Currently registered in WA

1. How can I change my contact details?

To change your email address, telephone, postal address or street address, please refer to Update your contact details.

2. How do I change my name?

To change your name, please refer to Update your contact details. You must provide copies of evidence of the name change. In most situations this will be through an official marriage certificate (not a ceremonial certificate) or change of name certificate (issued by a State or Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages).

3. Can I transfer my registration if I move interstate?

Teacher registration authorities in all Australian States, Territories and New Zealand recognise teacher registration in Western Australia through mutual recognition. Generally, this only applies to those holding Full Registration or Provisional Registration. 

Please make contact with the relevant teacher registration authority to determine their specific policies and requirements.

4. Can the TRBWA cancel a teacher's registration?

The TRBWA is required to cancel a teacher's registration as soon as possible after the Board becomes aware that the teacher is no longer entitled to be registered.

The following events may result in cancellation:

  • Non-payment of the annual fee
  • Failure to provide the Board written consent to obtain a criminal history check
  • The qualification that enabled you to gain registration has been withdrawn, cancelled or found to be fraudulent
  • You are convicted or found guilty of an actionable offence
  • You are issued a Negative Notice or Interim Negative Notice by the Working With Children Screening Unit
  • Information in your application about your teaching experience is found to be misleading or false.
  • the State Administrative Tribunal instructs the TRBWA to cancel a teacher's registration.

5. Can I remain registered despite having been out of the profession for several years?

Teachers holding Full Registration or Provisional Registration (Graduate Teacher or Returning Teacher) who wish to take a break from teaching but intend to return in the future, have the option to change their category of registration to Non-Practising Registration.  

Following changes to the Teacher Registration Act 2012 (Act) which took effect from 19 December 2023, teachers holding Non-Practising Registration are not eligible to teach. This change aligns this category with other states and territories, reducing confusion for teachers, employers, and other stakeholders.

Non-Practising Registration can be held indefinitely and is subject to the following conditions and requirements:

  • annual fees must still be paid by the due date
  • the teacher must continue to be a fit and proper person to be registered
  • the teacher remains subject to the disciplinary provisions and the notification obligations
  • contact details must be kept up to date in Teacher Login

A change of category to Non-Practising Registration is not available to those with Limited Registration.

Teachers who wish to return to teaching will need to apply for a change of category to Full or Provisional (Graduate Teacher or Returning Teacher) Registration with the Board, and be granted this registration before being able to teach. 

6. Can I renew my Limited Registration?

Yes, a Limited Registration may be renewed. This requires the employer to make an application for a further period of Limited Registration, on behalf of the teacher, which has identical teaching requirements to the expiring registration. This should be submitted at least 28 days prior to the expiry date of the registration.

7. Can I renew my Provisional Registration?

​At the end of the Provisional Registration period, if you are unable to meet the requirements to move to Full Registration, there is scope to apply to the Board for consideration of sufficient reasons. This is for the purposes of renewal of Provisional Registration.  Please refer to the Consideration of Sufficient Reasons for Renewal of Registration policy​ for more information. ​

If you would like to apply to the Board to consider your situation, please complete and submit the 'Application to Renew Provisional Registration' online form available through Teacher Login.

8. Can I extend my Non-Practising Registration?

Your Non-Practising Registration can be held indefinitely, and does not have an expiry date.  

9. What are my renewal of registration obligations if I am a relief or part time teacher?

Relief or part time teachers are required to meet the same requirements as all teachers applying to renew registration.  There are no provisions in the legislation for lowering or raising requirements for different teaching loads.

10. Does unpaid volunteer teaching meet the professional engagement requirements for renewal of registration?

Regulation 7 of the Teacher Registration (General) Regulations 2012 states that an unpaid volunteer is teaching if:

a)     the volunteer is solely or principally responsible for the delivery of, and the assessment of student participation in, an education program designed to implement a prescribed curriculum; or

b)     the volunteer is administering an educational program designed to implement a prescribed curriculum and is solely or principally responsible for its administration.

Unpaid volunteer teaching will only count as professional engagement if the unpaid volunteer teaching fulfils the definition as described above.

11. What if my registration is subject to a condition?

You must abide by any condition imposed upon your registration. A registered teacher and the person engaging a registered teacher are both subject to a $5000 fine for the first offence and $10000 fine for the second offence of the contravention of a condition.

12. What is an 'educational institution' for the purposes of teacher registration?

An educational institution means any of the following:

  • a school as defined in the School Education Act 1999 section 4;
  • a kindergarten registered under the School Education Act 1999 Part 5;
  • a child care service; 
  • a centre-based service;
  • a detention centre (Banksia Hill Detention Centre);
  • any other prescribed institution for the purposes of this definition

13. How is 'teaching' defined for the purposes of teacher registration?

'Teaching' means to undertake duties at an educational institution that;

a) include any of the following:

  • the delivery of an educational program and the assessment of student participation in an educational program; 
  • leading the delivery and assessment of any such educational program, including managing others undertaking the delivery and assessment. 

b) do not include:

  • assistance with the delivery and assessment of an educational program at an educational institution by a teacher's aide or a teacher's assistant at the institution;
  • the delivery and assessment of an educational program at an educational institution by a student teacher on practicum placement at the institution;
  • duties undertaken by a person employed or engaged to provide care at a child car service but who is not engaged to undertake the delivery, assessment or leadership of an educational program at the service;
  • the delivery and assessment of an educational program at an educational institution by an unpaid volunteer at the institution unless the volunteer is undertaking duties of a kind, or to an extent, prescribed for the purposes of this subparagraph;
  • duties undertaken by prescribed persons or in other prescribed circumstances.

14. How does 'administration of an educational program' meet the definition of 'teaching'?

For the purposes of teacher registration, duties undertaken by principals, deputy principals, heads of learning or other educational leaders which include the oversight of, leadership or management of the development and/or implementation of educational programs within an educational institution, are also considered teaching.