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

Students across Australia return to school as restrictions ease

SBS News reports that this week marks a return to school for many Australian students, with all children at public schools in NSW and Queensland getting back into the classroom on Monday. Tasmanian kindergarten to Year Six students, along with Year 11 and 12 students, would also resume learning at school on Monday, before students in Years 7 to 10 join them on June 9. The ACT is continuing its staged return with students in Years 3, 4 and 10 getting back to school on Monday, leaving only Years 5, 6, 8 and 9 to return on June 2. Victorian kids are bracing for their return, with children in prep to Year 2 and Years 11 and 12 returning on Tuesday, before the remaining cohort goes back from June 9. Students are already back in school full time in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

NSW return-to-school travel advice confusing parents, Federation says

According to 9news, NSW parents are being "left in the dark" by advice for student travel on public transport, parents groups claim. The NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW says unclear, and sometimes conflicting, government advice on student travel during the coronavirus pandemic has hampered preparations for students’ return to the classroom. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said parents should drive their kids to school or walk with them. But the Federation says many parents are unable to do that, leaving children to take public transport. It points out the government guidelines about giving priority to students conflicts with social distancing guidelines. Buses can carry only 12 passengers, 32 people can ride a train carriage and 45 persons will be allowed to board Sydney ferries to maintain strict physical distancing of 1.5 metres. But bus drivers have been instructed to ensure all school students board at every stop - with the potential of breaking the 12-passenger limit.

Victoria's VCE exams to start in early November, bringing certainty to students amid coronavirus disruption

The ABC News reports that Victoria's year 12 students will begin to sit their final exams in early November. The Andrews Government now says exams will all be completed by December 2, which is two weeks later than the original completion date of November 18 set before the pandemic. With VCE exams to be finished at the start of December, year 12 students will receive their ATAR score before the end of 2020, rather than January 2021, which was feared at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. VCE exams will begin in the week starting November 9, which is a month earlier than expected when learning from home was first announced. Education Minister James Merlino said starting exams in November meant "no disadvantage for Victorian students in terms of university and other pathways". "The pathway for students will be exactly the same as students right around the country," he said.

Coronavirus: school leavers affected by virus lockdown receive assistance to win a place at university

According to The Australian, school leavers whose parents receive the JobKeeper or JobSeeker benefit for at least three months will get extra ATAR points at many universities for courses starting next year. The Universities Admission Centre, which gives entry to universities in NSW and the ACT, as well as some in other states, will allow Year 12 students to join its educational access scheme, which either awards extra ATAR points or a reserved place to students who suffer disadvantages. The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre may be considering a similar move. Others are not making any new arrangements, arguing that existing provisions are adequate. A spokesman for the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre said students disadvantaged by the coronavirus would be considered under its financial disadvantage provisions, as would those affected by the bushfires and flooding. The South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre said Year 12s could apply for adjustments under its equity scheme if they or their parents had received a means-tested income support payment.

Australia-first study finds low transmission of COVID-19 in children

The Age reports that an Australian-first study examining hundreds of children who were tested for COVID-19 after presenting to hospital with symptoms of the deadly disease has found less than 1 per cent of them had the virus. Only four of the 434 children tested by the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne at the height of the coronavirus pandemic between March 21 and April 19 were diagnosed with COVID-19, researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute have found. Of the tiny number infected, none required hospitalisation and all recovered within two weeks. "This data is reassuring for parents who will be sending their kids back to school that is it safe to do so," Dr Laila Ibrahim, a clinician-scientist fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said. "But the caveat is that children should be returning to a school environment that is safe for both children and teachers. If children are unwell, they shouldn't be going to school."

Eight big issues for vulnerable students highlighted by coronavirus crisis, charity says

The ABC News reports that the Smith Family, Australia's leading educational charity, has produced a report based on its work helping 700 schools and 50,000 disadvantaged students during the COVID-19 crisis. The report identifies eight key areas of concern: the "digital divide" faced by families without computers or internet, or multiple children sharing one device; challenges with homeschooling such as the stress of establishing new routines and financial pressures from the cost of stationery, printing, etc; increased risk of students disengaging altogether; unemployment as many tertiary students lose their jobs; mental health concerns; limitations on family life and loss of family supports creating issues with interactions with extended family; food insecurity and the closure of school breakfast clubs; delays and difficulty accessing support services. A separate report released by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) warns disadvantaged students in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT will have fallen several weeks behind.

When children are targets of racism, what can schools do to combat coronavirus-fuelled bullying?

The ABC News reports that hundreds of people wrote to the ABC about their experiences of racism during the coronavirus pandemic. Many responders told the ABC racism was not a symptom of the coronavirus pandemic, but it had intensified existing anxieties and prejudices. Several respondents said better education was needed from a young age. They thought schools were an ideal arena in which to inform children about how harmful racism is, in an effort to stamp it out. Dvir Abramovich is chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, which runs Click Against Hate — an educational program which has received $3 million in Federal Government funding to be expanded in schools beyond Victoria. Dr Abramovich said bigoted attitudes were a learnt trait and his group has been working with schools to address intolerance and encouraged them to block and report online trolls. The article includes a list of organisations to contact to report racism.

“Deep cleaned” classrooms are promised. Cleaners say they don’t exist

According to The New Daily, state governments have allocated millions of dollars to employ an influx of cleaning staff to help disinfect schools and ensure the safety of returning students from an outbreak of the coronavirus. A recent United Workers Union survey revealed nine in 10 cleaners say they have to rush essential work, and eight in 10 revealed that they do not have enough adequate equipment, including suitable disinfectant. Authorities have organised “deep cleaning” at cluster epicentres – including a NSW school and a Melbourne McDonald’s just last week. United Workers Union organiser Georgia Potter Butler says “Real-life is a cleaner going in wearing their tracky dacks, using cloths that may not be washed regularly. A lot of them will be using detergents instead of disinfectants.” Cleaners were often not trained in infection control, and cost-cutting measures meant the focus was on avoiding complaints, rather than cleaning for public health, she said.

Nepotism still plagues staff hiring in state schools, Ombudsman finds

The Age reports that principals at government schools have failed to heed warnings of "the dangers of nepotism" and continue to employ their partners and children in paid work without declaring a conflict of interest, Victoria’s Ombudsman says. Ombudsman Deborah Glass said nepotistic appointments remained a problem in state schools, two years after she tabled a report in Parliament about the issue. Ms Glass also found principals who employed their partners or children often did so without adequate guidance from the Department of Education and said it was disappointing they still required training on ethical decision-making. The Ombudsman investigated three allegations of nepotism within Victorian government schools, and found in all cases that principals involved failed to declare a conflict of interest. The cases were referred to the Ombudsman by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission. A report on the cases was released on Wednesday last week. Schools and staff involved have been de-identified.

Secret bishops' report calls for radical revamp of Catholic Church

The Age reports that Australia’s Catholic Church could be dramatically overhauled to give lay people more power, increase the number of women in leadership roles and force parishes to open up their finances to the public. A 200-page report being considered by the nation’s bishops has called for unprecedented reform in a bid to make the church more inclusive and break down the structures that contributed to decades of clergy abuse and cover-ups. The report is in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, which found that the hierarchical nature of the church, coupled with its lack of governance, had created "a culture of deferential obedience" in which the protection of paedophile priests was left unchallenged. The body that commissioned the report - the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference - is unlikely to publicly release or reveal how it will respond to its 86 recommendations until the end of the year. The report is based on a 15-month review of church governance, which was conducted by a seven-member panel led by Justice Neville Owen, the former chair of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

INTERNATIONAL

Email leak reveals identities of sexual abuse victims in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland)

The Guardian reports that the names and emails of 250 abuse survivors were revealed in a monthly newsletter of the body set up to investigate their claims and compensate the victims. One victim-survivor, who has spoken publicly about her experience of abuse in a Belfast orphanage, told the Observer that others who wanted their anonymity protected now felt “dishonoured, exposed, vulnerable and let down so badly”. Those who were named had been part of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry and had opted to remain anonymous, BBC Northern Ireland reported on Saturday. It was set up to investigate widespread allegations of historic sexual and physical abuse at 22 institutions run by religious, charitable and state bodies in Northern Ireland for more than 70 years. An email signed by a staff member on behalf of Interim Victims’ Commissioner, Brendan McAllister, was sent out on Friday to victims. Their identities were not anonymised in the email.

Seen, heard and believed – new research gives weight to children’s disclosures of abuse (United States, United Kingdom)

According to The Sector, new research from King’s College London and City University of New York has found that clinical work that focuses on an individual’s memories and thinking patterns around abuse and neglect could be more influential on mental health than previously thought. The findings are significant for those working in early childhood education and care (ECEC) as well as mandated reporters in other fields, because they add weight to the importance of educators and other professionals attending closely to indicators of abuse and neglect in children, with researchers noting that the subjective experience of maltreatment as a child plays a more important role in adult emotional disorders than the event itself. Published in Nature Human Behaviour the study analysed data on nearly 1,200 people. Joint author, Professor Andrea Danese, from King’s College London said the study was the first to comprehensively investigate the relative contribution of objective and subjective experience of childhood maltreatment in the development of psychiatric disorders.