AEU Executive travelled across Tasmania’s North East & East Coast, meeting with members and giving Executive representatives an insight into schools in regional communities.

Before COVID, a similar trip was taken on the West Coast, but the pandemic delayed the East Coast trip for two years until we could finally make it happen last week.

A plan for a Circular Head regional visit is on the cards for 2022.

During the trip we visited eight schools from Bridport to Swansea and we thank all the staff who made themselves available to us during their breaks or after school

It is a great way for our Executive to hear from our members and for our members to meet our Executive, who are just regular educators from schools elected to make decisions on behalf of everyone.

A lot of the issues raised highlighted what we are already fighting for in our Log of Claims, but it’s great to hear specific examples of how schools can’t access relief staff or how they struggle to attract professional support staff to such areas.

The lack of available essential services sees staff dealing with children who need support and working with families who don’t have the same access to help as families in the bigger cities.

The big one for me that I hadn’t been aware of, was the housing issues. If we are successful in getting more bodies into schools, the local communities need somewhere for them to stay.

With AirBnB booming in some of the areas we visited, this has made it hard to find rental properties or even enter the property market. We need our government to have a big picture approach to this and make sure our regional communities are able to give our educators the support they need, to help our students reach their potential.