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.
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According to a media release from the Prime Minister, the Albanese Government is providing $6.2 million to The Embrace Collective for their Embrace Kids program to help kids tackle body image issues to live happier, healthier lives now and in the future. The number of young Australians (16-25 years) reporting body image distress has risen by 33 per cent since 2009, with 77 per cent self-reporting body image distress in 2015. The Embrace Kids program is a national initiative led by 2023 Australian of the Year, Taryn Brumfitt and international body image expert Dr Zali Yager. Embrace Kids will deliver a nationwide program of educational activities and events in schools, sport clubs and the wider community. This program aims to give young people the tools to dispel negative body image messages and reach their full potential.
According to the Ministers of the Education Portfolio, more than 20,000 people have completed a national survey to help shape the future of school education in Australia. As part of the Review into the next National School Reform Agreement, the survey has been completed by 10,531 teachers, 7,159 parents or guardians, and 2,432 students. Teachers and former teachers, parents and students still have until the end of the week to complete the survey. Survey participants can have their say on a range of issues including improving education outcomes, supporting student health and wellbeing, and supporting and retaining teachers. The survey results will help identify ways to meet students’ current and future needs and help inform the recommendations for the Review’s final report. The 10-minute survey is open until 5pm on Friday 23 June.
ABC News reports that one third of preschool children have daily access to digital gadgets, and two thirds of primary schoolers have their own smartphone. Almost all teenagers carry a smartphone with them. These were some of the findings in Growing Up Digital Australia (2020), which aimed to understand the scope of physical, mental and social consequences of digital media and technologies on children and youth. It is not uncommon that children spend 6 to 8 hours on digital screens every day. Based on the key findings of this study, researchers found that 5 in 6 parents and teachers thought that digital media and technologies were a growing distraction in children's lives. Over 90 per cent of primary and secondary school teachers believed that in the last five years the number of students with emotional, social and behavioural challenges had increased. Not surprisingly, 60 per cent of teachers had observed a decline in students' overall readiness to learn.
According to Teacher Magazine, the Global Education Monitoring Centre has published a learning and development resource kit with guides and handbooks on disability-inclusive education from across the globe. It was developed as part of a review of evidence of teacher professional development programs on disability-inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region. The review identified 50 studies on teacher professional development programs that support disability-inclusive education from early years to Year 12 in low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The figures demonstrate evidence gaps in teacher professional development programs in the region. Only 3 studies included interventions to support mental health among students with disability and only one identified an intervention to support students with physical disability as part of a larger teacher development program.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, like most private schools, Knox Grammar has a no-phone policy. With Ravenswood School for Girls, Knox hosted a wellbeing student conference this month for 200 teenagers from more than 30 other schools. In the conference, designed for high school students who must navigate a world where social media is ubiquitous, pupils were given practical steps to bolster their wellbeing as they grapple with the pressure of HSC exams. Knox and Ravenswood have a curriculum based on a branch of psychology that does not focus on what is clinically wrong but promotes wellbeing and resilience. Students learn scientifically backed skills about the importance of quality social relationships, exercise and how nutrition feeds our brains. Knox headmaster Scott James said that the conference where students educated their peers in wellbeing strategies was about providing a well-rounded education.
According to The Educator, a controversial payroll tax will now apply to high-fee independent and other non-government schools from next year following the passing of legislation in the Victorian Parliament. The payroll tax will apply to roughly 110 of Victoria’s wealthiest high-fee private schools, who will now lose their payroll tax exemption from July 2024. Victoria’s peak private school body, Independent Schools Victoria (ISV), said it was “blindsided” by the Andrews Government’s decision, warning that the State’s schools could face up to $1 million in budget cuts and in some cases even school closures. Opposition Leader John Pesutto, who had pledged to block the tax, said that it would “target hard-working, aspirational Victorians”, not just high-fee schools. Catholic schools have also reacted angrily to the passing of the legislation, with Jacinta Collins, National Catholic education executive director, saying that the tax “ignores the reality of school funding.”
According to the Herald Sun, a primary school in Melbourne’s outer east has been forced into several lockdowns with police called due to aggressive pupils. Mooroolbark East Primary School has experienced a “number of short lockdowns” and had police attend to support students involved. In a letter to parents from the school’s principal Deb Keating, she said that the lockdowns were happening because students had outbursts, which could often result in an “explosion of fear and big feelings.” “When they come to school the fear and anxieties that they are feeling become overwhelming or they have a number of ‘departments’ working with them that do not set them up for success,” Ms Keating said. “It then becomes unsafe for that child and the rest of the school community.” The letter went on to say that the most important aspect of the school’s leadership team was to protect its students and staff and make learning at the school enjoyable and safe.
According to 9now, children as young as five are being expelled from schools due to violence against teachers and other students. According to recent data from the Queensland Department of Education, there were more than 21,000 primary school students who were either suspended or expelled as a means of disciplinary action in Queensland state schools, with 685 of those in prep (kindergarten). Association of State School Principals President, Pat Murphy, told Today that while it is less than one per cent of students across the board who are being suspended or expelled, it is important that students and staff are protected when on campus. Murphy said that of the disciplinary actions that were implemented last year in Queensland, there were 20 instances of violence that resulted in expulsions between Year 1 and Year 3.
According to the National Indigenous Times, a new report reveals that chronic under-funding is failing the most vulnerable children and young people in South Australia, and that the number of Aboriginal children growing up in residential care grew by 17.9 per cent in one year. The Guardian for Children and Young People report on South Australia's expenditure on the child protection system in 2021-22 shows that the State Government spent $704.5 million on child protection services, with 80.1 per cent of that on care services for children and young people who had been removed from their families and taken into state care. The report found that South Australia "fares poorly" in reunifying families, with the highest rate of children and young people in the country on long-term finalised guardianship orders. First Nations children in South Australia remain more likely than others to be removed from their families.
According to The Educator, Tasmania’s Budget Estimates has revealed that Tasmanian children with disability are being suspended at an increasingly alarming rate, many for minor misdemeanours. According to the data, students with disability are also being suspended at a higher rate than students without disability. Last year, 31 per cent of all suspensions were given to students with disability, even though they only make up about 15 per cent of the total student population. This follows the same pattern from Queensland, South Australia and NSW, leading experts to call for current suspension policies to be overhauled. Dr David Roy, a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle’s School of Education, said that the evidence is clear that suspensions don’t work in modifying student behaviour, and often exacerbate the issues.
According to news.com.au, a Transperth bus driver has been stood down after he was filmed threatening and pushing a high school student. The incident, which happened as the bus was transporting students home from school in Perth’s eastern suburbs, was caught on camera by passengers. The driver can be heard threatening to throw students off the bus after getting annoyed at their behaviour. Students at the back of the bus can then be heard getting louder – and yelling back at the bus driver. As the bus came to a stop, a male student can be seen approaching the driver. The driver can be heard shouting back, before agreeing to “step outside”. The pair are then captured arguing outside of the bus before the driver shoves the student and returns to the bus – telling passengers to “sit down, shut up and behave yourselves.” A public transport authority spokesperson confirmed that the driver has been stood down while an investigation takes place.
According to rnz.co.nz, the mother of a teenager who received a permanent eye injury on a school trip says that she feels that there is a failing of culture at WorkSafe. WorkSafe did not prosecute the case and closed their investigation without telling the family, she said. Kathy Voyles' son Jack Grunfeld was on a school trip in February 2019 when the accident happened. The students and their teachers were taking part in team building activities, which included using three-person slingshots to fire tennis balls into a bucket. The elastic bungee cord on the slingshot that Grunfeld was using snapped during the activity and hit him in the eye. He lost 92 percent of sight in his left eye and had to have the lens removed. Grunfeld was 15 when it happened. Voyles said that her son was told by his eye surgeon that headaches would continue, and many parts of his life would never be the same. The accident could have been prevented if the students were wearing eye protection, Voyles said.
ABC News reports that at least 41 people are dead following an attack by suspected rebels on a secondary school in Uganda near the border with Congo, the local mayor said on Saturday. The victims included 38 students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha mayor Selevest Mapoze told the Associated Press (AP). A Uganda military statement said that six students were also abducted by the rebels, who then fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday night. Police said that rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were responsible for the raid. Influential political leader Winnie Kiiza, a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the "cowardly attack" on Twitter. "Attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children's rights," she said, adding that schools should always be "a safe place for every student."
According to the New Zealand Herald, a New Zealand high school teacher has had his teaching registration cancelled after he refused to use the preferred pronouns and name for one of his transgender students. It has led to the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand saying that all students are “entitled to feel that schools are a safe space, where they are respected and valued” and that teachers must not use their authority to “undermine the personal identity of their learners, or to inappropriately influence them.” One of New Zealand’s leading LGBTQ+ charities has also spoken out about the issue, saying that it is important that students’ identities are respected at school. The teacher was placed before the Disciplinary Tribunal, an independent body with each panel chaired by a lawyer alongside two experienced teachers, in February after a complaint from the student.