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.
ABC News reports that the government has indefinitely shelved its bid to overhaul religious freedom laws, leaving one of the Coalition's central 2019 election commitments hanging in uncertainty. The religious discrimination bill put before the lower house this week was a much-watered down version of what the government had initially proposed. Even so, several moderate Liberals said they were concerned with parts of the bill that remained, as well as a separate amendment introduced at the same time to protect school students based on their sexual orientation but not their gender identity. In the early hours of this morning, five Liberal MPs joined Labor and the crossbench to vote against the government and extend protections for transgender school students. This morning government senators vowed to try and revert the changes, but within hours the Senate rejected bringing it on for debate, deferring it to a future date.
The Age reports that more men want to leave teaching than women because they are unhappy with the pay and resent the negative community perceptions of their job. The latest workforce data report from the government-funded Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership found men make up barely a fifth of the workforce, although they hold a third of leadership jobs. “Second, men experienced more issues with school culture and as a result were less likely to be enjoying working in schools,” the report said. Head of the NSW Primary Principals Association, Robyn Evans, said schools needed a better gender balance among teachers, particularly in primary schools. “The role modelling, the connections, the different ways people think,” she said. Ms Evans said the only way to attract more men would be to increase pay. The NSW Teachers Federation is in a stalemate with the NSW Department of Education over its claims for a 5 to 7.5 per cent pay rise and two extra hours of planning time a week. Thousands of teachers went on strike over the issue last year, and the matter is in the Industrial Relations Commission.
The Age reports that a revised national curriculum will elevate the study of Western and Christian heritage in history, remove references to the Anzac legend as “contested”, cement the importance of phonics in teaching reading and reverse changes to maths that left experts worried the subject was being dumbed down. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge – who has stepped aside amid an investigation into harassment allegations, which he denies – last year said the history curriculum created such a miserable impression of the nation’s past that Australians would be reluctant to defend it. Sources - who spoke on the condition of the anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly - said the history curriculum would not water down Indigenous content but increase emphasis on Western heritage, even though the original purpose of the review was to remove content from the history curriculum. They said the Australian, Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) was keen to have the draft approved so that it could begin preparing it for classrooms.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that while public health experts say schools are safe for most children, many families have made their own risk assessment and want to wait for the Omicron wave to abate and their children to be fully vaccinated. For some families of children with disabilities or serious health problems, this decision is based on individual medical advice. A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said families should speak to their school principals about their circumstances. Paediatrician and infectious diseases physician Phoebe Williams, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, said schools were safe for most children – even those with common health conditions such as asthma. “It’s not a big deal if kids have only had one dose of vaccine; even one dose provides protection against severe infection,” Dr Williams said. Dr Williams said the advice on whether to keep a child home during an outbreak would be made on a “case-by-case basis” knowing the full details of a child’s health history, but she expected it would be rare.
According to an article in The Educator, Victorian public school teachers have struck a landmark agreement for improved working conditions, on a number of fronts. The new agreement works to close the gender pay gap with superannuation paid to employees on parental leave for 12 months, with paid maternity leave increased to 16 weeks. AEU Victorian Branch President Meredith Peace said, “The agreement also delivers an important salary boost for our lowest paid education support staff.” Peace also said that for the first time in over 30 years, AEU members have campaigned for and achieved a reduction in face-to-face teaching hours. “The one and a half hour decrease to be phased in during 2023 and 2024 will mean teachers have more time for preparation and planning for student learning within paid hours. We have also achieved a commitment for 2000 additional teachers for Victorian public schools,” Peace said. “This is an historic agreement that will ultimately see our students receive greater support to achieve to their full potential.”
The Age reports that some schools were still waiting for their full allocation of rapid antigen tests by the end of the school day on Monday, as hundreds of thousands of students started the school year with an expectation that they would complete twice-weekly tests at home to minimise COVID-19 outbreaks. The delays occurred despite Education Minister James Merlino stating on Monday morning that more than 6 million rapid antigen tests “will be delivered by today as we promised – so all the rapid antigen tests that schools will need to conduct that surveillance testing are available in schools for the next couple of weeks”. Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Meredith Peace said a constant supply of RATs and masks was critical for ensuring schools are as safe as possible for students and staff. More than one million Victorian students, including 77,500 preps, are due to return to school this week, for the first time since the Omicron wave started late last year.
SBS News reports that Citipointe Christian College needs to send a much stronger message than just asking its principal to "stand aside and take extended leave" if it is to undo some of the damage it has inflicted on the community, members from the Citipointe community and Brisbane-based LGBTIQ+ advocates have said. This follows several days of uproar over the school’s contract that stated "the college will only enrol the student on the basis of the gender that corresponds to their biological sex" and said homosexuality is "sinful", like bestiality, incest and paedophilia. The contract was eventually withdrawn after community backlash. Former Citipointe student Jared Mifsud welcomed the decision by Mr Mulheran to stand aside, but said what is really needed is cultural change and the use of inclusive language across faith-based institutions that interact with young people. Mr Mifsud said the language condemning homosexuality was very damaging to himself and other young people navigating their gender and sexual identity. According to Shelley Argent, the political liaison office of the Brisbane chapter of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PLAG), the school still needs to take more responsibility for its actions.
Adelaide Now reports that private schools are calling on SA Health for more sophisticated policies on boarding houses hit by Covid-19 cases. The schools are worried boarding houses will be hit by successive cases, forcing students into rolling periods of being sent home to regional areas or isolated in their rooms as close contacts. Chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia and Catholic Education SA have made a joint appeal to government officials, asking for a refinement on the definition of a close contact to make it more workable. The current SA Health advice says boarding schools are high risk, with the standard close contact definitions of being unmasked, in close proximity indoors for at least 15 minutes applying. Close contacts should preferably be taken home to quarantine – not by public transport – or kept in isolation at school, the advice says. The schools have asked SA to consider the Queensland model where contact definitions include whether a boarder is in a single room, shared room or dormitory.
Adelaide Now reports that a call on teachers to evict secondary students from the classroom if they refuse to wear a mask has been firmly rejected by the Education Department, as figures show hundreds of teachers have already been affected by Covid. The call was made by the Australian Education Union SA to its members on Thursday. The union also said teachers should provide rapid antigen tests to students with Covid-19 symptoms. However, a contrasting message was sent to all staff by chief executive, Department for Education, Rick Persse. Under new school rules, all adults and secondary students are required to wear masks indoors and masks are recommended for primary students from year 3 upwards. Mr Persse said if a student refused, teachers should use “the least exclusionary methods to prevent, reduce or redirect” the bad behaviour. “A student should not be removed from the class,” he said. Australian Education Union SA president Andrew Gohl said the call was based on member concerns.
ABC News reports that as children return to school in Western Australia, the Education Minister has warned unvaccinated parents risk not being allowed to volunteer in the classroom when COVID-19 case numbers rise. Sue Ellery said in other states, no unvaccinated adults were being allowed on school sites on Monday, with case numbers in the thousands. She said with WA currently experiencing a low caseload, the advice from the Chief Health Officer (CHO) was that the existing settings for education sites were appropriate. "Right now, the setting is you must be vaccinated if you're going to be in a school more than once a week," Ms Ellery said. "That will change when the CHO gives us the advice on what else we need to do when case numbers go up." Ms Ellery said it was "most likely" unvaccinated people could expect they would not be able to attend school premises for activities like volunteering. She said there were no plans for mandatory vaccines for children.
According to a media release from the Government of Western Australia, construction is underway on three houses for local primary school teachers in the Shire of Kent. The homes will be delivered by the Shire of Kent, with the State Government to lease the properties as Government Regional Officer Housing (GROH) once completed. All three homes will be located close to local primary schools to help attract and retain teachers to the townships of Pingrup and Nyabing. The GROH program provides housing for government workers including teachers and police in regional locations to ensure essential services can be delivered.
According to an article in news.com.au, a new documentary provides a terrifying glimpse into what young girls can be exposed to online. Caught in the Net features three female adult actors, who for 10 days spent 12 hours a day sitting in replicas of children’s bedrooms, responding to strangers who contacted them online via their fake social media profiles. During this time, they were contacted by 2458 sexual predators. In the UK, NSPCC figures show online grooming crimes recorded by police have jumped by 70 per cent in the last three years, reaching an all-time high of 6319 Sexual Communication with a Child offences in the UK in 2021. Almost three-quarters of grooming offences recorded between April 2020 and March 2021 involved Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, where the means of communication was known. Andy Burrows, Head of Child Safety Online Policy at the NSPCC said, “This abuse can and must be prevented but the government risk missing their chance if they ignore MPs’ pleas to toughen up draft online safety laws.” According to producer Pavla Klimesová, “Altogether, police opened 52 cases and sent two men to prison because of our film.”
CBC News reports that 14 Alberta schools have been granted school-wide mask exemptions, but the provincial government won't reveal which schools have exemptions, citing privacy concerns. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is able to grant masking exemptions for entire schools that meet certain conditions, including having an alternate COVID-19 safety plan. Alberta Teachers' Association president Jason Schilling said his organisation doesn't have details on how the province has made those decisions. He said it's reflective of a broader lack of transparency and consistency in managing COVID-19 issues in schools throughout the pandemic. Facing pressure from parents last week, Buffalo Trails Public Schools in eastern Alberta also added a statement to its return-to-school plan specifying that students with mask exemptions will not be discriminated against or segregated. Trustee Kara Jackson made the motion at a special board meeting on Friday, noting that it was in response to parents and others in the school community who complained to the board that kids with mask exemptions aren't being treated fairly.