Non-practising accreditation

Eligible teachers who wish to stop teaching but remain accredited can easily change their status to Non-practising. Find out why and how to do this, including how to return to teaching.

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Your professional development requirements have changed

Effective from 16 August 2024 the professional development (PD) requirements for teachers maintaining Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher accreditation have been changed.

NESA has removed the Accredited and Elective PD categories to give teachers more flexibility in completing their required 100 hours of PD.

NESA is currently re-developing eTAMS to reflect these changes. You can continue to log PD in eTAMS or offline and submit your maintenance of accreditation when due and once you complete 100 hours of PD. All PD activities already logged will count towards your required PD hours.

Find out more about these changes and watch our video for more information.

Why become a Non-practising teacher

You may choose Non-practising teacher accreditation if you:

do not plan to teach in a NSW school or service
have already taken the maximum 5 years' leave
want to remain accredited and connected to the teaching profession.

This puts your accreditation timeframe on hold indefinitely and makes it easy to return to teaching in a school or service in the future. You can return to active accreditation at any time.

You cannot teach in any NSW school or service as a Non-practising teacher.

Check your eligibility

You must be accredited at Proficient Teacher or above to apply.

Who suits being a Non-practising teacher?

Non-practising accreditation is voluntary. For example, teachers in the following roles could consider changing to non-practising accreditation:

corporate staff in sector or early childhood employer offices
union employees
NESA employees
early intervention teachers
inclusion support teachers
university lecturers.

Change your accreditation to Non-practising teacher

Change your accreditation from active to Non-practising teacher in your NESA online account (eTAMS). The start date must be on the date of change or in the future.

You cannot backdate your accreditation status to Non-practising.

While you are a Non-practising teacher

Your accreditation status changes from active to Non-practising on the NSW Public Register of Teachers.

If you have Non-practising teacher accreditation, your maintenance of accreditation is placed on hold until you return to active accreditation.

If you are a Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher (HALT), you can be a Non-practising teacher for a maximum of 5 years. If you return to active accreditation after 5 years of being away from teaching, your accreditation status will revert to Proficient Teacher.

While you are a Non-practising teacher, you:

cannot work in a school/service as a teacher or principal/service director
need to pay the annual teacher accreditation fee
need to hold a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) and provide NESA with the details (your accreditation will be suspended if you do not)
remain subject to suitability to teach requirements
are not required to complete professional development (PD) though you still can if you choose
cannot submit your maintenance.

While Non-practising, you can be an Accreditation Supervisor for teachers applying for Proficient Teacher. However you cannot make accreditation recommendations.

Non-practising teachers can be HALT assessors. However you cannot make accreditation attestations for teachers maintaining HALT.

Keep records of your PD

If you plan to meet your PD requirements by the end of your accreditation timeframe when you return to teaching, you will need to keep a record of any PD you completed before or while you are Non-practising. You will need to declare that you:

kept a record
can provide this record to NESA if you are selected for random audit.

Return to teaching

You can return to active accreditation at any time by changing your status in eTAMS. Your accreditation status will change back to active on the NSW Public Register of Teachers.

Accreditation timeframes when returning

If you are a Non-practising teacher for less than 6 consecutive months, your maintenance due date will remain the same as your original due date.

If you return to active accreditation within 5 years, your previous maintenance timeframe will automatically be adjusted to reflect the time you were accredited as a Non-practising teacher.

If you held Non-practising teacher accreditation for more than 5 years, you will start a new maintenance period when you return. Any PD activities you completed before you reactivate your accreditation will not transfer to the new maintenance period.

Ending a Leave of Absence

If you are on a Leave of Absence, you cannot apply for Non-practising accreditation. You need to first end your Leave of Absence in eTAMS. For conditions on returning to teach, see the Leave of Absence procedure.

You may then change to Non-practising accreditation in eTAMS.