Recruiting and appointing RTLB
Education Gazette – Obligations when advertising vacancies
Requirements for advertising vacancies and information on collective agreements
Roles
- The lead kura/school principal/tumuaki, in collaboration with the cluster manager, is responsible for the recruitment and appointment of RTLB staff.
- The local Ministry Learning Support manager may provide advice and support to the principal during the appointment process.
- The cluster manager is a member of the appointments panel.
- Other key stakeholders may be co-opted to the appointments panel.
Job description for RTLB role in downloadable Word document.
Specialist skills may be added according to the needs and strategic goals of the cluster.
Job Description: Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (Word, 37 KB)
Job Description: Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour Māori (Word, 40 KB)
The appointee
An applicant can qualify for an RTLB position in one of three ways.
In the first avenue, the applicant is an experienced, fully registered kaiako or teacher who holds a current practising certificate.
This person has attained the Post Graduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching endorsed in Learning and Behaviour from Massey or The University of Canterbury.
Being able to meet the Standards for the Teaching Profession and the competencies in Tātaiako is the final requirement.
In the second way, the applicant has attained the previous RTLB qualification prior to 2012.
The qualification could be either the Post Graduate Diploma in Special Needs Resource Teaching (PG Dip SNRT) or the Post Graduate Certificate in Education Studies.
The Auckland/Victoria/Waikato consortium of universities issues both qualifications.
The third path is an applicant who has attained the necessary university pre-requisites to enrol in the Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching: Learning and Behaviour.
Additional requirements include the person can attain the qualification within 48 months of initial appointment as an RTLB.
The appointee indicates acceptance by signing the letter of offer which includes the job description.
Note
To enrol in the PG Dip in Specialist Teaching, an RTLB needs to be a university graduate i.e. must hold a university degree or the equivalent.
Appointees who hold an historic Ministry exemption from study and who may have worked in another RTLB cluster are required to attain the Post Graduate Diploma in Specialist Teaching endorsed in Learning and Behaviour.
Process
New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA): Recruitment
Employment process, requisite steps, and resources
Full-time appointments only
An RTLB can only be appointed to a full-time position. RTLB cannot be appointed to part-time positions (outside of job-share arrangements).
Job sharing
The teachers' collective agreements allow for job-sharing of permanent RTLB positions. A permanent full-time RTLB position can be shared by two RTLB in a job-share arrangement.
RTLB in a job share arrangement cannot individually be employed for less than a 0.4 FTTE position.
Reference checking
Oranga Tamariki: Safety checking
Information and resources for employers, organisations, and individuals relating to the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
The Vulnerable Children Act 2014 was part of a series of comprehensive measures brought in to protect and improve the wellbeing of vulnerable children.
If the preferred applicant comes from another RTLB cluster, lead schools are strongly advised to obtain reference checks from the previous lead school.
Employment agreement
RTLB may be employed by primary, area or secondary school/kura boards under the relevant teachers’ collective agreement(s) of their lead school, or on an individual employment agreement based on the relevant collective agreement.
If the appointee comes from another school or RTLB cluster where they were employed under another collective agreement, they must move to the collective agreement of the new employing lead school; the transition arrangements for the RTLB transformation no longer apply.
Content last updated: March 2018