Peter Juchniewicz

Positions held for current Employer:

Each of the following positions I've held during my 20 years for Newcastle Grammar School. Each position I have valued and grown as both an educator and educational leader.

2004-Current: Y5-12 PDHPE Teacher:

Across two decades of teaching PDHPE my enthusiasm for my subject area and the delivery of highly effective lessons has only grown stronger. Teaching across 4 key stages of learning has allowed me to develop a strong depth of syllabus knowledge and fundamental understanding of the key teaching transitions from Primary to Secondary to Senior Secondary PDHPE curriculum. I have a passion for always striving to improve upon my pedagogy and have supported the embedding of the 'Quality Teaching' model and currently, the 'Deep Learning' framework. I have sought the opportunities to share and receive expert knowledge and experience with not only my colleagues, but also with student-teacher's during their Internships, an experience I have highly valued to improve my educational leadership skills.

2021-Current: Y12 Coordinator:

In recognition of the unique year, that is Year 12, the school appointed me as the inaugural Y12 Coordinator, a position for which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Finding myself in a role that promoted the provision of student wellbeing, monitoring academic progress, encouraging student leadership, and facilitating each student's transition from High School has certainly embellished my skills to work effectively with external stakeholders, Industry links, Tertiary settings, and School Executive. As important as this, a position that valued my abilities to develop quality relationships with students and parents as they traverse across the difficult HSC journey. It pushed me to to facilitate an experience for our graduating cohort to find growth, accomplishment and joy.

2021-Term 4 & 2022 Term 2: Interim Head of PDHPE:

Such valuable opportunities were ceased when performing the role of Head of Department on two occasions. Over seeing the implementation of quality units of work, effective assessment tools and meeting reporting deadlines and frameworks. Albeit, interim appointments, valuable experiences were gained to develop my abilities to provide constructive feedback to colleagues, network with other leaders of learning and evaluate curriculum programmes for future implementation. These moments of faculty leadership continued to galvanise my motivation to delve into curriculum design and composing progressive educational experiences.

2021-Current: Member of NESA's Teacher Expert Network for Curriculum Reform:

After gaining a successful application to the reforms team, it quickly became apparent the breadth of opportunities this would provide my own school, and for my own professional development. The experience has allowed me to gain an understanding of the future direction of education within NSW, the processes which contribute syllabus/curriculum design, and the value in networking with other schooling systems. My school has benefited by gaining unique access into syllabus drafting and user-testing to allow teachers to successfully transition new programmes. Personally, I have strengthened my knowledge of the expected changes to K-10 PDHPE syllabus, and the new HMS Stage 6 course. Chasing this experience has exercised my organisational abilities as I worked with NESA to coordinate Regional meetings and represented the 225 state wide teacher network when asked to present an introductory speech during the most recent State Conference.

2018-Current: HSC PDHPE Marking:

Four years of marking the PDHPE HSC responses has been invaluable to my teaching of the Stage 6 PDHPE course. It has strengthened my confidence to provide exceptional programmes to students and allowed me to create an effective model of writing to meet the demands of the external HSC examination. Consequently, the results of the my school's HSC classes have improved in recent years, as has its popularity, with student numbers increasing considerably. The experiences have not been a solo endeavour, the valuable lessons learned have allowed me to pass on the knowledge to faculty colleagues, effectively changing the way we develop subject specific writing skills, assessment procedures and examination preparation.

2009-2010: Head of House (Y5-8) then onto

2011-2020: Head of House (Y9-12):

Student wellbeing has always been at the heart of my teaching and educational career. In the role of Head of House for twelve years, it exercised my passion for making students the core of all educational decision making. The position played up to my abilities to build effective relationships with all stakeholders. It strengthened my understanding of educational and adolescent psychology, and presented me with varying challenges to build my conflict resolution, problem solving and communication strategies. From an organisational point of view, the position heightened my ability to structure whole-school activities and services, always asking for creativity to compose motivational and thematic rituals to engage students and teachers. Most valuably, it contributed to the development of my capability to host difficult growth conversations with students, parents and mentors, allowing me to refine the practice of coaching with compassion.

2004-2009: Master In Charge (Football) then onto

2010-2018: Master in Charge (Futsal):

As a beginning teacher, adding any extra responsibility to a full load of teaching can be a daunting prospect. But within that vision, there are amazing opportunities for growth. Carrying out the role of leading a sporting programme under the School's Co-Curricular framework was a sure fire way to exercise my organisational capacity. It allowed me to develop my communication skills as I was constantly in contact with external providers, community organisations and parents of players. Preparing coaches for training and matches sparked my creativity and planning strategies, testing my abilities to keep stakeholders informed, engaged and educated. The role provided me with an opportunity to display my hard working nature and willingness to contribute to the school outside of the classroom. Whether it being weeknights and/or weekends, the position quickly became a chance to develop meaningful relationships and educated me on the value of the whole school experience.

2007-2011: Director of Middle School Sport (Y5-8):

There is no greater thrill than being at the heart of a schooling experience that brings joy and excellence together, a chance for students to shine. My time organising, convening, facilitating and planning sporting events was a great opportunity to create that moment for students. A strong test of educational leadership skill as you are asked to navigate the complexities of carrying out events that are vulnerable to time, resources, and objectives. Being earlier on in my career, it was time well spent as it polished my communication skills, organisational strategies and ability to think creatively under the pressure of time. Whether it being the Inter-House Carnivals, the Representative Event or the gala day experience, it was paramount to find that balance between celebrating both participation and competition. Upon reflection, a worthy position to hold as it taught me about the importance of a school's extra-curricular programme and the benefit of creating moments to develop relationships with students, staff, parents and other schools.

2018 University of Newcastle - DADEE Facilitator:

Upon becoming a parent for the first time in 2018, I embarked on gaining experience to learn more about the role of guiding a young person through the first stages of life. Fortunately, after a 3-day training course with the University of Newcastle, I was selected as a 'Facilitator' to instruct the DADEE exercise and empowerment programme that the UON was running. The programme was linked to an extensive research into the relationships between dads and their daughters, using exercise as a means to develop strong connections to foster the social, physical and emotional development of young girls. Running the weekly sessions had a profound effect on my understanding of both physical and health literacy. It empowered my ability to work effectively under a framework outside of my school environment and developed my ability to create connections with participants in different educational setting.

Casual Teaching - Senior Secondary College:

Following on from a successful Internship at the school, they afforded me the opportunity to work as a casual teacher, taking lessons across many different faculties, teaching many different subject areas. I look back at my teaching experiences within my time in this position with such fondness. It educated me a great deal about student management and engagements. It forced me to develop creative and innovative ways to teach content that was unknown to me, but using effective strategies that could maintain student learning. I was able to observe many teachers in action, a practice that I try to participate in and encourage currently, seeing it as a valuable professional development experience. These experiences were invaluable in preparing me for a full-time position, their supportive reference allowed me to make that transition the very next year.

Footballer - Newcastle FC:

Strangely enough, my time as a semi-professional footballer actually supported my motivation for a career in Education. Whilst preparing each day for a weekend footballing experience, it opened up opportunities for me to work in schools with adolescent students. I was leading coaching clinics and worked as a coach at Hunter Sports High School. My pursuit to improve my football, taught me valuable lessons about preparation, seeking best practice, motivation and goalsetting, however; unbeknownst to me at the time it was providing me with insights into effective communication, effective teaching strategies and creating engaging learning environments. To this day, I still look back at my 'good' and 'not so good' coaches for inspiration and reflection of my own teaching.