Building Future Teachers: UTS and Macquarie Fields High

On Wednesday 23 Nov, staff from the UTS Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (MTeach) program hosted a group of forty-four students from Macquarie Fields High School, who are members of the school’s Future Teachers Club.

This year, Macquarie Fields High School (MFHS) has come on board as UTS’s new Professional Experience Hub School focused on developing positive school placements in Maths and Science.

What is Future Teachers Club?

The Future Teachers Club (FTC) has been running at Macquarie Fields High School for over a decade under the guidance of visionary senior HSIE teacher Perry Celestino, and dedicated MFHS former school principal Jan Dolstra. In the past couple of years talented educator Sheridan Georgiou, who is equally passionate about nurturing future teachers, has also joined the team.

With over 250 members, the MFHS Future Teachers Club is currently the largest club at the school, and it provides students the opportunity to explore teaching as a career choice, while also equipping them with leadership skills.

FTC students take on a variety of practical activities including teaching lessons at their feeder primary school, and the significant number of FTC students who have gone on to become teachers is evidence of the club's successful impact.

The beginning of a strong partnership.

To introduce the FTC students to secondary teacher education at UTS, MTeach staff delivered an hour of activities and a campus tour. The activities included a maths lesson involving a mysterious ‘find the correct solution’ sleuthing card game, a hands-on tangram exercise with Pauline Kohlhoff, and a ‘coat of arms’ teaching philosophy activity with Joanne Yoo. Science educator George Harb took the FTC students on an imaginative journey into space with a lesson exploring the solar system.

The MTeach staff then took the FTC students on a tour of the UTS campus. The students had the opportunity imagine themselves as future university students as they explored the UTS Library books and study spaces.

A visit to the UTS Data Arena gave the students an immersive experience of some of UTS's innovations in technology. 

Developing a vision for quality teacher training?

In an era of significant teacher shortage, FTC presents a unique solution to a growing problem that affects the future of teaching and learning in NSW.

Rather than being a once-off, superficial solution to the teacher shortage problem, FTC presents a much more lasting, sustainable, and value-laden approach to ensuring the success of our education system.

UTS initial teacher education staff and MFHS teachers are keen to develop ways to smooth the transition from high school to university life for future teachers.

Pertinent questions that have arisen include:

• How early can teacher training begin?
• How can equipping high school students with teaching skills (interpersonal and communication skills, resilience, cultural awareness, self-efficacy etc) help them to become effective learners, better prepared teachers, and possibly, more empathetic and resilient future leaders?

So, what’s next?

UTS pre-service teachers will visit Macquarie Fields High School in early 2023 and become immersed in the daily rhythms of the school.

UTS MTeach staff are also planning to bring MFHS Future Teachers Club members back to UTS, to continue the dialogue with MTeach academics and UTS preservice teachers.

The partnership with Macquarie Fields High School is an exciting one, and UTS MTeach staff and students are keen to support this vision of ensuring quality teaching and learning in NSW schools by strengthening the development of our future teachers.

Interested in becoming a teacher? Learn about UTS Education degree options.