Student allegedly struck teacher with metal bar
Perth Now reports that police are investigating an incident at school in Perth’s northern suburbs where a 12-year-old student struck a teacher with a metal bar. The student was captured on video smashing glass panels with the bar and screaming swear words as staff and other students watched on. The student has been suspended.
Parents to be given new powers to identify paedophiles
The Daily Telegraph reports that a new forensic online checking system in NSW will allow parents to instantly check whether the private tutor they are engaging for their child’s education is a child sex predator and barred from working with young people. The Office of the Children’s Guardian has launched this major child safety campaign following the 24-year jail sentence handed to a former maths tutor who sexually abused five children in their homes.
Malek Fahd wins stay of execution on funding cuts
The Australian reports that Sydney’s Malek Fahd Islamic College has won a stay of execution from Federal Government funding cuts that would’ve forced the school to close after this term. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham initially revoked $20 million in Federal funding from the school earlier this year, however an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal this week has overturned Mr Birmingham’s decision. The terms of the stay order include a requirement that the school provides a monthly written account of its income and expenditure until further notice.
Former Melbourne teacher seeks to shut down US teacher rating site
A former high school teacher from Melbourne told News.com of his ‘crusade’ to shut down the US-based Rate My Teachers website which encourages students and parents to anonymously rate and comment on teachers and their performance. News.com reports that after finding defamatory comments about himself and other teachers on the site, he became an administrator of the website and routinely removed comments he considered were unfair. He has since been blocked from the site and publicly slammed by a manager of the company who owns the website.
Armed students threaten violence
The West Australian reports that public schools in West Australia have reported 63 incidents of physical assaults or threats using a weapon between the first day of school on 2 February and 1 March. Objects used in the incidents ranged from scissors, chairs and lunchboxes, to knives, pepper spray and rocks. Education Director-General Sharyn O’Neill has said that while it was never acceptable to use any object to threaten or cause harm, the number of reports showing serious incidents were rare among the Department’s 800 schools.
New Islamic school to open in SA
Adelaide Now reports that a new Islamic College will open in Adelaide in January and has already taken 150 expressions of interest for enrolment. The school received conditional registration from the Education Department last week which has allowed it to start recruiting teachers. Interest in enrolment in the new school is reported to have come in large part from parents with children from a nearby Islamic College that has been the subject of protests over poor academic standards, staff sackings and accusations of financial mismanagement.
Only three teachers fired in five years
The Advertiser reports that just three public school teachers have been dismissed for poor performance over the past five years in South Australia. However, the SA Education Department says that dozens of performance management cases are being pursued under a new system launched last July, while other teachers have chosen to resign instead. Under the new system human resources experts help principals speed up and properly document the performance management process and schools are being directed funded to hire trained classroom observers who professionally assess struggling teachers.
Royal Commission halts private sessions
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that after speaking to 5111 survivors in approximately 37 private sessions per week since commencing, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is winding down its private sessions with survivors ahead of the release of its final report in December 2017. Chairman of the Royal Commission Justice Peter McClellan has said “There can be no exceptions for any application received after that date,” however survivors will still be able to send written accounts to commissioners and receive help from Commission officers to do so.
INTERNATIONAL
New visa figures show falling foreign student numbers
Radio New Zealand reports that recent visa figures show schools and private tertiary institutions in New Zealand are bearing the brunt of a fall in foreign student numbers. Education New Zealand published a report that showed that in the first three months of 2016 there were 1725 or 6 per cent fewer foreigners with student visas than in the same period for 2015. The Department has said that the visa numbers closely relate to actual enrolments and that this drop is a mere stabilisation after growth last year.