I've taken a year off from teaching - and it's the best thing I could've done!

Jennifer Trijo

By Jennifer Trijo
Community contribution / October 3, 2018

Taking a year off to explore the world, learn new skills, or simply relax is often the realm of secondary school graduates who have just ran the gauntlet of Year 12.

With the exception of parental leave or long service leave, teachers rarely take extended time off from their careers.

It ...

Nursery Practitioner

Teaching - Early childhood / May 20, 2026

SEN Learning Support Assistant

Veritas South West London

Teaching Aides & Special Needs / May 20, 2026

Koala Childcare and Early Learning Centre Warrnambool – West Campus Warrnambool VIC

Explore how we enhance and support our Story House-ers at our Warrnambool service, proudly certified as a Great Place to Work!

Childcare & Outside School Hours Care / May 20, 2026

By Jennifer Trijo

Community

Jennifer has worked as a classroom music teacher and instrumental tutor in the government and private school sectors. She has a double degree in Music and Education from The University of New South Wales. Jennifer is a singer-songwriter and professional actor-musician. Her written articles have been published on arts and education platforms such as Limelight, Aussie Theatre and the Australian Teacher Magazine.

Similar news

Opinion / Five things I've learnt as a returning relief teacher Opinion / Teachers now: Why I left and where I've gone School news / Bushranger pulls off premiership as well as best and fairest heist

Latest comments

I find it very reassuring reading excellent articles like this. When I wrote in same vein back in 1995 and in 'The El...

— Greg Cudmore on Why More Diagnoses Won’T Fix What’S Happening In Australian Classrooms

Top events

School news / Policy pickle: navigating the precarious road ahead for wearable devices in classrooms

Wearable devices in the classroom present serious privacy and data security risks for schools, a legal expert has warned, yet inconsistent rules about their use are clouding the scene for school leaders across the country.

School news / ‘Years behind’: NAPLAN analysis reveals scale of Australia's educational inequity

Australia’s school system is actively widening learning gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children, damning new analysis drawing on 17 years’ worth of NAPLAN data has revealed.

School news / Employment rates for next-gen Indigenous women soaring due to education drive

Rising Indigenous employment is being driven by women who are better qualified than men and more likely to attend school and avoid the justice system, new research has revealed.

School news / Gifted Awareness Week shines light on learners our education system isn’t seeing

The stereotype of the gifted child as a confident, straight-A student sitting at the front of the class does not always match the reality in Australian classrooms, and as many experienced educators know, the consequences of under-identification of...

School news / ‘Nothing to lose by holding out’: Vic teachers not happy with 32 per cent pay offer

An in-principle agreement which will see Victoria’s public school teachers pocket pay rises of up to 32.4 per cent has been struck between the Allan Government and the Australian Education Union – but some argue the proposal fails to deliver bette...

School news / The 50-year fight to recognise rural mums’ unpaid education support role work

For Matilda Pearce, a school day might involve online classes in an outback farmhouse, doing maths in a paddock, practising spelling words in the car or reading a book on the long trip to town.

Opinion / Why more diagnoses won’t fix what’s happening in Australian classrooms

Walk into any school staffroom in Australia and ask what has changed over the past decade and the answer is strikingly consistent.

School news / Canvas breach: Australian schools the likely target of sophisticated phishing scams

In the wake of the Canvas data breach, Australian teachers and school leaders should now brace for an imminent wave of highly targeted phishing scams aimed at their communities, a cyber safety expert has warned.

School news / ‘We took out all the group work’: school’s instructional shift lifts literacy outcomes

Before one small regional Victorian school overhauled its approach to teaching English, there was a lot of ‘busy work’ underway in lessons – but not necessarily much actual learning happening.

School news / Concern grows as Budget targets ‘inappropriate’ disability funding for schools

Described by the Albanese Government as ‘ambitious’ yet grounded in ‘responsible’ economic management, the 2026/27 Budget cracks down on the tax treatment of housing and trusts, and delivers new tax sweeteners to workers – but what’s in it for sch...

Comments