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 Australian reports that thousands of prospective teachers are emerging from university education courses potentially ill-prepared for the classroom, with almost one-in-five tertiary providers failing to introduce regulator-endorsed performance checks for graduates. Eight out of 47 initial teacher education providers have yet to have a Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) endorsed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership – almost three years since they were alerted that it was a requirement for course accreditation. The lag has been highlighted by an expert panel overseeing the Federal Government’s latest inquiry into teacher education, launched by Education Minister Alan Tudge in April amid concerns that Australian students were going backwards in comparison to international peers. According to a discussion paper to be released on Saturday, significant evidence points to the quality of teaching as the most significant in-school driver of student outcomes and school performance.
The Age reports that Melbourne researchers who have developed new global standards for healthy schools did not realise how timely their work would be in terms of the damage to students’ mental health caused by remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute project leader Professor Susan Sawyer and her team were asked by the World Health Organisation and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to build on the idea of “health-promoting schools” and set guidelines that can help education systems worldwide create whole-school approaches to mental and physical health. The result is a collection of best-practice standards in everything from government funding and school building design to schools’ curriculums, leadership teams and community partnerships. While the project began before the coronavirus pandemic, its launch — officially taking place at WHO headquarters in Geneva this week — comes as school communities and families are still coping with the effects of learning from home.
According to an article in The Conversation, greenery around primary schools may improve students’ academic performance, while traffic pollution may be detrimental, the authors’ study shows. The authors’ research mapped greenery and traffic exposure around 851 primary schools across greater Melbourne. The authors examined how greenery and traffic-related air pollution were associated with the average 2018 NAPLAN scores in years 3 and 5. A growing body of evidence shows that access to green space — which includes parks, trees, shrubs and grass — is linked to children’s healthy development. Research conducted internationally suggests greenness surrounding schools can lead to better cognitive development in primary school-aged children. But there is still debate over whether greenery around schools can boost academic performance. The authors found school-level academic performance in reading, numeracy, grammar and punctuation was better on average for schools located in areas with more greenery.
The Australian reports that Attorney-General Michaelia Cash is to bring a major rewrite of the contentious Religious Discrimination Bill to Parliament by December, sparking new debate over faith-based and gay rights before the next election. Religious leaders are calling for major changes to the Bill – a key 2019 election promise from Scott Morrison – including overriding Victorian bans on gay conversion therapy and broadening the definition of faith-based ¬institutions. Both Liberal MPs and faith leaders say Senator Cash’s final Bill will be significantly different to the drafts put out by her predecessor, Christian Porter, before the Bill was shelved during the height of the COVID-19 crisis. But the nation’s leading LGBTQI advocacy group on Wednesday said it would not accept any incursion on the rights of gay, bisexual and transgender Australians. Some faith community leaders want the Federal Government to base its legislation on the work done by a NSW Legislative Council committee, which examined the religious freedoms Bill authored by state One Nation leader Mark Latham.
The Australian reports that Australia’s rapidly expanding Islamic school sector has been urged to revamp its teachings to be more relevant to young people, amid concern that some students are growing disillusioned. Curriculum renewal in Islamic settings is long overdue, according to a new guidebook, which calls for Islamic education to better reflect the changing contexts of the religion in the modern world. It highlights the often uncritical teaching of fiqh – the theory or philosophy of Islamic law – as a prescriptive list of “do’s and don’ts” and argues for health and physical education to play a key role in a holistic education. Co-editor Nadeem Memon, of the University of South Australia, said Islamic school leaders around the world were grappling with the issue of teaching the faith in a way that was relevant. Islamic schools are the fastest growing segment of the independent schools sector, with 47 schools established across the country, up from 32 just a decade ago.
The Educator reports that a new report revealed that an overwhelming 93 per cent of LGBTQ+ students surveyed have heard homophobic language while in school, with more than a third admitting that they experienced slurs almost every day. And despite this high number of homophobic incidents, respondents said teachers rarely intervened, with only 6 per cent claiming that teachers within earshot stepped in to stop the use of the language. The study, conducted by Jacqueline Ullman, Associate Professor of adolescent development, behaviour, and wellbeing at Western Sydney University, polled about 2,400 LGBTQ+ students aged 13 to 18 years at government, independent, and Catholic high schools across Australia. In an article for The Conversation, Professor Ullman discussed how having a diverse-positive environment impacts a student’s sense of connection and personal investment in school, which are known predictors of academic achievement.
news.com.au reports that South Australia will be the first state to bring international students back after the country slammed its borders shut because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Flight Training Adelaide site at Parafield, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, has been approved as the dedicated site to house 160 students who will quarantine for two weeks and undergo daily coronavirus testing. The Federal Government approved the plan to allow the non-Australian students to return to the country. Premier Steven Marshall assured no returning Australian would be impacted by the plan, as the students would not be counted towards the state’s cap of international arrivals. The students and educational institutions will also need to pay for the flights and quarantine. The Premier said he expected the students to begin flying into the state “in small numbers” and was hopeful they’d start to arrive in August this year.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the traditional 9am to 3pm school day will be overhauled as the NSW Government starts trials in primary schools to stagger start and finish times to boost productivity and flexibility for families. In a radical move from typical school hours, the Government will encourage principals to work with parents and students to find innovative ways to modernise the school day. As well as reflecting the needs of working families, the school hours project will be a key productivity measure contained in Tuesday’s budget, as NSW emerges from a pandemic-induced recession. Staggering when students travel to school would reduce the rising cost of traffic congestion in Sydney, which the NSW Productivity Commission forecasts to hit $13.1 billion in 2031. It would also provide more flexibility for shift workers, who have been integral to the state’s COVID-19 response. Schools will have the option of taking part in trials, which will include a range of measures such as earlier starts or later finishes, as well as extended hours of a day.
The Herald Sun reports that a school dobbed in a child model for working when they should have been in class, leading authorities to hunt down kids clad in dressing gowns on a skate park photo shoot. Brand Collective – which owns labels Clarks, Hush Puppies and Volley – pleaded guilty to five charges of being in breach of the Child Employment Act when it hired the kids for a Mossimo print advertising campaign without permits. The illegal shoot was only discovered when a school notified the Wage Inspectorate that one of its students lodged a note to exempt them from class, leading officers on a search for the children as no permits had been approved. The other child hadn’t applied for a school exemption – which has to be approved by the Minister – while the parents for both kids hadn’t signed any forms, despite being at the skate park shoot. Magistrate Angela Bolger noted the company “did all it could at the time to right the wrong” and that no child was harmed or mistreated. Brand Collective was fined $1000 without conviction, and was ordered to pay $4000 in costs.
According to an article in the Canberra Weekly by Gary Humphries, most people get appropriate treatment in ACT hospitals, but the evidence is mounting that most students in ACT government schools are getting suboptimal outcomes, and things are getting worse. In 2017, the ACT Auditor-General found that government schools on average “achieve negative results on every measure”. A study by Victoria University that year found ACT students are almost six months behind students in comparable schools by Year 5. The Grattan Institute branded the ACT “the worst performer” in the nation in 2018. NAPLAN testing confirms ACT students are slipping behind. The author says he may share some of the blame for this. As Education Minister in the early 1990s, he promoted the system where individual schools exercised autonomy over management and teaching priorities. They thought this model would mean that parents would drive higher standards. The current evidence is that this approach may have been misconceived.
The CBC reports that close to 500 doctors, nurses and other workers from one of Canada's largest Catholic health-care networks have signed an open letter demanding that Toronto's archbishop take concrete steps toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Unity Health Toronto staff are urging Cardinal Thomas Collins and the Catholic Church to release all documents related to residential schools and the "Indian hospitals" it ran throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and issue a formal apology. "I don't think that there has ever been a call this loud from within a health-care institution directly to Catholic Church leadership requesting action and accountability and reconciliation," said Dr Suzanne Shoush, a member of the network's First Nations advisory panel, which wrote the letter. Shoush, who is both Black and Indigenous, said the solidarity from her colleagues, including some of the top physicians in the country, is unprecedented.
The NZ Herald reports that a principal has been forced to take drastic measures to stop vaping at her school - with a photo shared on social media of her apparently peering under a toilet cubicle. Green Bay High School principal Fiona Barker told parents the picture - which has been circulating on social media - showed her trying to work out how many pairs of feet were visible in the toilet after she was alerted that two girls may be vaping inside. It comes as some Auckland schools have been resorting to locking toilet blocks to deter students trying to have a sneaky vape. Principals say vaping is more socially acceptable than smoking, as well as being easy to hide and vaping gear being easy to buy. There is also less research into the risks. The number of Kiwi teens trying vaping has skyrocketed in recent years, despite new legislation making e-cigarettes R18 for purchase. Almost 40 per cent of 15- to 17-year-olds had tried an e-cigarette at least once in the Ministry of Health's 2019/20 NZ Health Survey - up from 25 per cent a year earlier.
According to the World Education Blog, each year the world generates over two billion tonnes of waste. To tackle this global problem through education, UNESCO, with support from the Government of Japan, launched the global campaign Trash Hack on the occasion of World Cleanup Day 2020. Since then, thousands of young people have joined the campaign. Trash Hacks are small steps everyone can make to bring about bigger, lasting changes in waste reduction. The campaign aims to encourage young people to take action to promote sustainable development, reflect on their actions, and share their learnings. The campaign is based upon the insight that young people across the world are already taking steps to combat waste and consume less. Trash Hack provides them with a peer-to-peer learning opportunity online, to allow them to work across borders and take concrete actions for sustainable development.