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.

AUSTRALIA

Daniel Andrews asks PM to reveal redacted Pell report in full

The Age reports that Premier Daniel Andrews has asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to quickly release secret sections of a report on the historical conduct of Cardinal George Pell, in the wake of the senior Catholic's acquittal on child sex abuse charges. The Premier telephoned Mr Morrison just hours after the High Court’s decision to quash the cardinal’s conviction and release him from jail, to ask for publication of sections of the report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The sections relate to Cardinal Pell's handling of allegations of sexual abuse against priests earlier in his career and were left unpublished when the commission reported in September 2017 to avoid prejudice to any of his trials or appeals. Victorian prosecutors have told the federal government that there are no current or future court cases that might be prejudiced by the full publication of the report but federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says it may be weeks before the material can be made public.

Federal education minister orders independent schools to reopen for term two

The Guardian reports that Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan, has ordered independent schools to reopen and provide in-person education to children whose parents want it in term two. In a letter, sent to the Independent Schools Council of Australia and peak bodies in each state and territory last Thursday, Mr Tehan stated that he will use Australian Education Act powers to impose a new condition on independent schools, in effect requiring them to make classroom learning available or risk losing federal funding. It comes as the national cabinet was meeting, a further opportunity for the Morrison government to push for schools to be reopened as early as term two, which began this Tuesday in some states. Mr Tehan’s order represents a shift away from online learning at home to classroom attendance, a move likely to spark tension with Victoria, which favoured early closure of schools to contain COVID-19. The article contains a state by state guide.

Coronavirus Australia: Experts make case for keeping schools open

According to news.com.au, teachers face a greater risk of catching the COVID-19 from the supermarket than schools according to an infectious disease expert, who has urged the states to reopen the nation’s classrooms. It’s the one debate where Australia’s politicians are not listening to the health experts: the decision to shut down schools across the country and move to distance learning over coronavirus fears. The official advice from Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has not changed, with the national cabinet reassured that schools are safe to remain open. But to date, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT have disregarded that advice and will move to distance learning in term two, remaining open only for essential workers. Only the Northern Territory plans to keep schools open in term two. Australian National University infectious disease physician Peter Collignon told news.com.au that was a mistake and teachers had more to fear from going to the supermarket. But he warned allowing older teachers to work from home would be an important safety measure.

School closures likely to have little impact on pandemic, study finds

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, school closures may have a relatively small impact on the spread of COVID-19 and must be weighed against the "profound" economic and social consequences, according to new research. The global study led by researchers at University College London is the first to properly examine the available evidence supporting governments' decisions to shut schools as part of their response to the pandemic. The findings reflect the Australian government's wariness towards the hardline measure and concern about the potential impacts. The study reported the evidence supporting national closures of schools is currently "very weak" and the measure could have "relatively small effects on a virus with COVID-19's high transmissibility and apparent low clinical effect on school children". The researchers found data from the SARS outbreak in China, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2003 suggested school closures "did not contribute" to the control of the epidemic."

NSW Department of Education monitors online learning engagement

According to The Canberra Times, NSW school students who are not sufficiently engaging with their online learning materials while at home are being marked as being absent. A message sent to parents at a South Coast NSW school last week said that teachers were monitoring student progress on a regular basis and were “marking class roles for anyone who hasn't been accessing their learning as an unexplained absence”. "This has been advised by our Department of Education deputy secretary," the email said. On March 22, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian encouraged parents to keep their children at home with many parents balancing work commitments and homeschooling. Details of how many students have been marked absent in the past month are not available, however, the Department told parents "We are very impressed with how well everyone is accessing learning tasks." Public schools have remained open throughout the pandemic, however, attendance rates in NSW and Victoria are at about 20 per cent.

Year 12, kindy should get priority when school goes back: teachers' federation

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW Teachers Federation has suggested a staggered return to school once health authorities and governments start lifting social distancing restrictions, beginning with year 12 and kindergarten. As schools prepare to deliver term two online, Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said leaders needed to think about how to ensure an "orderly return" when circumstances changed, avoiding a deluge of students when older or vulnerable teachers were unable to return. "An option could be a staggered return to our schools," he said. "I've advanced a proposition that part of an orderly [process], we could consider a return of year 12 and kindergarten, followed by year seven and year six, and progressively pad that out." Educators cautiously welcomed the idea, although they said the process would be complicated and schools would need to be consulted. Craig Petersen, head of the Secondary Principals Council, said the danger of allowing students to return whenever their parents chose could lead to a situation in which there were more students at school than teachers available.

Coronavirus schools decision for term two in Queensland confuses some teachers, parents

According to the ABC News, the Queensland Government's decision for schools to continue online learning for the first five weeks of term two during the coronavirus pandemic has raised concerns and confusion for some teachers and parents. Education Minister Grace Grace said ideally teachers, teachers aides and other staff will work from school. Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) executive director David Robertson said many of their schools had already started online learning in the last week of the term one. Mr Robertson said he was confident their schools were "well equipped to provide learning from home". "We recognise not all students have access to technological equipment to take on learning from home, so we will support them in any way we can, with hard copy materials etc to ensure every student's education will progress," he said. He told the ABC the decision came with some challenges. "There are groups of students like boarders, who don't have access to good internet or special assistance students, who will be disengaged [in their home environment]," he said.

South Australian Certificate of Education board agrees to year 12 exams and assessments amid the coronavirus

According to The Naracoorte Herald, it is a sign of relief for hundreds of country year 12 students that they will be able to sit their final exams this year. This comes as the South Australian Certificate of Education board agreed to continue exams and assessments due to changes in the system triggered by the coronavirus. The board said on Tuesday last week that exams would be moved to allow teachers to prepare for the extra workload. "It was a good outcome," said a board spokesperson. "The key message is that we are working with state government and intend for SACE exams to go ahead at the end of the year, but they will be pushed back a little bit." The changes have been made in line with the National Education Council which agreed that year 12 students around Australia should graduate by the end of the year. Exam dates for the state are expected to be unveiled mid-year. The board joined with regional schools to look at practical assessments that are required to be completed at school. South Australia's year 12 workload includes about 70 per cent assignments combined with about 30 per cent exams.

Schools to open in term 2 in the Northern Territory

According to news.com.au, term two will go ahead for Northern Territory school students with education compulsory and children expected to physically attend unless otherwise advised. All students are expected to attend school from day one, Term 2 on Monday, April 20, the NT Government said in a statement. "Unless your school contacts you directly with alternative arrangements, you should plan for your child to physically attend school," Education Minister Selena Uibo said. "Exceptions can be made for parents who have informed the school their child will be learning from home."

Schools that Excel 2020: Find out how your school has performed

The Age reports that the Schools that Excel interactive brings together detailed results from Victorian government, independent and Catholic schools. The Age has gathered VCE results data going back 10 years for every secondary school in the state and turned it into an easy-to-use dashboard. The interactive lets you gauge a school's VCE performance over 10 years, so you can see whether it has improved or maintained its results over time. When VCE results are released in December, only the current year's figures are provided. That information is useful, but it doesn't tell you anything about how representative the results are of the school's typical performance. By threading together data from the past decade, a much clearer picture emerges. Of course there are many qualities in schools that can’t be measured. These include a school’s culture, its inclusiveness, the dedication of teachers, extra-curricular activities and that feeling you get when you walk through the school gates.

INTERNATIONAL

Last month was the first March since 2002 without a school shooting (United States)

According to The Week, for the first March in nearly two decades, there were no school shootings across the United States. The last time March went without such an incident was in 2002, and even then there were close calls. While the news may seem heartening in a country where violent incidents at schools have become all too frequent, the relative calm is likely a result of the fact that most schools in the country were shut down at some point during the month because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, crime has decreased in general around the globe because of lockdowns. On the other hand, gun sales increased significantly during the last month, with March coming in as the second-busiest month ever.

Singapore bans teachers using Zoom after hackers post obscene images on screens (Singapore)

The Guardian reports that Singapore has suspended the use of video-conferencing tool Zoom by teachers after “very serious incidents” in the first week of a coronavirus lockdown that has seen schools move to home-based learning. Zoom’s video technology has proved very popular during the shutdown but it has faced safety and privacy concerns over its conferencing app, with the Singapore schools decision following on from concerns about security when the app was used by British cabinet ministers. “These are very serious incidents,” Aaron Loh of Singapore’s education ministry technology division said on Friday, without giving details. Zoom was deeply upset to hear about the incidents and was “committed to providing educators with the tools and resources they need on a safe and secure platform”, the firm’s chief marketing officer, Janine Pelosi, said in an email. Taiwan and Germany have already curbed use of Zoom, while Google banned the desktop version from corporate laptops this week. The company also faces a class-action lawsuit. To address security concerns, Zoom has launched a 90-day plan to bolster privacy and security issues, and has also tapped former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser.