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Released 27.08.09 Building the Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21st
Century Round Three Results See our
TECHNOLOGY page being developed. Suggestions welcome. Advice
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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. LINKS TO OLDER ARTICLES 04.06.08 - 25.10.08 21.11.07 – 03.06.08 9.4.07 – 21.11.07 Before 9.4.07 BAD NEWS Schools miss out on lab upgrades The Australian 01.06.09
Hundreds
of high schools will miss out on a $1 billion federal government program to
upgrade science laboratories after the Rudd Government refused to widen
guidelines for eligible schools. (This, it would
seem, includes every single high school in the DET’s Northern Sydney
Region – Editor) Rudd to pledge $42.8m to school chaplain program SMH November 21, 2009
Kevin Rudd is expected to use an address to the Australian Christian
Lobby today to announce continued funding for chaplains in schools. The Australian Christian Lobby has advertised Mr Rudd's speech as being
on the topic of ''Building a Nation of Character", with a sub-theme of
"In The Best Interests of the Child''. Rudd to give $42.8m for school chaplains Daily Telegraph November 21,
2009 The
announcement, to be made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the Australian
Christian Lobby's annual conference in Canberra today, comes after the
Opposition called for the program to be made a permanent part of the
education system. School principal sex sentence 'too lenient' SMH November 20, 2009 4:42PM
A girl left broken and devastated after being sexually assaulted by her
high school principal has finally achieved closure as he was sentenced in the
NSW District Court, her family says. But her mother says the sentence is far too lenient and they cannot bring
themselves to think about him being released next year. School principal jailed for sex with student SMH November 20, 2009 12:06PM
The former
principal of a Christian school at Grafton in northern NSW, previously
pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse over four days with a
16-year-old under his care. Principal jailed for student sex The Australian November 20, 2009 3.30pm Telstra bags $280m NSW DET deal Daily
Telegraph November
19, 2009 NSW public schools are set to
lead the world in computer technology after the Rees Government signed a $280
million deal with Telstra to roll out optic fibre in classrooms. In the
largest contract of its type in Australia, the broadband system will increase
computer speeds by up to 20 times for more than 1.2 million students in 2400
schools and TAFEs. Schools a hotbed of racism: study SMH November 19, 2009
Cruises to defy schoolie order The Australian
November 19, 2009 Cruise ship operators say they are prepared to defy a Human Rights
Commission ruling preventing them from banning schoolies from their vessels
over binge-drinking concerns. Building the revolution libraries falls short DT November 18, 2009 Maralyn Parker – article and blog Firth blamed for delaying ethics pilot SMH November 18, 2009
The St James
Ethics Centre has accused the State Government of deliberately stalling
approval on an ethics pilot program for schools, saying the education
minister is bowing to pressure from church groups in the hope the issue will
go away. The program would
offer ethics teaching to primary school children who opt out of scripture but
who are prevented by government policy from receiving formal tuition during
the time other students attend scripture. Spelling is the bee-all and end-all for these kids DT November 18, 2009 Confidence is just one word
that could stump our state's top spellers today but after weeks of hard study
it is something they certainly have in spades. More than
87,000 students from across the state have competed for a spot in today's
final of the Premier's Spelling Bee. McDonald's wins 'shame' awards SMH November 17, 2009 - 3:34PM
Voted by more
than 200 members of the Parents Jury, an online network of parents who advocate improving children's food and
physical activity, McDonald's was named the most irresponsible creator of
food promotions in three out of four categories. These included
McDonald's sponsorship of a high school maths website (the inaugural 'Techno
Hack' category), the 'Pester Power' award for animated Happy Meal TV ads
which feature animation and play equipment, and the Jury's 'Bad Sport'
category for sponsorship of grassroots state Little Athletics competitions. The 'Smoke and
Mirrors' category was won by Kellogg's Nutri-Grain ads, deemed misleading due
to the high-sugar cereal's promise of turning young boys into elite athletes. Learning to read English is hardest - brain expert SMH November 17, 2009
It's official.
Research has confirmed that English is ''the worst'' language to learn to
read, with students taking at least two years to grasp it, as opposed to
three or four months for students learning to read a ''transparent'' language
like Italian. Schools unite against rankings SMH November 17, 2009 Six peak national groups representing parents, teachers and principals from public and private schools have signed a letter to the Federal Government asking it to prevent the publication of ''misleading and damaging'' league tables. The letter says NAPLAN test results provide only a snapshot of academic
achievement and provide a statistically unreliable basis for comparing
schools. League tables law is simply rank SMH November 17, 2009 Opinion: George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of
NSW. First we had the Herald brazenly breaking the law last week by
publishing a comparison of the test results of three schools, and next we
were told there was a real possibility that the ban on publishing such
material breached the constitution by restricting freedom of speech about
politics and government. This, of course, means the Herald may not
have broken the law at all. The ban criminalises speech of a kind that the constitution protects. The
law is also drafted in a way that is ineffective, discriminatory and
over-broad. No case of this kind is ever a lay down misere, but it is
certainly arguable that the law is invalid. Ban on school league tables illegal, minister told SMH November 14, 2009 The state Education Minister, Verity Firth, has warned that laws passed
by the Opposition introducing $55,000 fines for newspapers which publish
comparisons of school results are likely to end up in the High Court, after
receiving legal advice the legislation may be unconstitutional. On Wednesday the Herald risked prosecution by publishing results
from Hornsby Girls, Sydney Girls and Macarthur Girls High. The Opposition
Leader, Barry O'Farrell, is under pressure to repeal the law. Federal Coalition sources said yesterday that shadow ministers were
''gobsmacked'' by Mr O'Farrell's decision to support the Greens in
introducing the legislation in June, saying it was against Liberal Party
principles. Transparency benefits parents, children and schools SMH November 14, 2009 Editorial The reaction to the Herald's challenge to the school information
ban this week has been strong. Teachers have responded vociferously to the Herald's
challenge to the ban on printing comparisons between schools' results in
standard literacy and numeracy tests. So have parents. There are two separate arguments on the issue. One is based on the right,
in a democratic country, to know how schools are performing relative to one
another. On this point, it has been baffling - even to many party members- to see
the Liberal Party persist in supporting the ludicrous ban on printing
information which is freely available in other forms. The party appears
simply to have lost its way. Clamour for action on league tables row SMH November 13, 2009
The Premier, Nathan Rees,
dared the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to take the Herald to
court yesterday to secure a $55,000 fine after the paper published details of
the test results of three schools in breach of Opposition-backed laws. Publish and be damned SMH November 12, 2009 The Herald today challenges the absurdity of NSW's ban on letting
parents know about the schools their children attend. We publish and compare the NAPLAN test results of three schools. We are
breaking the law - the stupid, oppressive law - of NSW by doing so, and risk
a fine. Readers are not allowed to see these comparisons in print. Only in
print. Other media, which operate - thank goodness - beyond the State
Government's control, can make these comparisons. Breaking the law: the exam results they don't want you to see SMH November 12, 2009 The Herald is breaching state law today, risking a $55,000 fine by
comparing the test results of three schools. After an announcement by the federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard,
that she will publish test results from around Australia on a new website in
January, the Herald has learnt that publishing the exam results of
just two of the schools could result in a fine in NSW. Hurlstone High faces overhaul SMH November 16, 2009 Schools website given test run The Australian November 11, 2009 The federal government
yesterday unveiled a sneak peek at its much-feared schools website, to be
launched next year, that will for the first time compare test results,
student characteristics and financial resources of all schools. At
a forum in Canberra attended by more than 150 school principals, Education
Minister Julia Gillard gave them the first look at the myschool.edu.au website being developed by the
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. Only tepid support for new report cards SMH November 11, 2009 The Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has lifted the veil on the
long-awaited report cards that will reveal unprecedented levels of
information about every school in the nation. Ms Gillard displayed the features of the controversial report cards -
which will be published on a new website called My School - to an audience of
150 principals who had been invited to Canberra to discuss the Government's
education agenda. But the website, which will publish test results, staff and student
numbers, attendance rates and socio-economic data for each of the country's
10,000 schools, received a lukewarm response from principals, some of whom
fear it will demonise struggling schools and pressure teachers to focus
excessively on test preparation at the expense of other subjects. HSC religion testing faces the inquisition DT November 11, 2009 Teachers have said a question in the studies of religion HSC exam was
almost impossible to answer. Plan to delay school for two years DT November 8, 2009 Children in NSW can start
school as young as four but an international study says enrolment should be
delayed until they are at least six years old. A
Cambridge University study recommends children aged under six engage in a
year of play-based learning before they start school. Row over sex education SMH November 8, 2009 Sydney's Catholic
schools head Dan White is warning against the planned national curriculum
being used as a ''how-to guide'' for children to gain access to contraception
and abortion clinics. But NSW Teachers
Federation president Bob Lipscombe said sex education in the 21st century
should reflect the needs of young people and equip them with information to
prepare them for adulthood. Tenth school for overseas students collapses SMH November 7, 2009
The reputation of
Australia's $16 billion overseas education industry has been dealt another
blow by the sudden collapse of the Global Campus Management Group, which ran
four colleges in Sydney and Melbourne with about 3000 students. Kids encouraged to play now or pay later The Australian November 4, 2009 Kids are "hard-wired"
to play and pushy "trophy parents" only risk triggering teenage
depression, a prominent child psychologist warned yesterday. Michael
Carr-Gregg, a founder of the National Coalition Against Bullying, said
depression had emerged as the "common cold" of adolescent
psychology. But childhood play and
rough-and-tumble helped shield teenagers against stress. Dr Carr-Gregg said children
who were given the freedom to play in their infancy were more likely to grow
up with the resilience to cope with the trauma of family breakdowns, abuse,
or parental alcoholism that often led to teenage depression. "Play is the psychological
innoculation against depression long-term," Dr Carr-Gregg said. Dr Carr-Gregg said
over-protective and controlling parents were creating a generation of wusses.
Private school banished for having public school values DT November 4, 2009 Maralyn Parker story and blog Macquarie Grammar School Money for schools withheld DT November 2, 2009 Maralyn Parker story and blog The government announced today it is withholding $500
million of its Building The Education funding school funding due to a better
mid-year economic outlook than expected. The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2009-10 released by
Wayne Swan today was quickly followed by a release from Julia Gillard’s
office announcing changes to BER funding. $500 million scheduled to be spent on schools in 2010
-2011 will now be “rephased” to be spent in 2011- 2012. The
funding affected is The Primary Schools for the 21st Century element of the
BER. English by numbers - students find formula for HSC success SMH October 31, 2009 Not so long ago
politicians such as Bob Carr were denouncing the dumbing down of the Higher
School Certificate curriculum. John Howard, no less, took up the cudgels,
singling out HSC English. It was not only dumber than in his day but it had
fallen victim to post-modernism and political correctness, he said. The politicians
were wrong about the dumbing down of English in NSW. If anything it is too
hard for many willing and able students. But there is a
troubling development in how students approach the study of English, and it
was evident in HSC-afflicted households over the past two weeks, with
cramming for up to three separate English exams in full swing. Studying for
English is now eerily like learning maths formulae, or a piano sonata. It is
a feat of memory and repetition. Students try to memorise line-for-line
prepared essays and creative short stories they have refined over the year in
the reasonable expectation of being able to replicate them in the HSC exam. The minefield that is school league tables DT October 27, 2009
Maralyn Parker article and blog Teachers failing the maths grade The Australian October 27, 2009 Students in almost 60 per cent of high schools are
being taught by unqualified teachers, with mathematics one of the worst-hit
subjects. Principals demand smaller class sizes SMH October 27, 2009 NSW primary
school principals will press the State Government to reduce class sizes for
students in years three to six, following the successful reduction in those
for the earlier grades. The push comes as
the Australian Education Union releases new evidence of a worsening teacher
shortage, in the form of a survey showing almost 60per cent of government
schools nationally are having trouble getting the teachers they need. Principals have their say at education forum SMH October 26, 2009
The federal
Education Minister, Julia Gillard, will bring 150 school principals to
Canberra next month to discuss how the Government can help them lift
educational standards. The forum, to be
held on November 10 and 11, will give her a chance to speak to principals
about contentious elements of the Government's education reform agenda. Elite schools splash out on property deals SMH October 24, 2009
While squirrelling away funds for years to make its successful $35.2 million bid for the historic Graythwaite estate this week, one of Sydney's wealthiest private schools also managed to expand its portfolio to 86 properties. Sydney Church of
England Grammar School (Shore), which receives annual funding from state and
federal governments of more than $4 million, has in the past decade bought 12
properties around its 5.65-hectare campus near North Sydney's business
district and nine hectares of playing fields in Northbridge. Keeping a cool head over Shelley SMH October 24, 2009 HSC English paper. Federal Government Education Programs Building at schools delayed SMH October 23,
2009
More than a third of the science and language centres being funded under
the Rudd Government's school stimulus program are behind schedule, a Senate
committee heard yesterday. Officials from the federal Education Department told an estimates hearing
that of 537 science and language laboratories that had been approved, only
349 had met the commencement deadline of the end of September. Kevin Rudd's computer commitment to schools falls short NEWS.com.au October 23, 2009 Only
150,000 of the nearly one million computers Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
promised to Australian secondary students have arrived on school desks. Maralyn Parker – articles and blogs
– Daily Telegraph
HSC 2009 - the prospects
Wednesday,
October 21, 2009 at 03:40pm Putting your skills and knowledge on the line in NSW
school exit exams is all about prospects - and for the 2009ers in NSW they
are unsurpassed. This is the best time to be a Higher School Certificate
student. It is going to get even better in years to come - but if you are
sitting exams today you should know no other year has had it so good. For the first time, in 2010, universities have the
freedom to over enrol by up to 10 per cent and the extra places will all be
fully funded by federal coffers. For a university such as the University of Technology,
Sydney, it could mean potentially an extra 650 students up from the usual
about 6500, for Macquarie Univerity an extra 400 students and for University
of Sydney up to 1000 more fully funded places. Error in the Studies of Religion exam - Board of Studies
responds.
Friday,
October 23, 2009 at 08:48am There are many complaints
about yesterday’s Studies of Religion exam. SOR is the fastest growing
HSC subject and the 5th most popular. It is a compulsory subject in most
faith-based schools and has been for many years. Read some of the complaints about the exam below and the
official response from the NSW Board of Studies School violence rules still not operating SMH October 22, 2009
New laws that
give school principals the power to gain access to a student's record of
violence so they can take steps to protect their staff members and other
students are not yet in force, four years after they were announced by the
State Government. Teen punched and threatened before suicide, inquest told SMH October 21, 2009 Alex Wildman's
school principal and deputy admitted days after the bullied teenager
committed suicide he might still be alive if the school had handled his case
differently, according to his mother. Year 12 comes down to earth SMH October 19, 2009 Cadet abuser was already on parole SMH October 19, 2009 Former cadet
officer at a north shore private school (Barker College) sexually assaulted a
boy at a camp while on parole for similar offences. Child sex school principal in court on new sex charge SMH Oct 16, 2009 3.42pm A former high school principal of a Christian school at Grafton facing sentencing for having sex with a 16-year-old student in 2007 has been charged with the aggravated sexual assault of another pupil one year earlier. Principal faces eight years' jail SMH Oct 16, 2009 Former school principal who sexually abused a student, and who told a
court yesterday that he believed he was in love with her, faces up to eight
years' jail. But Hazel Bell, the teacher who first raised concerns about Frank
Bailey's behaviour towards the 16-year-old girl, has been denied her job
back. Two students, Sarah Johnson and Bec Gavan, who also complained about
their former headmaster's conduct with the girl at St Andrew's Christian
School, near Grafton, were expelled and unable to complete their HSC. I was like a zombie: principal says he was in love with pupil
he had sex with SMH Oct
15, 2009 11.36am Frank Bailey, the former headmaster at St
Andrew's Christian School near Grafton pleaded guilty in March to
five counts of sexual intercourse with a person in his care after he
assaulted the 16-year-old while she was staying at his home. Federal inflexibility undermined stimulus spending: NSW
officials SMH October 16, 2009 NSW Treasury officials have complained that the federal jobs stimulus
package could have delivered more local jobs if funding arrangements were
more flexible and allowed for a redistribution of funding between schools. Schools lose new buildings after spending spree SMH October 15, 2009 More than half the NSW schools promised classrooms and halls under the
Rudd Government's $16.2 billion stimulus program have blown their budgets,
forcing some to reduce the size of buildings or abandon entire projects. School cash 'wasted' on fees SMH October 14, 2009 Management fees will eat up to a quarter of the $3.4 billion given to NSW
schools for building halls and libraries. Detailed cost summaries for individual schools reveal that administrative
charges are far higher than the Government has admitted. Some schools will
pay as much as $250,000 each, Government documents show Schools lack basic funding:
Labor MP SMH October 11, 2009 Prominent Federal Labor MP Jennie George has criticised her Government's
"education revolution" for failing to address the urgent needs of
public schools. Testing time when figures don’t add up Daily Telegraph October 14, 2009 at
04:44pm Maralyn Parker – article and blog
Six weeks ago when I embarked on annual leave the
argument was parents were too stupid to understand school performance data.
Now even educational statisticians are clashing over what it all means. I love this current brawl about the National Assessment
Program - Literacy and Numeracy results. Especially the fact every state
celebrated their fabulous improvements in NAPLAN when the gains might have
been just one big statistical error. Parents line up to give students ethics lessons SMH September 30, 2009 The Education
Minister, Verity Firth, will require the ''wisdom of Solomon'' to extricate
herself from the furore developing over a pilot program offering ethics
education to primary school students who opt out of scripture classes. Parent groups at
seven NSW primary schools, including Rozelle Public in Ms Firth's electorate,
want to operate the program being devised by the St James Ethics Centre. But the NSW
Government's advisory panel, the Inter-Church Commission on Religious
Education in Schools, opposes the introduction of the program saying it is
being pushed by a small interest group. The president of
the NSW P&C Federation, Dianne Giblin, told ABC Radio that students who
opted out of scripture were being discriminated against. ''All the other
young children are allowed to go off to their various faiths and look at
their own ethics and their own values and morals, and the rest of the school
are not allowed to do anything else,'' she said. Bright students 'betrayed' by
HSC SMH September 12, 2009 The HSC is a
blunt instrument that leaves many of the most talented students excluded from
higher education, the head of Australia's oldest university says. The University of
Sydney's vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, told the Herald the entry
ranking system was biased towards students who attended private and selective
high schools. George Cooney, an
expert in the calculation of university admissions rankings, has suggested
the university entry system be a subject for public debate because of
confusion that has surrounded it since universities began hand-picking some
students on the basis of measures other than the UAI. On Monday Dr
Spence unveiled a ''radical rethink'' that was taking place at the 159-year-old
institution, where questions are being asked about the sustainability of
enrolling more than 48,000 full- and part-time students every year. NSW tops class in national spelling bee SMH September 12,
2009
NSW has topped the national spelling bee for the second year in a row. Results from national literacy and numeracy tests for years 3, 5 and 7
and 9 released yesterday show that NSW outperformed the other states and
territories in spelling. NSW top of the class in literacy and numeracy skills tests DT September 12, 2009 Debnam tries to broker deal on
league tables SMH September 11, 2009 After breaking ranks with the Coalition over its opposition to
publication of school league tables, the NSW Liberal MP Peter Debnam tried yesterday to broker an alternative plan with
the Government and newspaper editors. Schools ban racy Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer DT September 12, 2009 Primary school students have
been banned from reading the teen cult classic Twilight books because they are
too racy and contradict religious beliefs. Santa
Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that
teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural
themes in the books. The school's head librarian Helen Schutz said: Schools cash is going where it is needed least The
Age Editorial
September 10, 2009 Governments should fund private schools
according to need. In May last year, federal
Education Minister Julia Gillard, speaking to the Association of Independent
Schools of NSW, described the system Australia uses to determine school
funding as one of the most complex and confusing in the developed world. The
Age commented that she could also have added that it is one of the most
divisive, since it is engendering what can only be described as smouldering
class enmity. The latest increases in funding to private schools, reported
yesterday Private schools' cash boost, confirm that
judgment. Former teacher keen to shape new curriculum SMH September 10, 2009 The agency
charged with delivering the Federal Government's national curriculum and
schools transparency agenda is to be led by a former geography teacher who
has helped transform school systems on five continents. Dr Peter Hill, a former secretary-general of the Hong
Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, will take up his appointment as
chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority on September 28. Minister Gillard’s Media Release Young troublemakers set on the road to antisocial adulthood SMH September 10, 2009 ADELE HORIN The idea a
person's character is formed in the first few years of life is not new.
''Give me a child until he is seven,'' say the Jesuits, ''and I will give you
the man.'' But the theory
that badly behaved children are more likely to grow into troubled adults has
been given extra weight by one of the world's most famous and long-running
studies of children. The study has
found children who persistently lie, steal, are physically aggressive or
cruel are at high risk of turning into antisocial and troubled adults. Yet
governments are ignoring proven ways of fixing the problem. The study's
director, David Fergusson, of the University of Otago in New
Zealand, said serious conduct problems that develop by age seven can have
far-reaching consequences. ''There is no other childhood condition that has
such pervasive and far-reaching consequences for later development.'' Professor
Fergusson outlined several proven programs that governments could invest in
to help address the problem, including the programs Parent Management Training, Incredible
Years and Triple P. So just who rules this school anyway? Daily Telegraph September 10, 2009 Balaclava-clad students jeered
as frightened children stood outside the gates of their government (Airds)
high school yesterday with signs reading "Stop the violence". Building the Education Revolution Grant to trail girl to next school The Australian September 10,
2009 Wherever eight-year-old
"Mary" goes to school, a $250,000 taxpayer grant is sure to follow. The sole
student of Evesham State School, in the Queensland outback near Longreach,
was in the eye of a political storm yesterday, as a symbol of waste in the
federal government's $16billion Building the Education Revolution program. The Year 3
student is the only pupil at her school, which has been granted $250,000 in
federal funds for a new library, even though the Queensland government is
considering closing the school. Education Queensland revealed yesterday that,
should Evesham school be shut down, its share of the cash would be handed to
whichever new school its last remaining student transferred to, "as per
the Australian government's BER guidelines". Parents seek compromise over classrooms at Abbotsford The Australian September 10, 2009
A group of parents last night
moved a step closer to reaching a compromise with the federal and NSW
governments that would allow their children's school to build a new
four-classroom block without having to knock down an existing block. Parents want to refuse Sydney school grant The Australian September 9,
2009 A group of parents is
considering boycotting the Rudd government's school building program and
sending back its $2.5 million grant in protest at being forced to knock down
a building of four classrooms to build a new block of four classrooms. An
extraordinary meeting of the Parents and Citizens Association at Abbotsford
Public School in Sydney's inner west will tonight debate whether the school
should refuse its grant under the Building the Education Revolution, rather
than waste it building a facility that already exists. P&C
president Robert Vellar said the school, with about 330 students, had hoped
to amend its original plans to build an extra two classrooms and refurbish
another four to expand the capacity of the school, which is expecting a rise
in enrolments. A tale of two schools, divided by water and funding The Australian September 10,
2009 A South Australian school
spread over 5 campusses says it has been disadvantaged by BER rules. Stimulus stokes school envy Hobart Mercury September 9, 2009 A
remote school community is angry it missed out on funding for a new science
centre. While at the same time
exclusive private schools reaped millions from the Federal Government's
stimulus package. Tasman District School at Nubeena on the Tasman Peninsula had hoped to receive
funding to upgrade its outdated science block under the third round of the
schools improvement package. Meanwhile, Hobart private
schools Friends' and Hutchins each received $2.7 million for refurbishments
while St Michael's Collegiate received $2.2 million. "That just shows you the
attitude of the Federal Government -- the main voting areas are looked after
and the disadvantaged district schools are ignored and told to get
stuffed," he said. Schools stimulus wasted on fees Adelaide
Now September 9, 2009 Three schools on Kangaroo
Island have been charged more than $100,000 in inspection fees for new halls
that they are getting under the financial stimulus plan. Schools lag in study allocation, says report SMH September 9, 2009 Australian
schools devote less classroom time to reading, writing and literature, maths
and the learning of foreign languages than other developed countries,
according to an international report
card (xls – see sheet C_D1.2b) of education systems released last
night. The report from
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, says Australian
students between the ages of nine and 11 spend just 13 per cent of
instruction time on reading, writing and literature, less than half the time
devoted to the subject in the Netherlands, Mexico and France, and
significantly below the OECD average of 23 per cent. Other OECD reports Education at a Glance 2009: OECD Indicators Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects,
OECD study shows UWA, Sydney plan revamp as unis gear up for 2012 reform The
Australian September 9, 2009 Obama recalls restless youth in children's address SMH September 9, 2009 Barack Obama on
Tuesday held up his personal journey from wayward youth to the presidency to
challenge US children to excel, in a back-to-school speech that sparked
conservative fury. "If you quit
on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your
country," Obama said, after getting a euphoric welcome at a suburban
high school in Virginia for a speech beamed countrywide on television. Private schools' cash boost The Age September 9, 2009
Victoria's
wealthiest private schools are set to receive massive increases in federal
funding, with some to get more than 20 per cent extra over four years despite
enrolments rising only marginally by comparison. Haileybury
College will be among the big winners, with more than $52 million to be
delivered over four years, including $14.64 million in 2012 - an increase of
more than 24 per cent since 2008. Penleigh and
Essendon Grammar will get more than $39 million over four years (up 29 per
cent); Carey Baptist Grammar School $20 million (up 18 per cent) and Scotch
College $16 million (up 25 per cent). Juvenile crimes link to abuse and neglect SMH September 5, 2009
Most maltreated
children do not go on to become criminals but childhood abuse or neglect
increases the chances a person will offend - and some forms of maltreatment
are more likely to create criminals than others. Landmark research
into juvenile crime by Griffith University researchers analysed all child
protection and crime data collected in Queensland for children born in 1983,
1984 and 1990. Mourners farewell Mullumbimby schoolyard brawl victim Jai
Morcom The
Australian September 5, 2009 More than a thousand people
have farewelled a boy who died after a schoolyard brawl a week ago at
Mullumbimby High School in northern NSW. School funding signs are ads: Australian Electoral Commission The Australian September 4, 2009 The Australian Electoral
Commission has embarrassed Kevin Rudd by ruling that more than 8000 signs
being erected outside publicly funded school building projects are political
advertisements. The government confirmed
yesterday it would have to mark the signs with authorisations identical to
those that appear on political advertisements. Cooking up reasons for spending fiasco The Australian September 4, 2009 Opinion, Dennis Shanahan. I have spent the last half of
this week checking out the veracity of a leaked Treasury minute proposing a
solution to the miscalculation of spending on Building the Education
Revolution and the politically damaging decisions to shut down spending on
high school science laboratories and cut the number of houses to be built for
the homeless. The government had delivered more refurbished public housing than it promised and the science labs in high schools were an extra round of offers, but there's no getting around the fact playground shelters took precedence over economically productive science and language labs and Rudd's personal aim of reducing homelessness. How much better off would schools and the Australian economy have been if there had been a merit, equity or productivity test applied to the $42 billion spending priority, rather than a simple, easy-to-sell political giveaway - every child wins a prize? Firth censured over league table bill SMH September 4, 2009 The State
Government has been dealt a blow in the upper house after the Greens and the
Opposition passed a censure motion yesterday against the Education Minister,
Verity Firth, over her school league tables bill. The Greens MP
John Kaye moved the motion over Ms Firth's comments that NSW was at risk of
losing billions in federal funding because of the Greens amendment to ban
school league tables. It is the first time the upper house has censured a
lower house minister since 2001. Tablets poised to become computing’s next little thing
The Australian September 4, 2009 Tablet personal computers with
touch screens are about to become the latest must-have gadgets, if technology
companies have their way. Computer makers are fighting to convince consumers that tablet PCs -
computers without keyboards - will be the best way to watch videos, read
books and play computer games. the rise of mini-laptops has shown that
consumers are now open to using inexpensive devices for basic computing and
entertainment.
Watchdog admits energy drinks dodged state food standards SMH September 4, 2009 The Therapeutic Goods Administration has admitted flaws in its product
register have allowed companies to circumvent state food standards and sell
energy drinks containing 10 times the legal limits of caffeine. Caffeine drinks escaping scrutiny Daily Telegraph September 3, 2009
Take high-caffeine energy drinks off the market: NSW minister
SMH September 3, 2009 -
4:44PM Article and “Your say” Energy drinks with dangerously high levels of caffeine are being sold to
children because of a loophole in Australian law, the NSW Government says. Five year 7 students from Quakers Hill, in Sydney's west, reportedly
suffered side effects including dizziness and nausea after consuming the
drinks on their way to school yesterday. Building the Education Revolution
Cash cow runs dry so disadvantaged schools
lose funding SMH
September 3, 2009
Twenty-six of the most disadvantaged schools in NSW that were promised
new language centres and science laboratories have lost their funding under
the Federal Government's $1 billion building program for secondary schools. Their plans have been scuttled by a $1.5 billion blowout in the $14
billion primary school program that delivered grants of $3 million each to
affluent schools such as Abbotsleigh, Knox Grammar, The King's School,
Cranbrook and Shore for new halls and other facilities. Yesterday the NSW Government confirmed the 26 central schools would miss
out because the money was being redirected to cover the blowout in primary
school funding. School with one child to get $250k The Australian September 3, 2009
School stimulus plan fails test for neediest The Australian September 2, 2009
The neediest high schools in
Australia have been denied funding to build science labs and language centres
after the federal government ignored its own guidelines and redirected $200
million to help pay for a blowout in its primary school building program. The
Australian understands 140 of the nation's most disadvantaged and
under-resourced high schools have missed out on the new facilities after the
government last week cancelled a planned second round of the $1billion
program. The three
schools judged by an independent panel to be most in need of the science labs
and language centres are in remote areas and have a high proportion of
indigenous students. They had applied for projects with a combined value of
$3 million but have received not one cent between them. Instead, the
federal government has used the money to meet increased demand in the last
round of its $14bn primary school program, in which private school PLC Pymble
on Sydney's affluent north shore received $3m to refurbish a multipurpose
hall and library. Lost for words at this science The Australian September 2, 2009 Kevin Rudd's education revolution has sold out his principles and our
principals. The decision to rob
high schools of science labs and language centres to help pay for the blowout
in the cost of sheds in primary schools has left high school principals
furious, and betrayed the Prime Minister's stated priorities of improving
science and language education. The only program in
the $16billion Building the Education Revolution to have real educational
merit was the smallest, the $1bn - reduced last week to $800million - to
build sciences and language centres in high schools. The remaining $15bn
was handed to schools regardless of their existing facilities, their
community's resources, or whether they even needed a hall or library. Police lock down elite school as former student arrested The Australian 03.09.09 Students 'hypnotised for sex' at St Stanislaus
Daily Telegraph September 2, 2009
Former teacher says he witnessed sexual assaults SMH September 2, 2009
Students forced to engage in group sex in 'rampant
pedophilia': court
SMH September 1, 2009 -
3:01PM Students at a Bathurst high school were allegedly forced to engage in
group sex and were hypnotised to have intercourse with teachers, in what has
been described as a culture of "rampant pedophilia", a court has
heard. The allegations were heard during a bail application by Brian
Spillane, a former chaplain at St Stanislaus' College. Bad food can cut two years off a child's lifespan SMH September 2, 2009
The nation's children will live two years fewer than their parents unless
there are urgent changes to lifestyle, government experts warn. They are calling for a ban on TV advertising of junk food targeted at
young viewers, a move at odds with the media watchdog's views. In a report released yesterday, the National
Preventative Health Taskforce has proposed a battery of measures
including higher taxes and bans to combat obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking. Red Bull charges towards school DT September 1, 2009 Red Bull
"ambassadors" brazenly took samples of the high-caffeine energy
drink into a public high school which had banned the product on health
grounds. Office
staff at Sylvania High School were forced to rebuff the Red Bull
representatives who tried to distribute material promoting the energy drink
and a surfing event at Cronulla. Hunters hold Nathan Rees to ransom DT September 1, 2009 Premier Nathan Rees has offered
to let hunters into national parks to shoot feral animals on a trial basis in
exchange for support in the Legislative Council to reverse the ban on
publishing school leagues tables. Teachers take fight to school gates SMH August 31, 2009
A peak group of principals and
teachers will bombard parents outside schools this week with thousands of
pamphlets opposing league tables for schools. Why schools deal with bullying better than most SMH September 1, 2009
Opinion: Chris Bonnor
Let's have peace SMH September 1, 2009
Mullumbimby
High School Students demand principal's sacking after schoolmate's death SMH August 31, 2009
Police detectives and liaison officers will today meet with Mullumbimby
High School students planning a walkout over the death of 15-year-old Jai
Drummond Morcom. A number of students are planning a 10am protest to remember the Northern
NSW teenager and demand the sacking of school principal Ian Graham. Fatal school fight walkout planned against bullying, violence
in school after Jai Morcom died Daily Telegraph August 31, 2009
Classmates of a school student
who died after a playground brawl are planning a mass walkout today to
protest against school violence. Students
claim a culture of bullying and violence has been allowed to fester at
Mullumbimby High School, where Jai Morcom, 15, was
involved in a fatal fight over a lunch table. Private schools win cash bonuses SMH August 29, 2009
Private schools
in Australia will receive up to $23 million each in overpayments over the
next four years because of the Rudd Government's commitment to a deal that
John Howard struck. Some NSW schools
will receive up to $15 million more than their entitlement under a funding
formula that measures need according to the socio-economic status of the
school community. Download list of
schools from SMH site pdf 52.5 kb. Second girl dies after skiing into tree SMH August 28, 2009 9:14AM A year 11 student
at Barker College in Hornsby (Amelia McGuiness, 16) has died after skiing
into a tree whilst competing with classmates in the NSW Interschool
Championships at Perisher Blue ski resort. Building the Education Revolution changes PM Kevin Rudd revamps stimulus package The Australian 28.08.09 Kevin Rudd has dramatically reconfigured
his $43 billion economic stimulus package after warnings it could expose
taxpayers to unacceptably high costs delivering promised new school
buildings. The
government has also revised guidelines for its $16.2bn primary schools
building program, inserting for the first time a "value-for-money"
requirement, compliance with council building laws and involvement of
apprentices on building sites. Deputy Prime
Minister Julia Gillard told The Australian last night the changes would
deliver greater flexibility and accountability, and were based on lessons
learned in implementing early rounds of the spending. Change of rules for school projects The Australian 28.08.09
Any changes to school building
projects in the Rudd government's $16.2 billion education infrastructure
program must be sanctioned by the federal education department, under revised
guidelines released yesterday. School
principals must also agree in writing to a reduction in their grant or to any
unspent money being transferred to another school, while state governments
must demonstrate value for money in their contracts with builders and
purchasing of materials. All projects must also comply with local planning
regulations. Real tragedy is lost opportunity The Australian 28.08.09 Comment: Justine
Ferrari For a
government committed to an education revolution, there are arguably more
worthwhile areas in which to invest than school buildings. The standout item
is teachers, including bigger salaries to attract brighter people into the
profession and better training programs for new and existing teachers.
Gillard will rightly counter that the government is already investing heavily
in this area, and it is, but still the amount is one brick in the $16bn worth
of bricks in the BER. The
buildings built with the BER billions will be used by the grandchildren of
the students now in school. They should be buildings to inspire, to last
generations, to equip every community with a school environment worthy of
pride. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build schools that are special.
The tragedy of the BER is that we will shudder as we walk past these hastily
built, cookie-cutter buildings, often plonked on a basketball court or open
space that a school can ill afford to lose. Building the Education Revolution website Economic Stimulus Plan - Education Building the Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21st
Century Round Three Results LIST OF SUCCESSFUL
SCHOOLS School signs 'cynical election ploy' SMH August 28, 2009 - 7:26AM A requirement for
schools to display a road sign as a condition for receiving federal
government stimulus money is a cynical election ploy, the opposition says. Parents sued for school fees
after bullying dispute SMH August 27, 2009 A Sydney couple
who refuse to pay thousands of dollars in private school fees claim the
school failed to stop bullying which led to one of their daughters harming
herself, a court has heard. Grant and Gloria Mears owe Roseville College about $20,000 in tuition fees and penalties after they removed their
four daughters from the school in early 2007, claiming it had provided a
sub-standard education and had failed in its duty of care. Funding of Private Schools
Enrolments cash doesn't add up SMH August 25, 2009
Increases in private school enrolments only partly explain the 32 per
cent increase in Commonwealth funding, which will rise to more than $26
billion over the next four years. Jim McMorrow, an honorary associate professor of education at the
University of Sydney, said projections in this year's federal budget papers
reveal non-government school enrolments are projected to rise by only about 5
per cent over the next four years. ''It can't be the case that increases of 32 per cent in non-government
schools funding are solely attributable to higher enrolments in those
schools,'' he said. ''Policy decisions, not enrolments, explain the bulk of
the increases.'' Canberra's courage fails on schools SMH Editorial August
25, 2009
Kevin 07
left a difficult legacy for Kevin 09. Campaigning for office against John
Howard, Kevin Rudd tried to be as unthreatening as possible - to mimic the
incumbent and allay voter fears of change. He made a big show of confirming
virtually all Howard's tax cuts. He did something similar with private school
funding. Both promises are now haunting his Government following the global
financial crisis. Both areas need reform, but perhaps the unfairness the Rudd
Government is content to perpetuate in school funding needs it more, because
it is the more glaring. Rudd's $26b funding gift to private schools SMH August 24, 2009
The Rudd Government will deliver an estimated 32 per cent increase in
funding to private schools, raising their national windfall to more than
$26.2 billion over the next four years, new analysis shows. Despite a federal Department of Education review which uncovered
entrenched ''inequities'' in the system, Kevin Rudd has remained committed to
maintaining the Howard government's controversial funding arrangements for
private schools until 2012. It means Labor will release more than $2 billion in ''over-payments''
during the next four years to schools that receive more than their strict
entitlements under the Commonwealth funding system. This measures the
socioeconomic status of each school community using census data. A Greens analysis of Senate budget estimate figures shows already wealthy
independent schools in Sydney, including Trinity Grammar, The King's School,
Newington, Moriah and St Andrew's Cathedral School, will receive funding
increases of up to $5.3 million each over four years. Exceptions that disprove the rules SMH August 24, 2009 When the Howard government decided it would change the system of federal
funding for private schools, it made half the schools exempt from the new
rules. Mind the gap year: Gillard hears student protests SMH August 25, 2009 The federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, appears set to give ground
on Labor's planned overhaul of youth allowance in response to the protests of
regional students who would be worse off under the changes. Ms Gillard met about a dozen young people in Canberra yesterday to hear
their concerns about the proposed changes, announced in the budget in May. Gap-year students put case to Gillard SMH August 24, 2009
Thousands of gap-year students threatened with losing up to $371.40 a fortnight
in government support will rely on a proposal before Julia Gillard today to
give them a six- to 12-month period of grace to qualify for the full income
support. Smack the child, go to jail: parents pressured Sun Herald August
23, 2009
Veterans turn page on another quest Sun Herald August
23, 2009
Story about
Premier’s Reading Challenge.
Private school's league table fear SMH August 22, 2009
The prestigious
Sydney private school Cranbrook has warned parents that it may ''suffer'' in
league table comparisons with schools that, unlike itself, are academically
selective. New national
school report cards will compare the academic performance of schools within
groups of similarly wealthy or disadvantaged school communities. It means that
schools such as Cranbrook, which are not academically selective, will be
compared with others - including Sydney Grammar - which are, because both
schools draw from communities with a similar socio-economic status. ''It is
constantly aggravating to me that the three-dimensional knowledge about the
whole development of a child is reduced to a one-dimensional dot on a
spreadsheet and represents the final summative statement about their worth in
the overall system,'' said the head of Cranbrook's senior school, Michael
Parker. For more articles on League Tables – search this
page for “league”. School children need food for thought during the day Daily Telegraph 20.08.09
Under a statewide program called Crunch
and Sip, pupils from kindergarten to Year 6 are able to eat fruit and
vegetables and drink water or unsweetened juice in class for about an hour
from 10am. School
heads claim earlier and healthier eating has cut the number of playground
altercations because healthy snacks such as apples, carrots and watermelon
produce calmer and more contented children. Principals ask for national training standard SMH 20.08.09
Professional
development programs for school principals are ''piecemeal'' and not
nationally cohesive, peak school principal groups across Australia have
warned. A submission from
secondary and primary school principals representing public, independent and
Catholic sectors calls for the creation of a national body to co-ordinate and
accredit professional development programs for school leaders. Prefab library 'cheats' school in southwest Sydney The Australian 20.08.09 The small community of Douglas
Park Primary School outside Sydney is feeling cheated of the benefits of the
federal government's $14.7 billion school building program after being
charged three times more than the amount quoted for a prefabricated school
library. The school applied for a new
administration centre with its entitlement under the Rudd government's
Building the Education Revolution, which was worth about $850,000. Instead, the school of about
130 students near Camden, southwest of Sydney, was offered a
"factory-built transportable" library, or prefabricated
demountable, for $285,000. It is now outraged that the state government is
charging the full $850,000 and has failed to explain where the extra money is
going. Boy was lured to storeroom with promise of a cigarette SMH 20.08.09
A former teacher
at Knox Grammar School who admits a sex offence against a student lured the
boy to a deserted storeroom with the promise of a cigarette. The incident was
detailed in papers tendered to Hornsby Local Court, where the case of Damien
Piers Vance was yesterday adjourned for sentencing. Vance, 55, is one of five
former teachers charged over alleged sexual abuse of students at the
Wahroonga school. Funding for teenage road trauma program in doubt SMH 20.08.09 The future of a
confronting road accident prevention program for teenagers, run by doctors
who treat catastrophically injured victims, is in doubt after the NRMA said
it would review its $150,000 funding contribution and the Roads and Traffic
Authority called into question its use of graphic crash scenes. Time for a devolution revolution Daily
Telegraph 19.08.09 11.48 am
Maralyn Parker – article & blog Western Australia announced this week it is following
the world-wide push to give public school communities and school principals
more control. It is happening just about everywhere - except in NSW. We are
headed in the opposite direction. But first prize so far goes to Western Australia for
creating the best way to make public schools more like private schools. It plans to give a few select public schools full
control of their school budget and the right to hire teachers and to write
their own curriculum. School councils will have a name change to school
boards_very posh_and the schools will be called Independent Public Schools. Of course this also earns WA first prize for the best
education oxymoron. Mercifully only 30 of WA’s 778 public schools
initially will be honoured with such a title. Private school parents put tables low on list SMH 19.08.09
Parents of
children at private schools say they are not as interested in school
performance tables as the Federal Government claims they are. The parents are
more interested in the happiness, safety and social development of their
children, says a position statement being drafted by the Australian Parents
Council, a national federation of organisations representing parents of
non-government school students. The council's executive director, Ian Dalton,
said parents ranked happiness and safety way ahead of student results in
public tests. Rudd increases funds for Brethren schools SMH 19.08.09
The Federal
Government was criticised yesterday for increasing funding for Exclusive
Brethren schools to an estimated $62 million over the next four years. The Government
has chosen to continue with the previous government's controversial funding
formula for private schools, which will deliver an additional $24.6 million
to the Brethren schools over the next four-year funding cycle, according to
budget projections. Spies to swoop on children's energy drinks Daily Telegraph 18.08.09 Supermarkets and corner stores
will be asked to spy on students who buy large amounts of high-caffeine
energy drinks amid increasing fears about their health risks. And the
state's most influential parents' lobby group wants a NSW-wide school ban on
the controversial beverages. The push for a crackdown by the Federation of
Parents and Citizens' Associations is backed up by concerns over students
becoming loud and hyperactive in class after consuming drinks such as Red
Bull, V, Mother or Cocaine. Testing futile unless teachers read data: study SMH 18.08.09
National testing
will not improve literacy results unless teachers are taught how to interpret
the data properly and help students make improvements, NZ research has found. Politicians fail kids most in need Education funding farce Manly Daily
17.08.09 State Education Minister
Verity Firth has all but rejected a request from Federal Education Minister
Julia Gillard for the NSW Government to come up with additional funding for
Royal Far West and Stewart House schools. Share the best teachers and pay well: report SMH 17.08.09 The best teachers
would be given healthy pay rises and shared between schools as part of a
performance-based system, a government report says. The report,
commissioned by the Howard government and made public yesterday, has backed
pay based on merit, but not if it is linked exclusively to students' results. Instead, it says,
teachers should be able to opt in to a performance-based system that offers
higher wages in return for teaching in demanding schools, taking part in
training and being judged by a set of national benchmarks. The report
concludes by suggesting a private management style for teachers in order to
''underpin a performance culture in teacher employment''. But, it says,
experience from other countries suggests that performance-based pay works
best when people are able to choose whether to take part. Download FULL REPORT
(pdf, 1.25 Mb) and Julia Gillard's media release Leading researcher says ditch the A to E reports Daily Telegraph 12 August
2009 Maralyn
Parker – article and blog Australia’s controversial A to E reports could be
harmful to children according to Professor Geoff Masters, chief executive of
the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Building the Education Revolution
Millions wasted at every school Sunday Telegraph 16.08.09
Schools have accused the NSW
Government of wasting millions of dollars in federal building grants by
forcing them to accept inflated quotes. The
NSW Teachers Federation, the Parents and Citizens Association and the State
Opposition have been swamped with complaints from school staff who accuse the
Education Department of approving bloated prices for classrooms, halls and
building upgrades. They
say centralised state bureaucrats are freezing out local builders who have
quoted to do the work cheaper, raising concerns that huge amounts of taxpayer
money will be wasted. Parents too busy for P&C Sunday Telegraph 16.08.09 Canteen mums and referee dads
are becoming endangered species. Parents, consumed by work and family, no
longer have time to volunteer at their children's school, new Sydney
University research shows. The
perceived exclusive culture of Parents and Citizens' groups and the
inconvenient times of monthly meetings also kept parents away. Despite
the results, the researcher Dr Rawsthorne said the
P&C movement was not in crisis - it was simply failing to keep up
with the times. However,
NSW Parents and Citizens' Federation president Di Giblin said the downturn
was a concern. She said: "Our numbers are declining. Lives are generally
busier and it's the changing nature of the workforce - we have an
increase in the number of single-parent families and mums need to return to
work.'' P&C Media Release Dr Rawsthorne’s discussion
paper Class heater tests not up to scratch, experts fear smh.com.au 16.08.09 Tests taking
place to determine whether public school students are being exposed to
dangerous levels of gas could be flawed because the State Government bought
cheap equipment that does not meet the Australian standard. Support for parents to go back to work smh.com.au 16.08.09 A program that
gives parents of teenagers with an intellectual disability more support so
they can pursue jobs and study is to be expanded across NSW. Bourke Street Public School canteen gifts row Daily
Telegraph 15.08.09 A school canteen made a profit
of $3753.75 while its female operator received a $4000 "gift" from
the parents and citizens' committee for her work. The
payment, announced at an end-of-year school function last December, fuelled a
bitter row within the P&C and led to an audit of its accounts. Capped funds for pupils with disabilities SMH 15.08.09 School funding
for students with special needs will be capped and no longer distributed
according to the number of individual students, under NSW Department of
Education proposals. Principals and
teachers are concerned that funding for students with autism and mental
health disorders will be capped for the next three years at 2009 levels. The
State Government plans to allocate grants based on the prevalence of
disorders in the wider community. Drop A-E grades to keep pupils motivated West Australian 15.08.09 In a move set to ignite debate
about how the new national curriculum will be assessed, Australian Council
for Education Research chief executive Geoff Masters will tell the council's
annual conference in Perth on Monday that using A to E grades contradicts
what is known about the best ways to help students learn. Ken Boston’s views on school league tables and accountability
Ken Boston is a former head
of the NSW DET and England’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Ken Boston urges principals to embrace "rich"
school performance reports The Australian 10.08.09
Leading Australian education
policymaker Ken Boston today called on primary school principals to embrace
"rich" school performance reports, arguing better schools were
worth the "greater external scrutiny". League tables can play to fears of parents SMH 11.08.09
National testing has a critical role to play to improve the performance
of Australian schools, says Ken Boston, who was England's former curriculum
chief, and the director-general of NSW education for a decade until 2002. He warned yesterday that results should not be used to construct school
league tables. Ken Boston’s powerpoint presentation will
be available soon at
State schools get new powers The West Australian 12.08.09 Public schools would have freedom
to shun official curriculum and offer the International Baccalaureate under
sweeping reforms unveiled by the State Government yesterday, which give principals
power to hire teachers and expel students more easily. Premier Colin Barnett said the
plan to create independent public schools would cut red tape and allow
parents more say in their children's education. WA public schools to become independent Perth
Now news.com.au 12.08.09 Dozens of WA state schools will
become "independent", handing greater control to principals and
cutting bureaucracy in the public school system. Hailing the
plans as ``a new era in West Australian education'', Premier Colin Barnett
and Education Minister Liz Constable said public schools would be invited to
apply for independent status. Also of
interest: Review Of Teacher Recruitment Practices – report for WA Department of
Education, March, 2007 Performance audit for Julia Daily Telegraph 12 August 2009 Maralyn Parker
– article and blog If there is anything dodgy
going on with Building the Education Revolution at your school now is the
time to do some dobbing. Young people not happy, Julia The
Australian 10.08.09
Julia Gillard is the darling of
the Canberra press gallery. This makes some sense: she is erudite and
sometimes funny in question time, a welcome break from the tedium of our
Prime Minister's mangled bureaucratese. She is also "the woman most
likely", a potential female prime minister in a city obsessed with the
symbolism of such potential. But
increasingly concerns are growing in the education sector that she may be out
of her depth when it comes to delivering in her very large portfolio areas.
On last week's Q&A program on ABC1, in which she was up against Malcolm
Turnbull and three young political activists from across the spectrum, her
most problematic political failing was on display. She is all style and very
little substance. Long on rhetoric, but short on delivery.All foam, no beer. Julia Gillard backs school-by-school report cards The Australian 10.08.09
Julia Gillard has strongly
backed the move by Queensland to release a school-by-school report card on
literacy and numeracy, saying it was "time we stopped averting our eyes
from poor performance" in the classroom. The Deputy
Prime Minister and architect of Kevin Rudd's education reforms spoke out
yesterday after Queensland made public what was trumpeted as the most
comprehensive list of national test data to be released by a state
government. The move will ramp up pressure on the other states to give
parents greater detail on how individual schools stack up on national
benchmarking of literacy and numeracy. Teaching for tests rejected Courier-Mail,
Brisbane 10.08.09
Principals of some of
Queensland's top-performing schools in last year's national exams have
lambasted a push to teach students the tests to help lift literacy and
numeracy standards. Some of the
top-performing schools don't even believe in testing. Kids lose without competition Daily Telegraph 11.08.09 Why, all of a sudden, do we
have to protect kids from the reality that there are winners and losers in
the world Tables will compare rich, poor schools SMH 07.08.09
New league tables
would compare the performance of schools in the same local area, pitting the
likes of Newington College and academically selective Fort Street High School
against public schools such as Marrickville High and Belmore Boys High in
Sydney's inner west, a study suggests. A study to be
published today by Trevor Cobbold, an economist for the Australian
Productivity Commission for more than 30 years and convener of the Save Our Schools public education advocacy group,
suggests the kinds of comparisons parents can expect to see from later this
year. "Local-area
school performance tables will compare government schools and private schools
in disadvantaged suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Adelaide,
Perth and Canberra with other government and private schools serving very
high socio-economic status communities in neighbouring suburbs," he
said. Sydney girl, 9, killed by bus SMH 05.08.09 2:41PM A nine-year-old girl from William Carey Christan School
in Prestons, has died after being hit by a school bus on the way to school
this morning. Solar schools still in the shade SMH 05.08.09 No public school
in NSW has yet been able to install solar panels funded by a $300 million
national program because the State Government has insisted on a centralised
tendering process. The Prime
Minister, Kevin Rudd, announced the funding more than a year ago, and dozens
of schools in other states have the panels operating. Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' The
Australian 04.08.09 The number of schoolchildren
diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by
funding programs that give schools extra money for students with
disabilities. A study by Macquarie
University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed
with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra
funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads. Uni student mentoring program for aboriginal students Australian Indigenous Menroring Experience AIME A persuasive push all the way to university SMH 03.08.09 It is hard to know who is gaining more from a breakthrough mentoring
scheme for indigenous secondary students, writes Nick Galvin. Four years ago it was a nervous Jack
Manning Bancroft who walked into Alexandria
Park Community School, in Sydney’s inner south, accompanied by 25
other students from Sydney University. Passionate about improving educational
opportunities for indigenous young people, Manning Bancroft had a big idea
and he was about to see if it worked in practice. The plan was to set up one-on-one mentoring sessions between university
students and indigenous pupils. With a combination of encouragement,
practical assistance and good role models, he reasoned, maybe more young
Aborigines could be persuaded to complete their schooling and even go on to
university. AIME
website In a class of their own new friends AIME high SMH 03.08.09 Top boarding schools are full of city kids DT 03.08.09
Warning parents are becoming
irrelevant Dads told to make more time for
their kids Hundreds of parents pay more than $28,000 a year to
send their children to boarding school in the city - although some live
within walking distance of the college gates. Schoolgirl dies in ski accident at Thredbo SMH 03.08.09 A 16-year-old on
a year 11 trip with James Sheahan Catholic High School, Orange died while on
a school skiing trip at the weekend. She hit a tree on a run at Thredbo and
was killed instantly. Don’t bury school data, warns US expert SMH 01.08.09 Moves to restrict the publication of data on school performance,
like those proposed by the NSW upper house, are shortsighted and stifle
discussion about school reform, the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan,
has warned. Excellence hubs: 50 schools recognised SMH 31.07.09 Fifty schools in
NSW will be designated ‘‘centres of excellence’’ and
link with universities to specialise in teacher training and development. Principals refuse to trust data on schools performance DT
30.07.09 Principals challenged Deputy
Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday over the release of information on school
academic performance, claiming it was based on flawed data. But
the Federal Education Minister, addressing an education forum organised by The
Daily Telegraph and the University of Technology Sydney, said there was
no intention of damaging any school when performance data was released
online. Gillard answers principals about league tables DT 30.07.09 09:29am Maralyn Parker Article & blog
The message is
clear to principals - Julia Gillard will not back down. This year Australian
parents will start to get the most comprehensive data available anywhere in
the world about school performance and no amount of protest will stop it
happening. Gillard has
said repeatedly she does not support simplistic league tables. But this did
not stop principals at yesterday’s Education Forum at News Ltd’s
News House in Sydney from attacking her about them. Julia Gillard starts a class war over school test results DT
29.07.09 A battle is brewing over
attempts to ban the publication of school test results, Education Minister
Julia Gillard said yesterday. She
launched a stinging attack on trade unions, teachers and their supporters,
who want to stop school academic data being published. Warning
they would be defeated by parent power, she said opponents of more public
information on school performance were burying their "heads in the
sand" and would not help struggling students improve. Chairman
of the new Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Professor
Barry McGaw backed the minister's stand on
transparency, telling The Daily Telegraph parents had a right to know
if a school was failing. "These
transparency measures will give parents, communities and the public much
better information about school performance," he said. "You
will find some schools are doing very much better than others. They (poorly
performing schools) need to be confronted." Bullying victim gets $484,766 SMH 29.07.09 1.00pm A victim of school bullying in northern NSW
has had his damages award increased by more than $16,000 to $484,766. Impact of teachers and schools on student learning An education revolution does not compute without quality
teachers SMH 25.07.09 Adele Horin The Rudd Government's education revolution will amount
to little if it fails to lift teacher quality. Computers, libraries, arts centres and well-functioning buildings are vital in
improving the learning environment, and the appeal of schools. Only a
curmudgeon would quibble over the extra expenditure. But unless teacher
quality also improves, the revolution will be half-baked. With so many baby-boomer teachers retiring over the next
seven years - in NSW virtually half the teaching population - there is both
opportunity and imperative to raise the standard. Any parent knows
the quality of the child's teacher is critical. That is why the pushier parents
lobby to secure the best teacher for their child, and more reticent parents
accept with sinking hearts the lost year or lost marks a bad teacher represents. Based on extensive work, conducted partly in the Texas
school system, Professor Eric Hanushek, an
economist at Stanford University, estimates the students of a bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's
worth of material in a year. The students of a good teacher will learn 1
½ year's worth of material. That's a whole year's more learning with a
quality teacher. To people who say
family background is the most decisive influence on children's academic
attainment and that teachers can't compensate, Hanushek
says: "Dead wrong." Hanushek suggestion for attracting and
retaining high-quality teachers is the much-lambasted idea of performance
pay. Under the single-salary structure
that operates here, a bad teacher costs the state as much as a good teacher;
across-the-board pay increases give the bad teacher no incentive to leave,
and the talented no incentive to stay. The idea is so resisted by teacher
unions around the world there is little empirical evidence that performance
pay delivers for students. Teachers key to improving the education system SMH 24.07.09
Greg Whitby, executive director of Schools of the Catholic Diocese of
Parramatta. The greatest
influence on the future of quality Australian schools will not be the Federal
Government's school building program or the national publication of league
tables. It will be the collective wisdom of a teaching profession and
community committed to shaping educational policy based on professional
integrity and intellectual rigour. Teacher quality makes little difference, study shows SMH 24.07.09
An Australian study has cast doubt over the "teacher effect",
by suggesting differences between teachers play only a minor role in how well
a child will learn. The global study, led by the University of New England, monitored 500
pairs of identical twins during their first three years of school. Educating teachers to be the best news.com.au
22.07.09 12:38pm
Maralyn Parker – article and
blog
We currently
have some of the world’s best educational researchers and teacher
educators working in our universities teaching our teachers about quality
teaching. Unfortunately - are we surprised - the state government is not
making the most of this great advantage. I spent all of Tuesday at the
Pedagogy in Practice conference run by the University of Newcastle about
quality teaching. While many teachers do as much as 12 hours and more
professional development every month, presenters Gore and Ladwig discovered
some teachers do as little as 4 hours or less - including staff meetings. And from one of the bloggers: “I think the biggest
problem in ‘quality teaching’ is desire. Every single teacher who
gets positive results out of their students did so because they are
passionate about what they do and they are willing to go the extra mile for
their students. The opportunities are there for the teachers, some just
aren’t taking them”. 'Defamed' school principal seeks $200,000 SMH 23.07.09 A Beecroft school
principal suing an angry father who wrote an allegedly defamatory email is
seeking up to $200,000 in damages because the man refuses to apologise, a
Sydney court has been told. Rudd's laptops send standards backwards SMH 20.07.09 The centrepiece
of the Federal Government's so-called education revolution may be worse than
useless, a visiting American researcher says. Here we go again - Vouchers for school children DT 20.07.09
Maralyn Parker article and blog The right wing
Institute of Public affairs is suggesting a “real” education
revolution would be to encourage “choice” in schooling by
introducing a voucher system. The paper by
IPA’s research fellow Julie Novak suggests a range of different voucher
systems that could be used from a universal voucher of $12,000 for each
student through to targeted vouchers for Indigenous students and low income
students of up to $15,000.The paper argues vouchers “encourage more
choices”, “improve academic outcomes” are “highly
popular with parents” and are “mainstream policy pursued in 30
countries from the US to Columbia”. All of which are contestable. But probably
the most fallacious argument given is “One of the greatest advantages
of vouchers is that they allow children from disadvantaged backgrounds to
access high performance schools.” For many, benefits flow in schooling at home SMH 20.07.09 As politicians argue over school league
tables and teaching standards, parents are increasingly taking their children
out of the school system Answers sought on high youth jail rate SMH 20.07.09 A review of the state's juvenile justice
system will investigate why NSW has an incarceration rate more than four
times that of Victoria's and what can be done to reduce high rates of
reoffending. Minister moves to buy back Islamic school site SMH 17.07.09 An ALP-dominated
western Sydney council has lobbied the NSW Government to prevent an Islamic
school opening in its area, despite Land and Environment Court approval for
the development. Soon after the
court dismissed Bankstown Council's appeal against the school, the council
wrote to the Minister for Education, Verity Firth, asking that the Government
acquire the Bass Hill site, either by agreement or compulsorily. This week Ms
Firth ordered the Education Department to negotiate to buy the site but
denied the council's letter played a part in her decision. The land was now
needed for a school for disabled children, she said. Secret hit list - state schools set for sale DT 15.07.09
Children are set to lose their
playgrounds to developers with almost 700 state schools classified as too big
by the Government's bean counters. The hit list
of schools deemed greater than "standard size" in an internal
Department of Education strategy document can be revealed for the first time. Under
pressure to raise $200 million in just 12 months from the fire sale of school
land, the department wants to audit the schools on the hit list to determine
if portions of the schools can be sold. Daily Telegraph’s full list of schools (spreadsheet) Editorial DT 15.07.09 Stop
the schools sale scam
Australia is said to be in the
midst of a nationwide obesity epidemic, with schoolchildren especially
vulnerable to fast food and lack of exercise. Millions of
state and federal dollars have been spent combating this, with programs
encouraging an increase in outdoor activities and turning kids away from
fries and other low-value fare. What, then,
to make of secret State Government plans - revealed in today's The Daily Telegraph - to sell off
so-called "excess land" around the state's schools? Keep
kids safe We have
witnessed tragic deaths in recent years of toddlers and young children left
for long (or not so long) periods in parked cars. HOT ISSUE School League Tables
Parents caught in the league table storm Daily Telegraph 15.07.09
Maralyn Parker The
new teacher union leadership is stirring up a storm over league tables and
parents are going to suffer. The immediate aim of the union campaign seems to be to
stop this newspaper from publishing “simplistic league tables. But parents
should be concerned about the long term aim - to stop the federal government
from administering national tests and reporting on them. The Green’s amendment to NSW laws banning
newspapers from publishing league tables was supported by the NSW Parents
& Citizens Association. And while I sympathise with the concerns of the
P&C I see it as a naive move. Teachers fear of knowledge Daily Telegraph 14.07.09
NSW Teachers' Federation
president Bob Lipscombe is absolutely correct, in one case at least.
Yesterday he had this to say: "Certain newspapers support league tables
because they know parents will be curious about how schools are
performing." Spot on, Mr
Lipscombe. And that's why The Daily
Telegraph will continue to campaign for the publication of
comparative school tables - because parents are justifiably interested in the
education of their children and how the schools they send their children to are
conducting that education. Teachers hold kids to ransom as strike action planned Daily Telegraph 14.07.09
Militant teachers yesterday
spent the first day of their holidays playing crosswords and voting for
industrial action that will bring months of disruption and chaos to schools. Public
school teachers have threatened an indefinite campaign of strikes and bans on
national testing if league tables are published ranking schools on their
academic results. Thousands of
Year 12 students preparing for the HSC are likely to be among the first hit
by industrial action approved unanimously by the annual conference of the
Teachers Federation at Darling Harbour. Ban Is a guarantee league tables will be published Daily
Telegraph 14.07.09 Maralyn Parker
– article & blog The call to ban “simplistic” league tables
has been a great political boost for the new leadership of the NSW Teachers
Federation. They needed a cause to rally the troops and prove their worth.
And as far as getting teachers worked up all over the state, especially at
the union’s annual conference, it has been highly successful.* The trouble is their actions have absolutely guaranteed
such tables will be published. In fact The Australian has already had a go at
it _ daring someone to sue. Trying to impose teacher union values on newspapers was
never going to work. O'Farrell backflip on league tables leaves Libs fuming SMH 14.07.09 One of the most controversial decisions of Barry O'Farrell's two years as
NSW Opposition Leader - the decision to impose $55,000 fines for the
publication of school league tables - was not taken to the shadow cabinet or
the Coalition party room. The move has angered some Liberal MPs as Mr O'Farrell had argued that
parents be given information at the only shadow cabinet discussion on the
issue. News of disquiet within Liberal ranks follows the NSW Teachers Federation
decision yesterday to block national literacy and numeracy tests if the
federal and state governments allow the publication of league tables this
year. Teachers threaten to strike over league tables SMH 13.07.09 4.32 pm Teachers have told the NSW Government they will walk off the job if
school performance tables are published using national assessment data. The NSW Teachers Federation has passed a motion supporting "all
appropriate measures, both political and industrial" if 2009 national
assessment data is used to publish league tables. Teachers to get tough on league table plans SMH 13.07.09 Teachers are prepared to walk off the job over the controversial issue of
league tables and will consider running aggressive campaigns in Labor's most
marginal seats if the State Government allows tables to be published. The NSW Teachers Federation will discuss the issue at its annual
conference today and has signalled that it is prepared to ban national
numeracy and literacy testing next year if this year's results are used in
league tables. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE ON SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES Schools seize incentives for kids DT 13.07.09
Schools in New South Wales are
reporting a stunning turnaround in Aboriginal student test scores after
receiving thousands of dollars in incentives to improve. Principals are being paid an
extra $6000 a year and teachers offered special financial inducements under a
$40million plan to lift the performance of indigenous children in class. Knox teacher guilty of child sex charge Sun Herald 12.07.09 No class act SMH 11.07.09 The Newcastle Waldorf School, a Rudolf Steiner school, espouses
children's freedoms as a cornerstone of its teaching, but it has been dogged
by allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Sacked teacher back at school SMH 11.07.09 In 2001 an English teacher at the Newcastle Waldorf School began writing
love letters to a 16-year old female student. Top pay for teachers of neediest students The
Australian 11.07.09 The NSW government has unveiled
a merit pay scheme offering the state's best
teachers almost $100,000 to teach in disadvantaged schools. The scheme creates a new
level of classroom teachers called highly accomplished teachers, allowing
teachers to reach their maximum level of pay in eight years, and breaks the
nexus, championed by teachers unions, between length of service and salary. The government will initially fund 100 positions at a pay rate of $98,000 that will be additional to the schools'
existing teaching staff. It will also provide an alternative career
structure for teachers that allows them to increase their pay without having
to seek promotion outside the classroom as principals or in other
administrative roles. The initiative is funded
under the federal government's National Partnerships program and was
announced jointly yesterday by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and
her NSW counterpart, Verity Firth, at St Mary's North Public School in
Sydney's west, which is one of the schools that will benefit from the
program. Further
Information: NSW Smarter
Schools National Partnerships - agreements between the Australian
Government and all States and Territories to improve the quality of education
across the country. HOT ISSUE School League Tables
Teachers to get tough on league table plans SMH 13.07.09 The tables are turned SMH 11.07.09 School gradings are clashing
with political traditions, writes Jessica Irvine. The political debate would have been a
foregone conclusion but for an unlikely NSW upper house alliance between the
Liberals - who might have been expected to support promotion of individual
choice and the peeling away of official secrecy - and the Greens, who at
least stuck to form in doing the political bidding of the teachers' union. Tabling truth on schools The Australian 10.07.09
Opinion – Brendan Nelson, Federal member for
Bradfield, and former Minister for Education. Opponents of the publication of
school performance, league tables and comparisons other than on similar
socioeconomic profiling, should ask of themselves whose interests they serve. This debate
has its political origins when as education minister, I observed parents
bypassing frequently good public schools to spend thousands of dollars on
non-government alternatives. Among those reasons was ignorance of school
performance. Dunce Cap Fits Libs DT 09.07.09 3.24 pm Maralyn Parker Article + blog Leader of the opposition Barry O’Farrell is wrong
to claim NSW parents currently know all they need to know about school
performance.The annual school reports O’Farrell claims are sufficient,
and supposedly generated by all NSW schools both public and private, are in
fact woefully inadequate. Public schools best in Barry O'Farrell's seat The
Australian 09.07.09 Public schools are
outperforming private schools in the Sydney electorate of NSW Opposition
Leader Barry O'Farrell, who has supported a law that would fine The
Australian $55,000 for publishing this information. To make choices, parents need facts The Australian 09.07.09 Analysis: Justine
Ferrari To be
properly informed about school and student performance, parents need raw
score league tables so that parents in Orange in western NSW or Arnhem Land
in the Northern Territory know their children are reading at the same level
as children in Killara in Sydney, Toorak in Melbourne or Ascot in Brisbane.
More importantly, parents need test results over time so they can track their
child's and school's performance, and how that changes as students progress
through school. This shows how much the school "value adds" to the
raw potential of the student. The
comparison of schools in peer groups - the "like school groups"
proposed by the federal government, comparing schools with students of
similar social backgrounds - is also valuable for removing any excuse for low
performance. Schools will no longer get away with low expectations for poor
students if governments can point to similar schools with better results. Parents are
entitled to the information in simple league tables - it is, after all,
public information. But in trying to ban them outright, the NSW Coalition -
and the Greens, principals groups and teachers unions - have created a debate
about the freedom of the press and raised concerns about what they are trying
to hide. It would be
more productive to have a debate about school performance and educate the
community about the limits of league tables. Graphic A comparison of school results from Barry
O’Farrell’s electorate (for readable quality use
“Save As”). Comparisons may be tough but it's 'the story of life' The Australian 09.07.09
Gordon West P&C president David
Jordan sees merit in both sides of the debate. "With the
league tables, it seems both sides of politics are making good
arguments," he said. "On the
one hand, we require transparency for parents ... so that they can make
informed decisions. On the other hand, taking results from West Gordon or
Killara, where the environment is conducive to learning, and comparing it to
other areas, like Mt Druitt, and saying that a particular school is failing
or is incompetent, is unfair." Socio-economic
factors must be considered if schools are going to be ranked across the
state, Mr Jordan said. He said that concentrating solely on academic results
would disadvantage public schools compared with private schools. Coalition may talk to editors SMH 08.07.09
The State Opposition remains opposed to school league tables but could be
prepared to back away from fines for newspapers that publish school results. Rees turns tables on O'Farrell over release of school results
SMH 07.07.09
Nathan Rees will reintroduce league tables legislation to Parliament to
pressure the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to back down from his
controversial decision to block the publication of school results. The Government will move to strike out an amendment the Opposition
supports which would allow newspapers to be fined $55,000 for publishing
tables comparing school results. A curious alignment is political opportunism DT 01.07.09 Maralyn Parker article + blog Julia
Gillard is right in dismissing this curious alignment led by the Greens,
including the NSW Coalition as well as upper house oddballs such as Fred Nile
and Gordon Moyes, as political opportunism. Their amendment to State laws has
become a farce. The Mt
Druitt story, used for over a decade for scaremongering by teacher union
officials, could be published under the new laws. There was one great
positive outcome from the Mt Druitt story and the subsequent campaign by The
Daily Telegraph. The Education Department changed forever how
it delivers schooling to children in Sydney’s west. Funds
were spent on text books and other resources, teachers with low expectations
of the children in the area moved on, Mt Druitt high school was subsumed into
a newly created Chifley Secondary College and today children from this
college get University Admission Index rankings, similar to the old TER, in
the high nineties. 'Pupil kill attempt': teacher held SMH 08.07.09 8.18am A teacher at a
school at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Nottinghamshire, England has
been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a teenage pupil and
assaulting two other children, police said on Thursday. The boy was taken to
hospital with serious head injuries after an incident in a classroom. Call for revived Colombo plan The Australian 09.07.09
Heritage school sale infuriates residents SMH 08.07.09 The former Enmore Public School was snapped
up yesterday by a Sydney property developer who plans to convert it into
townhouses. First three years key to school success: study
SMH 06.07.09 Adele Horin How children are faring before they turn four is a strong guide
to early school success, according to a major study. It is more important
than what happens to them in the year immediately before they start school. The Child Care
Choices
study, led by Jennifer Bowes of Macquarie University's children and
families research centre, is unique in Australia for having followed an
initial group of children - more than 670 - from child care to school for six
years.
Child obesity figures are 'understated' SMH 06.07.09 Parents to count cost of better child care SMH 04.07.09
The cost of child care is set to rise under recommendations
being considered by the Federal Government that all staff be trained either
to TAFE or university level and more staff be employed at each centre. A panel of 11 child-care professionals and developmental experts
has told the Government the ratio of staff to children must rise to ensure
children receive the best preparation for school. It argued that the higher cost of more highly qualified staff
would be outweighed by a rise in development. Yesterday the Minister for Child Care, Kate Ellis, said the
Government's strategy for children aged up to eight was the first step
towards a national child-care system. Ms Ellis said new guidelines for child-care centres
would better prepare children for going to school. "Importantly the framework has a strong emphasis on
play-based learning, in recognition that play is the best vehicle to help young
children learn," she said. Tables stance is right: O'Farrell SMH 03.07.09 Barry O'Farrell has defended himself against a growing chorus of
Liberals who have criticised his opposition to
school leagues tables. He denies he is at odds with the party's policies. "I don't think there is any Liberal Party policy that says
we should stigmatise great teachers or great
students," the Opposition Leader told the Herald yesterday. Controversial rankings have proved to be popular with parents
SMH 03.07.09 Britain has published a form of league tables for 16 years - a
system of ranking primary schools that began with a bang and is now
faltering, under threat and on the brink of ending with a whimper. Teenager's peanut death should be probed, judge
SMH 01.07.09 The role of a Melbourne private school in the death of a teenage
boy who had a fatal allergic reaction to peanuts while on an army cadet camp
should be investigated by the Victorian Coroner, a judge said as he fined the
army more than $200,000 for negligence. Federal Court Justice Tony North fined the army $210,100 over
the death of Nathan Francis, 13, who died after eating a mouthful of beef satay at Wombat State Forest in March 2007. A written
warning by Nathan's mother about the boy's allergy was ignored by Scotch
College, which told parents not to send their own food as "great
care" had been taken with camp meals. Parents shut out by ban on school league tables SMH 26.06.09
The NSW
Opposition and the Greens have combined to outlaw the publication of school
league tables, a measure they say would protect poorly performing schools
from public humiliation. Sale of Enmore Public school is a
Scandal DT 24.06.09 Maralyn Parker The planned auction of Enmore
Public School grounds next month has mobilised a range of inner city locals
from parents of pre-schoolers to TAFE teachers and students. It is another
great example of how to stir up a local community. Anger at sale of school SMH
26.06.09 Former Enmore
Public School. Boarding school closes after swine flu strikes SMH
26.06.09 St Joseph’s, Hunters Hill. Education seen as key to keep indigenous kids out of jail
The Australian 25.06.09
Each indigenous child should be
given their own education fund to help keep them in school and avoid the path
to prison. Education, along with greater
diversion of indigenous offenders with drug and alcohol problems from the
justice system into the health system, are the keys to stemming the rising
tide of Aboriginal incarceration in Australia, a report says. The Australian National Council on
Drugs report on indigenous incarceration, "Bridges and Barriers" (pdf
420 kb), will be launched in Canberra today by Health Minister Nicola
Roxon. How Nathan Rees ripped off primary students DT 25.06.09
Millions of dollars earmarked
for primary school students have been seized by the Rees Government to pay
for a teachers' pay rise. Principals were shocked to
learn yesterday that funding approved by the Rudd Government for primary
students had been hijacked because of a shortfall in covering the pay rise. IQ2 debate
There is no excuse for funding private schools SMH 25.06.09
Tim
Matthews, vice-captain at Caringbah High School, will argue for the
proposition that public funding of private schools is unconscionable at
tonight's IQ2 debate in Sydney. Julia
Gillard claims Australia suffers from a "serious educational equity
problem". The irony seems apparent to most but the minister herself, for
it is not the schools failing the children of Australia but the irresponsible
distribution of government money. How can we
conscionably allow our taxes to fund the effective stratification of our
schools? While no situation will ever be entirely equitable, the Government
should not drive such inequality. Robbing private schools of public funding makes everyone
poorer SMH
24.06.09 Sam
Molloy, debating captain at Sydney Grammar School, is opposing the proposition
that public funding of private education is unconscionable at tomorrow
night's iQ2 debate in Sydney. Whether
public funding of private education is unconscionable is a trade-off between
different values and consequences. There are moral trade-offs and practical
trade-offs, and for such funding to be "unconscionable" the
benefits that would arise from ending it would have to outweigh the costs. Private schools lose out in funds deal SMH
25.06.09
Some of
Australia's neediest private schools are not receiving the funding they are
entitled to under the Federal Government's model of resourcing independent
schools, the Auditor-General has found. The report,
tabled in Parliament yesterday, identifies several problems with funding
arrangements as the Government prepares to begin an anxiously awaited review
of how it supports private schools. It also comes as the Government faces
criticism of its $14.7 billion school building program, which has delivered
millions of dollars to the nation's richest primaries. The audit
office's analysis found that systemic schools servicing poor communities
receive less federal funding from their school systems than they would if
they were funded directly by the government under the SES model, as
independent schools are. Commonwealth Auditor General’s Report: Funding for Non-Government Schools (pdf
1.59 Mb) Schools are failing us, says Gillard SMH 22.06.09
The Deputy Prime
Minister, Julia Gillard, has told a US audience that Australia has a
"serious educational equity problem", with too many poor students
concentrated in a small group of schools that have low expectations and low
rates of achievement. Home schooling The schooling choice we love to hate SMH
22.06.09
It is often derided as a
'hippie' alternative, but for many the decision to home school a child is the
right one. Leunig: 'Everything I believed has come true - their
eagerness to learn is intact' SMH 22.06.09
The cartoonist and philosopher Michael Leunig home schooled two children
for more than 10 years "because they wanted to do it". They went to
school this year for the first time - again because they wanted to. A theme develops when you speak to Leunig about education: a child's natural
love of learning is paramount and it is all about protecting that so it lasts
for life. Straight from the student's mouth SMH
22.06.09
When talking to Jenni Hodgman, 19, her confidence and friendliness are
palpable. Jenni had her first day of school in year 11. She describes her
experience of home schooling before that as "very unstructured",
working a short part of the day to meet curriculum - and more on some days
when she was absorbed in a particular project. When asked about the most memorable aspects of being home schooled, Jenni
says: "Having time to play with my brother and being able to follow what
interested me - learning because I wanted to, not just to pass a test. "By the time I arrived at school I had so much natural interest and
curiosity and was willing to put in the effort, unlike peers who seemed a bit
burnt out." School principals do the sums on wasteful system SMH 22.06.09
The principal of
a school in country NSW put in an order for supplies under the Department of
Education's new guidelines. All they wanted was a box of ice creams, a bag of
cheese and four bags of muffins. But instead of
buying them from the local shops, the department arranged for them to be
delivered by three different suppliers in Sydney. The incident is among
hundreds of complaints in response to a survey by the Public Schools
Principals Forum. A spokeswoman for
the Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, said the centralised
procurement system focused on the purchase of non-perishable items and saved
the department about $31 million each year. Wealthy schools win cash bonanza from grants SMH
20.06.09 Sydney's
wealthiest private schools are being given as much as $3 million each from
the Federal Government's school building program while making annual
surpluses of up to $3.6 million. The bonus is on top of the $13 million in
government funding some already receive. Grants to primary
schools from the Prime Minister's $14.7 billion stimulus package take no
account of wealth but are based on the number of students. Secondary schools
receive bonuses under the Building the Education Revolution program based on
need. The acting
federal Minister for Education, Kim Carr, said the stimulus program was for
all schools. "The Rudd Government is committed to making sure every
school in Australia is a great school and every child receives a world-class
education," he said. (Under this approach,
some schools will be much greater than others – Editor). Bullying victim awarded $468,736 SMH
19.06.09 - 4:51PM
A man has been
awarded nearly half a million dollars in damages for the "consistent and
systemic bullying" he endured while attending high school in Tamworth in
the 1990s. Bully victim awarded more than $450k The
Australian 19.06.09 Ban lifted on school league tables SMH
19.06.09 The State Government introduced a bill yesterday to lift its 10-year ban
on the creation of school league tables. The Minister for Education, Verity Firth, said the amendment to the
Education Act was necessary for NSW to qualify for $4.8 billion in recurrent
Federal Government funding. Despite the Government's long-standing opposition to school league
tables, Ms Firth said she would not "put billions of dollars of funding
at risk". Download Education Amendment (Publication of School Results) Bill 2009
from NSW
Parliament site. Building the
Education Revolution implementation problems Randwick Public School P&C says it's out of time
The Australian 19.06.09 The
government's defence of the problems arising out of the rushed implementation
of the Building the Education Revolution was the need to spend the money quickly
to stimulate the economy and create jobs. But with two
weeks left before the deadline for the start of building of the first tranche
of projects, the parents and principal at Randwick Public are yet to even see
plans of their new school hall. Rigid rules rile schools as Education Revolution complaints
roll in The Australian 19.06.09 Twenty-four schools have
complained to the Rudd government over its $14.7 billion schools
infrastructure program, which the opposition savaged yesterday as a shambles
and an exercise in political pork-barrelling. Plans axed as pledged funds fall short The
Australian 19.06.09 South Australian schools that were promised new
buildings from the Rudd government's education stimulus package have been
told by state authorities that their allocated money is not enough to pay for
what was first pledged. South
Australian Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock yesterday
expressed concern that schools were not getting value for money from the
$14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution program. Kindergarten checks a test for young learners SMH
17.06.09 All kindergarten
children in public schools will be tested in basic literacy and numeracy to
help teachers assess their skills and progress. The State
Government will spend $117.4 million over four years on the Best Start
program which was introduced to 18,000 students last year and 40,000 students
this year. Another budget move is to make four NSW primary schools bilingual from next year
under a $2.25 million four-year program. One of the schools will specialise
in Mandarin, while the others will each teach either Korean, Japanese or
Indonesian. The importance of languages
Schools to offer bilingual education SMH 15.06.09 12.33pm
Some NSW primary schools will soon offer students a bilingual education,
with subjects taught in Asian languages. The NSW government is funding the
four-year $2.25 million program in tomorrow's state budget, with the first
four schools to start offering the stream next year. NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said that with Asia on the doorstep,
the program was vital to the state's future economic and social prosperity. Brainy bunch cast a magic spell SMH
15.06.09 Paul
Sheehan On May 28,
10 million Americans, and uncounted foreigners, including me, watched Kavya
Shivashankar win the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The bee is one of
the most compelling TV spectacles of the year. The chance
that an Indian American was going to win was high, because seven of the 11
finalists this year were Indian Americans. Six of the previous 10 champions
were also Indian American. They have come to dominate the event even though
they make up just 0.9 per cent of the US population. … this
was the fourth consecutive year she has placed in the top 10, it marks Kavya
as a stand-out in the 84-year history of the National Spelling Bee. Asked if
her advantage was memory, she replied: "I don't use memorisation as a
technique. It's really hard to memorise all the words in the dictionary. It's
just not possible. So my dad is my coach and he and I work together and find
the roots of the words, and we study patterns from the language of origin,
like French and German [and Latin and Greek]." $14.7 billion for education in NSW budget smh.com.au 14.06.09 10.02am
The NSW
government will allocate $14.7 billion in its 2009-10 budget for education
and vocational training. Schools funding comes under fire Sun Herald 14.06.09 Queensland
schools groups have criticised the Federal Government's $1.2 billion education
funding for being inequitable and not based on need. Margaret Black,
the president of the Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens'
Associations, said if the funding was needs based, some schools that had
received millions of dollars would not have received any funds. Principle has been abandoned, say principals SMH 13.06.09Education ministers are no longer committed to avoiding
"harm" to school communities in the publication of school league
tables, say teachers and principals. Anti-abortion group barred from schools SMH
13.06.09 The four-MP gambit in the schools' chess game SMH
11.06.09 It took four politicians to
announce $2.3 billion in stimulus spending for NSW schools at Eastwood Public
School yesterday – Nathan Rees, Verity Firth, Maxine McKew and Julia
Gillard. Unhealthy PE teachers giving wrong lesson to children SMH
11.06.09 Trainee physical
education teachers are more likely to be dieting, using laxatives and
over-exercising than other teachers, prompting fears they could convey
inappropriate and dangerous messages about eating to vulnerable students. A study of more
than 500 student teachers at three major universities found male physical
education teachers were almost five times more likely than other teachers to
fast and twice as likely to use an illness to avoid eating. They were also
more likely to smoke, take laxatives, slimming pills or to vomit to control
their weight. Late-running bus driver dumps kids at shopping centre DT 11.06.09
Labor's largesse to private primary schools The Australian 10.06.09
Elite private schools that
boast of their superior facilities were handed hundreds of millions of
dollars in taxpayer funding for new libraries, halls and refurbished
classrooms yesterday. Education
Minister Julia Gillard - who is insisting that she be personally invited to
open new facilities in all the nation's 9540 schools - yesterday defended as equitable
the decision to give infrastructure funding to some of the nation's
wealthiest primary schools. Schools move fast to get in for chop The Australian 10.06.09
Kevin Rudd's education
revolution was a $14.7 billion juggernaut and schools needed to jump on
quickly if they wanted their share of the money, according to a Perth school
principal. Unions recruit high school students for $10 a month DT 10.06.09
Unions have hatched a
controversial plan to turn around dwindling membership - by targeting
children as young as 14 in their classrooms. The state's peak union body
Unions NSW has hired two young activists to go into public schools and
lecture students on "industrial relations" as part of its
UnionStart program. The Daily
Telegraph can reveal the lectures on workers' rights and the
role of unions will be built into the curriculum in subjects such as business
studies, careers education, vocational work placements and the School to Work
program. There's no such thing as a perfect child when it comes to the
HSC SMH
10.06.09
Higher School
Certificate students will no longer be able to get a perfect score of 100
with the highest university entrance rank to be pegged at 99.95 (Bradman fans
would, of course, prefer 99.94 - Ed). HSC 100 top ranking scrapped DT 10.06.09
In Asia, English tongues still tied SMH 10.06.09
Australia is the
third most monolingual nation in the world, a report by the Griffith Asia
Institute says. Three-quarters of the population speak only English. Within 30 years
half of Australia must be fluent in an Asian language or risk falling further
behind other countries, says the report, Building An Asia-Literate Australia:
An Australian Strategy For Asian Language Proficiency.
Lead Author Professor Michael Wesley School formals now rival weddings in cost DT 08.06.09
Catholic schools take to radical teaching DT 07.06.09
Children as young as five will
be given control of the classroom in a revolutionary overhaul of the Catholic
education system. Primary schools in the Sydney
archdiocese will transform the way they teach students from kindergarten and
Year 2 by allowing them to shape the syllabus, challenging traditional
teaching methods. Under the Early Learning
program, children will be encouraged to lead classes, discover their
"spiritual side'' and work in small groups. Lessons could last up to two
hours and the syllabus will be matched to children's interests. Years of waiting do not compute
SMH 05.06.09
Some schools may
have to wait up to eight years to be connected to the national broadband
network as part of the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution, the
Opposition has found. School chalks the line for higher standards DT
03.06.09 Maralyn Parker Sydney Islamic school rejected
SMH 02.06.09 10.09am
A controversial
Islamic school will not be built in Camden after a court today rejected an
appeal by the school's backers. Public school's $700 plea to parents SMH 02.06.09
A North Shore
public high school is pressing parents to make "voluntary"
contributions of up to $700 a year, more than double the rate charged by most
schools, to make up for a "shortfall in government funding". The Mosman High School P&C has
written to parents urging them to pay an average of $400 for subject
contributions in addition to the voluntary general contribution of up to $254
for year 12 students. "At MHS we
don't want to lose any of our teachers to better resourced schools," the
letter says. "Parents and students can show their appreciation by paying
the requested school and subject contributions. In doing so, our principal
can say "YES WE CAN" when teachers request funds for resources that
enable the continuation of the high standards that we have come to
expect." Horrifying video of latest schoolyard attack DT 02.06.09
The teenage victim of an alleged schoolyard
bullying campaign has revealed his torment amid a culture of violence at a
public high school in Sydney's west. Ask bullying expert Dr Helen McGrath: How to stop the attacks
DT blog 01.06.09 As bullying continues to spiral out of control in the
nation’s schools with one in four children from Year 4 to Year 9
claiming they are regularly attacked, we are now giving readers a chance to
arm themselves with more information on how to stop it taking place. Deakin University senior lecturer Dr Helen McGrath is a
member of the National Centre against bullying and an author of a major
report with the Department of Education on Bullying in Schools. Send her your questions on bullying, cyber bullying and
any other bullying-related issues you are worried about below. She will blog
live with readers on Tuesday at 4pm. Links Making Australian
Schools Safer Kids
Matter ABC
Interview with George Negus Bullies rule in nation's primary schools DT 01.06.09
BAD NEWS Schools miss out on lab upgrades The Australian 01.06.09
Hundreds
of high schools will miss out on a $1 billion federal government program to
upgrade science laboratories after the Government refused to widen guidelines
for eligible schools. Under the program,
schools needing new science buildings are favoured over those asking for
improvements to existing facilities. NSW had
proposed the Government spread the funding among more schools. A working
group of parents, teachers and principals in conjunction with the NSW
Government argue a more cost-effective way to spend the money is to refurbish
existing laboratories rather than construct new buildings from scratch. But federal
Education Minister Julia Gillard has rejected NSW's push to revisit the
guidelines. A spokesowman for Ms Gillard said it was always intended the
program would focus on the construction of new or "substantially
refurbished" science labs "to support the maximum number of jobs
possible" at 500 of the nation's neediest schools. Under the
NSW plan, about 430 of the 455 secondary and K-12 schools in the state could
be refurbished, but Ms Gillard's decision means only about 150 NSW schools
will benefit. Herald Education feature Tell me, where do the children play?
SMH 01.06.09 As principal for the day at
her old school, Anna Patty discovers that some things change, and some just
stay the same. One ex-student, who
graduated from Katoomba High in 1976, believes the secret to a good education
is a happy child. Stifled by the three Rs: restrictions, red tape, rigidity
SMH 01.06.09 Independent schools should
be allowed to be just that, writes Jenny Allum, Principal of SCEGGS
Darlinghurst. I support the right of those schools to pay teachers the best way they
see fit (meeting certain minimum award conditions, of course) rather than use
the "one size fits all" salary scales determined by the Government.
Bureaucratic requirements have also grown exponentially over the past couple
of decades. My worry is that this trend of imposing such restrictions on schools will
grow, as governments seek to enact more of their political will on all
schools, government and independent. Schools move to bankrupt parents SMH
30.05.09 Recent court
records show the elite schools St Joseph's College, SCECGS Redlands,
Kincoppal-Rose Bay, The Scots College, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst and
Cranbrook School have started bankruptcy proceedings against 13 families to
recover more than $500,000. This follows earlier reports that every week
parents are losing their homes to bankruptcy actions brought by schools owed
up to $2 million in fees. NSW Greens MP
John Kaye said the six schools involved in the actions received a total of
$23.9 million in state and federal funding and should be able to absorb any
pain felt from the global financial crisis. "They're
already doing very well off the public purse," Dr Kaye said.
"They're putting people who have presumably paid fees in the past up
against the wall and saying you will be bankrupt. This is not about school
choice; this is about school greed." Banned heaters in NSW schools SMH
28.05.09 The NSW
Government will continue to fit out public schools with gas heaters that have
failed World Health Organisation tests, as it awaits further tests taking
place in schools this winter. The unflued
gas heaters, which emit carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, carbon dioxide and
formaldehyde fumes, can only be used safely if classroom windows and doors
are left open. Michael
Coutts-Trotter, the Director-General of the Department of Education, said he
had been told by NSW Health that the heaters were safe. That contradicts the
results of a 2004 Health Department study. Students exposed to dangerous gas levels SMH
27.05.09 Public
school students across the state are being exposed to dangerous gas levels
above World Health Organisation standards, according to CSIRO tests that the
NSW Department of Education kept secret for nine months. Thousands of
school classrooms are equipped with unflued gas heaters, which can fill rooms
with carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and formaldehyde fumes if
the windows are shut - as they frequently are during cold weather. Don’t take Public Schools for granted Maralyn Parker
Daily Telegraph 27.05.09 |