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Breaking
News: Week of 9 February 2009
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Friday 13 February
Evidence-based education feature
Saturday – Sunday, 14 – 15 February
- The Age
- Our darkest day
Terror, loss and acts of quiet courage have marked Australia's worst natural disaster.
Victoria has witnessed this country's greatest natural disaster. Worse than Black Friday. Worse than Ash Wednesday. That is the grim sum of a catastrophe that already exceeds all others — and which threatens to grow worse.
- The Monday Education Section has returned, with 10 articles this week, including:
- Top teachers rewarded in new pay scheme
Teachers will be required to meet new national standards and may soon have to prove how they have upgraded their skills or boosted students' results as a condition of merit-based pay. In what is expected to pave the way for a long-awaited overhaul of salary structures in schools, state and federal governments have moved to create a new career framework designed to reward top teachers, raise the status of the profession and improve teaching quality in the classroom.
- Plumbing the depths
By engaging deeply with a text through multiple readings, students can come to appreciate its detail and art, writes Bob Hillman.
- Censoring the internet
The Government's internet filtering plan is proving controversial, writes Colleen Ricci.
- Op Ed
Parents feel squeeze as private fees skyrocket
Parents will spend an average of $5500 to send their child to a state primary school this year and almost $6000 to send a child to a public secondary school, according to latest estimates by the Australian Scholarship Group. Private school parents will spend on average $13,000 for a primary school student and $22,500 for a secondary school student when tuition fees and extras such as books, uniforms, travel and excursions are included.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Op Ed
Support for students as well as a place
by Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Macquarie University
This is not about turning Australia into a nation of intellectuals
- Related stories:
- Op Ed
Questions Darwinism cannot answer
by Tom Frame, Professor of Theology at Charles Sturt University.
The article is an edited extract from his new book, Evolution in the Antipodes.
Worth a look... Web
- Letters to the Editor
- Private views exploded
"I wonder how many of those parents who once said private schools deserved as much federal funding as public schools because they paid tax and demanded choice, now wish they had supported the public system ("Schools seize homes over fees", February 7-8).
"And what does the exodus from private education mean for the Howard (and now Rudd) government's flawed funding model? Do those parents who have had their homes repossessed still think it is fair, as their children swelter in demountables?"
Sunil Badami, Rozelle
- "The elite Christian schools that are calling in the debt collectors were set up to help the poorest families educate their children. Surely Stephen O'Doherty can see the lack of Christian morals and equity this system promotes. I can't find the parable of Jesus calling in the debt collectors in my Bible."
Adam Williams, Summer Hill
- The New York Times
- Op Ed
Education Is All in Your Mind [7 February]
As Department of Education officials consider how best to spend billions from the economic stimulus plan, they would be wise to pay attention to which programs actually help children’s achievement — and keep in mind that sometimes very small influences in children’s lives can have very big effects.
The aftermath of the Victorian fires starts to sink in:
the death toll is currently 130 and expected to rise to 200+, morgues overflow, forensic experts say it could take months to identify some of the remains, currently 5,000 people are homeless, and 58 Victorian schools are closed until further notice (some have been destroyed).
That and the economic rescue package stand-off dominate today’s news completely.
A First Byte Letter in The Australian provides a bit of perspective: Compared with the real crisis and tragedy in Victoria, the so-called financial crisis really should be put into perspective.
There is no mention of education in the online Australian, Age or Sydney Morning Herald this morning.
- The Canberra Times
- Op Ed
Schools debate holiday is over
by Kevin Donnelly
"Across Australia, students and teachers have returned to school and, as expected, politicians and the media are already signalling a number of key issues and policy initiatives.
"On the agenda are raising the school-leaving age in NSW from 15 to 17; the second round of the Commonwealth Government's computer revolution; debates about school funding; the best way to attract and reward teachers; and raising school standards.
"While its impact on schools will not be evident for another year or two, the introduction of a compulsory, centrally mandated national curriculum will significantly affect the nation's classrooms.
"If curriculum development is to succeed, it is important that classroom teachers have a voice.
"The fact that the national curriculum framing papers were released late last year and teachers were expected to respond over the Christmas break or in the busy opening weeks of first term does not augur well for the consultation. [emphasis added]
"Forcing all schools, as a condition of funding, to make public their performance details, funding arrangements and other information, such as the school's enrolment practices and socio-economic profile, looks appealing at first glance. But an unintended consequence of increased accountability will be another layer of costly and time-consuming red tape that interferes with good classroom practice.
"In the United States, the Bush government's No Child Left Behind program has yet to be re-authorised by Congress and the consensus is that it has failed to lift standards.
"In Britain, the recent interim report on the primary school curriculum (the Rose Report) recommends there be less standardised testing and more teacher-led diagnostic assessment.
"Once again, it appears that Australian education policymakers and politicians are imposing initiatives on schools five to six years after they first appeared overseas and when their value is being questioned.
"School funding, especially Commonwealth funding to Catholic and independent schools, is another issue that will loom large during 2009. Given the Rudd Government's decision to maintain the existing Socioeconomic Status formula until 2012, the issue might appear settled. But it is definitely not.
"Education Minister Julia Gillard has signalled the Socioeconomic Status approach will be reviewed and critics like the Australian Education Union's federal president, Andrew Gavrielatos, and pro-government-school activist Jane Caro, have mounted a strident campaign to to reduce government funding.
"As Gavrielatos has stated, '' The public education community remains bitterly disappointed that the Rudd Government has maintained the Howard government's corrupt and discredited schools funding regime.''
"In a series of opinion articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Caro has accused non-government (in particular, Catholic) schools of being the preserve of the wealthy and promoting educational apartheid. Ignored is the ever-increasing popularity of non-government schools.
"Expect more of the same rhetoric over the next few months.
"The evidence is that teachers are the most important factor influencing educational success. Policy initiatives will come to nothing if schools cannot better attract, reward and support classroom teachers." [emphasis added]
Dr Kevin Donnelly taught for 18 years in secondary schools and is the author of Dumbing Down (Hardie Grant Books).
From The Canberra Times at link
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Students at Perth school shelter from fugitive believed armed
Police were forced to lock down Kalamunda Senior High School this morning after a man believed to be carrying a firearm fled from police near the school.
- The West Australian
Pay rise hits Catholic schools
by Bethany Hiatt
“WA Catholic schools are being forced to cut spending on staff and resources to cover the cost of salary increases for teachers, in a move which could affect up to 69,000 children.
“Catholic Education Office director Ron Dullard said some schools might choose to delay buying books, rationalise staff or run up an over draft to match the pay rise to State teachers.
“Schools were under increasing pressure from the pay rise, plunging interest rates and another 5 per cent teacher wage increase due in October. “All of those just come together, a bit like a perfect storm,” he said. “They're going to have to tighten their belts a lot more.”
“Mr Dullard said the CEO had not budgeted for the 6 per cent increase to teachers' pay backdated four months before its own enterprise bargaining agreement expired in December. “The 6 per cent was higher than what we initially thought,” he said.
“He called all principals together early this year and told them it was their responsibility to cover the back-dated pay rise which Catholic school teachers received last week. “Some will do it out of reserves, some will borrow,” he said.
“Schools that borrowed had been told to balance their budget by the end of 2010. This meant that schools which needed to cut back on staff had two years to do so.
“All schools get turnover, so you might not replace them (staff who leave), all schools have longer service leave entitlements that give flexibility,” Mr Dullard said. “We want to work with schools to ensure that they balance their books but also with a minimum disruption to staff.”
“Mr Dullard said other schools might delay buying resources such as books until more Federal funding flowed through in 18 months.
“As a last resort, schools may have to cut their budgets 2 per cent.
“He ruled out big increases in fees next year because Catholic schools had to maintain their low-fee status. “They go up every year, but they won't be going up extraordinarily to pay for those salary increases,” he said.
“Parents and Friends Federation executive director Laurie Eastwood said leaving schools to foot the bill could put more pressure on parent groups to raise funds to cover extras.
“He said teachers deserved pay rises but the State Government should provide more funds to cover such increases instead of expecting parents to pick up the tab.
“The Government agreed to bring forward its traditional payments to Catholic and low-fee independent schools by 18 months to help cover any shortfall.”
From The West Australian
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Mandurah high schools record 1000 truants a day
"An estimated 1000 students on any one day are refusing to attend high school in Mandurah, according to a local youth service.
"Last week Mandurah Youth Commitment chief executive Kerry Hitchins said in addition to this, a further 1000 students who were not attending school were being case managed by local youth services.
"Many of these young people would be difficult to re-engage.
“Students drawn into work in 2008 most often represented those disenchanted with the education system,” she said.
“It is unfortunate that their first experience of the working world has been short-lived and this is likely to add to their disenchantment with a system that doesn’t seem to ever meet their needs.
"What concerns me even more is the thought that there are possibly over 1000 kids out there who are not doing anything... many of them will just sit at home and do nothing with their days.
“How on earth are we going to re-engage these kids back into the system?
“This is one of the biggest challenges for the local community.”
"According to the most recent figures on the Department of Education and Training website, student attendance rates were below the State average in 2008 at most high schools in the area."
From The Sunday Times online / PerthNow at link
- ABC News
- Govt introduces student services bill
The Federal Government is pushing ahead with its election commitment to reinstate university student services.
- The Age
- University shake-up under fire
Allowing universities to enrol as many students as they wish without deregulating the fees they can charge could make university less accessible for many Australians, a free-market think tank warns.
- The Australian
- Sector asks for building bonanza
Universities are lobbying the federal Government to approve ready-to-go building projects that would exceed $1 billion, amid signs Canberra is contemplating a second tranche of higher education infrastructure spending.
- The Guardian
- Private schools defying the slump - for now
Applications for the country's best-known private schools have increased in defiance of the economic downturn, but one in 10 headteachers are unsure whether their schools can withstand the recession, according to a survey. It indicated that the credit crunch had yet to affect applications, but many leading private schools were concerned about their ability to withstand years of recession.
- The Independent
- Head quits in Muslim assembly row
A school was said today to have acted in the best interests of all its students over plans to scrap separate assemblies for Muslim pupils which led to the resignation of its headteacher.
Similar stories in all major UK media.
- The West Australian
Distraught parents ask: What do we tell the children?
Kingslake
“The boys charged down the slide and shovelled manfully sand with spades as long as them. The big girls ran around on top of the equipment and the little ones drew butterflies.
“Mothers and teachers chatted around mulch. A boy caught sight of his teacher and raced over to hug her, shouting with delight: “You're here!”
“She hugged him back, fiercely. Then she looked him in the eye and said, “You were really worried about me. I heard that you were all right and I cheered, yes! Yes!”
“Reassured, he ran back to play.
“But when the teacher straightened, her eyes went blank. She told a second teacher that children had been running up to her saying this child or that child “is gone”. She had lost three pupils to the deadly fires.
“She named them. Her friend gasped at the third name in disbelief; she hadn't heard that one. The first teacher said simply, “She's gone. The whole family have gone.”
“The brave front crumbled and they fell into each other's arms, weeping.
“This was morning playtime at Kinglake Primary School yesterday. [emphasis added]
“Many of the parents and teachers were refugees from Middle Kinglake Primary School, which has been razed. Each of the three local schools is believed to have suffered loss of life.
“The rising death toll now includes at least four families in which both parents and all children died.
“If there is one question exercising the minds of most parents of young children in the devastated town, it is, “What do we tell the children?”
“Karen Collyer lives in a part of town virtually untouched by the blaze. She prepared her two boys for what they would see when they left the neighbourhood – the still smouldering ruins and the bare trees.
“She said she didn't know what her older son made of that first trip: “He was just really quiet in the back of the car. I don't know if they fully understand what has gone on.”
“She was trying to determine how best to tell him the worst news. “One of the little girls who perished was playing in our pool the week before. I don't think he's ready for that yet.”
“Another sobbing mother was asking the same question: how was she to tell her little girl that she would never see her friend again?
“Parents struggling to find the words are fighting against the clock. Some children have heard of friends' deaths on the TV news reports.
“Things are not confirmed but the names are on the news,” said Kinglake principal Ros Flemming.
“Children sent off the mountain while their parents stayed were being shielded from TV news until their families reunited.
“Counsellor Trish Quibell told parents at the playground: “One of the best things the community has done is reopen part of the school. It's given normality to the kids and comfort to the parents to see the kids playing.”
From The West Australian
Letter to the Editor
Good shape
“I was intrigued to read (report, 6/2) that Colin Barnett says that WA primary schools are in “good shape”. I would be interested to know when was the last time Mr Barnett set foot inside a primary school built in the 1970s. Probably the 1980s, because I would say that is the last time they could be described as in “good shape”.
Lesley Boyes, Leeming
- WA Today
- Federal crackdown on cyber bullying
The Federal Government will target the growing scourge of cyber-bullying in a review of its key anti-harassment policy for schools. The National Safe Schools Framework, developed in 2002 to give schools guidelines to deal with bullying, violence, harassment, child abuse and neglect, will be overhauled to better cover covert forms of intimidation.
- The Australian
- Education warrior among the missing in Victoria bushfires
The man who led the charge against using whole-language methods to teach children how to read, Ken Rowe, is missing in the remains of Marysville. A passionate advocate of the need to base educational policy on proven research evidence, Dr Rowe was last heard from on Saturday as the fires approached the town.
- The Age
- Private students get more exam aid
More private school students receive special consideration in their VCE exams each year compared with public school students.
Featured items on Evidence-based Education
- The Independent
- Op Ed
There's much to be said for the old ways of teaching. At least they worked
by Howard Jacobson
How bad is it? Five million of us are leaving school without having mastered basic literacy
"Read this column at your peril." And now tell me, in simple terms, what message those words convey to you. Am I encouraging you to go on reading or am I warning you to go no further? Exclude all subtle or devious explanations, as for example that I am luring you into reading by exciting you with the prospect of danger. I want an uncomplicated answer to an uncomplicated question: what does "at your peril" signal? Stop, go, or please yourself.
"The other night on Big Brother – as a reporter from that zone of devastation which is our culture I see it as my duty to watch Big Brother, if only so that you don't have to – a contestant was told to go on doing what she was doing "at her peril". After much contortion of her features – recognisable to any student of the human physiognomy as indicators of being buggered if you know what someone is talking about – she decided that at "her peril" must mean at her discretion, or for her delectation, or nothing in particular. Her face cleared. "Thank you, Big Brother," she said sweetly. In her considered view she'd been told there was nothing to worry about and she could proceed.
"It's not a good idea, at any time, to be ignorant of the meaning of the word "peril". You can live a tolerable life without knowing what "underpinning" means, as another contestant admitted the evening before, but in the present condition of society you are confused about the meaning of at your peril at your peril. And in this case, since Rachel, the contestant in question, is a trainee teacher, at your future pupils' peril too.
"We are accustomed to Big Brother housemates lacking words to the same degree they lack modesty and discretion. I don't doubt that some of them are chosen on this very basis: a small vocabulary being an earnest of a genuine and spontaneous personality, as though the fewer words you can call on, the less able you are to practise subterfuge or be anything other, in Big Brother parlance, than "yourself". "Bubbly" is the favoured word for the ideally authentic female housemate, and words prick bubbles.
"But at least Jade and Big Brother's other unspoilt children of nature down the years have not been teachers. I have no idea at what level of the teaching profession Rachel intends to practise but if I were the parent of a two-year-old I would be taking him away from any school that teaches him to read "at your peril" as a green light to do whatever he fancies doing.
"So just how bad is it out there? According to a series entitled Can't Read, Can't Write, just finished on Channel 4, worse even than we think, with something like five million of us leaving school without having mastered basic literacy. The programmes were presented with feigned unapologetic craggy charmlessness and souped-up indignation by Phil Beadle – touted as the best teacher in England, which might not mean much if Rachel is the standard. Phil Beadle's pedagogic shtick is unconventionality, which makes him, as a contemporary pedagogue, the most conventional man on the planet, though that is not to deny that the programmes were deeply affecting by virtue of the sadness and frustration of the people we encountered who could not read or write, and by the joy they experienced when they finally succeeded in doing both. For which, and for the time he gave to them, the presence of cameras notwithstanding, hats off to Mr Beadle.
"For all that Beadle's worked-up ire was reserved for the education system that allows pupils to sit at desks for years and learn nothing, the programmes themselves showed that a vile parent or a hysterically obdurate personality, a learning disorder or the plain bad luck of social deprivation, could be just as instrumental in confining people to the prison of illiteracy. That there is no one way, therefore, of releasing them into the bracing air of competence – I say competence because there was no deficiency of curiosity, intelligence or articulacy – the programmes made abundantly clear, though of those subjects who were not much improved by Beadle's "unconventional" methods we heard less and less as the series progressed. Not surprising – television prefers success to failure. And it's no mark against Beadle that he didn't hit the jackpot every time; doesn't matter how you teach, someone will always be left behind. That does mean, however, that the field remains open for the next best teacher in England who wants to strike out in some new fashion.
"But what if new fashion is itself the culprit? Watching Phil Beadle spill his guts, drop his aitches, glottal stop, rend his soul, cry a bit, laugh a bit, swear a bit, in general fall over himself not to act or look or sound like someone in authority, I wondered if I'd have learnt to read and write, or been so keen to read and write, had I had him as a teacher. Nothing works for everyone, but if the problem of illiteracy is worse now than it was, might that not be because the old methods worked well enough, that while some of us were put off by teachers who wore gowns and taught at the blackboard and gave us rules and did not pretend that they were dickheads, more of us were not. Progressive teaching has much to answer for, and while I can't prove that that includes five million adults who can't read or write, I ask whether it can be any coincidence that the further we step back from authoritative teacher-centred learning the more uneducated we become.
"Moved as I was by the series, anyway, I could not avoid the conclusion that Phil Beadle is representative of the very wrong he is offering to right. We are not pedantic in this column. We accept that anyone can make a mistake. But it didn't augur well for the all-round educatedness of the enterprise that Phil Beadle began each episode with the same aggressively solecistic piece to camera: "It's tragic. We as a body of professionals have to come up with a solution to this, because it's been laying festering for too long." Didn't he, as a "professional", know, or shouldn't someone else, as professionals, have known for him, that while a dead chicken might lay festering, a problem lies? That the wrong spelling of the verb "to practise" was allowed to go up in the final credits (that should be "practise", folks; "practice" is the noun in this country) only compounded the irony and further proved my point – you look for literacy (correction, li'eracy) on television at your peril."
From The Independent at link [published 9 August 2008]
- Can’t read, can’t write BBC series
- Evidence-based practice in teaching and teacher education
- Neuroscience and education: from research to practice?
- Links on "Project Follow Through"
They are all worth a look !
- The West Australian
Lessons too hard for teachers
by Bethany Hiatt
Workforce lacks the skills to implement some aspects of a new national school curriculum, professional body admits.
“Many English teachers lack the basic literacy skills they need to teach a new national curriculum effectively, according to their professional association.
“The English Teachers Association of WA has raised questions in a draft response to the National Curriculum Board about the readiness of teachers to teach grammar.
“With reduced university entrance scores, there is an increase in the number of teachers with proportionately lower literacy skills,” it said. “This is sure to have a pronounced impact on the capacity of the workforce to implement some aspects of a national curriculum effectively.”
“A national curriculum for English, history, maths and science is scheduled to be rolled out into schools in 2011.
“The board released early curriculum drafts in the form of “framing papers” late last year which provided a broad outline for each subject. Feedback on the papers is due by the end of the month.
“The English framing paper said the new curriculum should place renewed focus on learning grammar, spelling and punctuation across all stages of schooling. The response paper from the ETA, which English teachers are being invited to comment on before a final submission is prepared, also said the draft curriculum placed too much emphasis on “literary texts”.
“While it acknowledged the place of literary texts, it said members favoured a breadth of text types, including television programs, news and current affairs, film and documentary.
“The paper also said early curriculum drafts failed to provide sufficient detail on how students would be assessed.
“ETAWA president Wendy Cody said yesterday it was vital that teachers were given support to implement new curriculum.
“The History Teachers Association of Australia said in its submission to the board that the draft history course was too difficult for primary school students.
“It said the proposed program was “far too ambitious in terms of both content to be covered and the conceptual capabilities assumed for students at this stage”.
“HTAA president Paul Kiem said the content that students were expected to have covered by the end of primary school in the draft curriculum was content that high school teachers would consider to be “wildly optimistic”.
“We are struggling to get close to that by the end of Year 10,” he said.
“The association also called for history teachers to meet minimum qualification standards. “It said high school teachers should have completed at least one history major in their first degree and a one-year “history method” program. A submission by the Science Teachers Association of WA called for more definitive information about the possible move to national exams to help schools plan.”
From The West Australian
Editorial
“When the English Teachers Association of WA suggests that many teachers lack the literacy skills needed for teaching a new curriculum effectively, there is cause to worry about falling standards in schools. The association says that reduced university entrance scores have resulted in more teachers with lower literacy skills.
“It follows that if teachers have inadequacies in their understanding and use of language, so will their students – and so the cycle continues.
“The need to attract more bright young people into teaching by raising the profession's public standing could hardly be more pressing.”
From The West Australian
Attacks on schools cost $15m
“Vandals, arsonists and thieves hit WA public schools more than 10,000 times last year, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and prompting calls for harsher penalties.
“The Department of Education and Training said schools across the State recorded 10,124 security incidents last year, a 3.9 per cent increase on 2007 figures.
“But the cost of repairing the damage had skyrocketed 145 per cent to $15,582,000.
“Head of security John Marrapodi said this was because of a 60 per cent increase in arson attacks last year.
“Though arson represents only 0.3 per cent of the total number of offences, it accounts for approximately half the costs associated with security incidents,” he said.
“Rob Fry, president of WA’s main parents’ association the WA Council of State School Organisations, said tougher penalties should be imposed on vandals and arsonists.
“It’s not just isolated to schools, it’s all public buildings,” he said. “It is an epidemic. And we need tougher laws to deal with these things.”
“He said such attacks left children and parents devastated. “We need to toughen up the penalties and make parents and guardians responsible for the actions of their children,” he said.
“Apart from the cost to the students in terms of the inconvenience and the problems it creates, it is also the cost to the public.”
“WA Secondary School Executives Association president Rob Nairn said the disruption which vandalism caused to children’s learning was as big a problem as the damage bills that schools faced.
“Perhaps there should be harsher penalties,” he said. “There needs to be a deterrent because of the impact that it has on students.”
“Attorney-General Christian Porter said that under the Young Offenders Act 1994, courts already had the power to make responsible adults liable to pay for fines and restitution as a result of property damage by juveniles.
“This Government is committed to increasing penalties for graffiti and related criminal acts,” Mr Porter said.
“Mr Marrapodi said the department’s security unit used a range of measures to prevent damage to its 800 schools.
“This includes monitored alarms, lighting, fencing, landscape management, security screens and mobile school watch security patrols,” he said.
“School Watch patrols monitored schools after hours and when they were closed for holidays.
“Vigilant community members also helped by reporting suspicious behaviour.”
From The West Australian
Teacher vows to rebuild school
“The last time Peri Dix saw Marysville Primary School was early on Saturday afternoon, hours before the historic township became a wasteland of ash and devastation.
“Like many principals at small government schools, Mrs Dix is also a full-time teacher and had dropped into the school with her husband Martin to prepare lessons and set up classrooms for the coming week.
“About 3pm, “the winds picked up horrifically” - but like most of Marysville, Mr and Mrs Dix though nothing of it as they packed their car and returned to their home in Healesville.
“It was a 47C day, it was hot, it was positively miserable, and then all of a sudden – as we'd been warned – there would be a high wind,” she said yesterday. “But her had no idea there was imminent danger.
“Five days after Saturday's firestorm destroyed Marysville Primary School and the once-thriving township around it, the question of how to rebuild is foremost on Mrs Dix's mind.
“After all, for many of her 39 students, the reality of Australia's worst natural disaster is only starting to sink in. None of her pupils or teachers died, but each of them knows someone who has. One student lost both parents; another teacher lost her home. Yet the scale of destruction is still unfolding. While 15 people have been officially confirmed dead in Marysville, the final toll will not be known for weeks.
“But one thing is for certain, says Mrs Dix: “We've come to the conclusion that Maryville Primary School is going to stay Marysville Primary School – we want it rebuilt. The community has made that very clear. It will take time, though. It will take time”
“If there is one thing the people of Marysville have shown in the face of the bushfire tragedy, it is community spirit. Mrs Dix remembers being at home on Saturday night when phone calls and text messages about the scale of the fire came flooding in. By Sunday morning, her worse fears were confirmed. The town, the school where she had been principal for the last year had been annihilated.
“For local resident Mike Wasley, whose son Loki started Year 6 at Marysville Primary School this year, rebuilding will take some time. His is yet another story of survival. An ambulance officer, he spent hours fighting the fire on Saturday night as flames engulfed his straw-bale house.
“Miraculously, he survived – as did his wife, son, four neighbours and six dogs and cats who sough refuge in his house as surrounding properties burnt to ash.
“For an hour and a half we were fighting the fire, and then from 7:30 to 8:30 we stayed inside where it was cool, and there was oxygen, and we just had to sit that out,” he said.
“There were seven people, three dogs and three cats and I managed to pile them all into a little Subaru when we finally evacuated and got down to the oval.”
From The West Australian
- The Sunday Times online / PerthNow
- Driver tries to grab student outside school
School students in Perth's eastern and southern suburbs have been warned to be alert after two attempted abductions on young girls.
Related story on ABC News
- The Independent
- Teachers 'need lessons in breaking up fights'
Staff are too scared to intervene in violent incidents, survey shows
Teachers are demanding lessons in restraint techniques to help them stop fights between pupils. Many staff are worried they will face assault charges if they intervene physically to break them up, says a report to be published next week.
- Rise in school attendance contracts
Rising numbers of parents are being asked to sign contracts promising to ensure their child attends school, it was revealed today.
Similar stories in most major UK media
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Parents may face criminal charges for trying to bribe teacher
Two parents who were so desperate to get their son into a selective high school that they tried to bribe one of his teachers, face criminal charges.
Saturday – Sunday, 14 – 15 February
- ABC News
- Call for end to 'no school, no welfare' program
"The Australian Greens are urging the State Government to abandon a trial of the 'no school, no welfare' program.
"The trial was supposed to begin in Cannington at the beginning of the school year under an agreement with the Federal Government and the former State Government, but the Barnett Government is yet to determine its position.
"The Greens Senator Rachel Siewart says the program has been widely criticised and she hopes the State Government will not support it.
"We're very pleased that the State Government is seriously looking at the flaws in this approach and really, really strongly encourage them not to go ahead," she said.
"A much more positive approach, working with families, is a much better way to get kids in school, and keep them in school."
From ABC News at link
More detailed story in The West Australian
- Schools need to be bushfire-proofed, Vic MP says
The Federal MP who represents much of the region ravaged by Victoria's bushfires says schools should be a top priority in the rebuilding process. Member for McEwan Fran Bailey says if Saturday's fires had broken out on a weekday, thousands of children would have been in the schools and kindergartens that were destroyed.
- The Sunday Age
- Schools set Asian lingo challenge
The Federal Government has quietly launched a $62 million Asian language plan with an ambitious goal to double within a decade the number of year 12 students fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian or Korean.
- Letter to the Editor
- Fund state system
"As a year 12 English teacher, I'm guiding my students through the "Whose reality?" section of their course. Kevin Donnelly's opinion piece, "Non-government schools punch well above their weight" (The Sunday Age, 8/2), should provide ample fodder for discussion as we try to work out exactly what reality he inhabits. In whose reality is a school such as Scotch College used as an example to disprove the "misconception" that non-government schools are awash with funds?
"I used to teach at Scotch before choosing to move to the state system. I have the utmost admiration for the school and its teachers who, indeed, do a fabulous job, but as you wander through the enormous grounds marvelling at the multi-million-dollar facilities, the last thing that would occur to you is that they might be short of funds.
"Donnelly also does his best to manipulate reality through selective citing of research in support of non-government schooling. The reality is that there is ample research, from the OECD and other sources, that shows a strongly funded public system is the linchpin of educational success. There is universal acceptance that Finland, a country that is almost entirely devoid of private schools, heads the pack when it comes to educational achievement. Meanwhile, Australia has twice as many students enrolled in private schools than the OECD average. If, as Donnelly claims every other week, there is a crisis in Australian education, maybe it lies in continuing reluctance from governments to direct funds to the schools that really need them."
Blair Mahoney, Brunswick West
- Why should we pay?
"Kevin Donnelly tells us "non-government schools punch well above their weight". Yes they do, with the help of my taxes. As a non-Christian, socialist, state school supporter, it makes my stomach turn.
"I dislike the values taught in private schools and I should not have to pay for their proliferation.
"George Bush the First said, when asked if he agreed with state aid for private schooling, that parents were entitled to send their children to any school they liked but those who chose private schools "can't ask for a break for that".
"Is Donnelly ingenuous when he says that private schools save governments $5 billion per year? It seems so, because he then declares that governments provide "only 57.1%" of their funding, about $10 billion. Is there any other industry that is subsidised two-to-one like private schooling?
"He trots out the good old argument that elitist parents pay taxes for something they don't use. I don't use trams or trains but no one pays for my petrol.
"But let's not be too concerned about the future of state schools: when the global financial crisis reaches its peak, there will be a tsunami of enrolments back into state schools. The community might benefit too. A two-bedroom apartment converted from bluestone classrooms in St Kilda Road would be quite nice."
Graeme Lee, Fitzroy
- The Guardian
- Don't send children to school at four, warn experts
New research says stress of formal schooling could put them off for life
Plans to lower the mandatory school starting age to four could trigger a wave of stress and anxiety among children according to new research which suggests starting formal lessons so early can damage some youngsters' education for life.
- BBC News
- Unruly pupils 'need more support'
Schools should band together to provide social workers for unruly pupils and support groups for parents, according to the government's "behaviour tsar".
- The Washington Post
- Stimulus Includes $5 Billion Flexible Fund for Education Innovation
Education Secretary Arne Duncan would have $5 billion under the stimulus bill to back new approaches to improve schools, a fund that could prod states to raise standards and reward top teachers as the Obama administration presides over a massive infusion of federal education aid. The Race to the Top Fund, as Duncan calls it, is part of about $100 billion the bill would channel to public schools, universities and early childhood education programs nationwide, helping stave off teacher layoffs, keep class sizes in check and jump-start efforts to revamp aging schools.
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This page last updated 15 February, 2009 9:57 PM
