Monday 30 March

Tuesday 31 March

Wednesday 1 April

Thursday 2 April

Friday 3 April

Saturday – Sunday, 4 – 5 April

Monday 30 March

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Police could get school posts
    by Geoffrey Thomas
    
    "The State Government is considering reintroducing police into some high schools as it emerged yesterday that a crisis meeting had been convened to discuss eight serious assaults on teachers at Clarkson Community High School.
      
    "State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne confirmed the assaults and said the union would hold a meeting with teachers from the school next week.
    
    "Education Minister Liz Constable said yesterday that she had had preliminary discussions with Police Minister Rob Johnson “about a police presence in selected schools”.
      
    “Assaults of any kind should not be tolerated in schools,” she said. “Action against the culprits should be appropriate and decisive.”
      
    "Mr Johnson said he was “happy to discuss further any concerns the Education Minister may have”.
      
    “I should stress at the outset that police have never been placed in schools in an enforcement role,” he said. “They have only ever had a presence in schools to help foster community relations.”
      
    "Premier Colin Barnett, responding to the airing on YouTube of a fight at John Forrest Senior High School, said last year that “there are situations in which police should be on school sites”.
      
    "According to sources in the Education Department and confirmed by the union, one incident at Clarkson High involved a teacher who was trying to break up an altercation being set upon by the two groups. The teacher received facial lacerations which required medical treatment and time off.
      
    "Another attack involved a student hitting a different teacher across the back of the neck, while in a separate assault a teacher was punched in the chest when he tried to get students to leave a room.
      
    "Ms Gisborne said the incidents were “outrageous” and the deterioration in student behaviour was a major factor cited by the nearly 40 per cent of new teachers resigning within four years of starting in the profession.
      
    “The prospect of being hit in the workplace is completely abhorrent. This is criminal activity,” she said.
      
    "In the past two years there has been a 32 per cent increase in assaults on teachers across the State, with 543 assaults reported last year, an average of about three assaults per school day.
      
    "In 2007, a total of 10,536 students, or 4.3 per cent of the school population, were suspended or expelled.
      
    "The Education Department has confirmed eight “incidents” have occurred at Clarkson Community High School this year but said only one was termed “critical” and required police to be called. The student had since been “excluded from the school”.
      
    "The other incidents were not logged as “critical” but were treated as serious incidents by the school.
     
    "Five resulted in the suspension of students for two days and two led to the suspension of students for three days."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    BLOG: Should police be posted in schools?
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    
    
    • “League tables’ are invalid and damaging
      
      "Teachers and principals are opposed to the “league tables” that your newspaper is so keen to print (Teachers, principals defiant on rankings, 26/3) because they know they are invalid and thet they do great damage.
      
      "The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy test has already taken on a life of its own.  Teachers can now go online and download daily lessons for all of term one, based on NAPLAN testing. There is also a CD distributed to all teachers with test examples and practice booklets can be purchased. So now, teachers either teach to the test or risk being labeled by your “league table” as having failed.
      
      "Do not waste time teaching the writing of letters, expositions and reports or developing research skills. Only narrative writing is included in the test. Is it best to encourage students to use advanced vocabulary and risk a spelling error, or should they play it safe with an easier word? And since a lot of the test is multiple-choice, students need to be instructed on the techniques of taking advantage of this form of testing by eliminating the unlikely possibilities and them colouring in a dot, or just guessing, even if you don’t know the answer. This is dishonest but necessary because they may get it right and do better on the “league table”.
      
      "NAPLAN is fine, when used for the right purpose – as an indicator of strengths and weaknesses but not when it becomes the focus of all teaching and learning."
      
      Heather Blackwell, Toodyay
      
      
      
    • On homework
      
      "Over recent months the media have covered the subject and value of school homework. The opinion of most parents seems to be that this extra time spent out of school is a waste of time and a burden on the student.
      
      "Having been a teacher for 24 years in secondary education, I strongly consider the true purpose of setting homework two aims. First, it enables the teacher to gauge if the students has grasped the subject matter. Second, is the student able to answer the questions set in the class assessments at the class tests ort, the examination at the end of term?
      
      "The important issue here is that homework is the process of gaining feedback to both the teacher and student alike."
      
      S. D. Butcher, Gosnells
      
      
      
      
• ABC News
  
  
  • Education Dept defends teacher rent bill
    
    "The Department of Education and Training has defended its handling of a dispute with two Pilbara teachers who have been given a bill for $18,000 in backdated rent.
    
    "Brad Snell and his wife breached department guidelines by buying a property while living in a public sector house in Karratha last year.
    
    "The department is insisting the pair repay seven months' rent, causing them to leave the state school system and take up jobs at a local Catholic school.
    
    "The director of regional and remote schools, Colin Pettit, says the teachers knew they were not entitled to taxpayer subsidised housing once they owned a habitable property in the area.
    
    "He says it is vital the rules are enforced to prevent taxpayers' money being wasted.
    
    "The department has acted well and truly within all guidelines and we try to support all of our teachers," he said.
    
    "Remembering that, with housing short in the Pilbara, we have to have housing available for those who are entitled to it."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • The Monday Education Section has nine articles, including:
    
    
    • Science shakeup falls flat
      by Caroline Milburn
      
      "Sweeping changes planned for the way science is taught in schools have received a lukewarm response from educators.
      
      "The proposed national curriculum for science says the traditional approach of dividing areas of study into the topics of chemistry, biology and physics should be dropped for students through to year 10.
      
      "The draft paper on science from the National Curriculum Board says the current method of teaching science tends to be "knowledge-heavy and alienating for a number of students". Instead tuition from prep to year 10 should focus on the big ideas in science, such as energy and climate change, to spark student interest and give them an understanding of scientific knowledge.
      
      "Separate subjects such as chemistry, biology and physics would be introduced in years 11 and 12.
      
      "Science teachers have welcomed the proposal. In a submission to the National Curriculum Board, the Australian Science Teachers Association agrees the current curriculum is overloaded with content and often alienates students.
      
      "We would welcome a `less is more' approach with a focus on inquiry and processes and deeper understanding rather than simple knowledge acquisition," the association's submission says. But it warns that education authorities would have to introduce a comprehensive professional development package to equip teachers to implement the new curriculum.
      
      "Association president Peter Turnbull says science teachers support the move away from the current curriculum structure because it has become outdated and has led to science being relegated to a minor role in many schools.
      
      "We don't want to teach a 1950s-type curriculum," he says. "The proposals are a way of moving forward and engaging students in the big ideas of science. We're cognisant of the fact that scientists themselves - those doing real science in the scientific world - are cutting across those old traditional boundaries. Genetics now depends as much on molecular chemistry as it does on biology."
      
      "However, the proposed changes have been criticised by several key groups, including primary-school principals and the university deans of science. The Australian Primary Principals Association criticised the draft paper for focusing too heavily on teaching methods, with not enough attention on scientific knowledge and skills.
      
      "The Australian Council of Deans of Science has raised similar concerns, saying the curriculum fails to provide a grounding in basic scientific theory. It wants the curriculum to be based on broad scientific theories, such as cosmology and motion, which would include what students should know at every level of their schooling.
      
      "Council executive director John Rice says the deans realise that school students are turning off science because the curriculum, especially at senior secondary level, has become too narrow and technical, with too much emphasis on process learning and not enough focus on the broader, human dimensions of science.
      
      "We think the curriculum needs to change," says Professor Rice. "We want to see people teaching science in the context of global warming and other interesting things that relate to the way people live. But if you do not say how these popular themes are going to lead to an understanding of basic science we think the curriculum will fail."
      
      "The deans also warn that the change to an inquiry-based learning method for students requires a much higher level of scientific expertise from teachers. Research commissioned by the deans shows many staff teaching science in schools had limited or no adequate qualifications to do so.
      
      "The approach being proposed requires a much deeper understanding of basic science, and how it plays out in those popular themes or ideas, to do the job properly," says Professor Rice. "If you roll out a change that the workforce isn't prepared for you can easily be worse off. The proposal seems unrealistic unless it is accompanied by a sea-change in the quantum and nature of teacher professional development."
      
      "To help overcome science's unpopularity among students the Australian Science Teachers Association says the national curriculum should more than double the amount of time schools spend on the subject.
      
      "In primary schools an average 3 per cent of time is spent on science - less than the time spent on assemblies or religion. At secondary school level the subject is shrinking, with more schools offering it as an elective or half-year course.
      
      "The association wants the National Curriculum Board to introduce compulsory minimum time allocations for science tuition of:
      
      - At least 90 minutes per week for students aged up to eight
      
      - At least 120 minutes per week for senior primary school
      
      - At least 210 minutes per week for secondary level up to Year 10
      
      "There will be concerns about the `overcrowded curriculum' and the ability to fit in all that is expected into a school day," the association's submission says. "However . . . even 120 minutes per week is at best only 8 per cent of curriculum time."
      
      "Mr Turnbull says integrating science into the curriculum for younger students rather than treating it as a stand-alone subject had proved successful in the Primary Connections program. The rapidly growing program combines science with a literacy curriculum. More than half of the nation's primary schools are using it.
      
      "The National Curriculum Board is examining the feedback to its draft paper on science before starting to write the curriculum next month.
      
      "The curricula for English, Maths, History and Science are due to be finished by January next year.
      
      From The Age at link
      
      
      
    • Op Ed
      Don't spare the rod
      by Kevin Donnelly
      
      "Overwork, large classes and poor pay are issues that worry new teachers. But according to a recent Australian Education Union survey of teachers across Australia, the other issue at the forefront of their minds is classroom behaviour.
      
      "The 2008 survey, which drew 1545 responses, ranks disruptive students second on a list of 11 issues - rating 66.1 per cent, compared with 68.5 per cent for concerns about workload, 62.9 per cent for pay and 62.6 per cent for class sizes.
      
      "Of even more concern is that the figure on behaviour reflects a jump of more than 10 per cent compared with the 2007 survey. At the secondary level, the issue is ranked number one, with a rating of 71.4 per cent.
      
      "Victorian school leaders also see disruptive students as a serious issue. The president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, Brian Burgess, recently criticised the Brumby Government for weakening the power of schools to deal with the problem.
      
      "Australian teachers and principals are not alone in expressing anxiety about the damaging effects of classroom misbehaviour.
      
      "In Britain, a recent teacher survey found that 45.5 per cent of those interviewed said challenging behaviour was a daily event and nearly two-thirds agreed that student behaviour had grown worse since they had started teaching.
      
      "Disruptive behaviour does not just undermine learning; equally damaging is its effect on teacher morale and wellbeing. According to one newspaper report, cases of stress leave for Victorian teachers have risen from 125 in 2006 to 170 in 2008.
      
      "Beyond the cost of WorkCover claims, many qualified and committed teachers leave the profession early because of the anxiety and stress caused by disruptive students.
      
      "It needs to be noted, too, that many beginning teachers are also concerned about aggressive and demanding parents, with 86.5 per cent saying that their training had not adequately prepared them for dealing with what many teachers describe as the angry parent syndrome.
      
      "What's to be done? At a time when teachers are told that they must solve society's problems - from drug and alcohol abuse to sex education, self-esteem and wellness training, road safety, diet and, following Black Saturday, bushfire prevention - it's time to say enough is enough.
      
      "Parents are primarily responsible for raising their children and for instilling discipline and respect for others.
      
      "It should be no surprise that children who are indulged, spoilt and turned into prima donnas at home cause disruption at school. So-called helicopter parents - the ones always hovering around, interfering and giving advice - should realise that they need to stand back, give children responsibility and allow teachers and schools to set and enforce their rules free from interference.
      
      "Based on the AEU beginning teachers' survey, it is clear that pre-service teacher education needs to be more effective in equipping teachers to cope with classroom realities. When asked whether their training had prepared them to deal with particular groups of challenging students, such as those from non-English speaking backgrounds, those with disabilities and those from dysfunctional backgrounds, nearly 70 per cent said "no".
      
      "Inquiries into teacher education have recommended that more time be given to practical classroom experience, with less emphasis on educational theory and more on what constitutes effective, research-based classroom practice.
      
      "Most baby boomer teachers my age will remember the '70s and '80s, when formal discipline went out the window - along with the strap and school inspectors - and classroom rules were negotiated, teachers were called by their first name and a student's rights had priority over those of the group.
      
      "One response to unruly behaviour, advocated by Britain's Office for Standards in Education, is a return to traditional discipline and a more authoritarian school environment. Comprehensive schools in disadvantaged areas have received positive reports after taking up such an approach.
      
      "In drawing a clear line between life on the streets and what is accepted in the classroom, schools have banned hoodies and gang colours, introduced formal assemblies, clear rules that are enforced quickly and consistently, and strict uniform regulations.
      
      "Many inner-city US schools have also turned behaviour around by enforcing strict rules and by promoting a school culture that rewards effort and success.
      
      "Compare such approaches with what takes place in many Australian schools, where discipline procedures are convoluted and bureaucratic. It's often assumed that teachers are at fault and parents are only too willing to take their children's side in any dispute.
      
      "In one notable example of how difficult it is to enforce discipline, a Victorian teacher failed to intervene in a schoolyard fight between a group of girls, most likely because of what would have happened if he had manhandled one of them.
      
      "Research shows that, along with a rigorous, properly defined curriculum, teachers are the most important factor in successful learning.
      
      "To be effective, teachers need to be well paid, well resourced and to be given the power to maintain discipline in the classroom."
      
      Dr Kevin Donnelly is author of Dumbing Down. He taught for 18 years in Victorian secondary schools.
      
      From The Age at link
      
      
      
    • Age of enlightenment
      
      Helen Jackson is still leading and inspiring teachers and students after 60 years, writes Elisabeth Tarica.
      
      
      
  • Op Ed
    Join Winnie's war and mind your language
    
    Sometimes words are not enough, especially the wrong words.
    
    Winston Churchill might be well known for the battles he waged in the name of the Allied forces, but it is the lesser-known war he declared on the desecration of the English language that still rages.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Op Ed
    The sound and the fury about making sense of written words
    
    He has been criticised over his refusal to bow to the idea that phonics is the only necessary first step in learning to read. Associate professor Brian Cambourne argues his case.
    
    "After more than 50 years of teaching reading, I'm hearing more comments such as "Dick/Jane can read fluently at a high level but don't have a clue about what they read."
    
    "This rings alarm bells. It suggests reading is merely decoding-to-sound and implies comprehension is secondary to decoding. Such views can alienate students from deep engagement in life-long reading.
    
    "Let me explain. An alphabetic writing system gives the illusion that reading is translating visual symbols into their phonetic equivalents. You decode the graphic symbols into the sounds they represent, blend them, and then hear words inside your head to which you attach meanings. This is "comprehension". Given this illusion it's common sense that you must first learn to decode. This means mastering phonics before you can comprehend.
    
    "Unfortunately, illusions can acquire the status of irrefutable truths. Our perceptual system creates the illusion that the Earth is flat. For thousands of years a "flat Earth" assumption was basic to navigation theory. If you sailed too far you would fall off the edge of the Earth.
    
    "Just as this affected how sailors navigated, the illusion that readers cannot comprehend an alphabetic text until they have first decoded it to sound has had a strong impact on reading education. It too has acquired the status of an absolute truth around which a set of self-affirming theoretical principles has also developed..."
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Action over truancy and behaviour
    
    "The role of parents is being emphasised in a new action plan to promote positive behaviour and attendance at schools in Wales.
    
    "The Behaving and Attending report marks the assembly government's response to a two-year study into truancy.
    
    "It also looks at raising levels of literacy in young people, improve teacher training.
    
    "Education minister Jane Hutt said: "We want to see all of our young people reach their full potential".
    
    "Launched at Fitzalan High School in Cardiff, the document is intended to shape the direction and pace of the assembly government's policy on truancy.
    
    "The National Behaviour and Attendance Review published last May found a clear link between low literacy and behavioural and attendance problems. It also found a large number of professionals feel under-trained in handling attendance and behavioural problems and that the number of pupils out of school was not properly monitored..."
    
    Full story at BBC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian
  
  
  • Clever boys dumb down to avoid bullying in school
    
    Clever children are saving themselves from being branded swots at school by dumbing down and deliberately falling behind, a study has shown.

 

Tuesday 31 March

• The Age
  
  
  • Op Ed
    The company that's giving us the finger
    
    Premium SMS firms are making a mockery of self-regulation.
    
    A child enters an innocent-looking online quiz and is suddenly incurring huge fees for a premium subscription SMS service... Well worth a look if your children have mobile phones... Web
    
    
    
  • Letters to the Editor
    

    • Teachers betrayed by their minister
      
      "After 30 years of secondary school teaching, I can only view Bronwyn Pike as out of touch in her attempts to cut the period of suspension imposed on often out-of-control students ("State limits school student suspensions to five days", The Age, 28/3). Suspension is invoked at the end of an already lengthy process of behaviour management and counselling. It is not just the behaviour of these miscreants but the effect it has on the vast majority of students whose own learning is interrupted that is at question.
      
      "Having teachers down tools to deal with these unreasonable individuals with time-consuming referrals and counselling takes those teachers away from a far more effective use of their time in the classroom.
      
      "For a former teacher to condemn the overwhelming majority of students and already overstretched teachers in her state to a system that seeks to quickly place these reprobates back into the classroom is a betrayal of the most short-sighted kind."
      
      John Skillington, Albury, NSW
      
      

    • Education for all

      "Julia Gillard's hope is that the new education system will enable us to produce more doctors, lawyers and businessmen.
      
      "I am hopeful that Julia's vision is wider than that. We do not all want to be — or are capable of being — doctors, lawyers or businessmen. Some of us will choose to be — and will need the education to help us become — very good carpenters, builders, motor mechanics, librarians, home makers, social workers, teachers — the list is endless.
      
      "With the right education, we can do the job we have chosen with skill and pride and pleasure."
      
      Shirley Painter, St Kilda
      
      
      

• BBC News
  
  
  • Pupil TV habits concern teachers [similar stories in other UK media]
    
    Ninety per cent of teachers say some pupils are imitating the language and behaviour of reality television stars, a survey for a teaching union suggests.

 

Wednesday 1 April

• The Age
  
  
  • Schools funding boost 'fails public system'
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "A $14 billion Federal Government plan to bolster the economy by upgrading schools is a short-term solution that will fail to solve the investment gap between public and private education, a leading economist has warned.
    
    "As the Government prepares to roll out billions of dollars for schools to build new libraries, multi-purpose halls and upgraded classrooms, a report by former World Bank educational economist Adam Rorris has also raised concerns the program is being rushed and does not provide a long-term plan to rebuild Australia's education system.
    
    "Under the so-called "Building the Education Revolution" scheme, the Government plans to create new jobs — and in turn, stimulate the economy — by giving primary schools $12.4 billion to build new facilities. Another $1 billion will be freed up for secondary schools to build new science or language learning centres, and $1.3 billion is available for small-scale building projects.
    
    "However, Mr Rorris told The Age that while the program would provide a much-needed boost to many schools that had been starved of funds, the fact that all schools were entitled to money — rather than the funding being targeted to the neediest schools — "remains a significant weakness".
    
    "Under the program, money will be allocated on the basis of a school's size but the allocation does not take into account its existing resources.
    
    "They've not distinguished between schools when they're handing out the money, and as a consequence, they've not solved the investment gap between the public and the private sectors," said Mr Rorris, a former manager of the Schools Resourcing Taskforce, which advises education ministers. "If they'd had the political courage to actually not include schools that already have large capital expenditure programs, they would have achieved more equitable outcomes and they would have had more money available for poorer schools." [emphasis added]
    
    "In a report presented to a public education forum at the weekend, Mr Rorris found that the $14.7 billion capital works program had reduced the investment gap between public and private schools — but not eradicated it.
    
    "According to his figures, the estimated capital investment per private school student last year was $1774, compared with capital investment of $948 for each public school student — a difference of $826. This year, with the money from the rebuilding program, each private student gets an estimated $3020 compared with $2470 — a difference of $550.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday admitted the scale and pace of the rebuilding program meant some people might "get the wrong end of the stick". But the program was the "single biggest school modernisation program this nation has ever seen", she said, and "we're doing it quickly in an unashamed fashion because we want to support the economy and support jobs in these difficult economic days".
    
    "Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said: "If you're going to spend $14 billion on infrastructure, you'd want it to be spent wisely, but this is the outcome of a rushed and desperate stimulus package."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Education is no place for a free market
    by Chris Bonner
    
    Competition has fostered a system that penalises the poor.
    
    We've now muddled through about three decades of choice and competition. Surely it is time to question whether it has worked? After all, the unregulated free market has received quite a hammering lately — including from our Prime Minister. If competition between schools is delivering, let's have more of it. If it isn't, then it's time to say so — and build something better.
    
    Chris Bonnor is co-author (with Jane Caro) of The Stupid Country — How Australia is dismantling public education (UNSW Press, 2007).
    
    
    
  • Obituary: Ken Rowe
    Educator had sound principles
    
    
    
  • VCE mark cut as cheats fail to prosper
    
    Dozens of VCE students have been investigated for cheating in their exams last year, with some culprits using "cheat sheets", hiding answers in their dictionaries or copying from fellow students in a bid to gain an advantage.
    
    
    
  • Too many cooks spoiling the skills shortage broth: report
    
    Despite an explosion in the number of overseas students studying cooking to obtain permanent residence in Australia, few end up working as cooks, according to a report.
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    

    • Self-regulation of the wallet works
      
      "Letting the shonky operators of Premium SMS services and their pimps (telcos) self-regulate (Comment & Debate, 31/3) sounds like a perfectly sensible solution to me.
      
      "We should also give pick-pockets, credit-card scammers, Nigerian letter-writers and other assorted muggers the opportunity to set their own boundaries. I'm certain they'll do the right thing by us.
      
      "If they don't, don't expect our elected representatives to do anything; they've been aware of this situation for a long time and taken no action, while the Telecommunications Ombudsman is groaning under the weight of complaints.
      
      "The solution to end the great Premium SMS scam, strangely enough, is self-regulation — by consumers.
      
      "I urge all victims to self-regulate (as I have), by not paying the amount billed for these "services". If you discover that you have already unwittingly paid, then deduct the amount from your next repayment.
      
      "If enough victims pursue this action, the telcos, whose complicity makes the whole scheme possible, might have to self-regulate to reflect their customers' interests."
      
      Robert Pizzari, East Brunswick
      
      
      

• The Australian
  
  
  • Rule review after banned teacher Adrian Laragy questions victim
    
    A teacher banned after being found guilty of making sexually explicit comments to a teenage student he touched and tried to kiss was permitted to cross-examine the girl during disciplinary proceedings. Victim advocates attacked the process adopted by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, saying it "re-traumatised" the victim, was out of step with the courts and allowed the abuse of power by the teacher to continue.
    
    
    Higher Education
    
    
  • Learning boom amid the economic gloom
    
    Australia's export education industry grew 42 per cent in the three years to 2008, employs 126,000 people and contributes 1 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product, according to an Access Economics report.
    
    
    • Overseas students 'vital' to economy
      
      A drop of 5 per cent in the number of overseas students at Australian colleges and universities would cause 6300 Australians to lose their jobs as the economy shed more than $600 million in export revenue, a new report warns.
      
      
      
  • Free study plea for the jobless
    
    The unemployed, people forced to work fewer hours and those on short-term contracts should be allowed to enrol in part-time university courses for free, a British think tank representing 28 universities has urged.
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Show us the policies
    
    The likely dearth of new money for higher education in the forthcoming federal budget will increase pressure on the Government's policy development. The Rudd Government seems to be developing a three-speed budget for this May. It is putting spending on infrastructure at the national, state and local levels into overdrive, almost beyond the capacity of governments to manage sensibly. It is greatly expanding spending on vocational education and labour market programs, funding 700,000 places in the hope of cushioning people against unemployment, and preparing them for the higher-skilled jobs needed when the economy recovers. It seems from Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent comments on Sydney radio that her Government will put recurrent spending on higher education in neutral, or at best a very low first gear
    
    
    
  • John Dawkins seeks improvements in integrity
    
    Universities and TAFEs face new compliance measures to help shore up the integrity of Australia's reputation overseas for quality degrees and diplomas, as well as to increase traffic between the two sectors.
    
    
    
  • Plea to let in a bit of blue sky for high-risk science projects
    
    Australian scientific research is being hamstrung by a systemic failure to support high-risk projects and ideas, Nobel prize-winning scientist Barry Marshall has warned.
    
    
    
    
• Newmatilda.com
  
  
  • Putting Schools Under The Microscope [from 30 March]
    
    When it comes to education, bigger is not necessarily better. The Rudd Government needs to take a closer look at its education revolution, writes Stephen Orr
    
    "As a high school teacher with 13 years experience I'd like to talk about a state education system that seems paralysed by political and public indifference, a lack of funds, ageing teachers, low professional morale and a modus operandi that seems firmly rooted in the 1950s. I'd like to talk about public education in South Australia but, by extension, I suppose I could be talking about schools from Hobart to Hermit Creek. I'd like to ask why there's no real big picture for our schools, despite Kevin Rudd's "education revolution" rhetoric.
    
    "High schools, it seems to me, are all about bulk — the maximum number of children through the door, in the classroom, sitting on wobbly chairs, struggling for the odd, occasional geriatric computer. Schools are staffed to a formula: one teacher per 25, 26 or 27 kids. The number is not important, because the reality is that children are not taught as cattle are vaccinated; the formula never considers learning difficulties, teenage apathy, failure to engage, dyslexia, problems at home and a list of concerns that teachers deal with every day.
    
    "Similarly, teachers are tasked to work to formula. At my last school it was 1350 contact minutes per week. Yard duty, preparation, marking and tutoring were squeezed into the gaps. Bulk. Quantity versus quality.
    
    "Surely any half-decent education system should be engaged in a discussion of quality. How do young minds develop, learn, retain, process, create and imagine? These are issues dear to the heart of most teachers, but topics that rarely get discussed. The average day for the average teacher is fourth gear, top speed, brakes, collapse, go home. The first precondition for a quality education system must be more time for teachers to stop, consider what they're doing, listen to new ideas, learn new things and embrace the challenges of 21st century life.
    
    "Apart from stale curriculum and stale teachers, students are sitting in stale classrooms. Most South Australian high schools are two-storey meat lockers built in the 1960s when the state's population started to grow. Today, I teach in the same rooms in which I learnt about calculus and ancient Egypt. Same carpet. Same rattling heaters. Sometimes I close my eyes and smell the industrial strength disinfectant wafting in from the hallways with their "Beware Asbestos" stickers, broken lockers and scratched windows and imagine it's still 1981.
    
    "Alas, it doesn't take much imagining.
    
    "The South Australian Government is trying to solve this problem by amalgamating three or four school on one site. These "super schools", we are promised, will solve all of our educational problems (not to mention the millions raised by selling off the old sites). No child, apparently, will have to walk more than two kilometres to get to school. There'll be no overcrowding, tension or fights. The libraries will be big enough and quiet, withdrawn or special needs kids won't be bullied and there'll be more than enough vegetable lasagna for everyone. It'll be just like Goodbye, Mr Chips, although it's unlikely Mr Chips will remember all 3000 of his pupils' names.
    
    "I wouldn't be so worried about super schools if I thought our present ones were half-decent. I recently visited a school whose science faculty had only 18 low-power and 20 high-power microscopes for a student body of 900 kids. Many had missing mirrors and broken lenses and they were all old. But there was no money to replace them with the latest digital microscopes that should be in every Australian school. The problem with digital microscopes is that you need a laptop to run them and this science faculty only had one.
    
    "One. That's a very small number. But it's the same as the number of televisions the faculty possessed. Two is a slightly bigger number, big enough to describe the number of projectors in classrooms. Then there's three: the most number of computers in any classroom.
    
    "Which brings us to the education revolution. For most teachers, it's difficult to imagine a school where academic staff and students are given laptops. Even if this could be imagined, there is no way to know how the requisite technical support could ever be given by one or two underpaid, overworked techies. It's hard to imagine a whole class bringing their computer, having the cord, not having spilled breakfast on it, not using it for games or not dropping it on their little brother's head.
    
    "Throwing money around doesn't necessarily solve problems in education. Computers don't automatically make kids smarter, although if the Rudd Government does commit to appropriate long-term support, upgrades and staff training, this could be a good first step. Most teachers, though, say that the local Cash Converters will be rubbing their hands in glee.
    
    "Nothing in schools works without the goodwill of teachers. In South Australia teachers have been involved in a long-running dispute over pay and an ill-conceived "per student" funding model that the Government is attempting to introduce. Although South Australian teachers are annoyed about being the lowest paid in the country, their real concern is over the funding model — over quantity versus quality. Over a new system that will see class sizes growing towards and over 30 students and on top of this, most schools losing one, two or three teachers. Over bulk.
    
    "Education and economics are not good bedfellows. Teachers would like 18 per class, but we understand the country only has so much money. Still, most people with any sort of vision agree that the future lies not in minerals, manufacturing or building navy frigates, but in intellect, imagination; the ability to see and create the future. All of this relies on schools as places where children are inspired and pushed to their own personal boundaries, not just babysat. The Rann Government's decision to increase the school leaving age to 17 solves nothing — it's merely designed to lower the official rate of youth unemployment in a state that specialises in it.
    
    "For our state schools to become living, breathing organisms, not just 40-year-old bleached rats preserved in formaldehyde, they have to become more vocal, more politically engaged. Parents and Citizens committees need to harass local politicians and remind the community (and the media) what's stale about our schools. Teachers need to feel free to not so much criticise as critique their schools. They also need to be paid more and given more time for preparation and professional development.
    
    "I, for one, believe we could give up an extra week of our school holidays to make this happen. I also want to be made more accountable, but only if those with political muscle are reading the same script, and not determined to demonise teachers as lazy, left-wing fools who weren't good enough to find real jobs.
    
    "Finally, every level of government should start talking to teachers about what would really make an education revolution. I suggest it would be along the lines of less bulk, more microscopes, less quantity and more hydraulics labs, books, and time to sit and discuss what was really getting up Lady Macbeth's nose."
    
    From Matilda.com at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Isolation good for country schools
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Rural schools perform better in the HSC the further away they are from larger competing schools, an analysis of NSW results has found.
    
    "The data presented to a public education conference in Canberra suggests that schools enrolling most of their local children produce a higher proportion of high-end results.
    
    "Chris Bonnor, the former head of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, said that rural comprehensive schools were the pioneers and last remnants of "fully inclusive public schooling".
    
    "In rural areas we have living examples of schools which have been denied the alleged benefits of the free market," he said. "Competition has never lifted all schools for the benefit of all." ...
    
    Full story in The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Please, spare us the histrionics about phonics
      
      "What does Associate Professor Brian Cambourne mean when he asks, at the conclusion of an article denying the usefulness of phonics, that "we teach phonics mindfully and not mindlessly" ("Making sense of written words", March 30)?
      
      "Pity the poor parent of a two-year-old facing their child's reading future. This may be a favourite subject for theorists, but parents want practical advice to help their children through these years.
      
      "Many parents have complained bitterly that their children have had difficulty under some of the reading programs instituted by the Department of Education. The call for phonics to be reinstated stems from parents who received phonic training and who now consider themselves perfectly good readers.
      
      "A missing ingredient in Cambourne's argument is a detailed analysis of the skill acquisition process itself and the developmental age of the child. For example, in reading to the typical two-year-old, the dutiful parent will carefully sound out the names of objects and animals, names which are almost invariably phonetic. At this stage the parent is virtually a phonics instructor, but because the words are associated with the objects pictured, the child gains a conceptual view of the letters sounded. This would accord with Cambourne's proposition of the holistic nature of learning to read.
      
      "Surely phonics is simply an aid to learning. The linear idea that having used this aid children are stuck with its slavish implementation for the rest of their lives is just not valid. After all, if you learn a language using flash cards, are you forever unable to speak the language without those cards?
      
      "Obviously learning to read develops in stages. As reading becomes more complex, phonics takes a back seat. It's no longer necessary to sound out words, but now the cognitive skills of memory, attention processing and comprehension come into play. The mature reader recognises words automatically and understands the meaning at the same time.
      
      "This suggests the classic skills acquisition model in which we progress from unconsciously unskilled to unconsciously skilled.
      
      "This simple, self-evident model accommodates Cambourne's theory as well as the practical experiences of parents as they sound out words for their children.
      
      "In other words, we mindfully teach our children a basic skill to get them started but, as they mature, that skill is used mindlessly. Perhaps this is what Associate Professor Cambourne had in mind."
      
      David Catchlove, Newport
      
      
      
  • School safety knight leads charge of the light crusade
    
    It was a day too late for Peter Olsen to install the latest of his privately funded flashing lights in school zones. Just a day earlier a boy, 6, was struck by a car opposite Fairfield West Public School and taken to Westmead Hospital with serious head injuries. Mr Olsen finished setting up lights there yesterday. The 51-year-old grandfather, who has installed $20,000 worth of signs in 10 western Sydney school zones, believes the Government is failing to do its job.
    
    
    
    
• The Washington Post
  
  
  • Duncan Does the Math On Education Budget
    
    $100 Billion to Fix the Public Schools
    First priority is "to save hundreds of thousands of teachers' jobs"
    
    He may have tanked his tryout for the Boston Celtics, but as President Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan has hit the jackpot: an unprecedented $100 billion at his disposal to try to turn around the nation's public schools. The 44-year-old career education administrator is juggling a lot of balls as he begins to parcel out stimulus money to the states, tackles the much-maligned No Child Left Behind reauthorization legislation, and figures out how to get rid of bad teachers -- and pay the good ones more.
    
    Video and transcript from The Washington Post at link
    
    
    
    • Duncan on teachers' jobs: Rewarding good teachers and sacking bad ones [accessed via the above video link]
      
      
      
  • Recession Has Silver Lining for Class of '09
    
    Many private [tertiary] colleges have admitted more students than usual this year, hedging their bets as they wait to find out whether families find higher tuitions difficult to manage in the recession.
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Public schools attendance multiplying
    
    There is evidence the flow of ACT students from public to private schools in the [ACT] may be reversing.
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Skateboarding and yoga boost PE [similar stories from most major UK media]
    
    Non-traditional school sports such as skateboarding, cheerleading, golf and yoga are increasing the popularity of PE lessons in England, inspectors say.

 

Thursday 2 April

• The West Australian
  
  
  • Shrinking Year 8 threatens teacher jobs
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "Up to 600 teachers in WA could lose their jobs next year when the number of students in Year 8 nearly halves, the teachers’ union says.
      
    "The State Government changed the cut-off date in 2001 for kindergarten enrolments, so only children born in the first six months of that year could enrol. That change created a group referred to as the “half-cohort”.
      
    "State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said teaching and staff numbers, funding, programs, resources and specialist courses in WA secondary schools could be reduced because of the change.
      
    "Besides the risk of job cuts next year, Ms Gisborne also warned of a teaching black hole when the halfcohort finished high school in five years. She fears it will be difficult for schools to increase the number of teachers to normal levels.
      
    "Public primary schools in the western suburbs and affluent areas are being hit hardest, with some schools having 70 to 80 per cent fewer Year 7 students compared with last year.
      
    "These schools, some of which have only a handful of Year 7 students, are being depleted not only because of the 2001 enrolment changes but also because many private schools start their high schools from Year 7. Other non-government secondary schools will make a similar change next year.
      
    "Ms Gisborne said the half-cohort year had caused a battle for survival between public and private schools to lock in students to ensure next year’s Year 8 numbers were sustainable.
      
    "She urged the State Government to relax its strict teacher-student ratio, reduce class sizes and absorb the surplus staff into other areas over the next five years, including helping to implement the new curriculum, providing professional development, graduate mentoring, extra tuition for students and social skills programs.
      
    “I think you could end up with 500 or 600 teachers effectively with their positions put at risk in the government system as of 2010 and that is a very big chunk,” she said. “I think there is a growing level of anxiety.”
      
    "Mosman Park Primary School has three Year 7 students, down from 17 last year, but principal Alison Robb said their education has not been affected. They also took part in a special enrichment program with Year 7 students at neighbouring schools.
      
    "She said the school had even fewer half-cohort students now compared with five years ago, partly because of private school transfers.
      
    "A State Government report last year indicated public high schools could have as little as 25 per cent of their normal Year 8 intake in 2010.
      
    "WA Secondary Schools Executive Association president Rob Nairn said the impact of the half-cohort would not be known until high schools finalised 2010 enrolments.
      
    “You’re staffed on your student numbers, and if your student numbers decrease, then you would expect the number of staff you’re entitled to would decrease,” he said.
      
    "Department of Education and Training deputy director-general of schools Margery Evans refused to rule out teacher lay-offs, but said a recommendation would soon be made to Education Minister Liz Constable."
    
    From The West Australian at link
    
    
    
  • Primary schools must wait for Federal funds
    by Kate Campbell
    
    "State primary schools will have to wait months to receive their chare of more than $13 million in Federal funds after the State Government delayed the release until after the next Budget.
    
    "The WA and national primary principals' association have accused the State Government of keeping the school in the dark about the money they expected to get in January.
    
    "They will have to wait until next month to find out how the money has been allocated.
    
    The Federal Government pledged $635 million over four years to public primary schools last year to bring their funding formula into line with high schools.
    
    "A spokeswoman for Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the Commonwealth money intended for primary schools started flowing to the States in January, but it was a matter for State governments how to direct the funds.
    
    "Australian Primary Principals Association president Leonie Trimper feared WA's funding would be swallowed up in other areas in the general education budget or lost as part of the 3 per cent public sector cuts..."
    
    Full story in The West Australian
    
    
    
    
• ABC News
  
  
  • Teachers rally on pay and conditions
    
    "Public school teachers have rallied outside Parliament House in Adelaide, urging the State Government to resume negotiations over a wage and conditions claim.
    
    "Teachers want a 21 per cent increase, but the Government's offer would see most teachers get a 14 per cent rise over three years.
    
    "The matter is due to go to arbitration in June.
    
    "Education Union president Correna Haythorpe says the most recent negotiations with the Government were back before Christmas.
    
    "The Government knows very well that the sticking point with this dispute is the fact they want to change the way the funding works for our schools," she said.
    
    "If this was purely about pay it would've been resolved last year.
    
    "We're asking the Government to return to the table now and discuss this with us."
    
    "Industrial Relations Minister Paul Caica says the claim for 21 per cent is too high.
    
    "The real victims of this global economic crisis, of course, are the workers at Holden, the manufacturers who are working two or three days a week or those who are losing their jobs," he said.
    
    "The teachers at this time are not victims of the global financial crisis. What we've put forward is a reasonable offer, the salary grab that the teachers' union is pushing is no more than that - a salary grab."
    
    From ABC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Uni spot for all: Victoria leads nation
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Victoria is set to become the first state in the country to offer every person a guaranteed place at university or TAFE, forcing the Brumby Government to rethink how it will cope with the expected growth of its tertiary system.
    
    "Within three years, under new state and federal funding arrangements, every Victorian school leaver will be funded for the course of their choice — provided there is the demand and they can meet the relevant course requirements.
    
    "The move has been made possible on two fronts: Victoria has announced that from July this year, every TAFE and vocational training institute would be funded according to how many students they can attract under a new "demand-driven" funding system; and last month the Commonwealth announced the nation's universities would follow suit, moving to a similar funding system by 2012 as part of a national higher-education shake-up..."
    
    Full story in The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Catholic schools accused of bias
    
    Children from Eastern Catholic churches are being discriminated against in Australian Catholic schools, according to complaints by Australia's Eastern Catholic bishops that are attracting international attention.
    
    
    
    
• The Australian
  
  
  • Play in, politics out for new early learning manifesto
    by Natasha Bita
    
    "The federal Government has torn up its politically correct curriculum for children in daycare, quietly replacing it with a family-friendly guide for carers and parents.
    
    "The revised "early years learning framework", to be introduced nationally on July 1, bears little resemblance to the original version, which was criticised for its academic jargon and focus on social engineering.
    
    "In place of the original description of child's play as "a space for politics and power relations", the new document states that "play enables children to simply enjoy being".
    
    "It can also provide opportunities for children to learn as they discover, create, improvise and imagine," it says.
    
    "(They) use play to investigate, imagine and try out ideas."
    
    "The new version also scraps any reference to babies, toddlers and kindergarten kids discriminating on the grounds of sexuality.
    
    "And it removes the reference to toddlers "enacting custodianship of the planet and encouraging environmental sustainability".
    
    "Instead, it says children can care for the environment by recycling, gardening, turning off running taps and cleaning up litter.
    
    "Discussion of "civic participation" and "reconciliation" has vanished from the new version, which highlights the importance of playing outdoors, storytelling, drawing and singing nursery rhymes.
    
    "The federal Government is spending $2.5 million to develop the curriculum - now being trialled in 29 childcare centres nationally - as part of a Council of Australian Governments agreement to ensure all children have access to 15 hours a week of free early learning education in the year before they start school.
    
    "The lead author, Charles Sturt University professor of early childhood education Jennifer Sumsion, said yesterday even the latest draft was being rewritten to reflect feedback from the childcare sector.
    
    "Generally it was very positive, but we had suggestions that we could make the language more accessible," she said.
    
    "The intent is still to have quite a focus on social justice issues, but perhaps the language doesn't reflect that so strongly."
    
    "A final curriculum is due to be handed to the Education Department by May 5.
    
    "Practical guides to tell parents and carers what children ought to be doing and learning at childcare are in the pipeline.
    
    "Family Daycare Australia policy manager Pola Nadas, who sits on the curriculum committee, said each version appealed to "different people for different reasons".
    
    "The first version was very powerfully pro the post-apology, in terms of the Government's apology to the Aboriginal people of Australia and the vision for a joined-up Australia," she said.
    
    "What appears to be too much jargon for one person is not enough for the other.
    
    "It's trying to find the balance between theory and practice."
    
    "The latest 24-page version is more detailed, yet clearer to comprehend, than the original, 12-page document.
    
    "It acknowledges families as "children's first and most influential teachers".
    
    "Learning outcomes are most likely to be achieved when early childhood educators and families work in partnership.
    
    "Education is a responsibility shared between children, families, educators and communities," it says."
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    Have one-sentence paragraphs become the norm?  Web
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Get schools up to scratch
      
      "If money must be spent at the onset of a recession—as stated by all economists—let tax monies be invested in school teachers, equipment and physical infrastructure. Recycling money through government coffers is incredibly expensive and only benefits that great self-licking ice-cream, the Australian Public Service. Let us be shrewd; a $950 investment per needy student could spell the difference between a lifetime of learning and a lifetime of government handouts.
      
      "Furthermore, a proper education from an early age negates the OECD recommendation to have students remain in school to later ages. Teach them well the first time, not poorly for an extra two years. The Government wouldn’t need to force universities to provide 55,000 positions because the low-socioeconomic students would win their positions on merit.
      
      "Let’s have government spend more at the start of our children’s education, instead of doing a patchwork job at the end."
      
      Daniel White, Randwick, NSW
      
      
      
• BBC News
  
  
  • Class equipment 'can be a waste'
    
    Investment in new computers and other classroom equipment can be a waste if teaching is poor, an education expert will tell a conference. Children who are taught by the best teachers learn twice as fast as those with poor teachers, Prof Dylan Wiliam from the Institute of Education says. Which school a child attends therefore matters much less than which teachers they have, he argues.
    
    
    
  • MPs call for simpler curriculum [similar stories in most major UK media]
    
    The national curriculum for five to 16-year-olds in England is too heavily controlled by government, the Commons schools select committee has said. The curriculum should be slimmed down, according to the cross-party committee of MPs. And schools should have to follow the curriculum only in the core subjects of English, maths, science and ICT.
    
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • 150,000 children unable to read and write at 11
    
    More than 150,000 children are unable to read, write and add up properly by the time they are 11, yesterday's primary school league tables revealed.
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Spending should target poor schools, analyst says
    
    The equity gap between public and private schools will remain despite the Federal Government's $14 billion stimulus package to upgrade school buildings, an economic analysis has found.
    
    Very similar to the article in yesterday's Age
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • The 40kmh furphy
      
      "There's no doubting the sincerity of Peter Olsen ("School safety knight leads charge of the light crusade", April 1) but his efforts are misplaced. As much as banning indoor smoking was never going to cure cancer, 40kmh zones outside schools are not the answer to child safety.
      
      "It makes no sense to slow six lanes of traffic to 40kmh if there are no barriers to stop children running across the road. It is insane to have hundreds of such zones in effect after 9am when 99 per cent of students are indoors. And it is just plain dumb to assume that outside the school zone times there are no children around.
      
      "If the Government was serious about the safety of children, the options of barrier fences the length of the zones, footbridges or subways would be far more effective safety measures than inconveniencing half of Sydney."
      
      Peter Maresch, Lane Cove

 

Friday 3 April

• The Age
  
  
  • Double standards in schools blasted
    by Farrah Tomazin
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has delivered a stern warning to the nation's private schools, telling teachers she will not accept "double standards" against the public system when it comes to classroom quality or the full disclosure of funding and results.
    
    "In a strongly worded speech at an independent schools conference yesterday, Ms Gillard said she was "unapologetic" for demanding that non-government schools publish information so that parents can make informed choices about their children's education.
    
    "There is no way around it. There can be no double standards. If you receive public money, you have to have professional and committed teachers. You have to teach a modern, national curriculum or a recognised alternative. You have to aim high and you have to be transparent and accountable about outcomes and funding," she said.
    
    "The Minister's comments came only days after she delivered a broadside to sections of the public-sector lobby for accepting a culture of underachievement in some government schools. Yesterday, she reaffirmed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's election mantra that education was about schools — not school systems.
    
    "The Government's push for greater transparency comes after an intense battle last year to pass the Schools Assistance Bill — the legislation that requires schools to publicly disclose information on their resources, results and workforce as a condition of $28 billion in federal funding over four years.
    
    "The bill also received flak for tying funding to compliance with the yet-to-be-developed national curriculum — a move the Opposition said would restrict alternative schools.
    
    "However, Ms Gillard warned that the development of the national curriculum would continue. And through greater transparency of information, schools could fall under the same criteria as others with similar backgrounds, so funding could be targeted to where it was needed most, she said."
    
    From The Age at link
    
    
    
  • Letter to the Editor
    
    
    • Compare like with like in schools
      
      "I agree with Chris Bonner (Comment, 1/4) when he writes that "education is no place for a free market". Children should not be subjected to a competition of schools and school systems.
      
      "Private schools supplement their high-achiever numbers with scholarships. Elite state schools do the same with entrance exams. As a result, their median scores improve, especially when their lower ends are gleaned of poor scorers.
      
      "That might not matter if education ministers Bronwyn Pike and Julia Gillard did not draw harsh conclusions when these enhanced results are compared with the local school.
      
      "But it is the local school that enrols all-comers and encourages everyone "to have a go", and for its trouble it is threatened with principal sackings and school closure."
      
      Graeme Lee, retired school principal, Fitzroy
      
      
      
      
• The Australian
  
  
  • Editorial
    Kindergarten cops
    
    Political education for infants is not needed in daycare
    
    "In a victory for common sense, Canberra has decided its new childcare curriculum does not need advice on playground "politics and power relations", which was in the original draft. As Natasha Bita reported in The Australian yesterday, warning about the way under-5s discriminate on the grounds of sexuality is also out, as are exhortations to encourage a sense of environmental sustainability among toddlers. And the original support for the apology to the Stolen Generations is toned down. But anybody alarmed by the changes should relax as the intention to focus on social justice issues is reported to still be strong.
    
    "This may be a relief to social engineers who believe it is never too early to explain to children the way minority groups are oppressed and Australians harm the environment. But it will appal people who know children can be cruel, but more often than not look at life with wide-eyed enthusiasm.
    
    "This proposal has a sense of those school curriculums that are written by academics keen on reforming society. Where classroom teachers care about their students as individuals, theory-focused scholars often see children as academic abstractions, or cannon fodder in wars over education ideology. It is hard to imagine anybody in close and caring contact with children believing little people who have trouble counting to 10 will understand the need to stop global warming. And it is equally unlikely that many parents with children in daycare will want them attending the equivalent of political education camps for toddlers." [emphasis added]
    
    From The Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• The Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
  • Schools not playing the game with PE lessons
    by Anna Patty, Education Editor
    
    "Primary school teachers do not have enough time and confidence to teach all children physical education, a university study has found.
    
    "The survey of 189 teachers at 38 randomly selected government primary schools across NSW identified common barriers to teaching PE. These included an overcrowded curriculum, low levels of expertise and confidence and inadequate equipment.
    
    "The study's author, Philip Morgan, an Associate Professor from the Faculty of Education at the University of Newcastle, found that teachers felt pressured to produce measureable performance outcomes in basic skills tests for literacy and numeracy. Teachers who responded to the survey said this often resulted in PE being "the first thing to get bumped".
    
    "The study reported that the "crowded-out curriculum meant PE was often not taught at all or only sporadically".
    
    "Some schools that could afford it were outsourcing PE lessons to outside agencies. A lack of time to prepare and teach PE influenced the number of PE lessons teachers felt they could deliver.
    
    "Teachers confessed to a lack of confidence and enthusiasm in taking children outside for physical activity. "For me, going outside for sport is just awful," one teacher said.
    
    "Professor Morgan said physical education was important in helping children develop confidence. Taught badly, it could undermine self esteem.
    
    "One of the dangers when teachers don't have enough time to teach PE properly is that it is taught as a competitive team sport, or students are just made to run around the oval. Some teachers think that is better than nothing, but it's not. You get a few students who dominate the game, and this can lead to other students developing a negative perception of their own ability when they aren't being taught any skills."
    
    "Taught properly, PE could help students develop an active lifestyle and healthy self esteem.
    
    "If kids go into year 7 and they haven't been taught how to perform basic sport skills and they have developed a negative attitude towards physical activity, it is very difficult to turn it around in high school and through the teenage years," he said.
    
    "Leonie Trimper, who heads the Australian Primary Principals Association, said a study conducted in 2007 found the primary school curriculum overcrowded. She said teacher confidence varied from school to school when it came to teaching PE. "We are hoping the national curriculum will unclutter the primary school curriculum so teachers can teach fewer subjects better," she said. [emphasis added]
    
    "The president of the NSW Primary Principals Association, Geoff Scott, said teachers should not be expected to be specialist PE teachers. "We are trying realistically to cover in 1425 teaching minutes every week to cover all of the six key learning areas," Mr Scott said.
    
    "A spokesman for the NSW Department of Education said schools were required to provide two hours a week of planned physical activity, and the department offered courses to support the teaching of PE."
    
    From The Sydney Morning Herald at link
    
    
    
    
• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • Teachers given cane go-ahead at Bundaberg Christian College [late pickup from 29 March]
    
    The cane is still being wielded at some Queensland schools where parents sign legal waivers to give teachers the power to hit their children.

 

Saturday – Sunday, 4 – 5 April

• The Sunday Times
  
  
  • Big stimulus for WA schools
    by Paul Lampathakis
    
    "More than 300 WA schools are in the first group to get cash from the Federal Government's $42 billion stimulus package.
    
    "Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard announced that $46.47 million would go to 330 WA schools for minor infrastructure and refurbishment projects, under round one of the National School Pride program.
    
    "Ms Gillard said the program was delivering on the first phase of the Government's $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution initiative.
    
    "She said this was a key element of the Rudd Government's $42 billion nation-building, economic stimulus plan.
    
    "Under the National School Pride Program, every Australian school would get up to $200,000 for maintenance and minor building works, based on the size of the school.
    
    "But WA Education Department infrastructure executive director James Thom clarified that unlike some schools in the eastern states, no WA school had been encouraged to apply for less than their "full notional allocation''.
    
    "Ms Gillard said among WA's successful projects were the instillation of a solar photovoltaic system and the refurbishment of sporting facilities.
    
    "West Australian schools yet to apply for funding under the NSP program are encouraged to contact their relevant education authorities and submit proposals for Round Two before May 8,'' Ms Gillard said.
    
    "The $1.3 billion National School Pride program will deliver much needed funding for school maintenance and importantly support local jobs by creating demand for tradespeople in communities across the state.
    
    "Construction and maintenance work will commence as soon as possible, with many of the projects planned to begin as early as this month.''
    
    "Under round one of the National School Pride program, 5965 Australian schools will receive $828.16 million.
    
    A full list of successful schools and their projects is available at http://www.buildingtheeducationrevolution.gov.au/
    
    From The Sunday Times at link
    
    Similar story on ABC News
    
    
    
  • Op Ed
    Time to tame the leviathan
    by Peter van Onselen
    
    "When Troy Buswell announced a 3 per cent savings target for all WA government departments soon after he became Treasurer, I had a quiet chuckle.
    
    "Anyone who remembers the satirical British political TV series Yes Minister will immediately know why.
    
    "The two main characters in the series are the minister, Jim Hacker, and his departmental head, Sir Humphrey Appleby.
    
    "Almost every time the hapless Hacker tried to force change inside his department he was thwarted by Sir Humphrey, the career civil servant.
    
    "One of the first episodes in the series included an efficiency drive by the minister, who with responsibility for administrative services wanted, if memory serves me correctly, a 3 per cent cut in administrative costs across all government departments.
    
    "Sound familiar?" ...
    
    "Fast forward to the response Buswell is receiving from his government departments and the message is similar. It is no coincidence the three departments so far prepared to tell the Treasurer they can't achieve the targeted cuts are health, education and police.
    
    "These department heads and the police commissioner know full well they are near untouchable given the political sensitivities attached to their departments.
    
    "Nurses, teachers and police officers are at the coalface of service delivery.
    
    "Politicians don't like headlines announcing front-line services are at risk.
    
    "Of course, just like in Yes Minister, Buswell is not calling for cuts to front-line services..."
    
    "Private consultants from the Boston Consulting Group, Bain International or McKinsey and Co could likely cut bloated government departments by as much as 10 per cent, if not more, without adversely affecting their output.
    
    "In fact, they would probably have our state bureaucracy running much more effectively at much less cost to the taxpayers – if they weren't constrained by the Public Sector Union.
    
    "The union makes life a living nightmare for a politician who would like to curb the taxpayer dollars spent by departments..." [Unlike some unions we could name... Web]
    
    Full story in The Sunday Times at link
    
    
    
    
• The Weekend Australian
  
  
  • Next: career counselling for toddlers
    by Natasha Bita
    
    "Toddlers in daycare should be given early career counselling, Principals Australia has told the committee drawing up the nation's first childcare curriculum.
    
    "The call comes as the state and territory children's commissioners caution against pushing academic-based teaching on children still in nappies.
    
    "And a leading childcare operator insists it is "crazy stuff" to start telling pre-schoolers about their career options.
    
    "Kate Castine, who runs the Principals Australia career education project on behalf of the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, is calling for "career development concepts" to be included in the new curriculum to be introduced nationally by July 1.
    
    "Her concern is that little children rarely think beyond what their parents and relatives do for a living.
    
    "The argument that children should be exposed to career development concepts at an early age has been endorsed by current worldwide research," she wrote in comments posted on the department's official online forum, seeking feedback on the latest draft of the "early-learning framework".
    
    "Reference to career development competencies needs to be explicit so teachers understand its importance."
    
    "Ms Castine said research showed students as young as six could identify what they wanted to do when they grew up.
    
    "They identify very, very limited careers, usually associated with their family," she told The Weekend Australian. "That makes quite good sense but what needs to happen is that children who are very young need to identify there's a whole range of possible careers ... and not just what they see at home."
    
    "Ms Castine said childcare workers could casually canvass career options with children while watching a film, playing, or on an excursion.
    
    "If they go on an excursion on a bus, you can talk about how we need people to drive the bus, or you can go to the museum and talk about scientists. It broadens their thinking at a young age."
    
    "Queensland's biggest childcare chain, the community-based C&K, yesterday rejected the kids' careers counselling as "crazy stuff". "What about letting children be children?" said C&K's chief executive Barrie Elvish.
    
    "It's bad enough that kids in years 11 and 12 have to choose a career. How on earth can you get a four-year-old to think about what they'll be doing in 20 years' time?"
    
    "But Ms Castine said career education needed to start early. "If they don't start considering other careers until high school, there's less possibility they're going to consider the whole range," she said.
    
    "The federal Government's plan for a national curriculum -- a prerequisite for giving all pre-schoolers 15 hours of free care each week from 2013 -- has sparked squabbling between academics, bureaucrats, childcare workers and parents.
    
    "Criticism of its politically correct jargon forced a rewrite of the original draft, released last November, and now the authors are working on a third version.
    
    "The nation's children's commissioners -- state government agencies charged with safeguarding the rights of children -- have warned against an "academic" curriculum for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
    
    "Care needs to be taken that we are not creating additional years of school for our youngest children through a stringent academic-based way of teaching," the commissioners from NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the ACT say in a submission."
    
    From The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
  • Positive thought puts world in better focus for students
    by Stephen Lunn
    
    "It might be as simple as a late-night reflection about the small things that went well that day.
    
    "But for students dealing with the range of pressures facing them in teenagehood -- exams, body image, drugs, sexuality, alcohol -- going to sleep with a positive thought can make a distinct difference.
    
    "It is a small part of a new approach to student wellbeing -- designed to build resilience in all students, not just those struggling -- that is being used for the first time this year by Geelong Grammar School.
    
    "The program is based on a "positive psychology" program designed by US psychologist Martin Seligman, encouraging educators to foster strengths as much as redress weaknesses.
    
    "Martin says for every negative thing you say to someone you should have three positive things to say," Geelong Grammar principal Stephen Meek said. "Many of our staff have run through the program and are really energised. They are incorporating it into what they teach. We've noticed a greater sense of purpose among our staff and it's flowing through the school." ...
    
    Full story in The Weekend Australian at link
    
    
    
    
• BBC News
  
  
  • Tide turns towards trusting teachers
    by Mike Baker
    
    "So was Margaret Thatcher right all along?
    
    "She wanted a national curriculum restricted to English, mathematics and science.
    
    "Most unusually, the "Iron Lady" did not get her way.
    
    "In 1987, she backed down when her Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, threatened to resign if she narrowed down the proposed new national curriculum.
    
    "So England got a nine subject national curriculum for primary schools, with a foreign language added as the tenth subject at secondary level.
    
    "In those pre-devolution days, Westminster's national curriculum also applied to Wales, where Welsh made an eleventh compulsory subject.
    
    "It was the first time for almost 50 years that schools in England and Wales had been told by government what to teach.
    
    "Now the wheel seems to be going full circle.
    
    Teacher independence
    
    "Despite several reforms that have reduced the scope of the national curriculum in England, and its equivalents in Wales and Northern Ireland, the Commons schools committee has just concluded that further slimming down is needed.
    
    "The MPs say the national curriculum should be cut back to just four subjects - English, maths, science and IT - and should take up less than half the timetable.
    
    "They go even further than Mrs Thatcher who wanted the compulsory curriculum to be no more than 70% of the timetable.
    
    "By contrast, Kenneth Baker thought it should be 80 to 85%.
    
    "In practice, it turned out to be close to 100%, with many teachers complaining it felt more like 110%.
    
    "So who was right? How much of the school day should be dictated by the national curriculum? And do we need one at all?
    
    "One argument against a nationally set curriculum is that the independent schools have managed perfectly well without one.
    
    "City Academies, too, are not required to follow the full national curriculum.
    
    "It has also been argued that schools managed perfectly well without a nationalised curriculum from 1944 until 1989.
    
    "Indeed some saw this as the "golden age" of teacher independence.
    
    "But, in broader historical terms, this period was actually the exception.
    
    Functional skills
    
    "The first involvement of government in the curriculum came in 1861, following a Royal Commission prompted by concerns that the school system was failing the needs of employers.
    
    "The Newcastle Report of that year established a system known as the "Revised Code".
    
    "This made government funding of schools contingent upon pupils passing tests to prove schools were successfully teaching centrally-set "standards".
    
    "Some might say this system of "payment by results" sounds remarkably like today's national tests, which effectively tie schools to the core curriculum at risk of exposure in league tables or Ofsted reports.
    
    "The 1861 standards were set at six levels. For example, "Standard VI" required pupils at the end of elementary education to read a short passage from a newspaper; write down a passage "slowly dictated once"; and add "the bills of parcels".
    
    "That sounds a bit like today's "functional skills"!
    
    "The next step towards a national curriculum came with the Education Act, 1902, which led to "the Elementary Code" and "Regulations for Secondary Schools" in 1904.
    
    "These were surprisingly similar to the 1988 national curriculum.
    
    "Secondary schools were told to devote prescribed amounts of time each week to English, mathematics, science, geography, history, and a foreign language.
    
    "This was supposed to leave "ample time" for PE, drawing, singing and "manual training" and - for girls only - "housewifery".
    
    "This system lasted for 50 years, although from the 1930s concerns grew that the curriculum was too traditional, narrow and academic.
    
    "By 1944, perhaps influenced by the national curriculum in Nazi Germany, the idea of a national curriculum had fallen out of fashion.
    
    "Politicians were ready to trust the teachers.
    
    "So the landmark 1944 Education Act, which created today's system of primary and secondary schools, made virtually no mention of the curriculum.
    
    "When the 11+ exam was phased out across most of England and Wales in the 1960s and 1970s, primary schools found themselves free of all external curriculum requirements.
    
    "But, just as happened in the late 1850s, teachers again lost the confidence of politicians who started to complain about the "secret garden" of the curriculum.
    
    "After Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan pressed the case for a "core curriculum", the momentum towards a national curriculum became irresistible.
    
    "So, history suggests that pressure for a national curriculum coincides with periods of political mistrust of teachers.
    
    "So is this latest push for less central government interference a sign that politicians of all parties are now more prepared to trust teachers' judgement?
    
    'Burdensome detail'
    
    "Indeed, a minority group of Conservatives on the schools committee even wants schools to be able to opt out of the national curriculum altogether.
    
    "But before dismissing the virtues of a national curriculum, it is worth recalling the original reasons for its introduction.
    
    "In 1987, these were: To guarantee a broad and balanced curriculum for all; to improve continuity and coherence; to set national standards; and to help the public to understand what goes on in schools.
    
    "These look equally valid today. It is easy to forget that before the national curriculum some pupils, including those with special needs, were denied a broad and balanced curriculum.
    
    "Many pupils lost out because there was no coherence or continuity between what they learnt at primary school and secondary school.
    
    "Or, worse still, they missed vital areas of learning because they moved house and changed schools.
    
    "And parents often had no access to information about what their children were supposed to be learning.
    
    "So, perhaps the problem is not the national curriculum per se, but the temptation it presents to governments to add just one more compulsory element to it?
    
    "And, in fairness, experience suggests that the really burdensome detail of the national curriculum has come, not from politicians, but from the various government bureaucracies, which regularly send out volumes of deathless prose to schools in the shape of handbooks, directives and programmes of study.
    
    "The history of education often appears to be on a circular trajectory.
    
    "The pendulum is now swinging away from central prescription.
    
    "But could it now swing too far in the opposite direction?"
    
    From BBC News at link
    
    
    
    
• The Guardian / The Observer
  
  
  • Teachers go to war over life in our classrooms
    
    From violent parents to excessive homework, from unruly pupils to the plight of special needs children, teachers will this week switch their focus from traditional concerns of pay and conditions to the state of teaching in UK classrooms. Here, Liz Lightfoot sets out the key issues causing alarm - including a plan to boycott Sats tests that is set to spark a bitter battle
    
    "Teachers are to embark on their biggest battle with the government since the bitter strikes of the 1980s. This time it is not about pay, but the state of education itself. In an unprecedented campaign to drive national tests out of primary schools, the National Union of Teachers is almost certain to vote to boycott Sats for seven- and 11-year-olds.
    
    "This is not an idle threat by militant delegates that will be overturned by the leadership at a later date; it is likely to see tens of thousands of teachers and heads in England defy ministers by refusing to carry out the tests from next year.
    
    "Not only does the boycott, which would wreck the government's league tables of schools, have the full backing of Christine Blower, the union's acting general secretary, it also has the crucial support of the National Association of Head Teachers, which will ask for a "yes" vote on the same proposal at its conference next month. The two unions have branded statutory tests as "unacceptable for the future of children's education".
    
    "Mick Brookes, who leads the 28,000 head teachers and deputies of the NAHT, has condemned Sats as "damaging and demeaning", arguing that league tables blight children's education and humiliate his colleagues. He added: "We are very, very serious about it."
    
    "But tests are not the only issue teachers are preparing to fight over this week and next. As each of the major unions lines up to host their annual conferences, they are drawing the battlelines around a string of other issues: from violent pupils smashing windows to aggressive parents abusing teachers; from the postcode lottery for children with special needs to the fact that people not qualified as teachers are taking lessons; from homework to the dearth of male teachers in primary schools.
    
    "The stand-off will start tomorrow with an attack on the erosion of parental responsibility and the breakdown of society. With evidence that its members are being increasingly abused and assaulted by parents and children, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) will call for the government's "every child matters" agenda to be supplemented by a policy in which teachers are treated with respect - the "every person matters" agenda.
    
    "Meanwhile, the NASUWT teaching union is planning to focus on the plight of children with special needs. Ten years after Labour launched its plan to include more children with mental or physical disabilities or impairment in mainstream classes, a ballot of members put motions on special needs in the top three priority places on the conference agenda. The closure of special schools as a result of the inclusion policy has, they say, led to a postcode lottery for places.
    
    "As for the tests, union solidarity only goes so far. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, has called the proposed boycott "reckless and irresponsible", predicting that the loss of the externally marked tests in English, maths and science for 11-year-olds would result in a much bigger workload of pupil assessment for teachers.
    
    "The National Association of Governors has warned that head teachers could face disciplinary action if they fail to carry out their duties under the law.
    
    Assaults on teachers
    Malicious attacks by pupils must be stopped
    
    "One teacher who is just about to retire will miss her colleagues and most of her pupils, but she will not miss the constantly broken window for which she has had to call out the glazier at least 17 times. Another will not miss being woken up by obscene phone calls. And a third will be relieved not to have to pay for his car to be resprayed yet again to cover all the deliberate scratchmarks.
    
    "These are just three examples of vandalism and abuse that pupils have inflicted on their teachers, according to Maxine Bradshaw, below, a member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in north Wales. On Tuesday she will ask delegates at the union's annual conference to deplore the increasing levels of violence against staff, and the malicious intrusion into their private lives. She will call on the union's leaders to support "zero tolerance" signs within schools, threatening to take action against anyone who maliciously harms teachers or their property and to lobby for the police to take more effective action to protect members of the profession.
    
    "Nowadays, you are more likely to hear teachers saying they want to live outside the towns in which they work and this aggression is part of the reason," said Bradshaw. "There was a time when children knew there would be consequences and when society was unafraid to challenge young people when they were doing wrong but now adults more and more seem to feel powerless and fearful, which makes it harder for teachers to instil a sense of responsibility in pupils."
    
    "She said it was crucial that teachers had the support of the pupils' families, describing a recent incident when she asked a child not to walk in a particular area and his mother overruled her. "So he was allowed to break the rule and if he breaks the rule, then so can 600 other children and someone will get hurt."
    
    National testing
    Dilemma for head who wants Sats but whose union is opposed to tests
    
    "Robert Trawford is the head of the second most improved primary school in the country and does not believe he and his staff could have done it without national curriculum tests.
    
    "He is also a member of the National Association of Head Teachers, which is calling on members to boycott Sats. "It's going to be difficult," he said. "I would have to think very seriously about it, because I believe you have to have an independent measure by which people who don't know your school can make a decision."
    
    "Trawford, the head of Walsall Wood primary in the West Midlands, insists that his teachers do not "teach to the test". But many of his colleagues feel that Sats are harming education and they are preparing for a battle to drive them out.
    
    "Mick Brookes, the NAHT's general secretary, predicts that the union, which represents 28,000 heads and their deputies, will back the stance at its annual conference next month. "We feel it is unconscionable that we should simply stand by and allow the educational experience of children to be blighted and for colleagues to be humiliated and demeaned on an annual basis by the publication of league tables," he said.
    
    "The proposed joint action by head teachers and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) would see teachers refuse to administer the tests for seven and 11-year-olds next year. The NUT will start debating the motion at its annual conference in Cardiff on Saturday.
    
    "Christine Blower, the union's acting general secretary, said: "There is room for believing that something might change but the reason we are making this statement now is that we are very determined that league tables must go and Sats must go. By giving warning that we are not going to do anything until the next academic year we are giving the government plenty of time to respond while making the point that we are very, very serious about it."
    
    "The combined might of the NUT and NAHT will make this a serious challenge, but ministers will take heart from the fact that other unions, including the NASUWT, do not support the boycott.
    
    "Meanwhile, leaders of some of the other workplace unions fear it could be an own goal at a time when Ed Balls, the children's secretary, is exploring alternatives, because he would not want to be seen to bow to the threat of industrial action.
    
    "Back in Walsall, Trawford said it was easy to knock Sats, but argued that there had to be some form of national yardstick by which schools could measure pupils' progress and inform parents.
    
    Homework
    In primary schools, it's a waste of children's and teachers' time
    
    "Not many children will follow the proceedings of the teacher unions' conferences, but one motion might interest them: a call for homework to be abolished in primary schools. According to teachers belonging to the ATL in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Leeds and Wigan, formal homework set by teachers under the direction of the government is of dubious benefit.
    
    "Since 1998 the government has told schools they should expect primary schoolchildren to read for 20 minutes a night. Under the guidelines, teachers are also expected to set homework of an hour each week for six- and seven-year-olds, one-and-a-half hours for eight- and nine-year-olds and 30-minutes a day for 10- and 11-year-olds.
    
    "But delegates will be asked to back a motion which states: "Conference believes that homework in the primary school is a waste of children's and teachers' time which could be spent much more profitably on effective learning, both in and out of the classroom."
    
    "The subject is also likely to come up at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Cardiff, which starts on Friday. Christine Blower, the NUT's acting general secretary, said there were "any number of things that children should be doing in the time they spend at home, and that doesn't necessarily have to be homework".
    
    "At Walsall Wood primary in the West Midlands, head Robert Trawford does not think homework should be "an extension of school", but that it has a place. "I think there is a place for developing learning at home and involving parents in what their children are doing at school," he said.
    
    Special needs policy
    Inclusion is not the answer for every child
    
    "The policy of including special needs children in mainstream classes has created a lottery for the reduced number of places in special schools, the NASUWT will claim.
    
    "Though some are happy to be educated alongside their peers, others, particularly those with autism or emotional and behavioural difficulties, are struggling because their needs are not being adequately met, members say. A decade after David Blunkett, the first blind man to hold the office of education secretary, announced the policy of including all but the most seriously disabled children in mainstream schools, the union will place the issue at the top of its annual conference agenda.
    
    "Traditionally, members vote for motions on behaviour, but this year they chose special needs which is an indication that there are now no teachers whose lives are not touched by the issue," said Chris Keates, the union's general secretary.
    
    "Celia Foote, a special needs teacher in Leeds, said that every child had the right to be educated in a local school, but if it did not meet their needs they should have an alternative. "Inclusion has been excellent for a lot of children, but we see children who are unhappy and isolated," she said.
    
    "I can think of one lovely boy on the autistic spectrum who didn't make a single friend all his time in school, whereas if he had been in a special school there would have been teachers to help him relate with others in a setting in which he felt secure. Children are being pushed to keep up with a completely inappropriate curriculum, which means they end up learning very little."
    
    "Foote argued that it was not just children with special needs who were suffering: "When children are not learning anything because of their difficulties they can be disruptive, which is difficult for teachers to deal with and can impinge on all the other pupils in the class."
    
    "A problem for parents is that some children who do well in a small primary school, cannot cope with the move to a secondary school, she added.
    
    Unruly pupils
    Teachers have to do toilet training and help children to dress and undress
    
    "Parents will feature in most of this year's union conferences, and not in a positive light. Teachers claim they are being forced to take over key parts of parenting, such as toilet training, helping children to dress and undress, and how to eat at a table. There will also be complaints that parents undermine teachers by criticising them in front of their children and challenging their authority.
    
    "Parents know their rights, but they don't know their responsibilities. These parents don't want anything or anyone to go against their own private castle of authority," said Sam Bechler, the ATL branch secretary for Wolverhampton.
    
    "A substantial minority of parents "foster a rebellious attitude in their children", he added. "We are facing a radical change in culture. Parents are the second generation of the philosophy that says parents have rights and teachers have responsibilities. It's the attitude that 'they are my kids and my kids never do anything wrong and you have no right to tell them off'.
    
    "Children smuggle mobile phones into lessons and, when disciplined, phone their fathers and brothers. Mothers are among the worst. We had an incident recently when a mother came in and hauled her child out of detention. What does that say about the authority of the teachers?"
    
    "More and more parents are working under extreme pressure and some of the responsibilities that used to belong to the family are being put on schools, added Jackie Harvey, a deputy head from Hertfordshire. "There are schools with parents who are professional people and who come along and say that their children are ready for school - they can read and count.
    
    "However, when they start, teachers find they don't know how to dress or undress, they don't know how to listen respectfully, or sit at a table and eat, or wait their turn and share - all the things that used to be taught in the home."
    
    From The Guardian / The Observer at link
    
    
    
• The Independent
  
  
  • Teachers' union calls for an end to faith schools
    by Richard Garner, Education Editor
    
    Admissions policies lead to 'segregated schooling', claims NUT as it calls for greater social cohesion
    
    "Teachers' leaders will this week demand the phasing out of the nation's 7,000 state-funded faith schools.
    
    "As a first step, delegates at the National Union of Teachers' conference will seek a ban on opening any new faith schools – on the grounds that their admissions policies have created "segregated schooling" in many parts of the country.
    
    "The move would put the union on a collision course with the Government, which has openly sought sponsorship by religious groups for many of its flagship new academies. Several of the new academies to be opened this year have church backing.
    
    "It is also likely to provoke fierce debate within the union, as many of its members work in faith schools..."
    
    Full story in The Independent at link
    
    
    
    
• The Age
  
  
  • Unis packed to the rafters
    
    Overcrowding at Victorian universities is so bad that more than half the students say they have sat on the floor at lectures.
    
    
    
    
• The Times
  
  
  • 35,000 pupils may lose A-level places
    
    Tens of thousands of A-level students may be left without a college or sixth-form place this autumn because there is no state funding for them. Frantic efforts were under way last night to plug a £60 million hole in funding for the education of students aged 16-19 in England.
    
    
    
    
• The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald [online only]
  
  
  • Author wants to reach out to reluctant readers
    
    Children's author Deb Abela is certain there's an engrossing book out there for every child and she's going to try to help as many as she can to find it. This is why Abela has been appointed as an ambassador for this year's Premier's Reading Challenge.
    
    
    
    
• The Brisbane Courier Mail
  
  
  • School fights exposed on web [3 April]
    
    Out-of-control Queensland high school brawls where students are pinned to the ground and repeatedly kicked and punched are being downloaded on to the video sharing website YouTube... Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg, who specialises in adolescents, said the only way to stop the violence was to ban mobile phones at schools.

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This page last updated 13 April, 2009 8:46 PM