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Sagecool is vastly different to all other offerings in its sophistication and breadth of offerings. Just a few important differences are:

• There are no capacity limits. SEPI will attract tens of thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of students nationally to engage on the system.
• SOMS enables the matching of student needs with the appropriately skilled teacher including those that have excelled in their specialty.
• Students and teachers have many different timetable options and unlimited subject choice.
• SEPI will attract the best teachers. It provides the flexibility to work fulltime on SEPI or be teaching at a regular school and part time on SEPI.
• Teacher Teams
• Access to and ability to implement any innovations in teaching methods from around the world
• Access to lesson enhancing technologies from around the world

• Teachers who have left the profession and wish to return because of the innovative Sagecool offering.
• Parental leave teachers who can work from home (part or full time).
• Retired teachers and current teachers who switch to SEPI full time.
• Non-teachers from outside the profession, especially retirees who become accredited.
• Current full-time teachers who may now be able to negotiate a trade-off between less non-teaching duties at school in return for being part-time on SEPI to take a class.
• Part time teachers who now wish to increase their load because of the flexibility of the Sagecool offering.

Sagecool is dedicated to discovering innovation in teaching methods and styles (including lesson enhancing technology) from around the world. SEPI is designed to enable easy access to this for teachers, schools and students.

Schools had only weeks (at best) to prepare for online teaching during COVID. There has been a sea change in all aspects of online learning over the past three years and the innovation is proceeding at an extraordinary pace. The world has embraced digital communications with it now being the norm in commerce and at university level. Sagecool prepares students to enter this digital age.

The funding will come mainly from the government with some possible supplementary income from private schools and/or parents.

The figures are based on a full-time SEPI teacher earning a net of $3,600 per student and 3 classes of 25 students would result in $270,000 net pretax income.

Class sizes smaller than 25 students would obviously mean less income to the teacher but alternatively, there may be room for significant productivity improvements (e.g., university model) allowing for increased number of students to be taught by a single teacher or teacher team.

The scheme will be funded by the government using the same method of sliding scale funding that is currently used, which is the ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage). This sees the most disadvantaged schools get the most funding. The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a variety of schemes e.g. 50k sign on bonus in disadvantaged schools, HECS debt relief, free teaching degrees etc. which may be saved in part by using Sagecool.

In most cases, no. Some private schools who do not get the full government funding, may choose to pay the difference themselves or ask the families of the students undertaking the subjects to pay. The vast majority of government schools will not pay anything. They may save money if other expenses are reduced.

Teachers will be able to act as a sole trader as they will be self-employed when on SEPI. Initially we intend that it will cost $4,000 per student per subject, of which the teacher would net $3,600. For teachers who teach both at a school and are on SEPI they will be the sole trader only for the SEPI portion of their income.

Yes, if the school agrees. Many Principals would consider this an excellent form of professional development. They put it in the same category as teachers tutoring outside of school.

No. We are referring here to the explosion in LET for teaching and not the delivery technology like Zoom. SEPI being open architecture will cater for all LET. Indeed, our intention is to make participants aware of all developments in LET. Teachers and schools will be free to use whatever delivery technology (zoom. Teams etc.) they wish.

Yes. All teachers need current state accreditation and those new to teaching will need permission to teach whilst completing their accreditation. Each state will have its own fast track accreditation process for entrants from outside the profession (including retirees).

SEPI is compliant with all regulations surrounding safety.

Yes. Students can log in from anywhere in the world as it is an online platform.

Yes. Teachers can log in from anywhere in the world as it is an online platform.

The Sagecool teacher will be responsible for all student assessment as per a face-to-face teacher liaising with the student's school. SACS can be completed online supervised in conjunction with the school and external exams can be completed at an exam centre.

The Grattan Institute teacher survey of over 500 teachers indicated that 92% felt they don't have enough time to prepare for classroom teaching. This is in part due to activities such as home room responsibilities, sports coaching, camps, meetings, assemblies, house athletics day, fund raising activities, yard duty and following up excursion forms etc.

The SEPI platform allows teachers to just teach, prepare for classes and consult with students. All the peripheral activities don't exist and consequently, the platform will result in better student outcomes as teachers are far more prepared, available and focused.

Schools will need to adjust to this new paradigm.

Unlike a physical classroom in a school environment, teachers are directly matched with students who fit their specific needs e.g. ADHD and teachers can devote more time to teaching and preparing as there are no non-teaching duties (other than reporting) associated with SEPI. The platform enables personalised learning with directly matched teachers.

Human interaction is crucial for young people for their socialisation and development. It is important to remember that the SEPI platform will complement face to face teaching and not replace it, as most students will only undertake one or two subjects and still be attending school. Also, at this stage it only relates to Year 11 and 12 subjects, so the vast majority of their school experience will remain unchanged.

It is widely agreed that teacher workload and burnout are significant reasons for the current teacher exodus and shortage. Our platform enables teachers to concentrate solely on teaching with no meetings, travel, camps, sports training, homeroom, weekend sport etc. and the flexibility to conduct classes when it suits them. This gives teachers a much healthier work/life balance and family time.

Dr. Saul Karnovsky from Curtin's School of Education noted in his research:

"The vast majority of teachers are considering leaving the profession because they have very poor work-life balance. Our teachers are telling us that their workloads are unmanageable and unrealistic."

It is crucial that any solutions address this problem.

Potentially, yes-it does but a major change is what is needed! There have been many attempts to help alleviate the teacher crisis and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on many schemes - e.g., scholarships for students with high ATARS, etc. Progress has been limited - at best.

The OECD and the Productivity Commission have pointed to major changes that are needed but as Dr. Saul Karnovsky notes: "there does not appear to be an appetite for substantial change that is required on a systemic level".