Australia:

Public schools beat out private schools in NAPLAN results

The Australian reports that public schools in well-heeled suburbs are outperforming some private schools charging more than $20,000 a year in fees. Data from the NAPLAN testing released on the My School website yesterday shows that children living in affluent suburbs are likely to perform well regardless of which school they attend. In Sydney, Year 5 students at Summer Hill Public School did better in every aspect of the 2015 NAPLAN tests than students in nearby private schools.

Catholic Church faces governance change

The Australian reports that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is likely to recommend changes to Catholic Church governance and canon law to target vulnerabilities exposed by the hearings in the Ballarat diocese during the recent Royal Commission hearings. The Ballarat inquiry heard evidence of a then bishop who knew of offending priests and moved them between parishes without calling police. La Trobe University lecturer Timothy Jones said that there could be room for further changes to canon law regarding mandatory reporting and oversight of bishops.

Students who change schools do worse in NAPLAN than their peers

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that students who change schools several times do worse in literacy and numeracy than their peers and are more likely to drop out of school. New research from the NSW Education Department reveals that each year 54,000 students (7 per cent of all school children in NSW) change school at least once. The report found that this mobility has a detrimental impact on student outcomes including lower reading and numeracy results than more stable students with similar backgrounds and levels of prior achievement.

Victorian Opposition Leader speaks out against decision to expand Safe Schools program

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy has backed Prime Minister Turnbull’s review of the Safe Schools program and has warned against making the curriculum mandatory in Victoria, saying a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. The Age reports that Mr Guy has been highly critical of the Victorian Labor Government’s plan to expand the anti-homophobia program to every Victorian public school by 2018 stating that ‘school and parents need to have input into what their kids are learning’.

Former Education Minister to give evidence to IBAC in Ultranet corruption inquiry

The Herald Sun reports that former Education Minister Bronwyn Pike is due to give evidence to the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) about the failed schools computer system Ultranet, estimated to have cost Victorian taxpayers $240 million despite never working and being scrapped in 2013. Private emails between Ms Pike and an Ultranet key proponent were tabled in a hearing, revealing Ms Pike had promised to ‘freeze’ a critic of a $1.4 million launch party thrown for the doomed Ultranet project.

School locked down, police remove threatening student

A West Australian high school went into lockdown this week as police were called in to remove a student that was ‘acting in a threatening manner’. WA Today reports that a Department of Education spokeswoman has stated that students at the school were locked in their classrooms around midday while police apprehended the student.

International:

Teachers need flexible working to stop women leaving profession, says think tank

English schools need to embrace flexible working and offer benefits to stop the ‘shocking waste of talent’ that sees women dropping out of teaching permanently after maternity leave, according to a leading education think tank. The Guardian reports that only half of women aged 30 to 39 who leave teaching, return to the occupation. Jonathon Simons who has authored a paper to be published before the Association of School and College Leaders’ conference on the subject said that it is “desperately sad to think that, in a profession which is all about educating the next generation, many of this group have simply concluded that it isn’t compatible with raising their own children.”

Behaviour-recording program that tracks a child’s education causes privacy concerns

The Guardian reports that the app named ‘ClassDojo’ which allows teachers to award points to students throughout the day for good behaviour or take away points for bad behaviour, is now used by at least one teacher in half of all UK schools, according to its developers. Students who use the app can also see how well they are doing and parents can then see real-time updates, however privacy experts and some educationalists have criticised the practice. Andy Phippen, professor of social responsibility in IT at Plymouth University, says many teachers and parents have not considered whether children’s data will be kept private.

New California bill would let schools expel kids for sexting

A new Assembly Bill introduced in California would give schools the right to expel or suspend students for sending nude or sexually explicit photos and images electronically “with the purpose or effect of humiliating or harassing a pupil”. The LA Times reports that the law would apply to students who ‘sext’ in that manner when at school, school-sanctioned events, or on the way to or from school or school events.

Teachers say high school covered up students’ absences

Teachers at a Brooklyn high school have said that the school falsified student records to hide steep absenteeism. The NY Post reports that office staff routinely under reported the number of absenteeism racked up by students. For example, a girl marked absent 76 days in a semester by her algebra teacher was listed by the school office as having missed just 11 days in class. In the United States, attendance determines a school’s funding arrangements.