Australia

School principals ordered to say no to gifts

The Age reports that Victorian principals have been instructed to reject gifts from school suppliers and to stop hiring relatives under a crackdown on widespread conflicts of interest. Reported conflicts include school council members tendering for school contracts, principals awarding contracts to friends and relatives and business managers accepting gifts, invitations to events and other benefits from suppliers.

Parent payback sees teachers labelled as ‘abusers’

Principals are warning that the increase in vexatious parents and school students taking to social media to wrongly accuse teachers of paedophilia poses a ‘high level’ risk to recruiting and keeping teachers. The Australian reports that the trend was revealed in the Australian Primary Principals’ Association’s latest submission to the Royal Commission.

Anglican Church to refund school fees to victims of sexual abuse in schools

The ABC reports that the Anglican Church will reimburse tuition fees for all students who suffered sexual abuse at the Church’s schools within the Diocese of Brisbane. The announcement came after the Archbishop of Brisbane received a letter from a woman whose brother was abused at St Paul’s in Brisbane, requesting his tuition fees be repaid. An estimated 67 families will now be eligible to have their fees returned.

Mobile speed cameras in Canberra school zones

Following a highly concerning trend of speeding outside of Canberra’s schools, mobile speed cameras will be deployed outside nine schools from next week. The Canberra Times reports that figures showed a recorded maximum speed of 144km/h outside one school with similar results recorded across the other eight schools.

National testing reveals half of students cannot use a computer properly

The Australian reports that despite $2 billion being spent on improving computer literacy in schools, only 55% of Year 6 students and 52% of Year 10 students have met the basic ‘proficient standard’ in the Australian National Assessment Program for ICT Literacy test, representing a decrease from the previous testing period. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s (ACARA) chairman told The Age that while ‘it’s tempting to assume that students who use smartphones understand all aspects of ICT technology we cannot expect students to become proficient on important employability and life skills just by using computer devices for games and social interaction.’

Sizeable gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in a range of benchmarks

The ABC reported that a study conducted by Flinders University has revealed that Indigenous students are still well behind in a range of benchmarks including academic results, attendance and school retention rates. The study of 14,000 Australian school children saw a 30 percent difference in retention rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in 2012.

Former principal did not consider sexual abuse to be a criminal matter

A former principal of a Brisbane non-government school told the Royal Commission that he did not consider the sexual abuse of pupils by teachers to be a criminal matter. The ABC reported that the principal told the Commission that he didn’t think of a teacher’s inappropriate touching of students ‘in terms of criminal acts’ and as such chose not to take action despite having knowledge of the incidents.

New program to overcome the stigma of maths and science

The Age reports that a new program called Remstep has been rolled out to four Victorian universities to help teachers learn how to overcome the entrenched stigma associated with teaching maths and science. The program combines the Universities’ science, maths and education faculties so that students from each discipline work on the same projects including creating new units of study for Victorian schools.

Four critical elements needed to create an outstanding school revealed

The Educator reported that a team of researchers at Southern Cross University have outlined the four key elements at the heart of creating and sustaining an outstanding school. They are:

• a principal with drive, determination and strong personal leadership skills;
• distributed team-based leadership allowing teachers to work together in teaching teams to better meet the needs of students;
• data-driven decision-making with each teaching team provided with data concerning individual students’ performance benchmarks; and
• an intensive and ongoing coaching, mentoring and feedback regime for all teaching staff.

Two schools locked down after false alarm

The Fraser Coast Chronicle reports that earlier this week two Queensland government schools were put into lockdown after two large bangs were heard near the schools just before 10am. The lockdowns were described as precautionary and were communicated with parents via text message and social media. Police enquiries revealed that the noise was produced by a car backfiring.

International

Teacher struck off for stealing school funds

A teacher in an English school who stole £2,400 in deposits for a school trip abroad has been struck off. The Sunderland Echo reported that the crime was discovered after parents had requested a refund and the money was not available. The man escaped jail time but has been banned indefinitely from teaching.