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 Ideagen.
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According to The Educator, an evidence-based program that helps teachers learn from each other about best classroom practices will now expand nationwide following successful trials in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. The expansion of the Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) program is part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan that Education Ministers agreed to last year to address the national issue of teacher workforce shortages. Evidence from the trials has shown that sharing best practices in the classroom helps teachers learn from each other and improves outcomes for students. In the past nine years, it’s helped more than 4,700 teachers and benefited at least 785,000 students. An additional 1,600 teachers are now set to benefit, with more early career teachers eligible to access the program from Term 3. QTR was identified to be relevant professional development for teachers in every subject area, working in every grade at every stage of their careers.
According to The Australian, a national register of child sex-offenders will be considered after police charged a childcare worker over the alleged serial rape of dozens of young girls. The Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has ordered a review of working with children checks to close a loophole that may let paedophiles move interstate to work with children undetected. The existing working-with-children checks differ in each state and territory, and disciplinary action or dismissals do not show up in national police checks, which focus on charges and convictions. NSW Education Minister Prue Car called for a streamlined national check and better data sharing between states and territories, as well as government agencies. Chief executive of The Parenthood Jessica Rudd said that “this is the time to unite and iron them (discrepancies) out to create a single system that makes it easy for (childcare) operators to confidently hire the qualified staff they so sorely need”.
According to ABC News, a new report authored by a network of Indigenous leaders from across Australia has called on governments to overhaul the way First Nations children are educated. It comes as school attendance rates in Northern Territory, which are already the worst in the nation, continue to fall in urban and remote areas. Joanne Willmot, a board member at Children's Ground and contributor to the MK Turner Report, said the education system would require significant reforms in order for First Nations children to excel. Gavin Morris the principal at Yipirinya School in Alice Springs, said that "unless you've got a First Nations curriculum, which is led by First Nations people, which has come from community and taught by First Nations educators, then this conversation around attendance and enrolment just won't change”.
According to The Educator the draft schools AI framework is now open for consultation which will receive crucial feedback from principals, teachers, parents and other key education stakeholders. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said that “AI is not going away. Like the calculator or the internet, we need to learn how to grapple with this new technology. There are lots of opportunities, but there are also challenges and risks”. Dr Chris Duncan, CEO of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), said that independent schools have been quick to experiment with AI tools and test its benefits and drawbacks. Although private schools are well placed to drive change using AI he said that, “unless all teachers have the opportunity to gain mastery over these tools, we risk widening equity gaps in Australian education”.
According to The Educator, CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and Chevron Australia have launched a new program, ‘Living STEM’, aimed at connecting students to Indigenous scientific knowledge in the classroom. The Living STEM program, announced on 1 August, supports primary and secondary schools to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientific knowledge in communities and classrooms through hands-on projects to increase student engagement and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). The program will benefit students, teachers and families, and will include professional development for teachers, events and seminars, workshops and community engagement and classroom resources. The program will grow in stages, starting with schools and communities in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia. An initial intake of 30 teachers and Aboriginal and Islander education officers is complete.
According to The Educator, a groundbreaking collaboration between Monash University’s Krongold Clinic and the Victorian Department of Education is promoting disability inclusion across all student year levels. The new initiative builds upon the AllPlay Learn research program, first launched in 2019, which comprises of a website, professional learning courses on inclusive practices, and a suite of twenty-four resources aimed at strengthening inclusive school communities. Dr Bethany Devenish, a research fellow at Monash University’s Krongold Clinic told The Educator that “to ensure the AllPlay Learn program is developed and enhanced by the experiences and voices of students with disability and their families, our team continually engages in inclusive, participatory research and community engagement with students with disability and their families”.
According to the Mercury, a 13-year-old student was recently rushed to hospital after collapsing in a suspected vaping incident at a school near Geelong. A leading health expert said that the incident should be a “wake-up call” to parents because vaping had become concerningly widespread among Victorian teens. A Department of Education spokesperson said that a Bannockburn student was taken by ambulance to hospital after a “minor medical incident”. They would not comment on the school’s vaping policy and how the incident would be addressed. It’s understood that the student is recovering in hospital. In consultation with experts and key stakeholders, the Department of Education recently shared guidance to assist schools and families in navigating resources and support networks for young people using e-cigarettes.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Minns Government has been accused by the NSW Teachers’ Federation of an “act of betrayal” following a breakdown in pay negotiations after a one-year agreement was withdrawn this week. Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said that pay negotiations with the Government had begun in “good faith” at the end of April, with an agreement reached on 31 May at a meeting with the NSW Education Minister Prue Car and Treasurer Daniel Mookhey. The breakdown in negotiations is set to trigger “a program of political action”, Gavrielatos said, warning that industrial action could escalate further in September if the stalemate continued. These negotiations come after tens of thousands of NSW public and Catholic school teachers walked off the job over pay and conditions in a series of historic strikes last year.
According to The Educator, Queensland schools are set to benefit from a $5 million boost to tackle student vaping after the State’s Government announced the expansion of a successful alcohol and drug education program. Research has revealed the health dangers of vaping – an issue that Australia’s Education Ministers have been taking seriously as they work with Health Ministers on a national education campaign to eliminate vaping in schools. The updated program will provide students with up-to-date information about the dangers of vaping and other drugs, encouraging them to make healthy choices. Smoking, including vaping, is already banned at all Queensland schools and within five metres of their boundaries. The Government also recently passed legislation to increase smoke-free places, which will now include school car parks. Independent Schools Queensland also welcomed the Government’s commitment, calling it “a pragmatic and welcome move”.
According to The Guardian, a Queensland court found the statewide ban against carrying religious weapons on school grounds to be racial discrimination. Sikh woman Kamaljit Kaur Athwal won the landmark legal fight to overturn the ban, claiming that it discriminated against carrying her religion’s ceremonial sword, the kirpan. Queensland law prohibited religious members from carrying the blade on school grounds, saying that it was unreasonable to “physically possess a knife in a school for genuine religious purposes”. The State’s court of appeal last week found that the legislation was “inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act”. “Carrying a kirpan as a symbol of a religious commitment would, at least ordinarily, constitute a use of the knife for a lawful purpose – namely, religious observance”, the court found. The State Education Minister, Grace Grace, admitted that the department had not been prepared for the court’s decision and that the Government was considering its long-term ramifications.
According to the New Zealand Herald four Te Atatū schools, including two primary schools, had recently been ordered into lockdown as armed police swooped on the area near Rutherford College. Rutherford College was placed in lockdown after receiving “an anonymous phone call of a highly threatening nature that informed us that an armed individual would be on school grounds imminently”. A Te Atatū Intermediate student said pupils were in class just after morning tea when a bell rang alerting them to go into lockdown. The Ministry of Education said that “we will continue to work with the police and will be supporting the schools and early learning services as the situation unfolds”.
According to Global News, a Muslim organisation and a civil rights group seeking to suspend Quebec’s ban on prayer spaces in public schools have been denied leave to appeal a court decision that maintained the ban. Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Robert Mainville ruled that he’s not convinced that the appeal – which sought to allow the prayer spaces while the courts hear a constitutional challenge – had a reasonable chance of success. “The courts will not lightly order that a duly adopted law or regulation be rendered inoperative before it has undergone a full constitutional review, since it is presumed to have been adopted in the public interest”, Mainville wrote. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims are challenging the constitutionality of the prayer space ban. Olga Redko said that the rule, which forbids schools from making any space available on school grounds for students to pray overtly, will cause irreparable harm to Muslim students.