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.
According to The Australian, the Coalition’s new legal affairs spokesperson, Michaelia Cash, says that Labor must “go back to the drawing board” on religious discrimination laws and that the Australian Law Reform Commission’s proposal put forward in January “fatally undermines” the ability of faith-based schools to promote their religious ethos. It follows religious leaders venting frustrations at the eight-month delay in the ALRC process – described by Labor as the “first crucial step” in progressing religious discrimination legislation this term – with its final report now due to be handed to Government in December. The release of the ALRC consultation paper on how sex discrimination and religious discrimination laws would work in schools sparked outrage from faith leaders, who wrote directly to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus with concerns that the proposal would see principals barred from preferencing the employment of teachers with the same beliefs as the school.
According to the Law Society of NSW Journal, the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), recently published by the Medical Journal of Australia, is the first nationally representative study on the prevalence of all five forms of child maltreatment and a world-first examination of the resulting long-term health and social impacts over the course of an individual’s lifetime. The ACMS found that:
According to Orygen, the Climate Concerns and Young People’s Mental Health report reveals the alarming impact of climate concerns on the mental health of young people in Australia with data analysed from Mission Australia’s 2022 Youth Survey – an annual Australia-wide survey of 19,000 young people aged 15-19. The report, prepared by Orygen in partnership with Mission Australia, focuses on the impact of climate concerns on young people’s mental health as they face ongoing exposure to increasingly severe climate events. The report details how young people feel and how this is impacting their mental health. The report also identifies four recommendations that highlight the urgent need to make concerted and continued efforts to support this generation and reduce the negative impacts stemming from climate concerns.
SBS News reports that more than half of children who contact a free national phone counselling service are unable to get through, as demand for mental health support increases. Some 328,424 children contacted the Kids Helpline last year but only two in five were able to reach a counsellor due to a shortage of counsellors, new data shows. Suicide, mental health, family relationships and emotional wellbeing were the top concerns among young people, according to an annual impact report published recently. There were more than 5,000 duty of care interventions, with one in three suicide attempts, one in three related to child abuse and one in 10 linked to sexual assault. Duty of care interventions occur when counsellors engage with external services, such as police and other emergency services, to assist children. The report shows that interventions for suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and child abuse in particular have increased since before the pandemic.
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) is decommissioning the Registered and Accredited Non-Government Schools (RANGS) website. All school registration content, including new resources, has been updated and moved to the NESA website, including:
Non-government schools and registration systems will continue to submit applications and notifications through RANGS Online.
According to news.com.au, classes have been disrupted and some children will have to learn from home amid rising cases at four NSW schools. Three schools are currently impacted by whole year groups learning from home, a small fraction of the more than 2200 schools across the State. “After careful consideration, the Department may ask some year groups in schools to learn from home for short periods of time due to a large number of COVID-19 cases as a circuit-breaker,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education said. “Face-to-face learning continues for unaffected year groups and for affected students who are unable to learn from home.” The order comes just days after the World Health Organisation declared that Covid-19 was “over as a global health emergency.”
ABC News reports that children have suffered multiple traumatic injuries, including amputations and crushed limbs, after a horrific school bus crash in Melbourne's west on Tuesday afternoon. Police said that the bus was struck from behind by a truck at the intersection of Exford Road and Murphys Road in Eynesbury at about 3:45pm. The bus, which was carrying 45 children from Exford Primary School, then overturned as it was turning right at the intersection, leaving a number of children with serious injuries. The 49-year-old truck driver has been charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury. Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) CEO Bernadette McDonald said that nine children were admitted to the hospital yesterday and a number of those required extensive surgery. The children admitted to the RCH are aged between five and 11 years of age.
ABC News reports that multiple government agencies failed to intervene in the neglect of two teenagers with autism found locked in their bedroom, even after child safety officers saw one of the brothers gnawing on a raw dog bone. In Brisbane, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation of People with Disability heard that government agencies had extensive involvement with the family, in one case of up to 20 years. The inquiry heard that their school often bathed the boys and gave them fresh clothes, that they were observed smelling of faeces, and several times had needed haircuts because their hair smelled so strongly of urine it could not be washed out. Yet in their years at the school, only one student protection report was ever made. Minister for Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs Leanne Linard said that she found the evidence disturbing. "Child safety is an area where we can never rest," she said.
According to The Courier Mail, a leading bullying expert says that the Queensland Government’s reluctance to introduce a mobile phone ban in state schools is leaving schools to tackle the fallout of online bullying, image-based abuse and sextortion. Former Queenslander of the Year Rachel Downie said that children were being “demonised” by the prolific sharing of inappropriate content in and out of the classroom. Ms Downie said that there had been a significant spike in online bullying, sharing of non-consensual and image-based abuse and sextortion, and that a “time out” from the phones would help. The former educator founded Stymie – a platform that empowers young people to ask for help if they need support, or if they are seeing or experiencing harm – after losing a Year 9 student to suicide. Stymie received 95,000 notifications last year, varying from self harm, suicidal ideation, family violence to mental health. Of those, about 8000 were for online bullying accompanied with sextortion.
According to The Courier Mail, a Brisbane school was sent into lockdown on Monday morning amid “threats to staff and students.” A Queensland Police Service spokesperson confirmed that officers were called to a disturbance at Moorooka State School around 8am. The disturbance involved a young student from the school. Police resolved the incident within 30 minutes and no further action will be taken against the child involved. A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that the school went into lockdown due to “a student behaviour incident” around 8.50am, but classes resumed around 9.10am upon police advice. “School staff initiated lockdown procedures securing students in classrooms and safe areas,” the spokesperson said. “Emergency services attend the school as a precautionary measure to help safely manage the situation. Parents and carers have been informed of the situation via a letter emailed out today.”
According to The Government of South Australia, the wording of a South Australian child sexual abuse offence heading is set to be amended to better reflect the nature of the offending, following a campaign led by abuse survivor and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame. As part of Ms Tame’s campaign for harmonisation of child abuse laws across Australia, she has been calling for changes to the way the sexual abuse of a child is worded in legislation – especially in jurisdictions where it is referred to as “an unlawful relationship”. At the crux of Ms Tame’s concerns is that the word “relationship” in the heading of the offence implies mutual responsibility, consent, and diminishes the gravity of the offence. The Government is seeking to change the name of the section 50 Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 offence from “Unlawful sexual relationship with child” to “Sexual abuse of a child”, with the introduction of a new Bill in Parliament’s Legislative Council last week.
ABC News reports that the South Australian Government is preparing to roll out a new education campaign to curb South Australia's worsening e-cigarette problem. All public high schools across the State will display posters showing the harmful substances found in vapes, such as weed killer and nail polish remover. A letter from South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, will also be sent to parents and carers to inform them of the dangers. Health Minister Chris Picton said that he hoped that educating young people about vapes would stop them from trying e-cigarettes or help them to quit. "A lot of kids who will take up vaping think that it's a safe alternative, that there's no risk associated, and that's clearly not the case," he said. Data from Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia shows that the number of 15 to 29-year-olds who vape increased to nearly 8 per cent in 2022, compared to just over 1 per cent in 2017.
According to rnz.co.nz, Whangārei Boys' High School had been aware that the caving network where a student's body has been found was prone to flooding and had done a detailed risk assessment plan. Searchers looking for the missing Year 11 student found a body last Tuesday evening, police said. Fourteen students and two adults were rescued from the cave in heavy rain on Tuesday morning. The school had completed a risk assessment for the trip that stated that the caves were "prone to flooding" in heavy rain. It said that the instructor was to "check weather leading up to trip and check water levels before trip, if there has been rain." "Postpone trip if water levels may be too high," the assessment said. The assessment listed drowning, hypothermia, getting lost and fatigue as potential risks; however, it said that measures would be taken to lessen these risks. In a statement, school principal Karen Gilbert-Smith said that a full and comprehensive investigation into the trip will occur.
According to CBC News, Canadian Education Minister Bill Hogan says that a review of a gender policy was prompted by hundreds of complaints from across the Province, some with concerns about the age-appropriateness of teaching students about gender identity. Speaking to reporters, Hogan revealed more details about what prompted his department to launch a review of the policy, in place since 2020, which details protections that must be offered in schools to students who identify as LGBTQ+. He said that he's heard concerns from both parents and teachers that the policy crosses into the realm of sex-education curriculum, raising questions about how the policy should be implemented and at what age students should be introduced to the topic of gender identity. "I want to ensure that ... when we're teaching our curricula, that parents are informed and … that we're not going places where children are not developmentally ready to be," Hogan said.