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 ABC News reports that senior high school students from China will be allowed to travel to Australia under a strict exemption announced by the Federal Government. On Saturday Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan revealed Year 11 and 12 students from mainland China, excluding from Hubei province, would be considered on a case-by-case basis. If the states and territories agree, students will undergo a 13-step approval process to come to Australia for their schooling. The cases will also require the support of the students' schools. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said it was not a compulsory plan. On 1 February, the Federal Government announced a ban on anyone arriving from, or transiting through, mainland China from coming to Australia, unless they had been outside China for 14 days. The ban excluded Australian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members. The Federal Government has extended the ban twice and it will now run until at least 29 February.
The ABC News reports that about 700 survivors of child sexual abuse who have applied through the national redress and compensation scheme remain in limbo because the organisations they named have not signed up to the program. So far, about 7,000 people have made an application for compensation payments of up to $150,000. But not every institution has signed up to the scheme ahead of a June 30 deadline to do so. "At the moment, about 10 per cent of the applications that we've received from survivors have had to be put on hold because we don't have an organisation signed up to match them up to," Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said. The Minister said that equated to about 700 abuse survivors. In some cases, the organisation no longer existed and state and territory governments were stepping in to be the "funder of last resort". But Senator Ruston said federal, state and territory governments were also looking at ways to increase pressure on organisations that were not yet a part of the redress scheme. Among the big-stick approaches could be stripping organisations of their charitable status if they refuse to join the program.
According to The Age, Martin Parkinson, who helmed the federal bureaucracy for four years before retiring in August last year, said voters needed one level of government to hold accountable for declining school results. Speaking to a forum on federal and state finances at NSW State Parliament last week, Dr Parkinson said states should take on sole responsibility for the early learning, primary and high school sectors, while the federal government should do TAFE and universities. In later comments to The Herald clarifying his position, Dr Parkinson said the federal government should retain some minor involvement in setting a national curriculum and teaching standards, but pass the vexed question of schools’ funding to the states. Schools, including the independent and Catholic sectors, would then have to negotiate their top-up funding with individual state and territory governments. Federal and state funding arrangements are the subject of a current NSW government-initiated review by former Telstra CEO David Thodey, who hosted the forum.
According to The Age, principals experience more job demands, and higher levels of stress symptoms, sleep difficulties, depressive symptoms and burnout than the general population, the annual Australian Principal Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey has consistently showed. RMIT University's Jeff Brooks said a principal's job had become more complicated than ever. "Principals have always worked long hours and had to make difficult decisions but now even the smallest decisions are often a matter of great debate," he said. A recently released global study by the OECD found almost two-thirds of Australian principals said their high workload and responsibilities substantially limited their effectiveness. The survey found that Australian principals spent just over a third of their time on administrative tasks and meetings, and less time observing classes, mentoring teachers and being involved in student evaluations than the OECD average. If they had more money, they would reduce teachers' administrative load by recruiting more support staff, as well as reduce class sizes, the Teaching and Learning International Survey found.
The Educator reports that an independent inquiry will look into the pressures that Australia’s public school teachers are facing in their daily workloads. The inquiry, announced by the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF), will be chaired by former WA Premier, Professor Emeritus, the Hon Dr Geoff Gallop AC. Joining him will be former Justice of the NSW Industrial Court and Deputy President of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, the Hon Dr Tricia Kavanagh and the former head of the NSW Institute of Teachers, Patrick Lee. NSWTF president, Angelo Gavrielatos said the inquiry was “well overdue”. “It’s been more than 15 years since the last investigation into the nature and value of teachers’ work,” Gavrielatos said. Since that time, says Gavrielatos, there have been significant changes in schools including changes to curriculum, technology, student needs, school complexity and parental and community expectations. The independent commission will present its findings and recommendations in February 2021.
The Age reports that hundreds of graduate teachers in Victorian government schools will be assigned a mentor in a scheme to stop young teachers leaving the profession. The Andrews government is set to launch the mentoring scheme for 700 early-career teachers next year, at a cost of $73.4 million. It will be piloted in primary schools in north-eastern Melbourne, western Melbourne and Gippsland, with another 350 teachers to join the scheme in 2021 and 350 more in 2022. Each teacher will have an allocated mentor and classroom cover so they can complete a new, specialised professional development program. New teachers in rural and regional schools will also receive help to get to know the local community and build professional networks. The Australian Education Union has campaigned on the issue of mentoring as a way to ease the pressure on graduate teachers.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, enrolment figures from the Association of Independent Schools of NSW show year 5 has the second biggest intake of students transferring from other schools, behind year 7, and the year 5 intake has been growing over the past few years. Independent schools had 2160 more students enrolled in the year 5 of 2019 compared with year 4 in 2018. This has grown from 2016 when the year 5 intake was 1900 new students. That means new enrolments in year 5 have grown 13.7 per cent since 2016, outstripping the 7.1 per cent growth in independent school enrolment across all grades. The trend, which has been noted by principals and families at public schools, is driven by parents' fear of missing out on the high school of their choice or that their child might be behind when they start year 7. Catholic Schools NSW also reports more new students join in year 5 than any other year besides year 7 and kindergarten, though overall enrolments at Catholic primary schools are flat.
According to NITV, the Murri mother who shared a video of her 9-year-old son's despair following a bullying incident at a Brisbane State School has called for disability awareness to be embedded in the curriculum. Yarraka Bayles, whose son Quaden was born with Achondroplasia, the most common form of Dwarfism, witnessed the incident at Carina State School last week. Since the video was live streamed on her social media account, she has received a wave of support from the community, but also some harsh criticism, which she says she expected. Ms Bayles says her son has faced constant discrimination throughout his life for being a Murri boy with a disability. Quaden has been removed from the school after just three weeks of classes. He will likely undertake home schooling, which he has done in the past. Ms Bayles doesn't place any blame on the child involved or the school, saying they have “amazing support” systems in place, but these compounding incidents have finally taken their toll. She is calling for more action to prevent further instances of bullying.
According to an article in The Conversation, obesity rates are on the rise in Australia and across the world. For years, public health and medical groups have called for schools to ban sales of junk foods as one way to stem the tide. Selling fatty or sugary food and drinks has been banned in Western Australia’s public schools since 2007. A 2018 study found WA children were eating healthier as a result of the ban. But it also found some regional schools were struggling to comply with it. Some countries, including Canada and Chile, have banned junk food in schools. Should Australia do the same? The authors asked five experts. Four out of five experts said yes. They were a public health epidemiologist, a physical education lecturer, a paediatric dietitian, a professor in obesity prevention and a nutritionist. The physical education lecturer said “no”, because banning junk food may demonise food in unhealthy ways. And it does nothing to disrupt the structural inequities that may make it difficult for children to access the “right” food outside the school gates.
WA Today reports that Churchlands Senior High School principal Neil Hunt has spoken of his “absolute disappointment” in a group of his students who allegedly assaulted and robbed a man at a northern suburbs train station. It is alleged the five teenagers from the western suburbs secondary school, who were allegedly wearing their Churchlands uniforms at the time, seriously assaulted Matthew Henson, 20, at Stirling Train Station last week for his shoes. The 20-year-old sustained “severe injuries” and was hospitalised as a result of the attack. The schoolboys, aged 14 to 16, were charged with aggravated robbery and acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm. In a letter to the school community on Monday morning, Mr Hunt said the five boys allegedly involved had each been suspended from Churchlands for the maximum penalty of 10 days.
According to the US ABC News , in a rapid development, 14 new cases of novel coronavirus were identified in Italy last Friday, bringing the country's total to at least 16, Italian health officials reported. Many of the new cases were among people who had not travelled to China. The cluster of cases in the Lombardy region triggered officials to suspend public gatherings, demonstrations and sporting events, as well as close schools, restaurants and businesses, in order to contain the virus, Roberto Speranza, Italy's health minister, said during a Friday news conference. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities reported 18 cases of novel coronavirus and four deaths over the course of two days, the World Health Organization detailed at a Friday news conference. Lebanon also reported its first coronavirus case Friday, in a traveller from Iran, WHO officials said. There have been at least 1,073 confirmed COVID-19 cases in 26 other countries, including the United States, and eight deaths reported outside of China, which brings the worldwide death toll to 2,247, according to the WHO, which has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.
According to TV NZ, the requirement to enrol students, including violent students, while ensuring a safe school environment is a "vice" that principals are stuck in, according to Principals Federation president Perry Rush. Speaking on TVNZ 1's Breakfast Mr Rush said that while there were no easy solutions, a prototype programme championed by Education Associate Minister Tracey Martin, where students can move between schools, had benefits. “The challenge here is we are required to enrol students but also to ensure we have a safe and healthy environment for students, principals and student feel that that’s a vice that we’re right in the middle of,” Mr Rush said. The programme which had the backing of Ms Martin was one the Principals Federation also supported. “So that if they are experiencing violence or at risk of suspension and exclusion, they can come away from their home school and attend another school for a 10-week period. At that end of that time they can move back to their original school or stay in the new school they have gone to, I think that sharing the challenge across a community of schools is a really brave idea.”
According to the ABC News, climate change and harmful marketing are jeopardising the future of every child around the world — and Australia is failing to create an environment fit for future generations. That's according to a major international report released last week by the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and leading medical journal, The Lancet. The report, titled A Future for the World's Children? warns climate change, conflict and harmful marketing practices that drive obesity threaten the health and future of children worldwide. "Despite improvements in child and adolescent health over the past 20 years, progress has stalled, and is set to reverse," said Helen Clark, former New Zealand Prime Minister of and co-chair of the Commission. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the report must be a wake-up call for countries to invest in child health and development, and "build a future that is fit for children". Children in Norway, Korea and the Netherlands were found to have the best chance of good health, education and nutrition, while children in Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia faced the worst odds.