The Victorian Government is considering a proposal to bar aspiring teachers who receive poor VCE results from the classroom. The Age reports that the Victorian Education Minister has confirmed that the State Government is considering a similar model to NSW, where future teachers are sourced from the top 30 per cent of school leavers.
The SMH reports that the Education and Employment References Committee, which oversaw the Federal Senate inquiry into how children with a disability fare at school, was ‘shocked and saddened’ by the evidence children were being denied their right to education. The Senate Committee’s report found that government and independent schools are discouraging families of children with autism from enrolling in mainstream education. The Institute of Early Childhood researcher Roxanna Lilley attributes this to a concern that the student will use up already stretched resources with their learnings difficulties and behaviour problems. Shortfalls in staff training to help support children with disabilities were also identified.
Freedom of Information figures released by the ACT Education Directorate show that the number of serious violent incidents in ACT schools is decreasing. There were 45 ‘critical incidents’ in 2011, which fell to 35 in 2012, 11 in 2014 and only six in 2015. The ABC reports that the Directorate attributes the substantial fall to policies and procedures being effectively implemented in schools.
The ABC reports that a prestigious Tasmanian boys’ school has admitted that ‘more could have been done’ to respond to concerns about the sexual abuse of students. The comment comes from the school’s response to findings of abuse at the school which were outlined in a report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The school issued an apology and pledged to do what it could to support former students.
The Guardian reports that a teacher at a top private school in the UK has been banned from the classroom indefinitely for having an affair with one of his students. The relationship between the 27-year-old and his female student gradually escalated to a sexual relationship, according to the teenager. The teacher was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and bringing the teaching profession into disrepute by the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s professional conduct panel.
A Canadian superior court has ordered a school board to pay $10,000 to a former student after she argued that the school had failed to protect her from bulling. CBC News reports that the student had asked for help from her teachers numerous times but that nothing was done. The court concluded that the policies and measures in place at the school were insufficient to protect the girl.