Standard 2: Staff to Student Ratios

‍The Registration Requirement

Under the Guide to the registration standards and other requirements for non-government schools effective 1 January 2024, the Director General must be satisfied that your proposed school maintains a satisfactory ratio of staff to students. Your school's governing body and leadership team hold ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the number of proposed teaching and support staff on duty is completely sufficient to provide a safe and effective learning environment from your very first day of school.

To satisfy this standard, your proposed school must demonstrate that your staffing numbers are consistently adequate across all planned operations. This includes standard classroom instruction, specialised education programs, out of class supervision (such as recess and lunch duties), and off-site school activities or excursions. To meet the Department's basic rules, this initial ratio and scheduling framework must be fully submitted at least six months before the school is planned to open.

💡 Expert Compliance Note: The Department of Education takes an individualised, risk based approach when looking at initial registration applications. For a brand new school entity, case managers cannot look at a past track record, active staff payroll data, or completed yard duty logs. Instead, they will focus heavily on your blank master tracking templates, proposed timetables, and workforce plans. Lacking a clear daily timetable, or failing to attach a blank template for early childhood room tracking will trigger an immediate compliance flag during your video conference or site visit. The templates in our bundle are built from the ground up to stop these issues before they start.

‍Official References

The application form and guide are available for download via the links below.

👉 Application for registration document.

‍ 👉 Guide to the registration standards and other requirements for non-government schools effective 1 January 2024‍. ‍

Your Downloadable Template Bundle

‍Your membership includes full access to our Staff to Student Ratios Templates Bundle. This all in one ZIP file contains every document, policy, and register required to build a compliant framework.

‍ 👉 Download Staff to Student Ratios Templates Bundle ZIP File

📌 Please Note: Not all of these templates will suit your school, but they give you a good range to get through registration.

‍Inside your download, you will find:

  • Off-Site Activities and Camp Governance

  • Excursions, Incursions, Camps, and Tours Policy and Procedure

  • Gender Diversity Camp and Excursion Consultation Template

  • Daily Operational Supervision and Duty Roster Protocols

  • Playground and Yard Duty Policy Before, During, and After School

  • School Hours and Supervision Procedures

  • Specialised Learning Environments and Workforce Logistics

  • Science and Technologies Rooms Policy

  • Fatigue Management Procedure

Internal Proposed Evidence

Recommended Checklist for Part B Submission: To help build out your submission folder for Part B of the Application for initial registration, we recommend gathering these key internal files from your school records. Please note that while these specific documents are recommended to help evidence your compliance, this is a practical guide rather than an exhaustive checklist.

  • Proposed Whole School Staffing Structure: A clear organisational layout detailing your projected total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff and non-teaching support staff.

  • Proposed Class Timetables and Daily Rosters: A copy of the school’s proposed daily timetable showing the exact hours allocated for instruction each day across every proposed class cohort.

  • Playground Supervision Zones Map: Your planned internal yard duty maps proving that supervisors will be strategically positioned to maintain an uninterrupted line of sight across high risk and high traffic zones.

  • Blank Early Childhood Room Log Template: A blank template showing how, for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, a contemporaneous daily record will be kept to track the exact staff headcounts, position titles, and precise time-in/time-out blocks for everyone working directly with the children.

  • Proposed School Organisation Chart: A clear management chart which explicitly demonstrates the management structure, including the specific arrangements for your educational leadership.

  • Staff Code of Conduct and Boundary Guidelines: Your finalised staff code of conduct detailing standard operational boundaries, which must explicitly comply with both Standard 4 and Standard 10 child safety parameters.

  • Proposed Staff Qualification and Training Matrix: An internal administrative spreadsheet layout proving that your prospective early childhood hiring targets will ensure at least 50% of the headcount holds an approved Diploma, with all other supporting ratio staff holding at least an approved Certificate III.

  • Excursion Risk Management Plan (RMP) Templates: Blank RMP templates for off-site trips detailing specialised, risk-adjusted staff to student ratios alongside safety logs for high risk destinations.

  • Before and After School Care Draft Service Agreements: If applicable, draft partnership documentation or service level agreements proving that any planned external out of school hours care contractors will operate under independent, compliant statutory ratios and duty of care structures.

Compliance Tips & Hidden Requirements

School registration reviews in WA have a few unique, specific traps that catch boards out. Make sure your team knows these hidden rules:

  • The Kindergarten 1:10 Ratio Maximum Lock (Page 16): Supervision models for early childhood cohorts are governed by rigid legal maximums rather than school staffing preferences. Under Standard 2, a strict maximum 1:10 supervision ratio must be actively maintained in all Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes. Staffing templates and proposed daily timetables must provide clear evidence that this baseline is built into your core operational hours.

  • The 30 Minute Early Childhood Break Constraint (Page 16): Staff relief schedules in early education modules contain a major operational trap. The Guide permits early childhood staff to take a maximum of 30 minutes per day "off the floor" for breaks, but they must remain physically on the school premises and be immediately available to assist if an emergency arises. Your room log templates and relief policies must be set up to track this on-site availability perfectly.

  • The Dual Qualified Early Childhood Teacher Rule (Page 16): Employing an educator with standard secondary or primary training to run an early learning module will trigger an immediate compliance failure unless prior approval is granted. To satisfy the definition of an early childhood teacher, they must hold a qualification that is accepted as an early childhood teaching qualification by ACECQA and is concurrently accepted by the TRBWA for registration. Your proposed HR qualification folders must track both independent clearances on a single record.

  • The Variable Risk Excursion Adjustment Mandate (Pages 16–17): Maintaining a static, single teacher to student ratio for off-site school activities is a direct regulatory breach. The Guide dictates that the sufficiency of your supervision ratios must actively fluctuate based on a documented assessment of inherent activity risks and environmental factors, such as the age of the students, learning support needs, and the nature of the courses or activities.

  • The 60 Day Teacher Relief Ceiling (Page 21): Under the Standard 4 guidelines, if an early childhood teacher is absent, a strict backup timeline applies. If the absence totals no more than 60 days in a school year or is due to a resignation, their place may be filled by a primary qualified teacher for the remainder of that school year. In all other cases, the position must be filled by a fully qualified early childhood teacher.

House Operational Risk Tips (Not Explicitly in the Guide)

  • Mask Professional Training and Screening Details: When uploading your proposed staff qualification grids or specialised training certifications to your Part B OneDrive folder, make sure to completely block out any private individual registration numbers or serial strings. Use a clean placeholder label like [Vetting Registration Number Redacted] to keep data privacy lines perfectly secure.

  • Remove Candidate Personal Details from Formative Rosters: If your early playground duty maps or specialised facility supervision layouts name specific prospective educators or external contractors who are not yet officially hired, replace their real names with neutral tags like ECT Teacher 1 or Yard/ Playground Supervisor A before sending files to the Department.

  • Enforce Secure Document Version Controls: Set up strict editing restrictions or password access on your central timetable files and master ratio spreadsheets on your shared drive. This keeps temporary updates or casual administrative tweaks from accidentally changing your board approved baseline frameworks before they are evaluated by your case manager.

Compliance Quick Check

Before you finish, double check that your school leadership has completed and marked off these specific items required on the official initial application form:

  • Have you fully populated the mandatory initial staffing table, detailing your exact projected calendar years, total student numbers, and projected teaching, education support, and other FTE headcounts?

  • Have you completed the mathematical ratio table, declaring your exact maximum and average teacher to student and classroom staff to student ratios across all relevant cohort blocks (Pre-K/K, PP–Year 6, Years 7–12)?

  • Can you produce a complete copy of the proposed daily timetable showing the exact hour allocations for classroom instruction each day?

  • Does your evidence folder contain a copy of a blank master template designed to keep a contemporaneous daily record of your early childhood room staff headcounts?

📌 Now don’t forget to save your evidence in your created folder in your school's shared drive (Google Drive or OneDrive).

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