Brisbane teacher Natalie Rayner swapped youth worker for teaching

Natalie Rayner traded her career as a youth worker for teaching to help disadvantaged young people find a better future. And there’s a big misconception in her role she’d like corrected.

Natalie Rayner understands why it is hard for people to look past the headlines of youth crime and see the children behind them.

But the youth worker turned teacher says young people deserve the opportunity to learn from their mistakes to forge a better future.

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An essential part of that journey, she says, is education.

“I have always seen teaching as having that immediate impact,” Ms Rayner said. “About seeing that what I’m doing is having a positive impact.

“That was one of the reasons I got into teaching in the first place.”

Ms Rayner, 32, works at Queensland Pathways State College, an Education Queensland school that offers a non-mainstream model of education.

Natalie Rayner in the classroom at the Queensland Pathways State College in Mt Gravatt, Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Spanning five campuses in greater Brisbane or Ipswich and one in Townsville, the school seeks to retain students who are at risk of falling out of education and support them to complete their formal high school education or training.

“Normal” school may not have worked for them due to social issues such as homelessness or family violence, mental health challenges and disengagement, or because they were in the juvenile justice system.

For QPSC alumni Christine Fitzgerald, the impact of Ms Rayner and the school was profound, helping her to achieve a high school certificate.

“Natalie would make her students a priority,” she said. “She always tried to form a close but still professional bond with her us and that is what made Nat such an inspiration. She made us feel comfortable to talk to her about any issues that may be affecting our ability to succeed in our school work.”

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Ms Rayner has worked as a teacher at QPSC since 2019, teaching a class of students with a range of ages, abilities and goals.

“Sometimes there is a stigma that we don’t have high expectations for our students,” she said. “That is completely incorrect. We have high expectations and we know that our students can meet them.”

Ms Rayner followed a winding path to her teaching career, starting out as a youth worker in 2016 while studying for her Bachelor of Education at Griffith University.

As she worked with young people who had committed crimes, she recognised that hers was a meaningful job that was also building her teaching skills.

“I always advocated for students to get them back into education,” she said.

“The research shows that recidivism rates do go down when they have that support. Filling those literacy and numeracy and learning gaps is really important to give them the confidence to know that there is another option.”

Ms Rayner with school principal Kristie de Brenni. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

She said the issues of youth justice were complex but individuals could and did prevail.

“It’s so hard to see the young people involved in youth justice as anything other than the headlines we see in the news, and the crimes that they have been involved in,” she said. “When you meet these young people in the justice system, they’re just kids. Kids stuff up, sometimes massively, and the role of youth justice and youth workers is to try and help those young people learn from what they have done and that there are better choices to be made in the future.”

Her work now as a teacher involves not only teaching in line with the Australian Curriculum and vocational training, but also mentoring.

Last year Ms Rayner was awarded the Dr Roger Hunter OAM Excellence in Beginning to Teach Award for her teaching and her mentorship of young people.

QPSC Principal Kristie De Brenni described Natalie’s teaching as respectful, trusting and calm, and able to create an environment where students felt able to be themselves.

“Natalie displays unconditional positive regard for all of her students, meaning she shows empathy, support and acceptance for students, no matter what behaviours they may display,” she said.