Certification of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers
Certification is a process whereby experienced classroom teachers in Queensland schools voluntarily pursue national Certification to demonstrate their teaching skills and abilities at the higher career-stages of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST).
Certification supports teachers to document their practice at the HAT or LT career stage of the APST. Assessment is made against all the descriptors of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST):
Certification is portable as Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATs) and Lead Teachers (LTs) are certified through a national process applied by Certifying Authorities in each participating state or territory.
Certified teachers are required to renew their certification status every five years. For more information, see Certification Renewal.
Deciding to apply for Certification requires considerable reflection from teachers about their practice against the APST. AITSL has provided a Teacher Self-Assessment Tool to support this reflection:
To read about the experiences of certified teachers refer to Stories on the QCT website. These stories provide useful advice and tips for applicants.
Teachers applying for certification by the Queensland College of Teachers should refer to the Guidelines for teachers applying for certification by the Queensland College of Teachers as Highly Accomplished Teachers and Lead Teachers.
Employers have specific requirements for teachers applying for certification. For employer specific information about applications:
Department of Education:
Queensland Catholic Education Commission:
Independent Schools Queensland:
Resources
Policy and guidelines
- Highly Accomplished Teacher and Lead Teacher Certification policy (PDF, 91KB)
- Guidelines for teachers applying for certification by the Queensland College of Teachers as Highly Accomplished Teachers and Lead Teachers (PDF 283 KB)
- Framework for the Certification of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers (aitsl.edu.au)
Applicant resources
- Printable copy of Standards - Highly accomplished career stage (PDF, 64KB)
- Printable copy of Standards - Lead career stage (PDF, 68KB)
- Evidence Map - Interactive (PDF, 381KB)
- Reflection questions and prompts analysing evidence - Highly accomplished (PDF, 100KB)
- Reflection questions and prompts analysing evidence - Lead (PDF, 108KB)
- QCT Highly Accomplished Teacher Evidence Sample 1 (ZIP, 56.7MB)
- QCT Highly Accomplished Teacher Evidence Sample 2 (ZIP, 56.7MB)
- QCT Lead Teacher Evidence Sample 1 (ZIP, 12.2MB)