaching in a school or an early childhood setting.

    Where a teacher appears to be in a role that requires demonstrating, training or instructing, further information is required to show their practice captures the elements of teaching as described above. Teachers working in alternative teaching settings or related fields of education should state a clear relationship between their work and the APST.

    Teachers with equivalent practice could be working as a teacher in settings or circumstances such as

    • TAFE, higher education institutions or other tertiary institutions
    • outdoor education centres, zoos / museums /aquariums, hospital schools, CERES, or with juvenile offenders in correctional facilities
    • educational consultants working directly with teachers and/or schools and early childhood services (e.g. preschool field officers, early intervention teachers)
    • activity Group Leaders in an early childhood setting
    • NDIS education support in schools/special education settings/early childhood settings (for example, educational psychologist, occupational therapist or speech therapist)
    • tutoring, or
    • as a registered home schooler.

    How does this relate to renewal of registration?

    Educational leadership

    Educational leaders may not be teaching, but their work supports or improves the professional knowledge and practice of teachers in schools and/or early childhood settings.

    Teachers who work in leadership roles within a setting that has a relationship with the APST are working in educational leadership.

    Educational leadership may involve such things as

    • providing leadership in a school or early childhood service
    • developing resources and materials for use by teachers in schools or early childhood services
    • research into teaching and learning, and the dissemination of that knowledge to teachers and/or other educational leaders
    • policy development to support and improve teaching and learning, and
    • working with teachers, either individually or collectively, to support and improve their professional knowledge and practice.

    Teachers working as educational leaders may have leadership roles in schools or early childhood services. They could also be working

    • in a regional office
    • in a local council or kindergarten cluster group
    • in an organisation providing services and/or support to schools and early childhood services
    • in an education union such as the Australian Education Union (AEU) or Independent Education Union (IEU)
    • with the Department of Education (DE), Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) or Independent Schools Victoria (ISV)
    • with a professional teaching association
    • undertaking research into teaching and learning or education-related issues, or
    • as an educational consultant or as a leader in the area of teacher professional development.

    How does this relate to renewal of registration? 

    Last updated: 09 Feb 2023

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