QLD Australia: Requirements for Montessori teachers

As my avid readers would know by now, every state in Australia has "almost" different set of requirements to work in the education industry.

These are the requirements for working in Montessori centres and schools in Queensland, Australia as per the Queensland Montessori Association (QMA). As said before, holding a Montessori diploma does not entitle the candidate to "teach" in a Montessori centre in the context of Australia. You still need to have a tertiary qualification (3 or 4- year teaching degree on top of it).

Take note that although these are the requirements set out in Queensland, the criterias are almost similar across the states in Australia. Also particularly important to know that across the states, candidates who are registered as a teacher with the individual state's College of Teaching are normally exempt from possessing a Blue Card / Working With Children Check (WWCC).

A WWCC is a compulsory regulation for all individuals who have long-term direct contact with children across all settings, whether it be in a commercial or a voluntary basis. Each state has its own regulations of obtaining a WWCC, so be sure to check out beforehand if you intend to travel & work inter-state and save you the trouble of how to obtain it.

To work in a Montessori School as a Teacher you need

• Registration with the Queensland College of Teaching
• Recognised teaching degree - Bachelor of Education for primary grades, or Bachelor of Early Childhood Education for Cycle 1
• Montessori qualification
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications

To work in a Montessori Primary School as an Assistant you need

• Current Blue Card
• Previous experience in an educational setting
• Montessori credentials
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications

To work in a Montessori Creche or Kindergarten as a Teacher you need

• Montessori Diploma
• Minimum Bachelor of Teaching (early childhood), preferred Bachelor of Education (early childhood)
• Queensland College of Teachers (QTC) registration
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications

To work in a Montessori Creche or Kindergarten as an Assistant you need

• Montessori qualification
• Certificate 111 Diploma in Community Services (Children’s Services)
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications
• Current Blue Card

To work in a Montessori Long Day Care Centre as a Director you need

• Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood), or Bachelor of Early Childhood, or Advanced Diploma in Children’s Services
• Registration with the Queensland College of Teaching (for teachers), or Current Blue Card (for Group Leaders)
  
• Montessori credentials
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications.

To work in a Montessori Long Day Care Centre as a Group Leader / Teacher you need:

• Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood), or Bachelor of Early Childhood, or Certificate 111 Diploma in Community Services (Children’s Services)
• Registration with the Queensland College of Teaching, or Current Blue Card.
• Montessori credentials
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications

To work in a Montessori Long Day Care Centre as an Assistant you need:

• Certificate 111 Diploma in Community Services (Children’s Services)
• Current Blue Card
• Current senior First Aid and CPR qualifications

A bad day in the nursery room.

Have you ever noticed that in the first few days that you start work at a new place, everything seems to be running really smoothly and then a problem just crops up?

For each day that I go to work as opposed to staying home, there are new issues that crop up. Ones that cause me to think & worry a lot. But in a way that's a good thing as I eventually find a solution to it, & I DO learn something from there. Whether it be personal, or work issues, somehow a solution is found. I meet people, and I learn how to handle these issues the next time they crop out.

This past one week, I was based in a near city centre where I have been working with babies for the past three days. It is a good thing as I rarely have the opportunity to do so in Malaysia. To get to work this week, I had to either take the train or bus to work. But since mornings are always congested & I am always rushed for time, the trains are always a wiser option. I take the Sydney bus home however. Might as well put my Travel Ten ticket to good use anyways!

The staff that I have met in the room so far have been quite kind & nice. They were very different from the one which is fully localised staff that I went to previously near Chatswood. This centre has rostered permanent staff from India, China and even casuals from Germany and Lebanese-Aussies. Even the programming done by the Chinese group leader includes chinese language as well! It was the first I had ever heard for this particular franchaise of learning centres!

Today is the JONAH Day for this centre I am based at.. My director L., was in a really bad mood. I do understand that to be a director, there IS a lot of responsibilities. Stress & expectations of having to answer to DoCS as well as meeting parent's expectations & complaints, as well as to the board of directors. (But then again, she could be having PMS. Who knows?!). She's also holding a staff conference next week in the same centre, as L. manages two centres part-time (working 11 hours/p day, where the normal is only 8 hours in Austalia!).

The day started off with a complaint from a parent, and the entire thing just snowballed.. The air of uneasiness just lingered the entire morning. I was also given a severe rebuff for an incident was quite minor. Even the permanent staff in my room could only dare to *whisper* when she came into the room. A lot of the babies were crying, so that only exacerbated the tension in the air.

The only thing I kept repeating to myself throughout the day was "never let your emotions control you" and "calm down" to both my colleagues as I could feel their tempers were going up as well! Fortunately they took my cue & did the same!

At the end of the day, my group leader finally asked me how do I feel about working in childcare, relating the incident to what the director had said earlier in the day. I guess she was also feeling a bit frustrated as she was only just starting her studies in Cert III, and she was not ready to handle the issues & responsibilities that came.

Coming from a background of management, I can understand the problems that come with all the work, but I feel that it's all part of the job. Someone has to be "choleric", to direct, delegate, and reprimand workers. Else the staff will not do their jobs properly. The centre has accreditation goals & financial targets to meet, and she is the only one who has to make sure staff fulfill them, else she has to answer to the stakeholders.

So I guess that is why I do not, and was not surprised why the director may have acted the way she does (whether for reasons I had predicted or not!). Sometimes as staff, we think that it might be our behaviour that exacerbated the problem. But at times it could be the manager's personal issues. These issues are the same everywhere. It's just a matter of how we handle them, I guess.

I texted my mom & she returned my call. When I told her what happened, she reassured me that it was not my issue. Isn't God great to provide mothers during these times of distress?