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 an article in Education HQ, the NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card 2021 recently surveyed 571 teachers, finding that 84 per cent have considered leaving the profession in the last year. More than three-quarters feel stressed during a typical week “fairly often” to “most of the time”, and one in four is working at least six days a week. Seventy per cent said they were investing more time in providing emotional support to students yet 60 per cent still feel disregarded by parents. More than two-thirds of teachers working with students with special needs report not having the requisite resources or support. Furthermore, teachers’ dissatisfaction has grown since the survey was last conducted in 2017, when 91 per cent reported feeling satisfied or very satisfied with their profession – down sharply to just 63 per cent in 2021. According to the author, fixing the problem of an increasingly disenfranchised teaching workforce is complex, and not limited to any single measure like increased resourcing. However, it is also asserted that “future generations depend on it”.
According to an article by The Daily Telegraph, Squid Game-inspired injuries have been reported all over the world in the wake of the hit Netflix series — and now one challenge has put three Sydney kids in the burns unit at the Children’s Hospital Westmead. The viral “honeycomb challenge” is to make a thin sheet of honeycomb and cut out a shape without breaking it. Ryde 14-year-old Aiden Higgie ended up with third degree burns on his legs after he melted sugar in a non-microwave safe cup, it exploded and spilt down his leg, burning “right through to the nerves.” Aiden will have to wear a pressure bandage for a year as the skin heals. Dr Erik La Hei, acting Head of Burns at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, said in addition to the three cases at Westmead, he had heard of several others. Dr La Hei said it was good for kids to learn how to work in the kitchen and said the first aid in the case of such a burn was to run it under cool water.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the NSW Government has been accused of poorly targeting a chunk of the $500 million it is spending on school air-conditioning, with an analysis showing hotter western Sydney schools missed out while coastal schools with lower average temperatures benefited. Western Sydney University urban ecosystem science senior research fellow Sebastian Pfautsch said the money could have been spent more effectively by targeting the hottest areas of the hottest schools, rather than using an application-based system that rewarded schools able to apply first. “The government could also have spent some of that money on passive cooling mechanisms such as awnings.” The energy required to run air-conditioning due to warming temperatures contributed to the global warming problem, Dr Pfautsch said. Many overseas studies have shown that heat reduces students’ ability to learn; children’s optimum temperature is between 22 and 24 degrees. But a recent study also showed unusually cold temperatures lowered NAPLAN scores.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that students will be given rapid antigen tests to take twice a week at home to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms, and those who are close contacts of a case can use them to reduce the length of their isolation under a plan to reduce disruption to schools. The tests will be trialled in hard-hit Albury in southern NSW from next week, where almost every school has been forced to shut due to a COVID-19 case in the past two weeks. Some have been shut twice. Across NSW, more than 40 schools have shut since Sunday. Close contact students who are vaccinated need to only isolate for a week, and less if they wore a mask, but those who are unvaccinated – which includes everyone under age 11 – must isolate at home with a parent for 14 days. While the Albury trial begins this week, the government has not confirmed when the statewide rollout will begin.
According to an article in The Educator, the NSW Government announced that parents of school-aged children will receive a $250 voucher as a “thank you” for helping them learn from home during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The Government’s announcement comes as new research shows parents spent an average of 14 hours a week assisting their children with remote learning. Eighty-four per cent of parents surveyed as part of the study described the experience as “stressful”, and 79 per cent said remote learning was difficult for their child. However, teachers slammed the scheme as a “slap in the face” to educators who have been struggling with severe resourcing issues and exhausting workloads. A nationwide survey by the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education (MGSE) found that nearly half of teachers logged in almost an entire extra day teaching from home, with some working in excess of 20 hours each week.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Lindfield Learning Village (LLV), an unorthodox public school on Sydney’s north shore is in high demand with parents attracted by its abandonment of old-school traditions, such as uniforms and timetables. But others, including some educators, are dubious. They worry that the government-run school is relying on what they call faddish, untested ideas such as basing learning on a child’s stage rather than their age, replacing normal subjects with student-driven projects, and putting pupils in charge of their own learning. But a new report by two eminent education academics, commissioned by the NSW Department of Education, praises Lindfield as “an impressive school” that carefully tracks its students’ progress, acknowledges when it needs to change tack and could teach other schools a thing or two. The report also found Lindfield’s NAPLAN results were comparable with similar schools, and its attendance and student satisfaction were higher than average. However, it could improve in numeracy.
PerthNow reports that a number of Victorian schools have had to postpone Year 12 exams scheduled for Friday after wild weather lashed the state. At least 150,000 homes and buildings have been left without power after damaging winds up to 143km/h wreaked havoc across southern Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne. Cabinet Minister Danny Pearson confirmed on Friday morning storm damage and power outage had left a small number of schools unable to hold their VCE exams. “I have been advised that in a small number of cases exams had to be postponed and the (education) department will be working with those individual schools over the coming days to deal with that accordingly and to provide the necessary support that’s required for those students to sit their VCE exams,” Mr Pearson told reporters. He said at some other schools, where power was interrupted, “natural sunlight enabled the exams to occur”. State Emergency Service volunteers have been called to almost 2000 jobs for trees down and building damage in the space of 24 hours.
9 News reports that investigations are underway following reports a group of teenage students at a school near Brisbane consumed windscreen wiper fluid mixed with a sports drink during their lunch break last week. A spokesperson from the Department of Education confirmed a group of students from Redcliffe State High School were believed to have ingested the diluted wiper fluid and were feared to have been poisoned. "Staff immediately contacted the Queensland Ambulance Service to attend and assess the students. No students were taken to hospital," the statement read. "Parents and the school community were notified of the incident that day and provided with support options, including access to the school Guidance Officer for those who required it. "The school is investigating and will apply disciplinary consequences where appropriate." The Queensland Ambulance Service confirmed they examined five students, all in a stable condition. A sixth student was taken to hospital due to a medical incident unrelated to the suspected poisoning.
The Examiner reports that secrecy behind the state school system's past handling of child sexual abuse and pedophile teachers continues, with the government choosing not to publicly release a report into the issue "at this stage". This is despite Commission of Inquiry president Marcia Neave, who is looking into the state's responses to child sexual abuse, urging the government to do so, and victim survivors publicly stating a desire for its public release. The government said, through a spokesman, that what information can be publicly released "will need to take into consideration that the report is relevant to legal proceedings, and that the experiences of survivors are the subject of legal protections, and they have the right to choose whether their experiences are shared publicly." Regarding the report’s recommendations, the spokesman said that the education department has commenced implementation, including establishing in August the Office of Safeguarding Children and Young People.
The Guardian reports that California authorities have filed murder charges against a former school safety officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old girl, a rare prosecution for an on-duty killing by an officer. The Los Angeles district attorney announced on Wednesday that Eddie Gonzalez, who had worked as a school officer in Long Beach, was facing one count of murder after he shot into a vehicle near a high school on 27 September, striking 18-year-old Manuela Rodriguez. The teenager, who went by Mona and had a five-month-old boy, was taken to a hospital and put on life support before she died a week later. Gonzalez had been patrolling the area near Millikan high school, south of LA, when he observed an altercation between Rodriguez and another teenage girl, according to the district attorney’s office. Rodriguez then got into the rear passenger seat of a nearby car, and Gonzalez fired his handgun at the vehicle.
The Guardian reports that a wave of children across the UK have joined forest schools since the start of the pandemic, many since September. Of more than 200 forest schools surveyed by the Forest School Association (FSA), about two-thirds said demand for their services had increased since March 2020. Among the reasons cited were increased awareness of the benefits of the outdoors, especially in relation to stress and anxiety, Covid safety, and dissatisfaction with the school syllabus after months of pandemic homeschooling. Forest schools, which centre around unstructured play, exploration and intrinsic motivation, arrived in the UK in 1993. Inspired by the outdoors culture – or friluftsliv – of Scandinavia, sessions are usually held either entirely or mostly outdoors and are intended to supplement, rather than replace, traditional education. State schools are increasingly putting on forest school sessions for pupils within the school day because they are considered to be beneficial to mental and physical health, behaviour and academic attainment.