Una Booth

Lead teacher junior school
Fijian

Una’s teaching career has progressed to management since TeachNZ first interviewed her five years ago. After completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Education focusing on literacy in 2006, Una returned to Fairburn School as a senior teacher and in 2008 was appointed lead teacher of the junior school.

“I’m now responsible for fourteen teachers and their professional development,” says Una. “I really enjoy having the opportunity to help improve their professional practice and being able to stand back and objectively appraise the situation. I also enjoy the teamwork that exists in senior management here.”

Central to Una’s lead teacher role is her position as team leader of new entrants.  Una oversees the reception classes, introduced in 2007 to better prepare new students for school by improving their social skills before formally becoming new entrants.

Increasingly Una sees one of her roles as motivating more parents to become involved in their children’s education. “Parents really want to be involved but don’t know how to do this. There’s a lot they can help with such as talking more to their children when they get home and asking them about what they did at school today.”

Una has enjoyed a long career as a teacher so has noticed a few changes over the years. “Teaching knowledge is constantly evolving so the need to be involved in professional development to improve classroom practices is now more important than ever.”

Una admits that her new management role does have its challenges, one of them being to balance management with the professional practice side of her work, particularly helping teachers to improve their classroom practices. “On the one hand it’s important to run the junior school efficiently but it’s equally important to keep track of what’s going on in the classroom, the heart of learning.”

With so much teaching experience behind her, Una has plenty of inspirational messages to convey to aspiring young primary teachers.

“You must have your heart in teaching in order to succeed,” Una believes. “As a Pasifika teacher, I’d also love to see more Pasifika people entering teaching. You become a role model for the kids as well as the parents and can relate to their concerns more easily. I get the greatest satisfaction from preparing kids for the future.”