A teaching placement is successful when strong communication, adaptability, and supportive mentoring help teachers grow. In fact, recent research found that mentored teachers showed a 27% higher retention rate compared to those without mentor support during their professional experience.

However, most education degrees focus heavily on pedagogy and content knowledge. They often skip over the daily interactions that truly determine if you’ll thrive in schools across Australia.

In this article, we’ll cover the preparation work that helps you integrate into school communities before you arrive. We’ll also discuss the support networks that keep placements on track, and the application strategies that turn temporary teaching roles into permanent positions.

Let’s find out how you can have a smoother teaching placement.

Why Teaching Placement Success Goes Beyond Your Degree

A successful teaching placement requires more than academic credentials because schools need educators who handle real classroom challenges. Along with that, communicating with parents and fitting into existing school cultures is a minimum requirement for a teacher.

Here’s a breakdown of what early career teachers face.

The Reality Check Most Early Career Teachers Face

Once you’re standing in front of your first class, the gap between theory and practice becomes obvious. Especially the first days reveal the difference between coursework and classroom management (when a kid melts down during reading time, and three others decide it’s the perfect moment to test your boundaries).

On top of that, paperwork catches you off guard. Countless documents like attendance rolls, incident reports, individual education plans, and permission slips pile up without warning.

And things don’t end there. You need to familiarise yourself with the staff member who runs the photocopier schedule, keep in mind when you’re expected at briefings, and how to book the library space (no one mentions the staff room politics until you’re already there).

You’ll also write emails to families explaining assessment decisions, supervise 200 students during lunch, and hold conversations with caregivers who have very different ideas about homework than school policy allows. These are responsibilities your education degree never covered in detail.

Qualities That Education Recruitment Teams Notice

Understanding what recruiters look for helps you present yourself as someone truly ready for the job. For example, how you respond to feedback during interviews reveals more than your qualifications list ever could.

Plus, your ability to discuss specific classroom scenarios shows practical thinking beyond theoretical knowledge. These answers tell recruiters you’ve thought through the messy reality of schools, not just the idealised version from textbooks.

Pre-Placement Preparation: School and Community Essentials

In our years working with schools throughout Melbourne, Sydney, and regional Victoria, we’ve seen that pre-service teachers who get ahead of the curve early settle in faster than those who wait for formal orientation. The reason is straightforward: building relationships before you arrive makes those first weeks less overwhelming.

This is what getting ready for both school and community involves:

• Early School Contact: Schools across Australia appreciate educators who show genuine interest before day one. You can ring or email your placement school a few weeks before you start to ask about their student demographics, community values, and any upcoming events. 
• Research Beyond The Website: Understanding whether you’re walking into a multicultural urban school in Melbourne or a tight-knit community school in rural Victoria helps you prepare mentally and practically. So look up the school’s annual report, read their values statement, and check out the suburb or town online. 
• Daily Routines and Expectations: It’s a great help to find out little details like when teachers arrive, how briefings run, what the dress code looks like, and where you’ll be working. It allows you to show up confident rather than scrambling to figure out the basics while also managing your first lessons. 
• Technology and Resources: Knowing if you’re working with Google Classroom, Compass, or Sentral means you’re not fumbling with passwords and platforms. Before you go to the classroom, ask what learning management systems the school uses and what resources you’ll have access to in your classroom.

When you arrive, already understanding the school community and systems, you can focus your energy on building relationships with students. You can save plenty of energy by refining your teaching practice instead of scrambling through the basics.

Support Systems During Professional Experience

Support systems catch problems early, before they snowball into placement failures. In fact, research shows that a maximum of 50% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years. And that’s often due to feeling unsupported during placements and early career stages.

Take a look at why these support structures are essential.

The Importance of Regular Check-Ins

Wellbeing conversations catch stress early, especially when you’re managing work and university requirements simultaneously. Particularly, pre-service teachers juggling assignments, lesson preparation, and full teaching days benefit from someone checking up on them.

Along with that, scheduled meetings keep you accountable to goals and help identify issues before they derail your placement. When you sit down weekly with a professional learning consultant or mentor teacher, you’re creating space to discuss what’s happening in your classroom.

A structured support through regular meetings gives you clear direction rather than leaving you guessing about your performance. These check-ins help you understand if your classroom management is improving, or where you’re exceeding expectations.

Getting Practical Advice For Contract Positions

Contract and casual roles come with their own set of challenges that permanent positions don’t have. For instance, short-term teaching jobs require different strategies than permanent positions.

That’s why understanding contract terms across Australia helps you make informed decisions about the opportunities to pursue. Especially, knowing your rights around pay rates, leave entitlements, and notice periods prevents you from accepting positions that undervalue your work.

When you’re job searching for teaching roles in school jobs vic or other state systems, having support from people who understand the recruitment process saves you time and frustration. They’ll explain which schools typically hire contract teachers, and how to position your professional experience on applications.

Now that you’ve worked through your placement, the next step is turning that experience into a paid position.

Preparing for Permanent School Jobs After Placement

Did you know that 1 in 4 teachers plan to leave the profession before retirement (with regional and remote schools feeling the impact most acutely)?

Despite the harsh conditions, many teachers successfully transition to permanent roles after their professional experience. And more often than not, the ones who act in time end up securing positions faster than those who wait months to start applying.

Here’s what moving into paid teaching roles requires:

Mock Interviews and Selection Criteria Practice

Most education jobs in Victorian government schools require you to address key selection criteria in writing and then defend your responses in panel interviews. That’s why mock interviews help you practice answering these questions in a low-pressure environment.

The good news is that universities and recruitment agencies often run these sessions. Through these sessions, you get a chance to refine answers before real interviews take place.

Direct School Contact

Learning how to contact schools directly about upcoming positions expands opportunities beyond advertised roles on school jobs vic and other job boards. You’d be surprised to know that many teaching jobs get filled through internal networks before they’re publicly posted.

We recommend sending a brief email to principals or school leaders expressing interest in contract positions or future vacancies. We’ve seen candidates land graduate teacher roles this way, especially in schools where they completed placements and already have relationships with staff.

Understanding Hiring Timelines

Primary and secondary schools follow different recruitment cycles throughout the year. Usually, Victorian government school jobs are advertised in Term 3 for the following year, while independent schools and early childhood centres may hire on rolling timelines.

Conversely, teacher recruitment in education support roles and specialist positions may follow different patterns. So understanding the job search landscape helps you submit applications when schools are actively recruiting, not when positions are already filled.

Finding Your Fit in Education Support

Successful placements combine solid preparation, reliable support networks, and your willingness to adapt to different school communities. The teachers who thrive are usually the ones who reach out before day one and treat their placement as the foundation for long-term teaching careers.

Your placement prospers when schools see beyond your qualifications and recognise how you’ll contribute to their community. Your degree may have got you here, but the preparation work, support systems, and genuine interest in students and school culture will determine your teaching placement success.

If you need more support, Francis Orr connects educators with schools throughout Melbourne, Sydney, and regional Victoria that match your strengths and career goals. Check out our website for current openings and guidance on navigating the job search process.

Thinking about building a relief teacher toolkit, but not sure where to start? You’re not alone. Plenty of CRTs find themselves scrambling on short-notice days, wishing they had a few supplies ready to go.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the essentials. If you’re a relief teacher, all you really need is a simple, sorted bag with the right classroom bits and pieces. Nothing fancy, just practical.

Before we get into it, let’s make sure you know what a relief teacher toolkit actually is. That way, everything else will make more sense.

What Is a Relief Teacher Toolkit?

A relief teacher toolkit is a portable collection of supplies, activities, and tools you carry to every booking. But what does that actually look like in practice?

It usually includes teacher supplies like pens and markers, a few classroom management resources, and backup activities for different year levels. Having your own kit means you never have to rely fully on what the school provides.

Relief teachers who prepare this way tend to feel more in control from the moment they walk into any classroom.

CRT Essentials: Must-Have Classroom Supplies

Having the right classroom supplies means you spend less time scrambling and more time actually teaching. A few basics go a long way when you’re walking into an unfamiliar room.

Let’s break it down.

Basic Teacher Supplies for Any Classroom

Whiteboard markers, a small timer, sticky notes, and a lanyard are everyday essentials. Bring your own pens and highlighters because school supplies can be hit or miss.

From our time working with relief teachers, we’ve noticed this catches people out early on (and yes, we’ve all been there, rummaging through an empty stationery cupboard). A clipboard also helps when you need to move around the classroom or jot down notes at a student’s desk.

For example, a simple timer can keep students on track during group activities. It saves you from constantly watching the clock and lets kids manage their own focus.

Backup Activities Worth Packing

Laminated worksheets or games that suit multiple subjects save you in unplanned moments. And honestly, these moments happen more often than you’d think.

Brain breaks and quick puzzles help when the lesson runs short. Keep activities simple, so they work no worries without extra materials.

Here are a few ideas worth packing: word searches for early finishers, a quick maths game for middle primary, colouring sheets for younger kids, and a trivia quiz that works across subjects. The goal is to engage students without needing tech or fancy resources.

Classroom Management on Short Notice

Let’s be real here. Ever walked into a classroom with no lesson plan and thirty students staring at you?

It happens. And when it does, having a few classroom management tricks up your sleeve makes all the difference.

Tools That Help You Stay in Control

A small bell or chime is worth its weight in gold because it grabs attention without raising your voice. Reward stickers or stamps work well for younger kids and keep things positive.

Here are some tools worth keeping in your bag:

• A small bell or chime for attention
• Reward stickers or stamps for positive reinforcement
• A visual timer app on your phone
• A whistle for outdoor class or physical activity
• A simple points tracker for group behaviour

When students can see a timer counting down, they know exactly how long they have. You don’t need to keep saying “five more minutes” over and over. The same goes for a points tracker. Kids can see where they stand, so they self-correct without you stepping in every time.

Quick Wins for Your First Day

Introduce yourself with a fun fact so students see you as approachable (trust us, “the relief teacher” gets old fast). Learn a few names early on because it builds connection and social interaction quickly.

Set clear expectations in the first five minutes to avoid issues later. Something simple like, “Here’s how today will run,” helps the whole class settle. Good communication from the start saves you a lot of stress down the track.

New Teacher? How to Build Your First Kit

The good news is you don’t need to spend a fortune or pack a massive bag to feel prepared. Building your first kit won’t break the bank.

Here’s how to get started without the overwhelm.

Start Simple and Add Over Time

• Begin with basics: Pens, sticky notes, and one or two backup activities are enough to start. You don’t need a full teaching arsenal on day one.
• Add as you learn: Based on what we’ve seen firsthand, most new teachers figure out what they actually use after a few bookings. Then you can add supplies that suit your style.
• Shop smart: Check discount stores like Kmart or Officeworks for affordable teacher supplies. You can also find free resources online to print and laminate.

Pro tip: Keep a running list on your phone of things you wish you had during a booking. It makes your next shopping trip way easier.

Staying Organised Between Bookings

• Restock your bag: Do this after each day so your kit is always ready for the next call. It only takes a few minutes.
• Use a digital calendar: This helps you track bookings and plan ahead. Some relief teachers set reminders the night before to double-check their kit.
• Label your stuff: If you tend to leave things behind at school, labels save you money and stress (it happens more than you’d expect).

Pro tip: Keep a spare set of essentials in your car. On those last-minute calls, you’ll thank yourself.

Pack Light, Teach Confidently

Now that you know what to include, let’s talk about keeping your kit practical and easy to carry.

Here’s the thing, though. A heavy bag is not the goal because you still need to move around all day. You might be walking between classrooms, heading out for physical activity, or supervising in the playground.

Stick to items you actually use and swap things out here and there as your needs change. Over the school year, you’ll get a better sense of what works in your own classroom settings.

The right kit helps you save time and feel prepared without weighing you down. Teaching gets a lot easier when you’re not lugging around half a stationery store.

Start With What You Have

You don’t need the perfect kit on day one. Just a few reliable supplies that grow with you over time. Start small, see what works, and build from there.

Once your kit is sorted, the next step is finding consistent bookings. Partnering with a trusted agency like Francis Orr makes that part easier. They connect educators with schools across Australia and support you throughout your teaching career.

A good kit and the right support set you up for smoother days in any classroom. Now go get that bag sorted.

Picture this: your brightest student aces every exam but struggles to work in groups, can’t handle criticism, and freezes up during job interviews.

Sound familiar? Basically, you’re watching someone with excellent academic skills but limited life skills. And unfortunately, this scenario plays out in classrooms across Australia every day.

As educators, we know that preparing students for real-world success means teaching them how to communicate clearly and handle challenges with confidence. Your students need these abilities to succeed in universities, workplaces, and even relationships long after they leave your classroom.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• The difference between hard skills and soft skills
• How to build communication and teamwork abilities in your classroom
• Ways to mix soft skills naturally into your existing lessons
• Common teaching obstacles and practical solutions to overcome them
• The lasting impact these skills have on students’ lives beyond school

Stick with us to learn practical methods that prepare students for life.

The Core Difference Between Hard and Soft Skills

Students often wonder why they need to focus on anything beyond their textbook knowledge. The reality is that success requires two distinct types of abilities: soft and hard skills. While hard skills get you noticed on paper, soft skills direct how well you perform in real situations.

When you understand this difference, you can better prepare students for both immediate academic success and long-term career growth.

Here’s how these two skill types work in practice:

What are Hard Skills?

Hard skills are the technical abilities you can measure and test directly. Think of these as the specific knowledge you pick up in class or through training courses. You either have them or you don’t (there’s no middle ground here).

Examples of hard skills include:

• Coding in Python or JavaScript
• Mathematical problem solving
• Operating laboratory equipment
• Writing in specific formats

The best part of these skills is that you can clearly see if someone has learned them. So, you get a definite tick or cross on your assessment sheet.

What are Soft Skills?

Your soft skills are the interpersonal and personal attributes that form how you interact with others and handle challenges. These skills affect your relationships, work performance, and personal development throughout life.

Though hard skills might get your foot out the door, it’s often your soft skills that get you the job.

In practice, soft skills focus on building stronger interpersonal relationships and include:

• Strong communication skills
• Leadership skills
• Critical thinking
• Emotional intelligence
• Problem-solving skills

Even though you can’t give marks for how well someone works with others (unlike their maths test), these people skills often decide who gets ahead in their careers. What’s more, research shows that soft skills training improves work readiness and helps job seekers succeed in employment.

The reason is simple: employers can train someone to use new software, but they can’t easily teach an adult how to communicate clearly or handle workplace stress.

Now that you understand what makes these skills different, let’s look at why developing them creates lasting value for your students.

Building Life Skills for Future Success

Why do some students succeed after graduation while others with similar grades struggle to find their footing? Often, the answer comes down to how well they’ve developed their people skills alongside their academic knowledge.

Put simply, students with strong communication and emotional abilities adapt better to new situations and build stronger relationships. That’s why teachers who focus on these life skills give their students an advantage in whatever path they choose after school.

Let’s see how you can build these abilities in your classroom:

Strengthening Communication and Teamwork

Students learn best when they can practice new skills in realistic settings. When young people work together on projects that mirror real-life scenarios, their communication and teamwork abilities grow stronger. The reason this works is that they have to talk through problems and listen to each other to succeed.

Also, group work forces them to consider different perspectives when they need to solve a problem together.

One example of this is having students plan a mock business where everyone has different jobs to do. You’ll notice your shy students start speaking up more, while students who usually take charge learn to listen to others and share the work.

Developing Emotional Intelligence and Resilience

The ability to understand your own feelings is the first step toward understanding others. That means helping students recognise their emotions, manage stress, and bounce back from disappointments. Their emotional skills become the foundation for making good friends and dealing with tough times at work later on.

Helpful Tip: Encourage self-reflection through journaling or group check-ins to help them become more self-aware. Once you create regular opportunities for students to process their experiences, they start seeing mistakes as chances to learn instead of reasons to give up.

Since you know how to build these skills in theory, let’s explore practical ways to make this happen in your classroom.

Mixing Soft Skills into Education

The best way to teach soft skills is to make them a part of your regular classroom activities.

Instead of treating them as separate lessons, students develop these abilities naturally when you create opportunities for collaboration, discussion, and reflection within existing subjects. This approach works because it shows students how these skills apply to learning situations.

Here are a few ways to make this happen effectively:

• Shifting from Theory to Application: If you want students to truly develop these abilities, they need hands-on practice rather than just lectures about teamwork. So, create group projects where students must research, debate, and present solutions together to put this theory into action.
• The Power of Experiential Learning: After students experience success through group problem-solving, they understand why these life skills count in their daily lives. When you focus on active learning approaches like group projects and peer teaching, students naturally develop confidence in their interpersonal abilities.

We recommend starting small with partner activities before moving to larger group challenges. This builds their skills gradually while keeping everyone comfortable with the process.

How to Overcome Obstacles in Soft Skills Education

If you face challenges like curriculum constraints and assessment difficulties while teaching soft skills, you can overcome these with targeted training and creative measurement methods.

What stops most teachers is the lack of practical guidance on how to make it work within their existing workload and expectations. But these challenges have straightforward solutions when you know where to start.

Here are the two common hurdles and how to tackle them:

Addressing Curriculum and Teacher Preparedness

Can we teach something we haven’t been taught ourselves? Yes, you’ve guessed it! We can’t do it well.

That’s why many teachers feel unprepared to teach soft skills and life skills alongside their regular subjects.

However, the solution starts with professional development training that shows teachers how to add these skills to the lessons they already know. This approach works well because you can use what you already know and slowly bring in teamwork and communication activities.

It’s like learning to cook pasta with a new sauce instead of learning an entirely different cuisine.

Measuring Growth Beyond Grades

Moving beyond the preparation challenge, teachers also struggle with how to assess these skills fairly.

The problem is that traditional testing doesn’t work for measuring teamwork or emotional intelligence. So you need regular feedback methods that capture student growth over time.

While grades show academic progress, consider these alternatives from a different perspective:

• Peer evaluations where students rate each other’s collaboration.
• Self-reflection journals that track emotional growth over weeks.
• Project-based assessments that show multiple soft skill areas working together.

Useful tip: Create easy rubrics (scoring guides) that students can understand and use to evaluate their own progress.

So far, we’ve discussed the practical steps for teaching these skills and overcoming common barriers. Next, you’ll discover how developing soft skills creates positive changes.

The Broader Impact of Soft Skills

Thinking that soft skills only matter in job interviews or workplace meetings? That’s not true at all. In reality, these abilities influence every aspect of a person’s social life, relationships, and personal growth throughout their lifetime.

In this section, we’ll show you how teaching communication, teamwork, and other soft skills creates ripple effects in every area of life.

The Long-Term Value of Critical Thinking

If you think about it, students who learn to question, analyse, and evaluate information become adults who make better decisions in all areas of life.

In fact, critical thinking forms the foundation for continuous improvement because it teaches people to reflect on their experiences and learn from them. These social and emotional skills help graduates handle complex relationships, career changes, and personal challenges with greater confidence and clarity.

After some time in the workforce, you’ll notice these students adapt better to changing circumstances and solve problems more effectively.

The Importance of Self-Discipline and Problem Solving

Students who develop self-discipline and problem-solving abilities gain tools that serve them far beyond their first job. These skills boost an individual’s ability to stick with difficult tasks, think through challenges with creative thinking, and maintain a learning mindset when facing setbacks.

The result is graduates who can handle whatever life throws their way, whether that’s a career change, relationship challenge, or unexpected opportunity.

One of our teachers shared how she watched a former student use his classroom teamwork skills to organise neighbourhood flood relief after severe storms hit his area. He naturally knew how to coordinate volunteers, delegate tasks, and keep everyone motivated during stressful times.

Turns out, all those group projects about Shakespeare did prepare him for real life (just not in the way we expected).

Preparing Students for Tomorrow’s World

Today’s students face a rapidly changing world where academic excellence alone won’t guarantee success. The gap between classroom learning and real-world demands continues to grow. But with the right teaching strategies, you can help bridge this divide and prepare students for genuine success.

Throughout this article, we’ve explored identifying different skill types, building classroom communication, integrating abilities into lessons, and tackling teaching challenges. Also, you’ve learned how these skills create lasting benefits that extend into students’ relationships, careers, and personal growth throughout their lives.

We at Francis Orr help teachers find schools that care about building both academic knowledge and life skills in their students. If you’re ready to grow your teaching career while helping students succeed in life, we’re here to support you.