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.

AUSTRALIA

Alan Tudge cleared of allegations he abused ex-staffer Rachelle Miller, but won’t return to cabinet

The Australian reports that a report into allegations that stood-down Education Minister Alan Tudge emotionally and physically abused his former staffer Rachelle Miller has found “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the claims. Regardless, the Victorian MP has quit the frontbench. In response to Ms Miller’s claims, Scott Morrison tasked former inspector-general of intelligence and security Vivienne Thom to investigate the matter and stood down Mr Tudge from the frontbench until it was finished. Dr Thom’s report was released by the Prime Minister’s office on Friday afternoon, but found no “basis” that Mr Tudge’s conduct breached ministerial standards. The report included evidence from Mr Tudge, but not from Ms Miller, who refused to participate in the inquiry because of concerns that its terms of reference did not adequately allow for allegations of a possible criminal nature to be investigated. Skills and Employment Minister Stuart Robert, who has been acting in Mr Tudge’s place since December, will retain the education portfolio.

‘Loudest voices’ have education policy wrong: report

The Australian Financial Review reports that popular theories that the teacher workforce is overworked, underpaid, unloved and about to be decimated through mass retirements are exaggerated or simply wrong, according to a new analysis. The falling performance of Australian schoolchildren on domestic and international tests is more the fault of teacher education programs in universities than government funding levels or the profession attracting the wrong people, the report, Teacher Workforce: Fiction vs Fact, argues. The report, from the Centre for Independent Studies, argues that Australia’s education outcomes have deteriorated despite increased spending on schools, including the needs-based Gonski reforms, smaller class sizes and internationally competitive salaries and hours of pay. Report author Glenn Fahey said that he fully supported the Federal Government’s reform process that will seek to financially penalise education faculties that consistently fail to produce capable graduates. Too many previous reforms worked on a macro level, he said, instead of using targeted solutions such as higher pay for hard-to-find maths and science teachers.

Educational inequality and a tale of two Australian schools

According to an article in The Guardian, the 2011 Gonski review found that in successful school systems internationally, students were able to achieve their best irrespective of their background or the school they attended. But that was less the case in Australia. The impact of family background on educational outcomes in Australia was much more pronounced than in comparable countries like Canada. In response to these challenges, the Gonski report offered a solution, where school funding would be needs-based and sector-blind. However, despite all the optimism generated by the Gonski report, schools more than a decade later are now much further apart. The Gonski review explained how Australia’s schools were funded. Achieving greater equity, it said, was critical. The authors of Waiting for Gonski: How Australia failed its schools (UNSW Press) assert that since 2011, as far as needs-based funding goes, all we have now is a greater commitment to the rhetoric.

Consultation open on supporting donations to pastoral care in schools

According to a media release from the Assistant Treasurer of the Australian Government, the Morrison Government is consulting on the implementation of a new tax concession to support pastoral care services in Australian schools. Announced in the 2021‑22 Mid‑Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the consultation paper released on 2 March 2022 outlines a design for a new deductible gift recipient (DGR) general category in the tax law for funds that support school pastoral care services. This measure will give everyday Australians an incentive to make donations to support the delivery of these important services that support the personal wellbeing of Australian school students. Once this new law is enacted, those who donate $2 or more to a relevant fund can claim an income tax deduction for that donation. The Government welcomes views from stakeholders on the design features of the new DGR category. The discussion paper is available on the Treasury website. Submissions are sought by 29 April 2022.

More than 10,000 NSW teachers quit in 2021

The Newcastle Herald reports that more than 10,000 NSW teachers left the profession last year but the education minister rejects the assertion that her department is in "crisis". Documents showing the number of new teacher accreditations in NSW reveal a total 10,198 educators lost their accreditation in a single year - with those numbers confirmed by Paul Martin, CEO of the NSW Education Standards Authority. Labor MLC Anthony D'Adam said that experienced teachers were leaving and in many cases were being replaced by inexperienced teachers. Education Minister Sarah Mitchell signed off on the documents, but questioned the veracity of the numbers. Ms Mitchell said there were 3700 teachers slated to start at schools as part of the government's teacher supply strategy. Public school teachers voted to strike last November, with the Teachers’ Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos saying the state was facing "a large and growing shortage of teachers".

Official Notice: Advice to Non-Government Schools Regarding Annual Reports

According to a notice from the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), all non-government schools are required to produce, publicly disclose and submit electronically to NESA a 2021 annual report by 30 June 2022. Annual reporting requirements are detailed in section 3.10.1 of the Registered and Accredited Individual Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual and section 5.10.1 of the Registration Systems and Member Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual. NESA’s review of the annual reports submitted in 2021 found that the areas which commonly required improvement included details of the teacher accreditation status of all teaching staff; the full text or a link to the full text of the school's enrolment policies, including all prerequisites for continuing enrolment; and a summary of the school’s anti-bullying policy and information on how it is disclosed publicly. Schools should consider these areas for improvement in finalising their reports for the 2021 school year.

Schools lock toilets to tackle rampant vaping

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that schools across NSW are locking toilets outside break times to clamp down on students vaping e-cigarettes, but families say restrictions are causing health and hygiene problems for students. It comes as NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell told budget estimates that the use of e-cigarettes among young people was a growing concern, and she was working with NSW Health and other agencies on a whole-of-government response. Ms Mitchell told the Herald this could include advertising, additional resources in schools and curated information for parents. One potential solution is vape detectors, which are in widespread use in US schools and can be coupled with CCTV systems that show which students entered or exited the toilet block at a certain time. A five-year-old boy in Victoria landed in hospital this week after vaping at school and consuming high doses of nicotine and other chemicals.

Elisabeth Murdoch College cancels year 12 school photos after students protest uniform policy

ABC News reports that a school in Melbourne's outer south-east is reviewing its uniform policy, after a protest by students over uniforms led to the year 12 photos being cancelled. Students have told the ABC that at least 12 students were picked out and told to leave the photos, which motivated other students to walk out, for reasons including having bright hair or being told to remove their piercings. There was no year level photo taken. A spokesperson from the Department of Education and Training said the photo will be rescheduled. Student Akira Taylor said hundreds of students have signed a petition written by a year 11 student calling on the school to change its uniform policy. Associate Professor Lauren Rosewarne, from the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences, said there have always been tensions around school uniforms, but some elements of the debate were changing rapidly. "It's in the cultural conversation now, so schools are having to make a decision — do we want to look to tradition, or to inclusivity?"

Victim survivors of Tasmanian historical child sexual abuse seeking compensation in civil courts

The Examiner reports that a cultural shift geared towards a need to expose and call-out child sexual abuse is leading to an increase in victim-survivors and witnesses providing legal evidence in Tasmania, as prompted by the state's Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. A legal firm investigating multiple historical child sexual abuse claims in Tasmanian state schools and institutions is calling for more people to come forward and help victim survivors to bring successful civil claims against perpetrators and institutions. Maurice Blackburn institutional child abuse lawyer Zoe Papageorgiou said the trend in Tasmania of moving abusive teachers between schools meant any evidence from any state school was relevant. Ms Papageorgiou said people were also more interested to learn about what they might be able to do in terms of legal recourse, which includes civil claims to get compensation for the pain and suffering of the survivor.

Carey Baptist College warns parents about ‘disturbing’ TikTok videos from Ukraine conflict

The West Australian reports that the head of a private primary school in Perth’s south east has issued a warning to parents not to let their children watch “deeply disturbing” and “horrific” footage of the Ukraine crisis posted on TikTok. Digital literacy expert Dr Joanne Orlando, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, said while TikTok is meant to be limited to teens aged 13 and above, lots of five and six-year-olds had access to the platform. “Children who are in primary school aren’t ready to be able to process this, so it can have a much bigger effect on them,” she said. “It can lead to nightmares, it can lead to them acting more aggressively themselves ... and becoming a bit more desensitised to this kind of content.” Dr Orlando recommended parents go on TikTok to see the types of videos their children might watch and explain what was really happening, instead of leaving their kids “to fend for themselves”.

Remote Kimberley school’s therapy cow an udder hit with students

The West Australian reports that the Wananami Remote Community has gone viral recently over a playful cow visiting students at the local school. The three-month-old white Brahman calf, affectionately known as Ghost, has gained Kimberley-wide attention after photos of him were posted on Wananami Remote Community School’s Facebook page. The post shows the placid animal sitting among the young school children, receiving pats and even resting on their laps. Rejected by his mother, the calf was hand-reared by a teacher at the school and his children who also attend. “He’s often in the undercover area at recess and lunchtime, particularly when the weather is really hot or wet,” the school’s principal Nikki Sandilands said. Ms Sandilands said the calf is a welcome visitor as he offers a space of comfort for the children as they face a stressful year ahead. “We’re pretty sheltered from the hustle and bustle, but we’ve had to start wearing masks so the kids are becoming a little more aware of COVID,” she said. “Ghost provides a really good distraction.”

INTERNATIONAL

Smuggled across Ukraine, these vulnerable children are secretly hiding in a school to escape the horrors of war (Ukraine)

ABC News reports that Ukrainian authorities organised the secret extraction of 329 children from areas under Russian-backed separatist control in the east, as well as from around the besieged capital of Kyiv, where Russian forces had already made a bold advance. Their plan was to whisk the children to the safety of Lviv, a city in Ukraine's west close to the Polish border, which has become something of a sanctuary for many fleeing the war in other parts of the country. There, the children would be housed in a school building until authorities could figure out what to do with them. The convoy of children arrived just after midnight on Saturday, where they were welcomed by school staff and given beds and food. At the Lviv school, there is a gnawing sense of dread among the staff over what is unfolding on the other side of the country and the future that awaits the children under their care. The school can only provide a temporary refuge. In the meantime, authorities are scrambling to find a long-term solution, hopefully far away from the conflict the children left behind.

Covid-19: School attendance falls by more than 100,000 in two weeks as Omicron takes hold (New Zealand)

According to an article in stuff.co.nz, school attendance is plummeting nationwide as Covid sweeps through the nation’s learning institutions. Nationally, nearly 120,000 fewer pupils were at school on Friday, February 25, than recorded two weeks earlier on Tuesday, February 15 when 611,000 pupils attended schools across the country. In that same period, Covid-19 case numbers skyrocketed to 120,000 on March 3. A ministry report said the number of students attending on-site had decreased since February 8 “as the incidence of Covid in the community has risen”. Cherie Taylor-Patel, president of New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPA), said “until the Covid crisis is over, it's going to be difficult for schools to unpack the multitude of reasons why students may not be attending.” Neil Haywood, principal of Riccarton High School, said his school had bucked the national trend with around 93 per cent attendance. “We put it down to a number of factors,” he said, including high rates of mask wearing, vaccinations, and room ventilation.