Buninyong Public School employs new administration staff under NSW Department of Education pilot program

Buninyong Public is part of a NSW Department of Education pilot program across over 130 schools to re-think what tasks are performed by teachers, and to modernise and diversify school operations.

School principal Anne van Dartel has promoted one of her existing administration staff members to business manager and employed a new part-time administration staff member to take some of the admin burden off the teachers and the existing administration staffer.

Ms van Dartel said one of the benefits she was expecting was allowing the leadership team to spend more time with the classroom teachers providing mentorship and guidance - which will result in better teaching outcomes for the students.

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The pilot program has only been running since the start of the school year but the school employees are already seeing positive results.

"It's brought balance to administration and allowed us to reallocate - because some of the jobs that take the most time are jobs you need to do, we can balance the workload a bit more," Ms van Dartel said.

"I think this additional funding has allowed us to bring equilibrium back to the office and the executive within the school."

Ms van Dartel said one of the benefits of employing a new admin staffer was that the newly-promoted business manager could spend some of her time away from the front office to take-on higher administration duties.

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"[We now have] more people to take on the load; additional staff to do those quite intensive admin jobs in an office that's not forward facing," she said.

Ms van Dartel said the additional support was "wonderful" after the school was subject to extensive storm damage last week. Administration jobs including web reports, insurance claims and enquiries were able to be undertaken while teachers were working to restore classrooms and learning.

Ms van Dartel said: "This project has allowed the administration staff time to do their job in a manner that's efficient without being interrupted."

Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell welcomed the 200 new administration staff which span schools in Sydney, Lithgow, Port Macquarie, Maitland and Dubbo.

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"From helping coordinate school events to following up on student attendance matters with parents, I know these staff will provide welcome support in our schools," Ms Mitchell said.

She said the approach aligned with staff feedback and research from the Grattan Institute which recommended finding better ways to use the wider school workforce, including support, administrative and specialist staff.

"We have heard from our teachers that it is not one policy or thing they need removed to help them with their workload, rather they need holistic and flexible support to lighten their workload," Ms Mitchell said.

"We want our teachers to do what they do best - teaching and supporting our children in their learning - and spend less time on admin tasks."

The findings from the first stage of the program will help determine how effective additional support roles in schools are in freeing-up time for teachers. It will also inform how to improve administration functions in all schools across the state.