The information in the Weekly Wrap is aggregated from other news sources to provide you with news that is relevant to the education sector across Australia and worldwide. Each paragraph is a summary of the subject matter covered in the particular news article. The information does not necessarily reflect the views of CompliSpace.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Victoria and NSW are refusing to be bound by a new mandatory component in the national curriculum that proposes to make it compulsory for year nine and 10 students to learn Australian history, in a sign of ongoing tension after the country’s education ministers signed off on the new curriculum. In a last-ditch meeting to approve the document before the federal election, states and territories agreed on Friday to the Morrison government’s push for a stronger emphasis on Australia’s post-settlement past in the history curriculum, despite concerns raised by some states it would dilute Indigenous perspectives. But an exemption proposed by Victoria – and agreed to at the meeting – will mean states and territories retain the right to “adopt and adapt” the national curriculum, including the new mandatory history components, casting doubt on how compulsory the changes are. While Victoria, NSW, and WA have variations, states including Tasmania, Queensland and the ACT, rely entirely on the national curriculum.
According to NESA News, the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) has advised that there are delays in processing some Working With Children Check (WWCC) applications and renewals. Based on this advice, NESA encourages teachers with a WWCC due for renewal to renew now to avoid any delays. Any teacher unable to renew their WWCC clearance due to the floods, should contact the Office of the Children’s Guardian WWCC customer service team on (02) 8219 3777.
‘We need to bite the bullet’: Controversial suspension policy delayed by a term
According to an article in EducationHQ, Ruth Owen, deputy secretary (learning improvement) with the NSW Department of Education, said the suspension policy had been pushed out in light of the “extraordinary circumstances” currently facing schools, including flooding in Northern NSW. The new policy stipulates that students cannot be suspended more than three times a year or for more than 10 days at a time, while K-2 students can only be suspended for a maximum of five days, a quarter of the previous limit. The policy has faced backlash from school principals, teachers and the NSW Teachers’ Federation since it was announced, with concerns it would result in more disruptive and unsafe classrooms and lump an extra administrative burden onto schools. Owen confirmed the policy would be going ahead, but with some extra time for schools to go through a “period of familiarisation and then implementation,” which includes targeted professional learning in behaviour management. Leanne Nixon, deputy secretary (school performance north) said there would be “wraparound” support systems provided to schools to assist with the changes, including 130 new student wellbeing specialists to work in public schools across the state.
According to a media release from the Victorian Government’s Minister of Education, the Andrews Labor Government will boost mental health and wellbeing support at Victorian schools, ensuring kids have access to a full suite of mental health tools to thrive at school and in life, as a key response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System gets underway. Minister for Education and Mental Health James Merlino as of last Thursday invited providers in the student mental health and wellbeing sector to sign-up to deliver their services in Victorian schools, as part of the full Schools Mental Health Fund Menu. The new Menu underpins the Labor Government’s $200 million Schools Mental Health Fund, providing funding for resources and initiatives to better support student mental health. It will allow schools to select evidence-based programs and initiatives from the full online Menu across three tiers of intervention, including positive mental health promotion, early intervention and cohort specific initiatives and targeted support. The Schools Mental Health Fund will be rolled out to all government schools, starting in regional Victoria in mid-2022 and across the state by 2024.
The Herald Sun reports that an ongoing mandate to keep primary school students masked in classrooms is restricting learning and must now be wound back, several leading epidemiologists and paediatric experts say. Victorian students in grades three to six are still required to don the face coverings, while their secondary counterparts don’t need to mask up. Child behavioural experts warned the prolonged use of masks had “deprived” children of meeting learning outcomes and developing socially. Director of the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program at University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Fiona Russell, who recently chaired a World Health Organisation and UNICEF guideline group on kids wearing masks, told the Herald Sun she feared the implications of ongoing mandates. “There certainly needs to be an off ramp for mask use in primary school settings,” she said. “Public health measures on children should not be any more than adults”.
The Herald Sun reports that a VCAT judge has warned parents not to dodge school fees by claiming financial hardship due to Covid-19 without offering proof. Loyola College, a Catholic coeducational school in Watsonia, has been chasing payment of a $8000 school bill from a South Morang family since the start of 2020. An officer acting on behalf of the school told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Wednesday that accounts and reminders had been sent to the family at least six times throughout 2020. The parents did not attend the online hearing or offer a defence for their non-payment. They contacted the school in June 2020 to say they were “going through tough times” but did not offer any details. Ruling for the school, VCAT commissioner David Kim said “any person’s financial hardship without any proof is not a legitimate defence for fees that are owing”. He acknowledged the school had made repeated attempts to recover the fees and ordered the family pay Loyola College $7700 for the outstanding amount plus a $311 VCAT application fee.
According to an article in the Courier Mail, school internet speeds are set to skyrocket, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promising significant upgrades at every Queensland state school. Ms Palaszczuk will on Thursday announce $190m towards a partnership with Telstra that will eventually see internet speeds 200 times faster as exchanges are upgraded and 40 regional schools are connected to a fibre optic connection for the first time. Education Minister Grace Grace said speeds would improve 40-fold by the end of next year, and would be 200 times faster by 2026. “Around 40 schools will be connected to fibre optic for the first time, and our more isolated communities will not be left behind,” Ms Grace said. Ms Grace said about 350 exchanges had already been identified for upgrade and that would mean faster internet for entire communities, not just schools. She said it would mean new capabilities for regional and remote healthcare previously out of reach due to bandwidth limitations, more technological services available to agricultural producers, and would allow for the future introduction of technologies that do not yet exist.
ABC News reports that a group of dads at the Brisbane Independent School got together with the principal and managed to use science and engineering knowledge to prevent SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — spreading through classrooms. Using a smoke machine, the group studied airflow patterns in the school's five classrooms and administration areas. Carbon dioxide meters were also used to identify low-ventilation areas or "dead spots". They then purchased air purifiers — known as high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filters — to mitigate the risk from SARS-CoV-2 particles that might be circulating in classrooms and other indoor areas of the school. Although one teacher and up to two students in most, but not all classes, have had COVID-19 during Queensland's rampant Omicron wave, no in-school transmission has been identified. Queensland Health data shows that, in the seven days from March 23 to 29, as many as 19,615 school-aged children tested positive for COVID-19.
According to an article in The Educator, in Queensland, Independent Special Assistance Schools (SAS) are offering a much-needed educational lifeline for students experiencing complex challenges and education disruption, with more students enrolled than ever before. SAS provide alternative educational settings for students with high-level needs and cater for students with disability, as well as students who are at risk, have behavioural difficulties, or whose needs are better met by flexible learning structures that may not be available in all mainstream schools. Community demand for schools dedicated to the education of disengaged and at-risk young people has been driving ongoing growth in these specialist services in Queensland’s independent schooling sector. Currently, SAS now account for nearly one in eight Queensland independent schools, enrolling more than 4,400 students in 28 schools across 42 campuses across the state. This represents an almost 50 per cent growth in enrolments over the past year alone. Independent Schools Queensland CEO, Chris Mountford, said this growth can be attributed to the youth mental health crisis, the increasing diagnoses of disability impacting on learning and the current housing crisis.
ABC News reports that South Australian teachers are facing exhaustion and fatigue because of COVID-related staff shortages, especially in regional areas, the education union says. The Australian Education Union's SA branch said there were about 800 teaching staff absent for COVID-related reasons on a recent school day. Branch president Andrew Gohl said apart from shortages, teachers were also grappling with constantly changing learning models, fluctuating attendance, and relief work for other teachers absent due to COVID. While unvaccinated teachers and school staff were permitted to return to work on Thursday, Education department chief executive Rick Persse told ABC Radio Adelaide that would allow 83 teaching staff back in the classroom, which "doesn't move the dial". He said 23 schools had implemented a "circuit breaker" to control COVID infections, moving some classes online. Currently, the Department for Education has instructed schools to postpone non-essential activities for the remaining three weeks of term, including camps, carnivals, parent-teacher interviews and presentations.
The Canberra Times reports that the teachers union says more ACT schools should go to remote learning after the work safety regulator was called in at a school over high staff absences. Macgregor Primary School was the first ACT school to send part of the school back home to learn because there wasn't enough staff to hold all classes face to face. Australian Education Union made a complaint to WorkSafe ACT regarding another Canberra public school on Thursday relating to safety concerns caused by staff shortages. The ACT branch president Angela Burroughs said Macgregor Primary School was not an isolated case and she would not be surprised if more schools followed in switching to remote learning in the final week of term, and that “in some situations it's more harmful to keep them open”. A WorkSafe ACT spokeswoman confirmed it had received a complaint via the Australian Education Union and would respond accordingly. Education Minister Yvette Berry said she could not rule out other schools being affected.
ABC News reports that Western Australia has recorded its highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases at almost 9,000, as the government also announced a significant easing of restrictions in schools for the start of term 2. WA Education Minister Sue Ellery has set out the rules that will apply when students return to school after the holidays on April 26. Indoor events at school involving more than one class of students will be permitted, but masks must be worn. Indoor and outdoor sporting events and inter-school sporting events will be allowed to have spectators. Performing arts, musical and band performances have also been given the green light, with 75 per cent capacity limits. Single-year group assemblies only will be allowed, but must be held outdoors or in well-ventilated places. School balls are also back on, on and off school sites, as long as they comply with any mask-wearing, proof-of-vaccination and density limit restrictions. But Ms Ellery said school camps would still be off "due to the risk they pose to COVID-19 transmission and disrupting student learning".
According to an article in Al Jazeera, the governor of the US state of Florida has signed a bill that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, a policy that has drawn intense national scrutiny from critics who say it marginalises LGBTQ people. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, defended the legislation, which LGBTQ advocates, students and civil rights groups have denounced as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, when he signed it into law on Monday. Parents would be able to sue districts over violations. US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona recently held a call with LGBTQ students in Florida and said in a statement issued Monday that his agency “will be monitoring this law upon implementation to evaluate whether it violates federal civil rights law”. For teachers in Florida, the bill has caused some confusion over what is allowed in the classroom as well as concerns over frivolous lawsuits, said Michael Woods, a teacher with about three decades of experience.
According to an article in The Educator, education policymakers worldwide must re-evaluate education systems to provide a stronger focus on personalised learning, a new global report says. The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development’s (MGIEP) new report, titled: ‘Reimagining Education’, said governments, education policymakers and senior decision makers need to recognise that personalised education “is an entitlement and a human right for every learner”. The new global International Science and Evidence Based Education Assessment (ISEE) report points towards an education that employs a cognitive-emotional approach to learning, and for education policymaking to be guided by science and evidence in the future. The Assessment, which commenced in 2019 in Montreal and has been two years in the making, brought together more than 300 experts from 45 countries informed by a global consultation process with scientists and specialists from diverse disciplines such as neuroscience, technology, education, philosophy, data and evidence, and sustainability.