Advice for people starting in their first teaching role

If you are beginning your first teaching role, there are some important things that you should know to make sure you get the best start to your new career!

1. Join your union. When you sign your contract for your new job, you may be asked to complete the MBIE ‘Intention to join a union’ form. You will still need to enrol with the PPTA, even if you are a student member converting to being a full member. You can do this by clicking on the  ‘Join Us’ button at the top of this page. You will be a member as soon as you submit your membership form. It is important to check your first payslip for your membership subscription as well, just to make sure.
2. There are only a few genuine reasons for you to be on a fixed-term contract rather than a permanent contract. These are things like covering parental leave or working on a specific short-term project. You can check our valid reasons for fixed-term appointments info here.
3. You will need to get a salary assessment to determine your appropriate salary, and to account for any previous experience you bring to your new role. Your school should give you information about this when you are sorting out your contractual paperwork. The salary assessment process can take a while and you may not receive your full salary until it is complete. However, all new trained teachers should default to the ‘Trained Teacher Scale’. To make sure this happens, it is important that you complete your Teaching Council provisional registration before doing the salary assessment. If you begin the salary assessment process without a teacher registration number, you may be considered an untrained teacher and default to the ‘untrained teacher scale’.
4. You are entitled to additional non-contact hours as a beginning teacher. Every full-time teacher is entitled to a minimum of 5 hours of timetabled ‘non-contact’ time. Additional to this, you should receive a further 5 hours of timetabled non-contact time if you are a full-time teacher in your first year. If you are part-time, over 0.5FTTE, you are only entitled to 2.5 hours of additional non-contact time. If you do not have the correct non-contact time, you should talk to your mentor or line manager for advice. Further information can be found in your relevant Collective Agreement.
5. You must have a mentor for guidance and support. Schools are provided with additional funding to allow mentor teachers to have dedicated timetabled, face-to-face time to meet with you. You should set shared goals around teaching practice and curriculum, and you should keep a record of your meetings. Teaching Council guidelines for best practice with mentoring is here.
6. If you are having to move to take up your first permanent teaching job, you may be eligible for a relocation grant. This is covered in Part 8 and Appendix C of the STCA/Part 7 and Appendix B of the ASTCA. Usually, you apply through the Ministry of Education but unfortunately, their webpage for this is down right now. You can find the ‘transfer and removal expenses forms – TR1 and TR2’ on the Ministry of Education website by a Google search. There is also the Overseas Relocation Grant.
7. This is your union. There are a lot of opportunities to engage with opportunities in the union. You should get to know who your branch are – including your Branch Chair and NET representative. We offer professional development through our ‘Mahi Tika’ training modules. There are dedicated PCT Mahi Tika courses that happen throughout the year. 2025 dates for these will be up early next year. Keep up with what is happening in the PPTA by following @nzppta on Facebook and Insta, and by ensuring your details are up to date on ‘My Page’.