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 Mandarin reports that the Federal Government has announced $146 million in funding for the first phase of a new national strategy to prevent child sexual abuse. The development and implementation of such a strategy was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in 2017. The plan is expected to be released in September, and will be jointly delivered by the Federal, State and Territory governments. While the new funding includes nearly $40 million for the Australian Federal Police, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ben Morton noted that the strategy would go “beyond law enforcement” by aiming to prevent abuse before it occurs, support victims and survivors, and reduce stigma. The strategy will complement other national policy frameworks, such as the current and future National Plans to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, and Closing the Gap, the Government said.
Mirage News reports that the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA) has welcomed the Australian Government’s response to the Protecting the Age of Innocence report and urges the Government to expedite its proposed further research. AHISA CEO, Ms Beth Blackwood, said Australia has had a wake-up call on the harms caused to young people through exposure to online pornography and that every effort must be made to strengthen protections against those harms. “AHISA recommended age verification for access to online pornography in 2016, in our submission to the parliamentary Inquiry into Harm to Australian Children from Access to Online Pornography,” said Ms Blackwood. “We were encouraged when, in 2019, the Government asked the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs to inquire into and report on age verification for online wagering and online pornography. The Committee’s report was released 15 months ago. Now it appears we have to wait at least another year while the Government undertakes further research and consultation. But the longer we wait, the more entrenched ‘porn culture’ will become.”
According to The Age, a report has revealed that in the decade to 2018, non-government schools outspent government schools on capital works by $29.6 billion, with the help of hundreds of millions in taxpayer grants every year. On a per-student basis, non-government schools received between two and four times more funding each year than public schools, or $12,450 more per student over the 10-year period. Economist Adam Rorris, who analysed capital funding in his report Investing in Schools, Funding the Future argued government funds for capital works would be better directed at under-resourced schools. Correna Haythorpe, President of the Australian Education Union federal branch, which commissioned the report, said it showed that the only years in which government schools received more funding for capital works than non-government schools was in 2010-12, when the former Federal Labor government’s Building the Education Revolution economic stimulus program was under way. Independent Schools Australia said in a statement that non-government schools that qualified for capital funding grants had to demonstrate a financial need and show that their supporting communities did not have the capacity to meet the total cost of the project.
The ABC News reports that Queensland researchers say anxiety — not autism — is preventing many children on the spectrum from flourishing at school. The Griffith University Autism Centre of Excellence is trialling a program to reduce anxiety in pre-schoolers before they attend prep and are seeking families to take part. Associate Professor Dawn Adams said anxiety was up to eight times higher in children who had autism than those who do not. "Four in 10 children who have an autism diagnosis will also have an anxiety disorder," Dr Adams said. She said rather than be confined to worrisome thoughts, "autism-specific anxiety tends to present as behaviour". Dr Adams said she believed it was the anxiety — not the autism — that was holding children back. "We've done some research and we know that anxiety actually predicts quality of life more than a child's level of autism," she said. To try and change the outlook for people with autism, researchers at Griffith University's Logan campus are now trialling an early intervention program for children before they head off to school.
The Educator reports that, since 2012, Highly Accomplished Lead Teachers have not only been using their expertise to impact their own classes of students, but have also been supporting and influencing their colleagues’ teaching practice to extend their impact across entire schools. As of the end of 2018, 573 teachers across Australia were certified as HALTs. However, today that number has grown to 840. Recently, a study examined the impact of a pioneering group of HALTs in Queensland’s independent school sector. The two-phase research project – co-authored by Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) – examined teacher understanding of their impact on student outcomes and their role as middle school leaders. The paper found that HALTs “represented diverse impacts with students including positive academic learning outcomes, engagement in pastoral, academic, civic, sporting and creative domains, social skills and behaviour”.
The Age reports that unions representing aged care staff, ambulance workers and teachers are wary of the Federal Government’s call for mandatory coronavirus vaccinations as they contend with a membership base that includes some anti-vaxxers as well people who passionately support a jab. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said recently that State, Territory and Federal health leaders had agreed in principle there should be mandatory vaccines in aged care but only Western Australia has given a timetable, with mandatory shots due in August. The unions say they back vaccines and will support the health authorities if they decide to make a coronavirus vaccine a condition of employment, but argue that the main barrier to having workers vaccinated are problems with supply and distribution. Chris Watt, the federal secretary of the Independent Education Union, which represents teachers at non-government schools, said his union’s membership, like the broader population, included some people opposed to vaccines. “[But] we’d back in what the medical advice is saying from time to time,” he said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that infectious diseases paediatricians and vaccine experts anticipate the Pfizer shot could be approved for use in Australian children as young as 12 before the end of the year. However, it could be many months after the expected approval of the COVID-19 vaccine by the country’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) before children and adolescents will be asked to roll up their sleeves. Paediatric Infectious Diseases specialist Christopher Blyth said Australia would probably follow a similar path to North America, Britain and Israel, where Pfizer has been approved for use in children aged 12 to 15. However, debate about when children should be immunised against coronavirus has drawn the ire of the World Health Organisation, which said wealthy countries should postpone their plans to immunise children and instead donate millions of doses to countries being ravaged by the disease.
The Educator reports that last year, a group of academics from 15 countries found that the stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19 could have long-term impact on children’s sleep, physical activity and screen time. Indeed, young people in Australia were struggling to get a full night’s sleep even before the pandemic reached our shores. Studies have shown that Australian teens are the third most sleep deprived in the world and that more than 70 per cent of Australian high school students suffer from regular sleep deprivation. Teenagers face a three-hour sleep deficit per night on average, but those who spend five hours a day online are 50 per cent more likely to fail meeting their minimum sleep requirements than peers who only spend an hour online each day. Dr Lynette Vernon is a School of Education - Edith Cowan University, Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow. She leads research into establishing healthy sleep routines and controlling technology use before bedtime for our youth to achieve adequate and good quality sleep.
The Greek Herald reports that a spate of suicides has sparked a crisis meeting of high-level NSW school executives as teachers struggle to connect troubled students with psychiatric services, The Daily Telegraph reports. The roundtable was called by Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, to urgently thrash out how to bridge the divide between schools and trained mental health professionals. The meeting to discuss these teen suicides included the heads of all three school sectors — newly appointed Secretary of the Department of Education, Georgina Harrison, Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, and Association of Independent Schools of NSW chief executive, Geoff Newcombe — as well as NSW Teachers Federation boss, Angelo Gavrielatos, Education Minister, Sarah Mitchell, Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, and Mental Health Minister, Bronnie Taylor. There was broad consensus it must be easier for schools to refer students struggling from mental ill-health to appropriate clinical care in order to avoid more tragedies.
The Advertiser reports that Adelaide High School students who walked out of class this month to denounce schoolyard sexism have inspired a national protest planned for later this year and have attracted the backing of high-profile female politicians. MPs have praised the teen girls for their bravery and courage. They have backed the students’ cause to bring about sex education reform to tackle sexual harassment and abuse at school. A core group of senior Adelaide High students are involved with Teach Us Consent campaigner Ms Contos in planning an Australia-wide walkout later in the year. They are also helping run a separate national walkout at lunchtime on June 24, overseen by a national youth anti-sexual violence group. Education Minister John Gardner said the Department was helping review the Australian Curriculum, due to be updated in line with expert advice, and continued to provide schools with support on implementing the curriculum, access to teacher training, social work support and incident management.
The National Indigenous Times reports that a Western Australian trial of Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making (AFLDM) in the Perth suburb of Mirrabooka is set to begin in October, but it’s a date the Shadow Child Protection Minister says has been too long coming. The State Government has invested $715,000 into the trial, which gives at-risk Aboriginal families more input into decisions made for their children. During the pilot, at-risk families will be able to have input in the decision-making process through meetings facilitated by an independent Aboriginal convener. The program will also be trialled in Geraldton and run in tandem with a $10.3 million dollar funding extension of the Aboriginal In-home Support Service (AISS). AISS has operated since 2018 as part of the Early Intervention and Family Support Strategy (EIFS). AISS is delivered by Wungening Aboriginal Corporation and provides intensive, in-home practical support to at risk families through practical parenting support and skill development, focusing on living skills, child mental health, education, safety and protective skills.
The ABC News reports that Tasmania is one of two jurisdictions in Australia that offers years 11 and 12 through a college system where students leave high school behind and attend a separate facility. The state also has the worst attainment rate — students receiving year 12 or equivalent qualifications — of any state. The most recent figures from the Productivity Commission show 58 per cent of potential year 12 students in Tasmania received year 12 or equivalent qualifications. That compared to a national average of 72 per cent. For people from disadvantaged backgrounds, that figure was only 52 per cent, compared to 68 per cent nationally. Demographer and literacy advocate Lisa Denny said the state's education system should intervene earlier. It's expected all public high schools will offer grades seven to 12 by the end of next year. Separate figures from the Productivity Commission show the number of full-time students continuing from year 10 to year 12 had increased since the first regional high schools were extended.
Aljazeera reports that, as part of a backlash against campaigns to emphasise racism’s historical and ongoing effect on inequality in American life, Republican lawmakers across the United States are moving to restrict how race is discussed in public schools. Legislatures in more than a dozen states have considered bills that would regulate how teachers teach about race-related issues in classrooms. Many aim to ban “critical race theory”, a school of thought that holds that major institutions in the US are inherently racist and constructed by their nature to perpetuate white supremacy. The moves come at a time when the US continues to grapple with how to address racial inequalities. “There is a desire for a good past and good ancestry. Americans have a hard time holding things together in a complex way. I don’t think we’re very good at being able to accept the good and the bad together as a part of our own heritage,” said Marie Griffith, a professor at Washington University and author of Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in US History.
The CTV News reports that the majority of Canadians are either opposed or somewhat opposed to the idea of students returning to the classroom without being vaccinated, according to a new survey by Nanos Research. Nearly 60 per cent of respondents said they were against or somewhat against in-person learning for students who refuse to take a COVID-19 vaccine, while 34 per cent said they support or somewhat support their return and seven per cent remain undecided. The survey, commissioned by CTV News, also notes that residents of Quebec and the Prairies are more open to the idea, while those in Ontario and British Columbia are more reluctant. Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only drug approved by Health Canada for use in those under the age of 18, after the regulatory body authorised its administration to those 12 and older in early May. Moderna filed for the same qualification on Monday. At this point, most health officials across Canada say students won’t be barred from the classroom should they choose to opt out of taking the vaccine.
The Toronto Star reports that there is increasing concern about naming schools after historical figures who held racist views and built systems to assimilate Indigenous people. Later this week, trustees in the Pembina Trails School Division will consider renaming Ryerson School, which is a tribute to Egerton Ryerson, a public school leader in Ontario in the 1800s who was an architect of the residential school system. Signage at Oscar Blackburn School in South Indian Lake, in northern Manitoba, was taken down this month after community leaders learned the school was named after a merchant who helped send Indigenous children to residential school. An elementary school in Weston will soon get a new name, after trustees voted to cut ties with Cecil Rhodes, a former prime minister of what is now known as South Africa, whose ideas laid the groundwork for racist apartheid policies. Historian Sean Carleton counters the argument that renaming erases history by suggesting the move replaces a celebratory memorial rather than history itself; social studies teachers will continue talking about figures such as Ryerson, but in a more critical and nuanced way.