Bridging the equity gap through teachers. By attracting, retaining and developing excellent teachers in hard-to staff-schools, so that every student has access to high-quality teaching and learning.
The vision strongly aligns with the Victorian Government’s broader vision to build Victoria as the Education State so that every student can access a great local school with great teachers and a quality education, no matter where they live.
Attraction – raising the profile of teaching in hard-to-staff schools.
Retaining – developing innovative and evidence-based tools, resources and systems that can be contextualized for a local approach and useable in every school.
Developing – considering a holistic view to teacher development, which includes the system, the school and the community. Not just the teacher alone. Teacher development doesn’t just include professional development as a stand-alone but includes the whole growth of the teacher in their teaching journey, their growth and understanding of the community, their own health & wellbeing etc.
Our actions are guided by an evidence base for best practice and the impact on teachers and students.
We reflect on current research and evaluation, and identify ways to innovate and change, to better serve our workforce and students.
We seek to contribute to the Department's understanding of the problem definition of retention and excellence in teaching, and achievable outcomes for the workforce in the short, medium and long term.
We enable the access to professional development and networking needed for teachers working in regional and rural schools.
We implement our program alongside school priorities, system frameworks and improvement initiatives, and the contemporary needs of the school workforce to ensure the practicality, adaptability, and sustainability of STARRS in the long term.
We value tangible resources, models that can be embedded by schools, and recognise the cultural shift required in the interim to implement change.
We advocate for STARRS as a critical program to success retention and action opportunities to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders.
We communicate strategically and with impact, to raise the profile of STARRS and make connections across the system (from schools, to regional teams, and to central office) and with state-wide initiatives such as the Rural and Regional Strategic Plan.