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

Majority backs faith-based rights, poll shows

According to The Australian, polling that shows 70 per cent of Australians support the ability of faith-based educators to recruit staff willing to uphold the religious ethos of a school. The polling also shows that two-thirds of the population believes that Australian laws must protect the “universal human right to hold and practise religious beliefs”. Commissioned by the Christian Schools Alliance this month, the poll comes after the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader offered their views on the dispute between Rugby Australia and Israel Folau over his religious views on homosexuals. Labor has already told religious schools that it plans to remove key protections for religious schools from the Sex Discrimination Act to better protect teachers from being discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

Tehan calls on states to deliver “fair share” of school funding, declares war on mobiles

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, New South Wales Education Minister Dan Tehan has called on state and territory governments to do their "fair share" and boost spending on schools to avoid students missing out on the benchmarks underpinning Australia's needs-based funding reforms. Mr Tehan has also toughened his stance on mobile phones in schools, saying that they should be banned from classrooms except in certain circumstances, and promised to ramp up lobbying efforts to get the states on board with the Federal Government's view. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on the eve of the May 18 election, Mr Tehan said a re-elected Coalition government would be pushing state counterparts to lift their spending contributions and make sure the Schooling Resource Standard benchmark is achieved at under-funded public schools. There are mixed views among educators about the role of mobiles. Bans are being put in place in NSW and some private schools, but some teachers favour a more nuanced approach that teaches students to use their technology responsibly.

Australia facing urgent maths teacher shortage after 30 years of inaction

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, fewer than one in four Australian high school students have a qualified maths teacher and the situation is about to get worse, with a projected boom in student numbers following a 30-year decline in the supply of new maths-trained teachers. "The current difficulties with out-of-field teaching, and meeting the needs of increased enrolments, is compounded by Australia not having prepared enough mathematics teachers for years," a report by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute has found. About 75 per cent of students in years 7 to 10 are already being taught maths for at least one year by a teacher not trained in the subject area and the situation is set to worsen, with an expected 650,000 extra students across the country by 2026. The report's co-author Jan Thomas, a senior fellow at AMSI, said programs to retrain existing teachers in maths are long overdue and are now likely the only way left to address the shortage. Australian students have gone from significantly outperforming their peers in the US and Britain in the OECD Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study tests in 1995 to consistently scoring worse than students in these countries since 2007.

“Sexting” images are complicating tracking down on child pornography, authorities say

According to the ABC News, the volume of "sexting" images online is creating a "white noise" of pornography that law enforcement officials say complicates the investigation of child exploitation. The University of Tasmania (UTAS) researcher, Associate Professor Jeremy Prichard, said "the material that young people are uploading can sometimes be stimulating the illicit market for child exploitation material". Former Victorian police officer and cyber safety expert Susan McLean said it was a "distressing thought" for many that their image has ended up in a sex offender's collection, but an unfortunate side effect of sexting. "These are not the images that a predator may have convinced a child to take and share," she said. Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said last year her Cyber Report team carried out 13,000 investigations — 30 per cent of them involved children under 18. Ms McLean said the increased number of sexting images circulating on the web was increasing the workload of law enforcement agencies and making it harder to identify victims. A new federally funded project, spearheaded by UTAS, is trying to stem the tidal wave of images by using automated internet warnings to prevent the uploading of child exploitation material produced by young people.

Wauchope High School locks pupils' mobile phones in pouches as a part of a digital detox program

The Canberra Times reports that Wauchope High School has come up with a solution to the problem of students constantly looking at their mobiles. They've introduced pouches which snap shut, making the phones inaccessible. They can only be opened at the end of the school day by a special gadget as pupils leave the building. The NSW Department of Education says research shows that idle screen time spent by students on mobile phones can reduce their attention span, ability to retain information and overall academic performance. Inappropriate use can also expose students to social, emotional and even physical risk. Therefore, and following the state review of students' mobile phone use, Wauchope High School is planning to trial lockable mobile phone bags this term. The president of the P&C, Annette Cordell says they think it's wonderful. "The feedback from parents and from students is mostly positive, and students are even commenting on how much work they have been able to get done in class," she said.

Eaton Community College associate principal stood down, accused of assaulting student

According to The West Australian, a long-serving senior leader at a Bunbury high school is being investigated for allegedly physically assaulting a student after trying to stop a fight. Eaton Community College associate principal Grant Walton was stood down in March pending the outcome of an investigation into the incident by the Education Department’s Standards and Integrity Directorate. It is believed Mr Walton was intervening in a fight between students on the school oval. It is understood video footage of the incident exists and could form part of the investigation. A Department spokeswoman confirmed last week that a staff member from a South West school was under investigation for allegedly physically assaulting a student but would not name the school and said no further comment could be made until the internal investigation was finished. She said the matter had also been reported to police. Police said they had concluded their inquiries and no charges had been laid. Mr Walton was removed from the college under section 240 of the Schools Education Act 1999 (WA), which says an employee may be barred from a school if they are suspected of a discipline breach or if they present a risk to student safety. Public schools introduced tougher measures this year to combat violence, including automatic suspensions of up to 10 days for students who attack others or start fights.

“If we don’t speak out, nothing will change” – principal

According to The Educator, in February a damning new report into the state of principal health and wellbeing in Australia revealed that one in three of the nation’s school leaders is physically assaulted and that violent incidents have jumped 10 per cent over the last seven years. The survey also found almost half (45 per cent) were threatened with violence in 2018, compared with 38 per cent in 2011 and that 99.7 per cent of principals work hours far beyond those recommended for positive mental and physical health. However, many principals are hesitant when it comes to speaking out about the issues pushing them to the brink. ” Andrew Pierpoint, President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association (ASPA), said that the issues highlighted in the report are deterring prospective school leaders from taking on the job.

“No dirty little secret”: why more VCE [Victorian Certificate of Education] students are shunning exams

According to The Age, a record number of Victorian students are completing year 12 without an ATAR amid a rise in alternative ways to enter university and growing concerns about the stress of sitting exams. Last year more than one in 25 students finished school without receiving an ATAR, almost double the number of VCE students who decided against sitting exams in 2014. The rise of alternative pathways into university, scepticism about the value of an ATAR and mental health issues have fuelled an increase in students finishing Year 12 without doing final exams, known as undertaking an unscored VCE. At trailblazing state school Templestowe College, about 20 per cent of students undertake the unscored VCE. The school has a partnership with Swinburne University that lets students apply to any course without an ATAR. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority said it had investigated the rise in students undertaking the unscored VCE and the trend was strongly linked to schools supporting students with mental health issues.

Poor grades, miserable teen? The start of the school day could be to blame

According to the ABC News, a university academic is calling for a change to high school start times, arguing that the science proves it improves students' moods and can help them score a better grade. Michael Nagel, an associate professor in child development and learning at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said a new approach at some American schools has had a positive impact on teenagers. Dr Nagel suggested a later start — maybe even at a time as civilised as 10.30 am — would ensure that teens would be able to get the most out of their sleep. "Most of the science suggests for teenagers, they need nine to 10 hours sleep per night, and they are not getting it," Dr Nagel said. One of South Australia's newest state schools, Adelaide Botanic High School, opened in January this year with a 9.30 am start time. Principal Alistair Brown said this was done to ease the burden on public transport and roads and also as it "sat in line with the latest information on adolescents". Mr Brown said the feedback from students and parents was positive.

New Evidence Institute Must Make Education Research Classroom Ready and Friendly

According to Independent Schools Queensland, the priority for a new national evidence institute should be translating research about what works best in schools into practical tools and resources that teachers, schools and systems can adopt to improve outcomes for all students. Work is already underway to scope the creation of a new national evidence institute to enhance teaching practice and underpin system improvement and policy development, following endorsement by the nation’s Education Ministers in February. The concept of the institute has bipartisan support. ISQ brought together about 30 academics, independent school principals, state and national school sector representatives and other education stakeholders to discuss the role and priorities of the institute. ISQ will provide the symposium outcomes to Australia’s next Commonwealth Government to inform the principles and priorities of the new institute.

INTERNATIONAL

Pope announces sweeping laws to curb church abuse (The Vatican)

The New Daily reports that Pope Francis has issued a landmark decree holding bishops directly accountable for sexual abuse or covering it up in the Catholic Church and requiring clerics to report any cases. The sweeping new laws also allow anyone within the Church to complain directly to the Vatican if needed. Tackling sexual abuses that have battered the Catholic Church’s reputation has been a major challenge for Francis since becoming Pope in 2013. Victims have demanded a crackdown on bishops at the diocese level accused of concealing or mismanaging cases. The papal change in church law, covering abuse of children and adults alike, also obliges every diocese worldwide to set up simple, accessible reporting systems and encourages local churches to involve lay experts in investigations. The Pope’s edict obliges the world’s one million priests and nuns to report all suspicion of sexual abuse by clerics of any level. Before, it was just a matter of individual conscience as to whether to report cases. It calls for whistleblower protection, saying bishops with conflicts of interest should recuse themselves from investigations and that bishops can also be held accountable for abuse of power in sexual relations with adults.

Modern language teaching “under threat from tough exams” (United Kingdom)

The Guardian reports that the exams regulator in England, Ofqual, is “killing off” modern languages by failing to address the excessive difficulty of language GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and A-level exams, according to more than 150 academics. In a letter published in the Guardian, the 152 academics – from 36 universities – warn that the exams are graded too severely and the stress for pupils is “disproportionate”. “They will have to sit excessively difficult exams and accept that their grade may well end up lower than their performance deserves,” the letter says. “Where’s the incentive to choose a language if you’re systematically made to feel rubbish at it?” The government wants 75 per cent of pupils to take a modern language GCSE by 2022. But after an improvement immediately following the introduction of the Ebacc [English baccalaureate], the proportion of pupils taking a language GCSE has fallen for the past two years to just 46 per cent in 2018. Overall, just 5.5 per cent of GCSE entries in England in 2018 were for a modern foreign language, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications. Part of the reason for these declines is both the difficulty of languages compared with other subjects and what many experts believe is harsh marking.

School imposes dress code for parents (United States)

According to The Educator, one US principal has sparked a national debate after announcing a dress code for parents who drop their kids off at school. In a statement sent to parents on April 9, principal Carlotta Brown of James Madison High School, located in Texas, said the decision was aimed at letting children know what was – and what was not – appropriate attire in a professional environment. The clothing items banned include pyjamas, leggings, low-cut tops, bonnets and torn jeans. And Texas isn’t the only state cracking down on the overly casual attire of school parents. Lawmakers in Memphis, Tennessee, are trying to pass a bill in July which could enforce a similar dress code in school districts across the state from 2020. In 2016, a primary school principal in the UK made headlines after taking parents to task for their choice of attire when visiting the school. “It’s an interesting move and a sad reflection on the state of affairs in that part of the world,” Ian Anderson, president of the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association (WAPPA), told The Educator. Anderson said that if a parents’ dress was an issue, the school’s principal would be likely to address this with the individual first, rather than implementing a broad policy around it.