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, a confronting investigation uncovering significant religious bullying in Australian schools for most major faith groups has found “rampant” levels of vilification in the classroom and playground, with families and schools “ill-equipped” to deal with the abuse levelled at children. The four-year investigation, led by academics Zehavit Gross and Suzanne Rutland, cited disturbing instances of bullying against Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Christian students in Australian schools in a series of interviews with teachers, families and children, arguing that school principals are often unwilling to acknowledge the extent of religious discrimination. The study urges state and federal education departments to increase spending on resources to combat religious discrimination in schools, saying that parents and children are often forced to “downplay” episodes of vilification, fearing that the situation could be made worse “if they make a fuss.”
The Age reports that Australian authorities have served Apple, Microsoft and the owner of Facebook and Instagram with world-first legal orders to come clean on what – if anything – they are doing to detect and report child sexual abuse material or face fines of more than half a million dollars a day. Late on Monday, notices were also issued to Snap and Omegle under the new laws, which empower Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to compel organisations to explain the steps that they are taking to combat online child exploitation and abuse. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that there was little to suggest that companies that knew their platforms were weaponised by abusers were doing much to stop it. Decisions over which companies received the first tranche of notices were based on considerations such as the number of complaints to e-Safety, the company’s reach, and how much information is already public. More orders are likely to be issued.
According to The Courier Mail, NAPLAN participation rates took such a drastic dive that the national curriculum body has been unable to “confidently” release any trends shown in the data, blaming COVID-19, flu and floods. While individual student reports will be released to parents in “a couple of weeks”, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA) was unable to release its summary findings, normally released in August annually. It means that the long-term national and jurisdictional trends will be released later this year due to “lower than usual student participation rates”. Journalists were invited for a media “briefing” on the assumption that there would be a release of annual summary data, however, it quickly turned fiery. The release or “non-release” of data triggered an apology from ACARA chief executive David de Carvalho at the close of the briefing.
According to The Educator, more than one in three private school students have either switched schools in the last year or are considering doing so, with the majority switching between private schools, new research shows. The study of more than 1,000 parents and grandparents found that most people who changed or were considering changing schools for their children switched to a private independent (41 per cent) or private Catholic (39 per cent) school. Around half this number switched to a public government school (21 per cent). The top reasons cited for switching schools included the child’s happiness and wellbeing (33 per cent) and insufficient attention to individual student needs (30 per cent). Age played a factor in the decision, with the research showing that more Australians over 60 changed to a private independent school (59 per cent), while significantly more in the 18-29 group changed to a private Catholic school (49 per cent), and in the 50-59 group to a public Government school (34 per cent).
ABC News reports that in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children are nearly 10 times more likely to be removed from their families by child protection services compared with non-Aboriginal children. And data shows that the number of Indigenous children in out-of-home care is projected to double by 2029. This has led to renewed calls for Aboriginal-controlled organisations to be given greater control over Indigenous children needing out-of-home care. Tasmania has the lowest rate in the country of Indigenous children being placed with Aboriginal carers, at 13 per cent, and also has no Aboriginal involvement in child protection case decisions. In Victoria, although ATSI children are 16 times more likely to be removed from their families by child protection services than non-Indigenous children, reforms are proving successful – half of Victoria’s child protection cases involving Aboriginal children are managed by an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation.
According to The Educator, children and their families need better support from schools and mental health services, a national survey shows. The survey, which examined the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that, while children most commonly seek mental health support from their families, friends and schools, these networks are often poorly equipped to provide appropriate help, leaving children vulnerable. The survey also found that when children seek mental health support, they prefer in-person support. Forty-one per cent of young respondents said that the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Kristen Douglas, Head of Headspace Schools and Communities, says that while many Australian schools have struggled to rebalance after COVID-19, they are nonetheless well placed to promote support services and strategies to improve students’ mental health and wellbeing.
According to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), NESA began sending NAPLAN 2022 reports for parents and carers to schools on Monday.
Any schools that do not receive the reports by 9 September should email the NAPLAN team.
NESA also reports that the State Library of NSW is hosting free webinars to support HSC students preparing for exams in English, History and Society and Culture.
The webinars will run from Monday 12 September to Wednesday 14 September.
The Age reports that the number of sexual offences on NSW school grounds has doubled over the past decade, with more than 600 incidents reported to police last year. Sexual violence experts say that the upward trend is likely due in part to an increased readiness of young people to speak up, and called on schools to engage students in more robust discussions about sex and sexuality. The most recent NSW crime statistics show that there were more than 646 sexual offences on school grounds in the year to March. Over the same period 10 years ago, 318 offences were reported, with an increase of about 7 per cent each year since 2013. Professor Daryl Higgins, director of the Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Child Protection Studies, said that the increased readiness of survivors to speak up and changes in how organisations such as police and schools respond to allegations had likely contributed to the upward trend in reporting of offences.
The Age reports that Victoria’s Catholic schools have split during negotiations over teacher pay and conditions, with staff in almost 50 schools in the state’s east winning salary increases and reduced teaching hours, while teachers in the rest of the state risk being left behind. School governing bodies have contemplated raising fees so that schools can hire extra teachers to cover the teaching time reductions, and even making modest cuts to class times for students as two possible solutions to the bargaining impasse, which threatens to disrupt preparations for the 2023 school year. Catholic Education Commission Victoria executive director Jim Miles said that Catholic education authorities wanted to reach agreement on pay and conditions as soon as possible. A number of commitments, particularly regarding workload reduction, have already been made, he said.
ABC News reports that Jack (not his real name) is a sexual assault survivor and was one of several students who recently walked out of a consent education lesson at a Canberra high school. It wasn't the content of the lesson that Jack and other students had a problem with, he said, but rather how the school handled their reactions. "I wholeheartedly believe we were forced to go back to that classroom," he said. Helen Cahill, an emeritus professor at the University of Melbourne, drew a parallel between Jack's case and that of a student needing to go to the sick bay. She said that being overwhelmed by content in the way that Jack was could be as unpredictable as a wave of nausea, a feeling that requires students to immediately leave a classroom. "If students do choose to exit a classroom because they're finding something distressing, the appropriate proactive approach for the school is to check in on them. That checking-in process is part of what we call the continuity of pastoral care."
According to The Educator, in an Australian first, South Australia has appointed a new Assistant Minister for Autism, tasked to increase autism supports in public primary schools. The appointment follows new research from the University of South Australia which shows that parents world-wide report a lack of awareness and understanding of the unique learning needs of autistic children across all levels of mainstream school. Lead researcher, UniSA’s Dr Kobie Boshoff, says that support is urgently needed in schools to support the learning needs of children with autism. Occupational therapists are amongst the support services that are ideally placed to provide support to schools. “Effective parent–teacher relationships are vital for successful learning and wellbeing for children with ASD, but as this research shows, many parents are struggling to establish positive communications with schools,” Dr Boshoff said.
According to The Indian Weekender, the pandemic has cost education providers more than $1 billion in lost fees. Figures collected as part of the Government's export education levy show that institutions received $250 million less from foreign students' fees in 2020 than they did in 2019, and $610m less in 2021. This year's fees would be even lower because there were fewer students. Immigration New Zealand told RNZ that there were just 14,639 international students with valid study visas in New Zealand when the border fully reopened on 31 July, down from about 60,000 when the pandemic began in March 2020. In total, international students paid $594m in fees in 2021, $963m in 2020 and $1.2b in 2019. Secondary schools' fee income halved to $84m, while primary schools' fee income dropped 64 per cent to $8.6m. Education providers enrolling students for next year have warned that it would take several years for numbers to recover.
According to 9Honey, one school district in Missouri has made a decision to bring back "physical force" for "correcting student behaviour". The parents had asked for it, according to Cassville area education superintendent Merlyn Johnson, who explained the decision to bring back the controversial disciplinary method that the area had ditched just 20 years earlier. According to the policy, the students cannot be struck on either the head or face, and it must be used as a means of last resort. It will also be an opt-in punishment, meaning that parents must give prior written consent. In Australia, while most states banned the practice in government schools in the 1980s-90s, this was not extended to non-government schools until many years later. In Victoria, it was only banned in these institutions in 2006 and for Western Australia not until 2015. However, while government schools in Queensland outlawed this in 1989, it is still not against the law in non-government schools.