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Holiday Dates School Holiday Dates NSW
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states Advice
to students on writing Letters to the Editor Daily Telegraph Daily
Telegraph’s
Spelling
Bee
Students can play against their class mates and friends with the new player vs player functionality. Throughout the Spelling Bee there will be weekly prizes up for grabs. For more details check out the championship information on the website. Participation online is FREE. Useful assessment is timely assessment
Teacher Magazine, May, 2010 – a publication of the
Australian Council for Educational Research (the ACER). (You might
note that “Teacher” is an anagram of “the ACER”).
Testing
and teaching are not opposed: testing is an integral part of good teaching,
explains RALPH SAUBERN. A
useful discussion on the role of NAPLAN (infrequent) and Progressive
Achievement Testing (ongoning, in class). Progressive Achievement Testing allows
teachers and schools to use the tests as a way of monitoring student
achievement in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes at the
individual, class and whole-school level. It also allows teachers to monitor
individual progress across the years of school. Recommended to read Page 2. Building
the Education Revolution
Latest BER Information – NSW BER Implementation Details and Updates Federal Government’s website: The BER National Coordinator’s Implementation Report is now available, reporting on the progress of the initiative in its first eight months. Building the Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21st
Century Round Three Results Laptops
for Year 9 Students Laptops4Learning Program Info
links: PC World 1/4/2009 ZDnet 1/4/2009 Lenovo 30/3/09 Smart Office 1/4/09 See
our TECHNOLOGY page being developed. Suggestions welcome. |
Recent stories, current issues To find stories on this page, go to “Edit”, then
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information. Newspaper articles and other information featured on this page
do not necessarily reflect P&C policies or views of the NSW P&C Federation or the Northern Sydney Regional Council
of Parents and Citizens Associations. Articles from 1 August, 2011 CLICK
HERE FOR LINKS TO OLDER ARTICLES Teachers vow to fight principal and family power Sunday Telegraph January 29, 2012 A showdown is looming
with NSW teachers to pour unprecedented resources into fighting government
plans allowing parents and principals to hire and fire teachers. Trials
are under way in 1000 schools nationally under the federal government's
autonomy plan that will give parents and principals greater powers in the
day-to-day running of schools, including budgets and the length of the school
day. But the newly-elected president of the NSW Teachers Federation said
the push towards autonomy was a cost-cutting strategy to school staffing
entitlements. "It is the most dangerous, retrograde policy postulated by any
government," said Maurie Mulheron,
who took up his post on Friday. Mr Mulheron was formerly principal of Keira High School in Wollongong for 10 years. Struggling to afford an education at a public primary school Sunday Telegraph January 29, 2012 Laura
Speranza: School costs are rising
so fast that one in three parents can't afford the $3000 a year needed to
send a child to a public primary school. Trailing, can do better: report needs answers SMH January 28, 2012 Interesting read Anna Patty: Funding and a focus on basic skills are shortchanging students.Tests from the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development, the equivalent to the local tests,
show a consistent downward slide in the performance of Australia's
15-year-olds over the past decade.
Bruce McDougall: Proposed
changes to the definition of autism could slash the number of children being diagnosed
with the disorder in Australia and potentially disqualify thousands of
children from receiving help. US
experts are reassessing what it means to be autistic, which could make it
harder to meet criteria for government-funded assistance. Australian experts said the decisions made by the American Psychiatric
Association were certain to flow on to other countries, including Australia. Teacher shortage adds up to a number of problems for the
future Daily Telegraph January 25, 2012 at 6:16pm Maralyn Parker: The maths or science teacher your child gets next
week might not be qualified in the field. Don’t blame the school or the
teacher however. We have had a national problem with teacher supply for at
least a decade. Schools have become very good at improvising, so you probably
won’t even notice. A survey way back in 2006 by the Australian Secondary Principals
Association showed that one third of our schools had one to five classes being
taught by teachers not trained in the subject. The ASPA has not done a survey
since but we can be sure it will be more now. So no wonder this week’s NAPLAN report shows the gap between Australia’s top
and bottom performing students is growing and the Prime Minister is worried our Asian neighbours are leaving us behind. There will be a 26 per cent increase in Australian school students over
the next twelve years. The Productivity Commission suggests we pay maths
and science teachers more. Not just a one off bonus but higher salaries
than other teachers. This idea was howled down en masse by the nation’s teachers.
However get used to the idea. I believe it will happen. If you have your own suggestions the Productivity Commission would love
to hear them. It is taking submissions until 17th February. The final report
will be submitted in April. NAPLAN results show top students' standards drop SMH January 24, 2012 Jen Rosenberg: Australia’s students are falling against
international benchmarks and there is a growing gap between the top students
and bottom students, the federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, warned
yesterday. Children less likely to make the grade if their parents left
school early SMH
January 24, 2012 Kim Arlington: Children whose parents failed to complete year 12 were up to 11 times
more likely to fall below the national minimum standard, NAPLAN results show. NAPLAN results reveal stagnation SMH January 23, 2012 – 6.34pm Katina Curtis AAP: Australian students made few advances in literacy and numeracy
standards over the past four years, leading the federal opposition to accuse the
Labor government of letting down young people. The
National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results for 2011
showed an average of 93 per cent of students reached or did better than
national minimum standards. But
it also showed there were only "a number of small improvements"
across reading and literacy areas since the last tests in 2008. Unbending public system renews faith in religious schools SMH January 23, 2012 Opinion -
David Hastie, head of English at PLC Sydney … …. One curious example is the issue of text censorship in
schools. The old lore would have it that religious schooling is more
repressive than its secular cousin but, in the case of film censorship, NSW state
schools are now proving more restrictive. Justifiably, teachers thought that the ban created unfair gaps between
public and private. The hyper-aware moralities of religious schools actually
enabled their teachers to walk a fine text-selection line between education
quality and moral risk and to walk their students along the same path. This was in
stark contrast to what teachers perceived as a bureaucratic, risk-averse
mentality for state education. There's a principal involved: Get rid of bunglers, dullards
and fools Daily
Telegraph
January 20, 2012 Opinion: Christopher Bantick, a Melbourne
writer, education commentator, a columnist for The Melbourne
Anglican, and senior English teacher at Trinity Grammar, Kew
Victoria. As you
prepare your child for school this year, you are about to enter a lottery.
You don't know if their teacher will be any good. Many are. Some are not. The
present system in NSW enables bad teachers to remain in schools and damage
the education of children. The
Australian Schools Survey, released by Schools Minister Peter Garrett, makes
uneasy reading. More than
half the principals interviewed reported being hamstrung by a system that
doesn't allow them to hire and fire. This is not a new problem. Principals
know it, schools know it, parents know it and kids know it. Dud teachers
under the current staffing arrangements in NSW schools are on a nice little
earner. So why does this continue? Until
the teacher unions, and the Australian Education
Union specifically, is prepared to finger bad teachers and argue for their
removal, incompetence will be sanctioned. You pay your union dues and you are
in effect insured against unemployment. Until
school principals in state schools have the power to select their own staff
and sack inferior teachers, then NSW schooling will
lack the kind of quality assurance that is expected in business. It's
your kids that suffer. More articles by Christopher Bantick Teaching is a calling more than a vocation My School mute on bad teachers What unions really fear about teaching to the test Academic expertise crucial to effective teaching Poetry's death by a thousand hits Fool's gold in teachers' burnout fee Qld Chaplaincy program participants beyond a prayer Teachers should advance fundamental values Schools are a gravy train for holders of PhDs The dangers of a national curriculum nother viewpoint on Bantick’s views on poor
teachers … Can't call teachers sub-standard if there are no standards
nor opportunities David
Plummer The Courier-Mail April
08, 2011 The
"best" teachers can do next to nothing in a class of unco-operative
students and much less when the students don't even attend. The true
causes of our problems lie in the system itself. Along with the indiscipline
of vast numbers of children, its foundational ideologies have given rise to
an overcrowded curriculum and a mountain of peripheral activities, an
emphasis on process and method over content and achievement, the shunning of
the critical fundamentals of learning and the substitution of essential
drilling of basics with creativity and fun, all of which have led to an
increasing dependence on time-wasting PR to make it seem the school is doing
a good job. Many
brighter children have survived this type of schooling, but many more have
not. For many who needed remediation, it hasn't worked and the system has
never asked itself why. The most
glaring flaw in Bantick's argument is that he
delimits education to just teachers. But surely any attempt to remove
teachers on the basis of quality must apply equally to parents, students and
administrators, especially those who undermine the rightful authority of the
one who has to teach. Some teachers start higher up on the educational learning
curve Daily Telegraph January 18, 2012 – 5.28pm Maralyn Parker
– article and blog: ….. …..
But none of this probably will be worrying you as much as who will be
teaching your child for the year. Of
course you want an outstanding teacher. Playing in a Hard School Daily
Telegraph
January 19, 2012 Richard Noone: Forging rates
notices, moving into rentals and spending thousands on tutors - some parents
will stop at nothing to get their children into the best public schools. While some families are
happy to spend anywhere from $3000 to $5000 for an entire year of
after-school tutoring to help their child pass the sel
ective high school test, others are using fake
addresses or rental properties to get into the public school of their choice. Starting university
… 2012 university offers released SMH
January 18, 2012 Complete List of Main Round Offers (pdf) Places released tonight SMH January 18, 2012 Jen Rosenberg: Almost
85,000 NSW students will find out tonight whether they are off to university
this year. Anxious students can log into the Universities
Admissions Centre website at 9pm to learn of their offer, otherwise they
can wait for their results to come by mail from tomorrow. Late preference changes must be lodged by January 25. For these pupils, science is a language of love SMH January 20, 2012 While
most students are sleeping in or soaking up the holiday sunshine, budding scientists
from across Australia are getting a taste of a science career at the National
Youth Science Forum. It's a bugs life - and this budding scientist is delighted
SMH
January 20, 2012 NAPLAN cheating and security breaches listed SMH January 18, 2012 Anna Patty:
The national testing authority has reported
three incidents of cheating and nine security breaches in NSW during last
year's national literacy and numeracy tests. The effects of bullying last forever Herald
Sun
January 17, 2012 Opinion - Christopher Bantick: To be a man, I joined the school cadets. It was here that I
understood what institutionalised bullying was all about. If you wore a
peaked cap and had pips on your shoulder epaulets, that sanctioned you to do
exactly what you liked. I was humiliated
and beaten. I lasted a year. I still have an aversion to seeing army
uniforms. Bullying
reduces individuals. It demeans the spirit and makes them less than what they
can be, often for life. For this reason alone, we all should take the pledge. Principals ask for power to sack teachers Sunday
Telegraph
January 15, 2012 SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Public
school principals want more power to sack under-performing teachers, with
most telling the government they are hamstrung by the system. While private school
principals have far greater authority to review teachers' performance and
recruit staff, their counterparts in public schools say they are lagging
behind. The Sunday Telegraph
can today reveal the findings of the latest Staff in Australian Schools
Survey (the Survey Report will be available at www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/Pages/Teacherworkforce.aspx
when DEEWR gets around to it!!!), which asked more than 15,000 teachers and
principals about their working conditions. Despite a national debate
over the need to lift the number of male teachers to improve boys' school
results, the survey also finds little progress is being made. Putting a dollar value on having top teachers SMH January 15, 2012 Alicia
Wood: Good teachers can influence the earning power,
teenage pregnancy rates and university enrolments of their students. These are the findings of a controversial US study, which followed 2.5 million
students over 20 years. The president of the NSW Parents and Citizens Association, Helen
Walton, said the study's findings could empower parents who are concerned
their child's teacher is not performing well. ''You need quality teachers in every classroom, in front of every
child,'' she said. ''At the moment, if a parent or a group of parents are
concerned that a teacher is not performing, the process required to put that
teacher through an improvement program can take up to 12 months. By that time,
it's too late.'' For more
information, see: Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain The New York Times January 6, 2012 Other References: Value Added Research Centre,
Wisconsin USA
Dan Harrison: Peter
Garrett has predicted a shake-up of school funding will not reignite class
divisions, declaring the nation has moved on from debates about funding
private schools. The panel charged with reviewing
funding, chaired by the businessman David Gonski,
handed its report to Mr Garrett, the School Education Minister, shortly
before Christmas. Mr Garrett is developing the government's response, which
will be released with the report early in the new school year. The opposition's education
spokesman, Christopher Pyne, has predicted the
government will cut funding to private schools, forcing them to increase fees
or sack staff. TAFE NSW resists pressure to adopt TAFE funds model SMH January 12, 2012 Anna Patty: The state's Education
Minister, Adrian Piccoli, is resisting a strong push
from the Commonwealth to make TAFE institutes compete against private
operators for public funding under a model previously championed by NSW's top
bureaucrat. The Council of Australian
Governments has set the national agenda for greater competition between TAFE
and private colleges, following the example set in Victoria and South
Australia. TAFE institutes in Victoria must compete for all their public
funding against lower-cost private providers. Fears TAFE will go down Victoria road SMH January 9, 2012 Anna Patty : The
state government has been warned against making TAFE compete with lower-cost
private providers for public funding because of concerns this approach has
downgraded skills training and increased course fees in other states. Critics of the move to
make government funding for skills training more competitive say it has
undermined the TAFE system in Victoria and threatens to do the same in NSW. The government released a
discussion paper last year, Smart and Skilled: Making NSW Number One, which says
TAFE NSW must be well positioned in an ''environment of increased
contestability of government-funded training''. Advertisement: Story
continues below The paper says Victoria
and South Australia have adopted a more flexible demand-driven vocational
education and training system, in line with the Council of Australian
Governments agenda. The national agenda promotes greater contestability of
skills funding.
Dan Harrison: More
than 200 schools that have had a federal government-funded chaplain plan to
hire a secular welfare worker instead, taking advantage of changes to the
$222 million scheme. Before the School
Education Minister, Peter Garrett, announced the changes in September,
schools could only appoint a welfare worker if they could prove that no
chaplain was available. The Howard government
introduced the scheme in 2007, offering schools up to $20,000 a year to
introduce or extend chaplaincy services. About 2700 schools have received
funding under the program to date. The Gillard government has promised to
extend the scheme to up to 1000 further schools. Schools that are not receiving
funding at present have until March 2 to apply. Preschools - Australian Government’s Early Childhood Resources page Parents pay anything from $62 to $130 a day Herald Sun January 11, 2012 Increased rebates helping keep childcare costs down, report
reveals SMH January 10, 2012 Adele Horin: Families
spent a significantly lower proportion of their income on childcare last year
than they did in 2004, an official report shows. Despite
perceptions of run-away childcare fees, increased government subsidies
slashed the out-of-pocket costs to families, in some cases by almost half. The
report (in Child Care Update Jan 2012, pdf)
by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations shows a
family earning $55,000 with one child in long daycare spent 13.2 per cent of
their disposable income on childcare in 2004. Preschools flunk the test SMH January 8, 2012 Cosima Marriner: The
standard of teaching in Australian preschools is ''very poor'', a
government-funded national study into the quality of early education has
found. The
finding from the E4Kids
study suggests children may be attending little more than glorified
playgroup, despite research indicating that early learning makes a crucial
difference to their long-term development. Daytime naps spell trouble at night SMH January 8, 2012 Cosima Marriner:
Enforced rests for children may make it easier for childcare workers,
but it can be a different story for parents. Now for
the first time research is being conducted into the daytime nap habits of
preschoolers and how sleep patterns affect their behaviour and learning.
There are no strict guidelines regarding nap time for preschoolers -
government regulations simply state that services must make provisions for
children who need to have a sleep. Online reviews worry some operators SMH January 8, 2012 Cosima Marriner:
Parents will soon be able to rate their childcare centre online and
share their reviews with others. The online childcare directory CareforKids
is preparing to launch the TripAdvisor-style
ratings system for users of childcare services, the first system of its kind
in Australia and two years ahead of a promised federal government rating
website. But some
childcare operators are refusing to support the ratings, warning they will be
entirely subjective. Where children thrive on an outside chance SMH January 8, 2012 It may be the depths of winter in
Scandinavia, but children attending the increasingly popular outdoor
childcare centres spend all day in the forest. They pitch tents, go hiking
and make hot chocolate. While this freewheeling approach is a far
cry from the regimented system in Australia, early learning experts suggest
it could be the key to why Scandinavian childcare is consistently rated the
best in the world. Struggling to find a caring solution DT January 7, 2012 Editorial: Kate Ellis, the federal minister for early childhood and childcare,
pointed out this week in an ABC interview that "there are more children
in Australian childcare centres now than at any time in our history." Childcare reform gripes 'put costs before kids' The
Australian
January 6, 2012 Justine Ferrari and Verity Edwards: The agency
overseeing reforms to lift childcare quality has accused the sector of
misrepresenting the impact of new standards. (pay
to view) Income shaping children's progress at school The
Australian
January 4, 2012 Justine Ferrari: The growing
difference in the income of rich and poor families is accompanied by a
widening gap in the success of their children at school, with research
suggesting higher-income parents are spending more on their children's early
learning before they start school. A report from Stanford University's
Centre for Education Policy Analysis in the US says the gap in educational
achievement is 30 to 40 per cent larger among children born in 2001 than
those born 25 years earlier. (pay to view) Reforms leave childcare centres in state of confusion SMH December 28, 2012 Jessica Wright: Childcare centre operators
in NSW say they are ill prepared to implement the federal government's
sweeping reforms which will come into effect on January 1. The first stage of the childcare reforms
require one carer for every four children aged up to two, up from one carer
for every five children, and has been adopted by the NSW government before
the federal deadline. Preschool crucial to bridge indigenous education gap The
Australian
December 13, 2011 Justine Ferrari: Indigenous students progress through school at the same rate as their
classmates but tend to score lower on average because they start school
further behind and are never able to catch up. But a seven-year study tracking
indigenous students through primary school found that the focus on average
scores hides a group of high-performing students, many of whom do better than
their classmates. The study by the Australian Council for
Educational Research says there is a clear gap in the average achievement
between indigenous and non-indigenous students but also wide variability in
student results.
ANNIE LOWREY WASHINGTON
— Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their
students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting
positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including
lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult
earnings, according to a new study
that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years. This study examines a larger
number of students over a longer period of time with more in-depth data than many
earlier studies, allowing for a deeper look at how much the quality of
individual teachers matters over the long term. The
study, which the economics professors have presented to colleagues in more
than a dozen seminars over the past year and plan to submit to a journal, is
the largest look yet at the controversial “value-added ratings,”
which measure the impact individual teachers have on student test scores. It
is likely to influence the roiling national debates about the importance of
quality teachers and how best to measure that quality. “Everybody
believes that teacher quality is very, very important,” says Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at
Stanford and longtime researcher of education policy. “What this paper
and other work has shown is that it’s probably
more important than people think. That the variations or differences between
really good and really bad teachers have lifelong impacts on children.”
After
identifying excellent, average and poor teachers, the economists then set out
to look at their students over the long term, analyzing information on
earnings, college matriculation rates, the age they had children, and where
they ended up living. The
results were striking. Looking only at test scores, previous studies had
shown, the effect of a good teacher mostly fades after three or four years.
But the broader view showed that the students still benefit for years to
come. Students
with top teachers are less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, more
likely to enroll in college, and more likely to earn more money as adults,
the study found. The
authors argue that school districts should use value-added measures in
evaluations, and to remove the lowest performers, despite the disruption and
uncertainty involved. “The
message is to fire people sooner rather than later,” Professor Friedman
said. Merit pay system aims to make great teachers rich SMH January 7, 2012 Sam Dillon WASHINGTON:
During her first six years of teaching in this city's struggling schools,
Tiffany Johnson got a series of small raises that brought her annual salary
to $US63,000 from about $US50,000. This year, her
seventh, Johnson earns $US87,000. That
latest 38 per cent jump, unheard of in public education, came after Ms
Johnson was rated ''highly effective'' two years in a row under Washington's
new teacher evaluation system. Washington
is the leader among a handful of large cities that are seeking a more
fundamental overhaul of teacher pay. Alongside the aggressive new evaluation
system that has made the city famous for firing poor-performing teachers -
more than 400 over the past two years - is a bonus-and-raise structure aimed
at luring talented people to the profession and persuading the most effective
to stick with it. From The New York Times –
see extensive original article. Other
References: Value Added
Research Centre, Wisconsin USA Babies in big school - is your child ready? Daily Telegraph January
7, 2012 Bruce McDougall: Immature four-year-olds are being
enrolled in school before they are ready so their financially strapped
parents can save thousands in pre-school and childcare fees. Many children, who often
are not able to cope with the demands of "big school", then repeat their kindergarten year - sometimes at a
different school - to get them performing on par with classmates. School principals,
teachers and parents say the practice of enrolling children early - when many
are just 4 1/2 - is on the increase because of soaring childcare and
pre-school charges. One mum who was paying
$525 a week for day care and before and after school care for her three
children said she saved $10,000 by enrolling her son in school when he was
four years and eight months. The boy, whose parents
admit was young for his age and not ready for school, completed a year in
kindergarten and has been enrolled to repeat in 2012. Public Schools Principals
Forum chairwoman Cheryl McBride yesterday said the numbers of children aged
about 4 1/2 entering kindergarten at her government primary school in
Sydney's west had almost doubled this year. Struggling to find a caring solution Daily Telegraph January
7, 2012 Editorial Kate Ellis, the federal
minister for early childhood and childcare, pointed out this week in an ABC
interview that "there are more children in Australian childcare centres now than at any time in our history." This is undoubtedly the case, although
some may not be aware of just how extensive that history is. A surprise new tactic,
exclusively reported in today's Daily Telegraph, is to enrol
four-year-olds at school for a kindergarten year (or two) instead of
continuing to send them to childcare. The financial incentives are difficult
to ignore by taking the early school option. In some cases parents can save
up to $10,000. No need to blush - public schooling can be first step on road
to success SMH
January 6, 2012 Opinion:
Jennifer Star - the 2012 NSW Young Australian of the Year, director of the Tara.Ed NGO and is studying for a research degree in
education at Oxford University. As a well-rounded young Australian, there is one question I am often
asked that never fails to kill a conversation. ''What school did you go to?'' But my answer, my local public school, elicits a shocked silence,
followed by amazement and sometimes even embarrassment. The frequency of this occurrence has left me wondering why the revelation
that I am a product of public education is a revelation at all. Why should I
be embarrassed or hide this fact somewhere on the lower rungs of my
curriculum vitae? The Australian government needs to demonstrate that it values the
public above the private and invest the figures that reflect this. It is only then that the general public will start to acknowledge the
significance of our public schools and the exceptional people that emerge
from them . . . and I will not stop a dinner conversation simply by uttering
my school's name. International Baccalaureate Taking education to the next level SMH January 6, 2012 SMH Editorial: The
state's education authorities must be so convinced their Higher School
Certificate is superior to the International Baccalaureate course pursued by
a million students worldwide. Otherwise, why would a curriculum recognised as
the gold standard for university entry around the world be
denied to the tens of thousands of matriculation candidates who put their
faith in the state school system? Reality looks rewarding for this bright student SMH January 5, 2012 'Intellectual freedom' pushes students to top of the class
SMH
January 5, 2012 Teachers Resist High-Tech Push in Idaho Schools The New York Times January 6, 2012 Last year, the state
legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school
students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and
their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish
Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard. To help pay for these
programs, the state may have to shift tens of millions of dollars away from
salaries for teachers and administrators. And the plan envisions a
fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at
the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons
delivered on computers. What's hot in study this year (for first year Uni students)? SMH January 2, 2012 Melinda
Ham: While the popularity of various degrees
changes, students should follow their interests rather than the herd, writes
Melinda Ham. Surge in demand for help with back-to-school costs SMH January 1, 2012 (from The Age) Amanda
Dunn: Welfare groups are expecting record demand for
help this month as families struggle with basic back-to-school costs, including
school uniforms and shoes. Faulty system in class of its own SMH December 31, 2011 Opinion:
Jim McMorrow and Lyndsay
Connors Over the past half-century, Australia has been conducting a radical
experiment with schools funding. This has resulted in changes to schooling in
Australia that now requires more than financial tinkering to fix. This experiment has changed the student profile in our public schools
and left them to take on the ''heavy lifting'', but without the commensurate
share of resources, particularly for the schools most affected. Cyber bullying spiralling out of control in NSW schools Daily
Telegraph
December 31, 2011 Bruce McDougall: Online spats between school children are spiralling
out of control, leading to hate messages, violence and even death threats. Experts say 10 per cent of all children now claim to have been
cyber-bullied. The NSW Department of
Education and Communities has enlisted international expert Professor Donna
Cross, from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, to help advise students and
families about online behaviour. Grandparents face internet outrage via Facebook Daily
Telegraph
December 30, 2011 Elissa Doherty: Mind your P's and Q's kids, grandma and
grandpa have discovered Facebook. More students applying to have HSC marks replaced SMH December 29, 2011 Anna Patty:
As many as 20 to 33 per cent of students at
many NSW schools have applied to have their final Higher School Certificate
marks replaced with a school assessment after experiencing unexpected illness
or misadventure.
Anna Patty:
The NSW Ombudsman is looking into the low proportion
of public high school students applying for HSC exam disability provisions
compared with private school students. Private schools accounted for more than half the applications for
special provisions this year, despite educating just one in four students
with disabilities, figures from the NSW Board of Studies show. New York City Schools Missing Out on Aid for Special Needs New
York Times
December 28, 2011 FERNANDA
SANTOS: New York City has failed to recover tens of millions of dollars in
Medicaid reimbursements for services it provided to special-needs students in
recent years, as the Education
Department has struggled to adapt to new rules imposed after a devastating
federal audit forced the city to return money it received for claims it
could not properly document. Writing on the wall as bullies sign up to get a lesson Daily
Telegraph
December 28, 2011 Bruce
McDougall plus comments: Delinquent students and their parents are being
asked to sign written contracts promising to clean up the child's behaviour under a discipline crackdown in the state's
2240 public schools. Primary and secondary schools regularly draw up
individual agreements in a bid to rein in the thuggish behaviour
of children who tease or bully other students or who are so disruptive their
classmates are unable to work. A NSW Education and Communities Department
spokesman said the "behaviour support
plans" which can include a signed contract are put in place to help
extremely disruptive students get back on track. $47m plan to help get teenage parents through school The
Australian
December 27, 2011 2:31pm Lanai Vasek: Teenage
parents in 10 local communities around Australia will find it easier to
complete their year 12 or equivalent qualification from next month through
greater access to child care, improved Centrelink
services and guaranteed training places. Young parents in Playford, South Australia,
Hume and Shepparton in Victoria, Burnie in Tasmania, Bankstown, Wyong and
Shellharbour in New South Wales, Rockhampton and Logan in Queensland and
Kwinana in Western Australia will all benefit from the $47 million investment
over four years. Schools face threat from lower intakes, unpaid fees: report SMH December 23, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: Difficult economic conditions pose a threat to
the survival of lower tier private schools which may struggle with student
numbers, warns a paper prepared by the chartered accountancy firm PKF. The
report also says some schools are struggling to collect fees from
parents and argues they should engage external debt collectors to recover unpaid fees from parents.
Andrew
Stevenson, Kim Arlington: HSC
enrolments and outcomes which reveal massive skews towards girls in the
humanities and boys in maths and sciences do not
mean that gender determines academic destiny, according to leading
principals. Analysis of the top HSC performers - those achieving band six results
to enter the distinguished achievers list - confirms strong gender
dominations in a number of subjects.
Maralyn
Parker invites
bloggers to reflect on the
year that was - and what might come in 2012. Female entrepreneurs free to network after-hours SMH December 22, 2011 Mahesh
Sharma: Childcare strategy to help women in male-dominated tech sector. Female technology entrepreneurs will soon be able to join the
after-hours networking scene with a special childcare initiative set to
remove one of the biggest obstacles for working mothers to start their own
companies.
Deborah Smith:
Senior high school students have abandoned
science in ''staggering'' numbers and the downward trend is likely to
continue, an Australian Academy of Science report has found. Twenty years ago about nine out of 10 students in year 12 studied
science. That figure has fallen to about 50 per cent today. Download Science Report: The
status and quality of teaching and learning of science in Australian schools
This report, commissioned by the Fedrral
Government, develops and compares the ideal picture of quality teaching and
learning in science with an actual picture of what is happening and provides
recommendations to help move science education from the actual to the ideal
picture.
Alen Delic: More
than one million students face paying for an online mathematics tuition
service, which is now free, because the food giant McDonald's is not
continuing its sponsorship.
Andrew
Stevenson, Jen Rosenberg: The
answer to the ritual question among school leavers - ''where are you going?''
- is throwing up some startling answers, as well as a challenge to
Australia's leading universities. What began as a trickle is now a small
stream of outstanding academic talents using their HSC as a passport to
travel. Rowena Lazar, 18, first in the state in Italian beginners, couldn't
pick up her award from the Education Minister last week; she was in Oxford,
interviewing for a place for next year. Timothy Large, 17, first
in extension two maths, had flown in on the
morning of the ceremony from his interview at Cambridge. Harry Stratton, 18,
first in classical Greek and Latin, has his heart set on Harvard or Yale.
Alexandra
Back: When it comes to school fund-raising, the
traditional bake sale and the lamington drive just don't go as far as they
used to. The arrival of interactive whiteboards and online teaching tools has
forced parents and citizens groups to look for more lucrative ways of raising
funds. Last year, Crown Street Public School released a recipe book, Crown
Street Cooks, to raise money for a new playground and interactive smart
boards - the latter priced at more than $5000 each. Advertisement: Story continues below The book is now in its second print run and has raised more than
$150,000 from sales.
Kim
Arlington: The principal of Sydney Boys High School, Kim Jaggar, says ''the lone wolf is dead'' and that collaborative learning - students working
together, teachers sharing their knowledge with each other - is key to the school's success. Forty-seven students at the selective school, which ranked fourth in
the state, yesterday learned they had achieved Australian Tertiary Admission
Ranks of 99 or above. ''In a highly competitive environment, I think collaboration amongst
boys … has [delivered] a more consistent set of results,'' Dr Jaggar said. The tension between a student's desire for individual achievement and
for engagement in collaborative learning ''is more easily resolved when the
whole school starts to improve. They're starting to see that what's good for
me and my buddies is good for the whole school''. With his ATAR of 99.2, the school captain, Tim Gollan,
17, plans to study law and engineering. He said after the trial HSC exams,
when students' internal ranks were settled, they
shared notes, marked each other's essays and exchanged feedback. ''It's
really in the school's interests and every boy's interests to help each other
out and achieve the best mark possible,'' he said. Dennis Kim, 18, and Austin Ly, 17, both scored the highest possible
ATAR of 99.95. Dennis set up a maths class
demonstrating solutions for his peers. Melbourne Grammar takes out top VCE honours
The Age
December 16, 2011 Jewel
Topsfield: "I think the environment at Melbourne Grammar
School is very good for success, it is friendly yet competitive and we all
encourage each other to do our best," said Henry, who hopes to study
medicine next year at Melbourne or Monash
University.
NSW Board of Studies website 2011 HSC Top Achievers in Course 2011 HSC Distinguished Achievers NSW's
Top Achievers – search by student,
subject or school name – SMH Interactive Data Base Private schools all but vanquished from top 10 list SMH December 15, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson, Jen Rosenberg: The stellar performance of students at NSW selective high schools
continues apace with only one private school, Moriah
College, making the top 10 of the Herald's annual list of
top-performing schools as judged by HSC results. Boys come out on top in ATAR table SMH December 15, 2011 Jen
Rosenberg: There
are 49 students who gained a possible 99.95 in the Australian Tertiary
Admission Ranking, 30 were boys and 19 were girls. Girls' HSC results a lesson for boys DT December 15, 2011 Miranda Devine: A sea of female faces smiles out from our news
pages this week. It's HSC results time again, and
again girls have outperformed boys. In
photographs of the 107 students who scored the highest marks in the state,
girls achieved 66 per cent of the top honours, though comprising just 52 per
cent of HSC enrolments. While
it's good to celebrate our girls' success, you have to wonder what has gone
wrong with our boys. No sex should dominate so overwhelmingly and no one
seriously believes it is because girls are smarter. Coaching culture must end, say top students SMH December 14, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: The NSW Board of Studies should do all it can
to produce sufficiently challenging HSC exam papers to build a bulwark
against the impact of coaching colleges, drilling and memorisation,
say two of the smartest young minds in the state. ''One of the things the Board needs the power to do is to throw up
examination papers which students do find incredibly difficult because that's
the sort of thing which stops cultures of coaching, drilling and general
practice which are the absolute opposite of what you want to see in
education,'' student Timothy Large said. He
fears coaching is robbing maths of its essence, the
opportunity to learn analytical and creative thought processes. ''When you start talking about students going to cram schools on the
weekends and doing completely ludicrous amounts of drill exercises then
really you are taking something away [from the subject],'' Timothy said. Modern students get their heads around hands-on working DT
December 14, 2011 at 06:43pm Maralyn Parker-
Article and Blog: The staggering statistic from the 2011 Higher
School Certificate results for me, is that 36 per
cent of this year’s 72,391 students graduated with both academic and
vocational qualifications. That means they did their English, maths,
science, history and other subjects that can lead to university studies, but
they also got a vocational education and training (VET) certificate in
something like hospitality, construction, retail, accounting, information technology and so on. So much for all the old notions of highbrow and lowbrow jobs. This
generation - often called Generation M for multitasking – (is) eager to
take on a mix. Twins Chloe and Phoebe Saintilan
triumph in a true character test, the HSC DT December 15, 2011 Alice Coote: As the nervous wait was finally over for 71,000
NSW HSC students yesterday, the Saintilan twins had
reason to celebrate after they both receiving a mark
of over 90 in every subject, including in their pet subjects drama and
economics, where the Sydney Girls High School students were both named as
all-round achievers. Flexible education helps students go the distance SMH December 14, 2011 Kim
Arlington: They barely saw their teachers all year, but it
did not stop them topping the state. Ten HSC students who tackled subjects through distance education came
first in their courses this year. Eight studied at the Open High School, a specialist language school in Randwick, which gives students who cannot access courses
at their home school the flexibility of studying via distance education. School's out, but there's plenty more study to be done SMH December 13, 2011 Jen
Rosenberg: In a post-HSC world, the time for study is never
over. More
girls than boys will head off to university, more boys than girls will take
up vocational training, and more teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19
remain enrolled in some form of study, a new survey shows. While
the split of girls to boys in secondary education is about even, the
differences vary dramatically once they pursue tertiary study, the latest figures
from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research show. Online studies receive pass mark SMH December 12, 2011 Kim
Arlington: Of The 72,000 students to receive their HSC
results this week, some will not only access their marks online but have
studied their subjects over the internet as well. At
Northern Beaches Christian School, which is expanding its successful online
learning program, those studying in cyberspace often outperform their peers
who are learning in a more traditional environment. The
principal, Stephen Harris, said that in three-quarters of subjects where
lessons were offered face to face and online, the average class mark was
higher online. Results are similar in the US, where 60 per cent of secondary
school courses are expected to be delivered online by 2020. Gonski Funding Review Time for action: school funding rules to change SMH December 11, 2011 Misha Schubert: Australia needs a ''game-changing approach'' to the way schools are
funded because the system is ''letting down some of our kids'' - particularly
in public schools, the Education Minister, Peter Garrett, says. Laying the groundwork for a shake-up of the formula that sets the level
of public funds for each school, Mr Garrett said
the nation should be prepared to have a ''mature discussion'' about change. A review panel, which will be chaired by the businessman David Gonski, is due to hand its reform blueprint to the
Gillard government in the next fortnight. It will be released publicly at the
beginning of the next school year. Educators put $5b price tag on reform SMH December 10, 2011 Andrew Stevenson:The long wait for Gonski is almost over, with the
federal government announcing its plans to release the epic report into
education funding at the beginning of the next school year. The big ticket item is expected to be a massive increase in federal
funding, with the government looking for a headline figure of between $4
billion and $5 billion. It appears likely the review will call for the creation of an education
resource standard - the funding needed to allow students at schools serving
communities with minimal levels of educational disadvantage to reach agreed
standards. Top-up funding would then be calculated to combat entrenched
disadvantages in schools with many students with disabilities, from low
socio-economic backgrounds and from Aboriginal communities.
Anna Patty:
A state government-commissioned review of the
cost benefits of replacing unflued gas heaters in
schools has recommended against their replacement with less harmful but more
expensive flued heaters or airconditioning. Based on the cost-benefit analysis, the review said ''unflued gas heaters do not need to be replaced'' and
suggested that children rug-up in warm clothing as an alternative to heater
use. The Health Economics Study analysis predicted up to 6464 episodes of
wheezing could be prevented each year if unflued
gas heaters were replaced.
Dan
Harrison: Human capital - the skills and know-how of our
people - is the biggest positive contributor to wellbeing after net national
income. The index measures it through a combination of indicators that track
learning and innovation. Indicators of early childhood matter to national wellbeing because
research has established links between a lack of development of skills such
as motivation and self-confidence in childhood and levels of criminal
activity, teenage pregnancy and underachievement in education and employment
later in life.
Andrew
Stevenson, Nicole Hasham: The NSW Auditor-General has highlighted concerns about the ageing
teacher workforce at public schools as thousands of teachers prepare for
retirement. In this year's report to Parliament, Peter Achterstraat
warned that more than 44 per cent of public school teachers are more than 50
years old. In 1986, more than half of Australia's teachers were under the age
of 35. ''In NSW, around 20 per cent of public school teachers are now under 35
and I am concerned that less than 10 per cent are under 30,'' Mr Achterstraat said. ''We need
to do more to attract and retain young teachers to a profession that is
essential for our children and our future prosperity.'' Schools IT scheme a 'stuff up' SMH December 8, 2011 Anna Patty:
he state's Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, yesterday confirmed what school teachers
and principals have long suspected - that the program has been a
''disaster''. The so-called Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) software
program was aimed at replacing finance, human resources, payroll
and student administration systems. Plenty of highs and lows in a landmark year for education DT
December 7, 2011 at 4:17pm Maralyn Parker-
Article and Blog: With only a week of to
go to the end of the school year I started to make a list of all the crucial
decisions, agreements, policies and programs that we have been dealt this
year, and gave up. This has been a big year for schools, easily
the most significant we have had for decades. Not all of the things on my unfinished list
made me happy but I was getting more positives than negatives, so I settled
for telling you my top five and worst three. You will probably disagree. Schools line up to take chess boys SMH December 6, 2011 Andrew Stevenson: Several
Sydney private schools have offered places to the young brothers told by Sydney
Grammar to find another school because they took unauthorised
leave to compete in the World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil last month. ''At
[Sydney] Grammar, their idea of education is that the HSC is the be-all and
end-all'', said an ex-student. Jonathan
Swan: An innovative program in which underprivileged
schools pool their money to build shared facilities is delivering
surprising academic results in one of Australia's most disadvantaged
communities. Eagle
Vale High School, in the Campbelltown suburb of
Claymore, recently opened a $1.7 million recording studio and performing arts
centre using funding from a federal government pilot program.
Andrew
Stevenson: Leading
private schools will again increase their fees by almost double the inflation
rate, with Sydney school fees set to break the $30,000 ceiling in 2013.
Nicole
Hasham EXAM
authorities have refused to release all details of potential errors in this
year's HSC exams before students receive their final marks, despite an
investigation which confirmed a mistake in the biology paper.
Andrew
Stevenson: Teachers are holding back children who would
benefit from being pushed ahead a year at school because of a ''genuine but
misplaced'' concern for their welfare, according to the author of a major
study of accelerated learning. The fear ''that if you place a child with children older than he or she
is that child will not be able to form friendships'', Miraca
Gross, the director of the Gifted Education Research, Resource and
Information Centre at the University of NSW, said. But in fact, it is misplaced. She argues that the reverse is true.
''Kids who are intellectually in advance of their years have social and
emotional abilities beyond their age and they tend to gravitate towards older
kids for their friendships,'' she said. (Report: Releasing the Brakes: Administrator, Teacher, and
Parent Attitudes and Beliefs That Block or Assist the Implementation of
School Policies on Academic Acceleration ). Maralyn Parker-
Article and Blog: The education world is in a state of heightened
alert. This week’s budget did not help by dumping the fee discount for
science and maths degrees in a nation where
qualified maths and science teachers are a
scarcity. But it is waiting for Gonski that has everyone
on edge. Rumour is the funding review recommendations from the UNSW chancellor and
Australian Stock Exchange chairman, which will change how every Australian
school is funded, are sitting on someone’s desk ready to be released.
We have been promised they will be released by the end of the year. Art brings outback students on journey to sea SMH November 28, 2011 Jen
Rosenberg: From a tiny school in the outback to a gallery
by the shores of Bondi, the students of Menindee Central School have made an impressive journey. For many of the 26 young visitors the trip to Sydney is a collection of
firsts: first train trip, first time to the city, first time to the beach,
first time in a school almost as large as their township, and first time
exhibiting their work in a gallery. Students also spent time at Killara High. Gillard wields big stick in education Daily
Telegraph November 16, 2011 at 06:17pm Maralyn Parker
– article and blog: Perhaps the best arguments for getting rid of state governments can be
found in our schools. The Federal Government is taking over all the big decisions around
schooling - from funding to what will be taught and how schools should be run
- while the NSW state government fusses over things like exactly how many
minutes of school time should be made available to volunteers for the
teaching of scripture. It is a growing chasm that I couldn’t help but notice, having
just arrived back after several weeks travelling overseas. NSW schoolboy fight death 'a tragedy' The Australian November 25, 2011 10.47am NSW Police Commissioner Andrew
Scipione says the bashing death of a boy in
Sydney's southwest is a tragedy. Aaron Jones died yesterday
after being involved in a fight near his home in the Sydney suburb of Minto. NSW Premier Barry
O'Farrell said the death of the student highlighted the problem of bullying
in schools. Blocking the stream (Victoria) SMH November 22, 2011 Jewel
Topsfield: A
Victorian Education Department edict to end the Steiner program at an
inner-west primary seems to contradict a state government push to make
schools more autonomous. LUCA Cernaz no longer wears his school
uniform to Footscray City Primary School. It's a
small act of defiance. ''They say to wear a uniform if you're proud of the
school,'' Luca says. ''Now I just think of all the negatives of the school
and everything they have done to us.'' Luca, 11, is one of 120 students enrolled in the Steiner stream at the
school whose lives were disrupted by a note in their school bags last month.
The cryptic missive, which took parents unawares, announced the Steiner stream
would cease at the end of the year. Primary school languages plan hits resistance SMH November 22, 2011 Andrew Stevenson: Primary school students in NSW, many of whom
learn no languages other than English, would be taught a language for two
hours a week under the national curriculum the federal government is
developing. But the NSW Education Department exhibits no enthusiasm for the change,
warning of teacher shortages and a crowded curriculum. Currently, the first formal requirement for language teaching does not
begin until high school, where 100 hours of language instruction is mandated
for students in years 7 and 8. Primary schools are not required to teach
languages. By contrast, Victorian primary students spend 700 hours learning
languages. No longer content to share the honours
– Macquarie University SMH
November 22, 2011 Dan
Harrison, Jen Rosenberg: From next year, universities will receive funding for as many
undergraduate students as they enrol, a shift from the current system where places are
allocated to institutions by the federal government. Religion, ethics may be in new curriculum SMH November 21, 2011 BARNEY
ZWARTZ: Professor McGaw, the
chairman of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority,
said religion and ethics would be included in a discussion paper early next
year for the civics and citizenship course. A Macquarie University PhD student, Cathy Byrne, told a forum hosted by
the curriculum board in Sydney last week that the approach to religion and
ethics in Australian schools was decades behind other leading developed
nations. She told the Herald that … when Ireland introduced planned
changes next year, it would leave ''only Australia and
New Zealand doing 19th-century religious education''. Julia Gillard will hand over power to schools to principals
and parents Sunday Telegraph November 20,
2011 Samantha Maiden: Principals and parents will be given sweeping new
powers to run their schools, from hiring staff to setting budgets and
changing classroom hours. More than 300 NSW public, Catholic and independent
schools will be able to carry out minor capital works and hire staff next
year without first seeking approval from a central bureaucracy. Across Australia, 1000
schools will participate in the first phase of the Empowering Local Schools
program from next year. Participating
schools will secure a start-up fund of $50,000 with a total of $69.5 million
in funding over the next two years. Students already reaping rewards of IT innovations Sunday
Telegraph
November 20, 2011 Laura Speranza: Kellyville Ridge Public School students have
developed a love of reading, look forward to maths classes, post their homework and videos to the web. Two
new roles created at the school during a two-year trial giving principals and
parents a greater say in the running of their school have improved literacy and
made students more IT-savvy. Call for principal staffing power across NSW Bruce McDougall: The architect of a scheme giving principals more
control over staff and finances is pressing the government to extend it
across NSW. Trevor
Fletcher, the deputy director-general of schools in NSW for six years, said a
large number of public schools were "ready, willing and able" to
join the program that had led to stunning improvements in student performance Many
of the 47 schools involved in the two-year devolution pilot - in which they
were given greater power to choose teachers and control budgets - recorded
remarkable improvements in the academic results, behaviour and attendance of
their pupils. Mr
Fletcher slammed opposition by the teachers' union, which banned the autonomy
scheme despite "hundreds" of schools expressing interest in taking
part. "In
my six years as deputy director-general (2004-2010), the union vigorously
opposed any new initiative which either devolved authority away from a rigid
'one size fits all' approach or increased the level of information,
accountability and transparency available to public scrutiny." NSW
Government’s Local Schools, Local Decisions Interim Report(PDF
2.56MB) Primary school takes on Optus over phone tower Sun
Herald
November 21, 2011 Tim Barlass: Double Bay (Sydney) primary school is locked in a battle to prevent
Optus building a mobile phone tower station 97 metres
from the school gates. Review baulks at school bus seatbelts SMH November 19, 2011 Jacob Saulwick: Installing seatbelts on school buses may not be a ''viable option'' for
improving safety, a review commissioned by the former state government found. Potential problems include the likelihood that children would not use
them, the cost of buying extra buses, and that seatbelts might not fit many
children.
Maralyn Parker
– article & blog: The
Federal Government is taking over all the big decisions around schooling - from
funding to what will be taught and how schools should be run - while the NSW
state government fusses over things like exactly how many minutes of school
time should be made available to volunteers for the teaching of scripture. We have a premier and education minister who are busy working on laws
for a minimum time for religious classes (there is already a maximum) in
public schools all thanks to Fred Nile, while Julia Gillard’s education
reform juggernaut inexorably rolls out a national curriculum that will be
mandatory in every Australian classroom. This is a great example of how the state government is losing its
relevance in education. The difference in educational
concerns at state and federal level are now stark. 15 schools caught up in formals cash scam SMH November 16, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: Party entrepreneur Sameer Kapoor
has left hundreds of school leavers in the lurch after they paid thousands of
dollars for school formals that have been cancelled after his company
collapsed.
Jacob Saulwick:
Parents and teachers from rural NSW have swamped the government with demands
to introduce compulsory seat belts on school buses. Trent Tyler - school formals parties crasher Daily
Telegraph
November 15, 2011 Geoff Chambers: Police were trying to track down a man behind an online school formal
party organising company last night after it was
revealed up to 20 functions, costing students tens of thousands of dollars,
were cancelled at the last minute. A former employee of www.yourafterparty.com, Trent Tyler, who was
interviewed by the Department of Fair Trading yesterday, admitted he was
involved in two school formals which were cancelled.
Louise Schwartzkoff, Andrew Stevenson: With the ink barely dry on their Higher School Certificate exam papers,
19 graduates from Mosman High School
will fly to Cambodia to help build houses for impoverished families in a
village outside Phnom Penh. Technology and
changing role of educators Megan Johnston: Salman Khan is still getting used to being known as the man who flipped
the classroom. Seven years ago, the then-Boston hedge fund analyst began to
tutor his younger cousin in New Orleans remotely. Her maths
marks improved, so Khan uploaded short videos to YouTube, where other
students stumbled onto his lessons. More than 3000 videos later, the Khan Academy is on the way to hitting 100 million views
and has the backing of Bill Gates and Google and, increasingly, the attention
of professional educators. Khan says ''The real transformation is when you allow kids to work at their own pace”. ''High-value activities for teachers are to work side-by-side with
students, to form bonds with students, to coach students and to mentor
students.'' For today's learners, it just clicks SMH November 14, 2011 Dan Haesler looks at the increasing role of technology in classrooms. At the start of this year, 7000 school students in Miami took a maths course delivered entirely by computer. Instead of a
teacher, the only adult in the room was a ''facilitator'' who dealt with
technical problems and ensured students remained on task. The pen's no longer mightier but still important SMH November 14, 2011 Rachel Olding: With
smartboards, wireless internet, noodles and
wikis, classrooms have become seedbeds for technological advancements. But
Year 12 students are finding the incursion of technology into school life
isn't all about convenience. Cherrybrook High
has been at the forefront of the digital classroom. In English, students
complete worksheets downloaded to their laptops via a wireless learning
management system called a noodle while the teacher plays a video-on-demand
through an electronic smartboard. In the science labs, they type up results onto laptops then send them
to a wiki or shared website established by the class. "It is a wonderful new world but the key is balance, they still
need to be using a pen," principal Gary Johnston says.
Fees collected from government preschools will be spent on public
education, the Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli,
told a teachers' forum yesterday. However, teachers and particularly principals are upset to have been
cast in the role of collectors. Inquiry threatens ethics class experiment SMH November 12, 2011 A parliamentary inquiry will examine whether ethics classes in NSW
schools should be abolished less than a year after they began, prompting
accusations of a deal between the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, and the Christian
Democratic MP Fred Nile. The inquiry, which will report by June, will be conducted by a
committee dominated by conservative MPs, including the Liberals David Clarke and
Marie Ficarra, and Mr
Nile's colleague Paul Green. Setting a religious minimum in schools for Fred Nile Daily
Telegraph
November 12, 2011 The
state government will pass laws setting a new "minimum" length of
time religious classes have to run in schools - to please upper house
crossbencher Fred Nile. Education
Minister Adrian Piccoli announced the changes
yesterday but rejected Mr Nile's plan to have ethics classes banned, forcing
students to learn scripture. The
votes of Mr Nile and his Christian Democrat colleague Paul Green, and that of
two Shooters MPs, will be critical in passing laws through the upper house in
coming months. SMH Education
Feature & Articles November 7, 2011 Technology brings the classroom back home in role reversal
SMH
November 7, 2011 Andrew Stevenson: It’s no longer a question of potential; forces set free by
technology are beginning to turn the traditional classroom on its head. Emerging under the broad label of ''flipping'' the classroom are a
profusion of new learning models that go beyond turning on the laptops and smartboards that are now commonplace in schools. Technology offers the opportunity to break up the traditional lesson
structure and to shift learning opportunities in both space and time. In a
pure flip, a lesson might be ''taught'' online at home; class time becomes a
place for a student to do their ''homework'' - to practice what they have
learnt. Parents, teachers must collaborate SMH November 7, 2011 Opinion: Students will benefit if the
gap between schools and families is closed, writes Nance Millar, the author
of the book Bridging
the Gaps Between Families and Schools. Top marks as students grade the teachers smh.com.au November 7, 2011 Caroline Milburn: Criticism of your work as an adult is hard to
bear, especially if it comes from a bunch of kids. But teachers at Ringwood
Secondary College have learnt to live with it. When 17-year-old Mitchell
Roberts found himself in a class where the teacher focused his attention on
only a few students, while the rest struggled to understand the concepts
being taught, he knew what to do. He raised his concerns in the student feedback survey that teachers at
Ringwood, in Melbourne's outer east, hand out to their classes to determine
how they can improve their tuition skills. Unlike Ringwood, most schools have been slow to embrace the use of
student feedback surveys, a performance appraisal tool commonly used by
lecturers in universities for the past 10 years. ''There's been a long-standing reluctance in teaching to actually
listen to students,'' says Professor Stephen Dinham
of Melbourne University, who runs training seminars for teachers across
Australia. ''Teachers today increasingly engage in
collaborative discussion and feedback with colleagues but feedback from
students about an individual teacher is still considered off-limits in many
cases.'' Having an effective teacher is crucial for student success. Students
with a highly effective teacher learn twice as much in a year as students
with a less effective teacher, according to education research cited in the
Grattan Institute report. Students have previously been a silent majority in the push to improve
schools. As government efforts to lift teaching standards intensify, the
voices of those who experience teaching are starting to matter. Wear the 'F' label with pride SMH November 7, 2011 Today's
young women still face a fight for equality with men, writes Judy King, Principal of Riverside Girls High School (Gladesville)
from 1995 to 2010. Elisabeth Tarica: Have any teacher's words stuck with you for life? They can resonate for
a long time, either leaving you seething at the injustice of it all or, in
the case of a favourite teacher, spurring you on to
greatness. Computers ok? Not in Silicon Valley SMH November 7, 2011 Matt Richtel: The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children
to a nine-classroom school in Los Altos, California. So do employees of
Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school's chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens
and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be
found. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on
their use at home. This is the Waldorf
School of the Peninsula, one of about 160 Waldorf schools in the country
that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and
learning through creative, hands-on tasks. They are the equivalent of the
Steiner schools in Australia. Those who endorse this approach say computers
inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans. Propped up by parents' pockets SMH November 7, 2011 Page 15 Andrew Stevenson: Parents are providing 58 per cent of the recurrent income of independent
schools and 28 per cent of the income of Catholic systemic schools, an
Australian Catholic University report states. Vicious little thugs in class of chaos as principals and
teachers are abused, threatened or bashed in NSW Daily
Telegraph November 6, 2011 Bruce McDougall Violent students are being enrolled in schools without first
getting background checks Sunday Telegraph November 6, 2011 Laura Speranza: Public
Schools Principals Forum chair Cheryl McBride said principals found it hard
to get the support of behavioural specialists or programs into schools
quickly, and there was often a gap between a child returning to school and
the necessary resources being made available. The bestselling book The Slap highlights the faultlines of modern parenting Sunday
Telegraph November 6, 2011 Miranda Devine: Child
psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg is pessimistic about this group, now
filtering into his offices. He describes Generation Z as "fat,
friendless and fearful". "I genuinely am
despairing of them, as I look at these creatures that are emerging and
beginning to seep into my clinic," he says. "They won't have any
social and emotional competencies whatever. Conflict resolution, anger management,
decision-making, their greatest problem is to name or recognise their own
thoughts or feelings. "I'm not seeing that
incredibly altruistic streak any more that was so obvious in Generation Y. Toddlers sent to bootcamp as
parents struggle to find time to play with kids outdoors Sunday
Mail (Qld) November 6, 2011 Student marks soaring at self-run schools Daily
Telegraph
November 4, 2011 Bruce McDougall: It is
the revolution the teachers' unions are fighting - but it has led to stunning
improvements in student performance. Schools
that have been given control of staffing and finances have had remarkable
improvements in the academic results, behaviour and attendance of their
pupils. The NSW
Teachers Federation yesterday ramped up its campaign against the two-year
pilot program - in which the state government has given 47 schools greater
power to choose teachers and control budgets. The
autonomy scheme, which has resulted in improved student performance in a
range of areas, is to be extended into next year - and to more schools across
Australia. Freedom delivers benefits all round Daily
Telegraph
November 4, 2011 Editorial: The
results are in, and they are a powerful vindication of moves to grant greater
independence and autonomy to NSW schools. Liberated
from the shackles imposed by teacher unions and excessive regulation, schools
that participated in a pilot program allowing higher levels of self-governance
have generated impressive improvements across the board, from academic
performance to attendance. Principals' freedom is a winner with schools SMH November 4, 2011 Andrew Stevenson:The push to give NSW public schools greater autonomy is gaining momentum,
a trend which will be further advanced by near-unanimous support from 47
principals leading a two-year trial. All principals told an independent review the freedoms allowed had led
to concrete improvements at their schools. About 95 per cent said it had
increased teacher capacity to deliver the curriculum and 83 per cent said
they had been able to do more for their schools at a lower cost. Extra pay rises linked to school budget cuts SMH November 3 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: The state government has linked extra pay rises
for teachers to savings made through its proposals to give public schools
greater autonomy. But neither the prospect of cost savings - nor what
should happen with them - are mentioned in the Local Schools, Local
Decisions discussion paper that has been sent to schools. Old hands hit nail on the head SMH October 31, 2011 Malcolm
Brown: Senior men have the manual skills to keep young
minds keen. Something about the grey-hairs in the workshop, skilled at things such
as cutting and turning wood, doing metalwork and repairing motors - and too
old to be flustered by any cheek - appeals to boys. It has worked at the Regents Park Men's Shed, where pupils aged 11 and
12 a Primary School in Auburn, have been attending an hour a week for the
past 10 weeks. How we're hooked on lessons from America SMH October 31, 2011 Denise
Ryan: Australia and the US are in step on education reform, but countries
such as Finland fare better. Worth a read. Record low as students reject HSC languages SMH October 29, 2011 Rachel Olding: In the 1960s it was French. The 1970s was all about Indonesian and the
1990s was the decade of Japanese. Almost every language has had a heyday in NSW schools, but it is
foreign ground to today's year 12 students. A record number are sitting this year's HSC, but another less
auspicious record has been set: the lowest proportion ever of students
enrolled in a language. It is not just the plethora of subject choices diluting interest in
languages, experts say, but a system that neither encourages nor rewards an
interest in a foreign tongue. Drop-out rate high in vocational training SMH October 25, 2011 Jen Rosenberg: Fewer than a third of
students in vocational training finish their course despite high intentions
when they enrol, figures show. While more than 90 per cent of students plan to finish their course,
only 28 per cent do so, says Student
Intentions, a report published by the National Centre for
Vocational Education Research yesterday. How TAFEs are changing by degrees Christine Spratt:
Here I sit with my academic colleagues at the Northern
Melbourne Institute of TAFE, one of Victoria's largest and most successful
TAFEs, where we teach practically oriented vocational degrees in what many of
my university contemporaries still see as those ''swampy lowlands''. Schoolboys thrive on risk at recess SMH October 21, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: For generations children have complained that
school can be cruel and unusual punishment. Now it seems some headmasters are
listening, introducing more breaks during the school day and explicitly recognising the value of running wild. John Stewart, the headmaster of Tudor House, a private boys' school at
Moss Vale, is adding an extra recess to the day with classroom doors locked
to push boys to push the limits. ''For boys to be sitting in a classroom, contained behind a desk for
hours on end, just skilling and drilling that can help you improve in a test
score, is not only archaic, it is cruel. We felt boys needed more time to
play and that social and emotional learning is just as important as reading
and writing skills.''
Andrew
Stevenson: The last two years of high school need to be
rethought to better engage and prepare the three in four school leavers who are
not headed to university, according to a review by the NSW Business Chamber. Praising the NSW government's scrapping of the ''out-dated'' school
certificate, the chamber said it presents the opportunity for a much
wider-ranging review of years 11 and 12. Specifically, the chamber is seeking more core subjects for the HSC,
better quality vocational courses and minimum standards for literacy and
numeracy. A blueprint, Could Do Better, will be discussed at a
roundtable of key stakeholders in Parramatta tomorrow.
Janet Fife-Yeomans: Teachers
could be forced to warn students as young as 10 about their legal rights
before counselling them after a remarkable court
decision. A 14-year-old boy who confessed to his teacher that he robbed a service
station and stabbed the attendant with a knife, has been acquitted after the
District Court refused to allow the teacher's statement into evidence because
he had not "cautioned" the boy. Private schools say Gonski studies
wrong, prejudiced SMH
October
5, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: The
private school sector has criticised the quality
and assumptions of the key research projects commissioned by the Gonski review of education, while questioning the
independence and accuracy of the work. In their final submissions to the review of school funding, the
Independent Schools Council of Australia, the Association of Heads of
Independent Schools of Australia, the NSW Parents Council and the Independent
Education Union all rounded on work released last month by the Gonski review.
Bernard Lane: Australia still appears to believe it can profit from Asia as a market and
enjoy good relations with the region without investing in basic skills such
as literacy, University of Melbourne's Asian law expert Tim Lindsey says. The government has asked former Treasury chief Ken Henry to advise how
Australia can seize the opportunities presented by what Julia Gillard called
"the Asian century". Our unworldly ways SMH October 4, 2011 Simon Marginson: The title of the OECD's annual comparison of national education
systems, out last month, is Education at a Glance. Some glance. All
the same, the graphs and tables are brilliant and the explanations clear. It
is framed by the OECD view of the world, which is less market-oriented than
our political system. -the data on the world's 3.7 million foreign students show that in 2009
Australia was still riding high at 7 per cent market share Teachers want funding pooled and rules on how it is spent
SMH
October
4, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: Federal
and state government funding for schools should be pooled and the money
distributed according to nationally agreed objectives, a report commissioned
by the public school teachers union says. The report, released days after the closing date for final submissions
to the Gonski review of education funding, argues
education should be reformed along the same lines as the national health
funding agreements. Written by Jim McMorrow, an honorary
associate professor of education at Sydney University, the report criticises a ''dysfunctional'' funding system in which
the federal government provides most private school funding, with states the
dominant provider for public schools. Secret government bid for school pistols Daily Telegraph October 04, 2011 Geoff Chambers and Kate Sikora From: The Daily Telegraph October 04, 2011 12:00AM Teenagers would be able to
shoot guns during school hours under a secret plan hatched by the Education
Department and powerful lobby groups.
Rosemarie Lentini: Kids who go to bed early and wake early are far less likely to be obese
than those who sleep in, research has found. A study of 2200 Australian children aged between nine and
16 discovered that those who went to bed late were 1 1/2 times more likely to
pile on the kilos and have a higher body mass index, even though both groups
got the same amount of sleep. Offline and left to their own devices SMH
October
2, 2011 Nicole
Brady: It’s hard to imagine any teenager
willingly giving up their smartphone or computer for a week, but that's
exactly what Brentwood (Melbourne) Secondary College's environmental science
year 11 class students will do from 5pm today when they turn off all their
screen-based technology as part of a social experiment. Australia an underachiever in education race SMH
October
1, 2011 Andrew
Stevenson: Australia is being left behind by the education
investments of competitor nations, and funding needs to rise by at least $10
billion a year just to reach the average of OECD nations, the NSW government
has argued in its final submission (pdf 3.58 Mb) to the Gonski funding review. And if the nation
is to aim at reaching higher standards in order to transform the economy to a
''high skill, high wage'' future, the need is even greater. |