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.
The Canberra Times reports that independent schools could face increased scrutiny under reforms to the Education Act which are expected to be progressed this year. The amendments could include a more direct assurance process after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between non-government schools and the directorate lapsed at the end of 2019. A ministerial briefing prepared by the Education Directorate in July 2020 and released under freedom of information lists a number of opportunities to reform the school registration and renewal system, including reviewing the powers the government has to check, investigate and determine that a school is not meeting a condition of registration. Executive director Association of Independent Schools in the ACT (AISACT) Andrew Wrigley said he would push back against the suggestion that there needed to be more oversight of independent schools. ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said since the MoU was struck the ACT government had passed legislation to strengthen child safety laws and introduced the Reportable Conduct Scheme.
The West Australian reports that authorities were told of fewer suspected instances of child abuse and neglect while school students were learning from home because of the coronavirus pandemic last year. State and territory data published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on Friday highlights the significant role teachers play in reporting possible child abuse. Australian teachers are legally required to report suspected abuse and neglect to government child protection services. They're usually only behind police as the most common source of reports. AIHW spokeswoman Louise York said ongoing monitoring would be needed to better understand the long-term impacts the coronavirus health crisis has had on child protection services. AIHW points to previous studies showing children may be at increased risk of violence during emergencies and natural disasters but does not directly tie the two together in relation to COVID-19.
The Age reports that the Catholic Church has made what is believed to be its highest ever payout to a victim of sexual abuse after church lawyers forced a 52-year-old man to give harrowing evidence in court about his rape by a priest in the 1970s. Peter* [not his real name] will receive $2.45 million plus legal costs to compensate him for abuse by teacher and priest Bertram Adderley, who groomed and raped him between 1977 and 1980 when he was aged 10 to 12. Lawyers involved in seeking restitution for victims of sexual abuse say they believe the settlement is up to $1 million higher than any payout previously awarded to someone suing the Catholic Church. Peter's settlement was offered on January 13, just hours after he entered the witness box at his District Court civil trial in Perth and told how Adderley, who died in 1983, abused him over several years. Prior to the $2.45m settlement, Peter had been offered and accepted $50,000 from the church. The Catholic Archdiocese of Perth declined to comment.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Grace Tame has a tattoo on the back of her hand that sums up her survival from the trauma of child sexual abuse. “Eat my fear,” it says. Ms Tame, this year’s Australian of the Year, says the message is about speaking up against abusers and learning the lessons from survivors. Ms Tame, 26, had the tattoo when she was 19 and wanted to be heard about her experience at school, where she was groomed and abused by a 58-year-old maths teacher. The perpetrator was jailed but it took years for Ms Tame and other members of a broad coalition, including journalist Nina Funnell, the founder of the #LetHerSpeak campaign, to overturn section 194k of Tasmania’s Evidence Act, which prevented survivors being identified. Ms Tame says one of the fundamental messages is that there is no shame in being a survivor. Ms Tame believes federal and state governments should do more to make their laws consistent, even on simple things such as the definitions of consent.
The Courier-Mail reports that Queensland parents are being forced to take out loans to fund their kids’ private school tuition fees with one lender doubling its customer base in the past year. Experts say the combination of record low interest rates and rising cost-of-living pressures have led to a dramatic rise in families turning to loans to fund education costs. Some of Brisbane’s most exclusive institutions have also embraced services which cater specifically for paying off school fees on every week or fortnight. Companies such as EdStart and Futurity Invest offer services specifically dedicated to loans for private school tuition. EdStart chief executive Jack Stevens said the company funded students attending 125 private schools across Queensland and had seen a doubling in business over the past year. Mr Stevens said EdStart had been successful because it was geared toward school terms, unlike traditional personal loan facilities. Broker Zak Avery, based in Brisbane, said it was still “pretty rare” to see loans for school fees.
The West Australian reports that governments must start planning for students returning to school across state borders to avoid the chaos of 2020, a Nationals senator has warned. NSW Nationals senator Perin Davey was inundated with concerns last year from families seeking exemptions for students to cross borders to attend school. She said the uncertainty caused unnecessary stress on students and their families. "We also had the ridiculous scenario where some small regional schools had their operations thrown into turmoil because they had teachers living on the wrong side of a border, yet less than 50 km away," Senator Davey said on Wednesday. She was concerned confusion already reigns on the NSW-Victorian border because the closure was put in place before some local government area exemptions and agricultural workers permits were devised. She has called for a consistent and clear approach across states.
The ABC News reports that while the Australian Government has said the coronavirus vaccine won't be mandatory, some industries may insist that their workers get the jab, experts say. Up to 680,000 people are set to receive the first lot of vaccinations from mid-to-late February. That group includes quarantine and border workers, frontline health workers, and aged care and disability staff and residents. Legal experts say an employer's right to impose a vaccine policy comes down to workplace health and safety. Employers running high-risk workplaces have a legal requirement to provide a safe working environment, according to Karl Rozenbergs, partner at Hall & Wilcox. Mr Rozenbergs said, “A direction to get the vaccine is more likely to be lawful and reasonable for businesses that face higher risks of an outbreak. Examples include hospitals and aged care facilities, businesses that involve working with children who are too young to have been vaccinated themselves, and businesses that involve other forms of physical interaction."
According to an article in Teacher, University of Southern Queensland PhD student Ben Dexter has calculated teachers’ average daily sun exposure and compared the risk at 1578 schools across Queensland’s seven education regions: Far North Queensland, North Queensland, Central Queensland, North Coast, Metropolitan,South East and Darling Downs South West. Dexter found that shifting school meal break times could drastically reduce teachers’ risk of skin cancer. The study findings have been published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology (Dexter et al., 2020) and prompted plenty of discussion. Dexter, an Associate Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics at USQ, says in Australian schools there seems to be more of a focus on the use of protective hats, clothing and sunscreen. He adds sun exposure avoidance seems to be an assumed behaviour that isn’t well adhered to, even though it remains the most significant sun protective behaviour.
The Brisbane Times reports that a Bentley school lunch and pre-packaged food supplier has been fined $30,000 after a bungled order sent a young girl into anaphylactic shock. Chef’s Delight is a ready-to-eat food supplier and sushi wholesaler servicing schools. The City of Canning received a complaint in June 2019 that a primary schoolgirl had ordered a gluten-free ham and cheese toasted sandwich and, after eating part of it, had an anaphylactic reaction requiring her to be taken to hospital. The bread was later tested and found to contain gluten. City of Canning Mayor Patrick Hall said environmental health officers investigated and alleged Chef’s Delight supplied a sandwich not of the “nature or substance” ordered, and failed to ensure staff had the necessary skills and knowledge in food safety and hygiene; both offences under the Food Act. Chef’s Delight pleaded not guilty and the matter went before Perth Magistrates Court in December, but the court found staff had not exercised all due diligence and the company had failed to properly train staff.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Scott Eacott, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of NSW, applied the "Kardashian Index" to 50 education researchers from around the world, including 11 from Australia, and found almost a quarter - eight men and four women - had a score high enough to qualify them as a social science Kardashian. Named after influencer Kim Kardashian, the index was developed in 2014 to measure the discrepancy between a scientist's social media profile and their publication record. Dr Eacott's paper, published in Leadership, Education, Personality: An Interdisciplinary Journal, argued Twitter presence was conflated with expertise in education, and became a means of influencing and shaping the sector's direction. Boston College Professor Andy Hargreaves, who has more than 80,000 citations in peer-reviewed journals and more than 40,000 Twitter followers, said it was important for academics working in professional fields to share their findings in an accessible way, as epidemiologists have done during the pandemic.
The Courier-Mail reports that a plan by Queensland teachers to boycott NAPLAN testing has been given a fail grade by the Industrial Court, with teaching of the controversial test set to go ahead this year. State school teachers in the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) voted almost unanimously to boycott teaching the controversial test to pupils in October last year. However, in an internal memo circulated to all Department of Education staff, director-general Tony Cook announced the industrial dispute had been slapped down by the courts. QTU president Cresta Richardson said the union’s executive was now considering its next steps, saying the test had been shown to have a negative impact on students’ wellbeing. Among those who welcomed the decision to resume NAPLAN was the 222-member Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland.
NESA has announced that, as new professional development (PD) requirements are being phased in, transition arrangements apply to teachers maintaining accreditation. To further support the transition arrangements NESA has published:
All previous NESA Registered PD and Teacher Identified PD will be transferred to teachers' new PD requirements.
CTV News reports that it took less than a month for students attending virtual school to devise new ways to cheat. From texting friends on the sly to downloading apps that spit out answers, educators say the pandemic-induced move to an online classroom has offered up a wealth of tech-driven workarounds to actually doing the work. Olivia Meleta, a high school mathematics teacher in Thornhill, Ontario, said she realised something was amiss in late September when several students learning virtually submitted tests with matching solutions -- using a method she and her colleagues don't teach. A colleague explained what was likely going on, she said. The students had apparently downloaded an app called Photomath, ostensibly meant to be a teaching tool. There's the new take on an old classic: copying answers from friends, now sent over text message rather than passed via paper note. Anecdotally, she said, she's seen an uptick in cheating since students started attending school remotely, though she noted it's still a minority of students who partake.
The Guardian reports that Boris Johnson’s plans to test millions of schoolchildren for coronavirus every week appear to be in disarray after the UK regulator refused to formally approve the daily testing of pupils in England, the Guardian has learned. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told the government it had not authorised the daily use of 30-minute tests due to concerns that they give people false reassurance if they test negative. This could lead to pupils staying in school and potentially spreading the virus when they should be self-isolating. The regulator’s decision undermines a key element of the government’s strategy to bring the pandemic under control – and is bound to raise fresh questions about the tests, and the safety of the schools that have been asked to use them. Ministers have repeatedly said the use of daily COVID-19 tests is critical to keeping children in education because it means those who test negative can remain in classrooms, instead of whole year-groups having to self-isolate.
The CBC reports that, while many returned to physical classrooms, most students in Ontario and some in Quebec are staying in remote-learning mode for now, due to what one official called a "troubling" rise in cases of COVID-19 among school-aged children. During the fall term, health officials learned that there's a higher risk of transmission among older kids and teens — closer to that experienced by adults — and a lower risk in younger children, said a virus expert. But, while our understanding of coronavirus transmission in children and teens increased somewhat, there remains a lack of definitive data about the spread of coronavirus in Canadian schools. However, relatively few situations of ongoing transmission among Canadian students indicates school measures — such as physical distancing, smaller cohorts, masking and hand-washing — coupled with screening, testing and tracing have been part of an important, robust strategy that we need to maintain.