Hundreds of high schools will miss out on a $1 billion federal government program to upgrade science laboratories after the Rudd Government refused to widen guidelines for eligible schools. (This, it would seem, includes every single high school in the DET’s Northern Sydney Region – Editor)

Plan to delay school for two years DT November 8, 2009

Children in NSW can start school as young as four but an international study says enrolment should be delayed until they are at least six years old.

A Cambridge University study recommends children aged under six engage in a year of play-based learning before they start school.

Row over sex education SMH November 8, 2009

Sydney's Catholic schools head Dan White is warning against the planned national curriculum being used as a ''how-to guide'' for children to gain access to contraception and abortion clinics.

But NSW Teachers Federation president Bob Lipscombe said sex education in the 21st century should reflect the needs of young people and equip them with information to prepare them for adulthood.

Tenth school for overseas students collapses SMH November 7, 2009

The reputation of Australia's $16 billion overseas education industry has been dealt another blow by the sudden collapse of the Global Campus Management Group, which ran four colleges in Sydney and Melbourne with about 3000 students.

Kids encouraged to play now or pay later The Australian November 4, 2009

Kids are "hard-wired" to play and pushy "trophy parents" only risk triggering teenage depression, a prominent child psychologist warned yesterday.

Michael Carr-Gregg, a founder of the National Coalition Against Bullying, said depression had emerged as the "common cold" of adolescent psychology.

But childhood play and rough-and-tumble helped shield teenagers against stress.

Dr Carr-Gregg said children who were given the freedom to play in their infancy were more likely to grow up with the resilience to cope with the trauma of family breakdowns, abuse, or parental alcoholism that often led to teenage depression.

"Play is the psychological innoculation against depression long-term," Dr Carr-Gregg said.

Dr Carr-Gregg said over-protective and controlling parents were creating a generation of wusses.

English by numbers - students find formula for HSC success SMH October 31, 2009

Not so long ago politicians such as Bob Carr were denouncing the dumbing down of the Higher School Certificate curriculum. John Howard, no less, took up the cudgels, singling out HSC English. It was not only dumber than in his day but it had fallen victim to post-modernism and political correctness, he said.

The politicians were wrong about the dumbing down of English in NSW. If anything it is too hard for many willing and able students.

But there is a troubling development in how students approach the study of English, and it was evident in HSC-afflicted households over the past two weeks, with cramming for up to three separate English exams in full swing.

Studying for English is now eerily like learning maths formulae, or a piano sonata. It is a feat of memory and repetition. Students try to memorise line-for-line prepared essays and creative short stories they have refined over the year in the reasonable expectation of being able to replicate them in the HSC exam.

The minefield that is school league tables DT October 27, 2009

Maralyn Parker article and blog

Teachers failing the maths grade The Australian October 27, 2009

Students in almost 60 per cent of high schools are being taught by unqualified teachers, with mathematics one of the worst-hit subjects.
The disturbing number of teachers working in areas outside their expertise has been uncovered in a special survey of 1473 principals across Australia.
One in five schools in NSW said they had at least one maths teacher who was not fully qualified. Other subjects shown to be suffering from a lack of specialists include technology, computer science, languages, science, music and special education.

Principals demand smaller class sizes SMH October 27, 2009

NSW primary school principals will press the State Government to reduce class sizes for students in years three to six, following the successful reduction in those for the earlier grades.

The push comes as the Australian Education Union releases new evidence of a worsening teacher shortage, in the form of a survey showing almost 60per cent of government schools nationally are having trouble getting the teachers they need.

Principals have their say at education forum SMH October 26, 2009

The federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, will bring 150 school principals to Canberra next month to discuss how the Government can help them lift educational standards.

The forum, to be held on November 10 and 11, will give her a chance to speak to principals about contentious elements of the Government's education reform agenda.

Elite schools splash out on property deals SMH October 24, 2009

While squirrelling away funds for years to make its successful $35.2 million bid for the historic Graythwaite estate this week, one of Sydney's wealthiest private schools also managed to expand its portfolio to 86 properties.

Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore), which receives annual funding from state and federal governments of more than $4 million, has in the past decade bought 12 properties around its 5.65-hectare campus near North Sydney's business district and nine hectares of playing fields in Northbridge.

Keeping a cool head over Shelley SMH October 24, 2009

HSC English paper.

Federal Government Education Programs

Building at schools delayed SMH October 23, 2009

More than a third of the science and language centres being funded under the Rudd Government's school stimulus program are behind schedule, a Senate committee heard yesterday.

Officials from the federal Education Department told an estimates hearing that of 537 science and language laboratories that had been approved, only 349 had met the commencement deadline of the end of September.

Kevin Rudd's computer commitment to schools falls short NEWS.com.au October 23, 2009

Only 150,000 of the nearly one million computers Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised to Australian secondary students have arrived on school desks.
Almost two years after storming to power, the Rudd Government is running out of time to deliver the extra 820,000 PCs needed to meet its much-hyped election commitment to give every year 9 to 12 student access to their own computer.
The snail's pace of the new technology rollout was laid bare at a Senate estimates hearing yesterday, which was told half of the 300,000 computers approved and funded since July last year were yet to turn up in schools.

Maralyn Parker – articles and blogs – Daily Telegraph

HSC 2009 - the prospects

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 03:40pm

Putting your skills and knowledge on the line in NSW school exit exams is all about prospects - and for the 2009ers in NSW they are unsurpassed.

This is the best time to be a Higher School Certificate student. It is going to get even better in years to come - but if you are sitting exams today you should know no other year has had it so good.

For the first time, in 2010, universities have the freedom to over enrol by up to 10 per cent and the extra places will all be fully funded by federal coffers.

For a university such as the University of Technology, Sydney, it could mean potentially an extra 650 students up from the usual about 6500, for Macquarie Univerity an extra 400 students and for University of Sydney up to 1000 more fully funded places.

Error in the Studies of Religion exam - Board of Studies responds.

Friday, October 23, 2009 at 08:48am

There are many complaints about yesterday’s Studies of Religion exam. SOR is the fastest growing HSC subject and the 5th most popular. It is a compulsory subject in most faith-based schools and has been for many years.

Read some of the complaints about the exam below and the official response from the NSW Board of Studies

School violence rules still not operating SMH October 22, 2009

New laws that give school principals the power to gain access to a student's record of violence so they can take steps to protect their staff members and other students are not yet in force, four years after they were announced by the State Government.

Teen punched and threatened before suicide, inquest told SMH October 21, 2009

Alex Wildman's school principal and deputy admitted days after the bullied teenager committed suicide he might still be alive if the school had handled his case differently, according to his mother.

Year 12 comes down to earth SMH October 19, 2009

Cadet abuser was already on parole SMH October 19, 2009

Former cadet officer at a north shore private school (Barker College) sexually assaulted a boy at a camp while on parole for similar offences.

Child sex school principal in court on new sex charge SMH Oct 16, 2009 3.42pm

A former high school principal of a Christian school at Grafton facing sentencing for having sex with a 16-year-old student in 2007 has been charged with the aggravated sexual assault of another pupil one year earlier.

Principal faces eight years' jail SMH Oct 16, 2009

Former school principal who sexually abused a student, and who told a court yesterday that he believed he was in love with her, faces up to eight years' jail.

But Hazel Bell, the teacher who first raised concerns about Frank Bailey's behaviour towards the 16-year-old girl, has been denied her job back. Two students, Sarah Johnson and Bec Gavan, who also complained about their former headmaster's conduct with the girl at St Andrew's Christian School, near Grafton, were expelled and unable to complete their HSC.

I was like a zombie: principal says he was in love with pupil he had sex with SMH Oct 15, 2009 11.36am

Frank Bailey, the former headmaster at St Andrew's Christian School near Grafton pleaded guilty in March to five counts of sexual intercourse with a person in his care after he assaulted the 16-year-old while she was staying at his home.

Federal inflexibility undermined stimulus spending: NSW officials SMH October 16, 2009

NSW Treasury officials have complained that the federal jobs stimulus package could have delivered more local jobs if funding arrangements were more flexible and allowed for a redistribution of funding between schools.

Schools lose new buildings after spending spree SMH October 15, 2009

More than half the NSW schools promised classrooms and halls under the Rudd Government's $16.2 billion stimulus program have blown their budgets, forcing some to reduce the size of buildings or abandon entire projects.

School cash 'wasted' on fees SMH October 14, 2009

Management fees will eat up to a quarter of the $3.4 billion given to NSW schools for building halls and libraries.

Detailed cost summaries for individual schools reveal that administrative charges are far higher than the Government has admitted. Some schools will pay as much as $250,000 each, Government documents show

Schools lack basic funding: Labor MP SMH October 11, 2009

Prominent Federal Labor MP Jennie George has criticised her Government's "education revolution" for failing to address the urgent needs of public schools.

Testing time when figures don’t add up Daily Telegraph October 14, 2009 at 04:44pm

Maralyn Parker – article and blog

Six weeks ago when I embarked on annual leave the argument was parents were too stupid to understand school performance data. Now even educational statisticians are clashing over what it all means.

I love this current brawl about the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy results. Especially the fact every state celebrated their fabulous improvements in NAPLAN when the gains might have been just one big statistical error.

Parents line up to give students ethics lessons SMH September 30, 2009

The Education Minister, Verity Firth, will require the ''wisdom of Solomon'' to extricate herself from the furore developing over a pilot program offering ethics education to primary school students who opt out of scripture classes.

Parent groups at seven NSW primary schools, including Rozelle Public in Ms Firth's electorate, want to operate the program being devised by the St James Ethics Centre.

But the NSW Government's advisory panel, the Inter-Church Commission on Religious Education in Schools, opposes the introduction of the program saying it is being pushed by a small interest group.

The president of the NSW P&C Federation, Dianne Giblin, told ABC Radio that students who opted out of scripture were being discriminated against. ''All the other young children are allowed to go off to their various faiths and look at their own ethics and their own values and morals, and the rest of the school are not allowed to do anything else,'' she said.

Bright students 'betrayed' by HSC SMH September 12, 2009

The HSC is a blunt instrument that leaves many of the most talented students excluded from higher education, the head of Australia's oldest university says.

The University of Sydney's vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, told the Herald the entry ranking system was biased towards students who attended private and selective high schools.

George Cooney, an expert in the calculation of university admissions rankings, has suggested the university entry system be a subject for public debate because of confusion that has surrounded it since universities began hand-picking some students on the basis of measures other than the UAI.

On Monday Dr Spence unveiled a ''radical rethink'' that was taking place at the 159-year-old institution, where questions are being asked about the sustainability of enrolling more than 48,000 full- and part-time students every year.

NSW tops class in national spelling bee SMH September 12, 2009

NSW has topped the national spelling bee for the second year in a row.

Results from national literacy and numeracy tests for years 3, 5 and 7 and 9 released yesterday show that NSW outperformed the other states and territories in spelling.

NSW top of the class in literacy and numeracy skills tests DT September 12, 2009

Debnam tries to broker deal on league tables SMH September 11, 2009

After breaking ranks with the Coalition over its opposition to publication of school league tables, the NSW Liberal MP Peter Debnam tried yesterday to broker an alternative plan with the Government and newspaper editors.

Schools ban racy Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer DT September 12, 2009

Primary school students have been banned from reading the teen cult classic Twilight books because they are too racy and contradict religious beliefs.

Santa Sabina College at Strathfield was so concerned about the Twilight craze that teachers ran a seminar for Year 6 students to discuss sexual and supernatural themes in the books. The school's head librarian Helen Schutz said:

Schools cash is going where it is needed least The Age Editorial September 10, 2009

Governments should fund private schools according to need.

In May last year, federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, speaking to the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, described the system Australia uses to determine school funding as one of the most complex and confusing in the developed world. The Age commented that she could also have added that it is one of the most divisive, since it is engendering what can only be described as smouldering class enmity. The latest increases in funding to private schools, reported yesterday Private schools' cash boost, confirm that judgment.

Former teacher keen to shape new curriculum SMH September 10, 2009

The agency charged with delivering the Federal Government's national curriculum and schools transparency agenda is to be led by a former geography teacher who has helped transform school systems on five continents.

Dr Peter Hill, a former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, will take up his appointment as chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority on September 28. Minister Gillard’s Media Release

Young troublemakers set on the road to antisocial adulthood SMH September 10, 2009

ADELE HORIN The idea a person's character is formed in the first few years of life is not new. ''Give me a child until he is seven,'' say the Jesuits, ''and I will give you the man.''

But the theory that badly behaved children are more likely to grow into troubled adults has been given extra weight by one of the world's most famous and long-running studies of children.

The study has found children who persistently lie, steal, are physically aggressive or cruel are at high risk of turning into antisocial and troubled adults. Yet governments are ignoring proven ways of fixing the problem.

The study's director, David Fergusson, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, said serious conduct problems that develop by age seven can have far-reaching consequences. ''There is no other childhood condition that has such pervasive and far-reaching consequences for later development.''

Professor Fergusson outlined several proven programs that governments could invest in to help address the problem, including the programs Parent Management Training, Incredible Years and Triple P.

So just who rules this school anyway? Daily Telegraph September 10, 2009

Balaclava-clad students jeered as frightened children stood outside the gates of their government (Airds) high school yesterday with signs reading "Stop the violence".

Building the Education Revolution

Grant to trail girl to next school The Australian September 10, 2009

Wherever eight-year-old "Mary" goes to school, a $250,000 taxpayer grant is sure to follow.

The sole student of Evesham State School, in the Queensland outback near Longreach, was in the eye of a political storm yesterday, as a symbol of waste in the federal government's $16billion Building the Education Revolution program.

The Year 3 student is the only pupil at her school, which has been granted $250,000 in federal funds for a new library, even though the Queensland government is considering closing the school. Education Queensland revealed yesterday that, should Evesham school be shut down, its share of the cash would be handed to whichever new school its last remaining student transferred to, "as per the Australian government's BER guidelines".

Parents seek compromise over classrooms at Abbotsford The Australian September 10, 2009

A group of parents last night moved a step closer to reaching a compromise with the federal and NSW governments that would allow their children's school to build a new four-classroom block without having to knock down an existing block.

Parents want to refuse Sydney school grant The Australian September 9, 2009

A group of parents is considering boycotting the Rudd government's school building program and sending back its $2.5 million grant in protest at being forced to knock down a building of four classrooms to build a new block of four classrooms.

An extraordinary meeting of the Parents and Citizens Association at Abbotsford Public School in Sydney's inner west will tonight debate whether the school should refuse its grant under the Building the Education Revolution, rather than waste it building a facility that already exists.

P&C president Robert Vellar said the school, with about 330 students, had hoped to amend its original plans to build an extra two classrooms and refurbish another four to expand the capacity of the school, which is expecting a rise in enrolments.

A tale of two schools, divided by water and funding The Australian September 10, 2009

A South Australian school spread over 5 campusses says it has been disadvantaged by BER rules.

Stimulus stokes school envy Hobart Mercury September 9, 2009

A remote school community is angry it missed out on funding for a new science centre.

While at the same time exclusive private schools reaped millions from the Federal Government's stimulus package.

Tasman District School at Nubeena on the Tasman Peninsula had hoped to receive funding to upgrade its outdated science block under the third round of the schools improvement package.

Meanwhile, Hobart private schools Friends' and Hutchins each received $2.7 million for refurbishments while St Michael's Collegiate received $2.2 million.

"That just shows you the attitude of the Federal Government -- the main voting areas are looked after and the disadvantaged district schools are ignored and told to get stuffed," he said.

Schools stimulus wasted on fees Adelaide Now September 9, 2009

Three schools on Kangaroo Island have been charged more than $100,000 in inspection fees for new halls that they are getting under the financial stimulus plan.

Schools lag in study allocation, says report SMH September 9, 2009

Australian schools devote less classroom time to reading, writing and literature, maths and the learning of foreign languages than other developed countries, according to an international report card (xls – see sheet C_D1.2b) of education systems released last night.

The report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, says Australian students between the ages of nine and 11 spend just 13 per cent of instruction time on reading, writing and literature, less than half the time devoted to the subject in the Netherlands, Mexico and France, and significantly below the OECD average of 23 per cent.

Other OECD reports

Education at a Glance 2009: OECD Indicators

Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects, OECD study shows

UWA, Sydney plan revamp as unis gear up for 2012 reform The Australian September 9, 2009

Obama recalls restless youth in children's address SMH September 9, 2009

Barack Obama on Tuesday held up his personal journey from wayward youth to the presidency to challenge US children to excel, in a back-to-school speech that sparked conservative fury.

"If you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country," Obama said, after getting a euphoric welcome at a suburban high school in Virginia for a speech beamed countrywide on television.

Private schools' cash boost The Age September 9, 2009

Victoria's wealthiest private schools are set to receive massive increases in federal funding, with some to get more than 20 per cent extra over four years despite enrolments rising only marginally by comparison.

Haileybury College will be among the big winners, with more than $52 million to be delivered over four years, including $14.64 million in 2012 - an increase of more than 24 per cent since 2008.

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar will get more than $39 million over four years (up 29 per cent); Carey Baptist Grammar School $20 million (up 18 per cent) and Scotch College $16 million (up 25 per cent).

Juvenile crimes link to abuse and neglect SMH September 5, 2009

Most maltreated children do not go on to become criminals but childhood abuse or neglect increases the chances a person will offend - and some forms of maltreatment are more likely to create criminals than others.

Landmark research into juvenile crime by Griffith University researchers analysed all child protection and crime data collected in Queensland for children born in 1983, 1984 and 1990.

Mourners farewell Mullumbimby schoolyard brawl victim Jai Morcom The Australian September 5, 2009

More than a thousand people have farewelled a boy who died after a schoolyard brawl a week ago at Mullumbimby High School in northern NSW.

School funding signs are ads: Australian Electoral Commission The Australian September 4, 2009

The Australian Electoral Commission has embarrassed Kevin Rudd by ruling that more than 8000 signs being erected outside publicly funded school building projects are political advertisements.

The government confirmed yesterday it would have to mark the signs with authorisations identical to those that appear on political advertisements.

Cooking up reasons for spending fiasco The Australian September 4, 2009

Opinion, Dennis Shanahan. I have spent the last half of this week checking out the veracity of a leaked Treasury minute proposing a solution to the miscalculation of spending on Building the Education Revolution and the politically damaging decisions to shut down spending on high school science laboratories and cut the number of houses to be built for the homeless.

The government had delivered more refurbished public housing than it promised and the science labs in high schools were an extra round of offers, but there's no getting around the fact playground shelters took precedence over economically productive science and language labs and Rudd's personal aim of reducing homelessness. How much better off would schools and the Australian economy have been if there had been a merit, equity or productivity test applied to the $42 billion spending priority, rather than a simple, easy-to-sell political giveaway - every child wins a prize?

Firth censured over league table bill SMH September 4, 2009

The State Government has been dealt a blow in the upper house after the Greens and the Opposition passed a censure motion yesterday against the Education Minister, Verity Firth, over her school league tables bill.

The Greens MP John Kaye moved the motion over Ms Firth's comments that NSW was at risk of losing billions in federal funding because of the Greens amendment to ban school league tables. It is the first time the upper house has censured a lower house minister since 2001.

Tablets poised to become computing’s next little thing The Australian September 4, 2009

Tablet personal computers with touch screens are about to become the latest must-have gadgets, if technology companies have their way.

Computer makers are fighting to convince consumers that tablet PCs - computers without keyboards - will be the best way to watch videos, read books and play computer games. the rise of mini-laptops has shown that consumers are now open to using inexpensive devices for basic computing and entertainment.

Watchdog admits energy drinks dodged state food standards SMH September 4, 2009

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has admitted flaws in its product register have allowed companies to circumvent state food standards and sell energy drinks containing 10 times the legal limits of caffeine.

Caffeine drinks escaping scrutiny Daily Telegraph September 3, 2009

Take high-caffeine energy drinks off the market: NSW minister

SMH September 3, 2009 - 4:44PM Article and “Your say”

Energy drinks with dangerously high levels of caffeine are being sold to children because of a loophole in Australian law, the NSW Government says.

Five year 7 students from Quakers Hill, in Sydney's west, reportedly suffered side effects including dizziness and nausea after consuming the drinks on their way to school yesterday.

Building the Education Revolution

Cash cow runs dry so disadvantaged schools lose funding SMH September 3, 2009

Twenty-six of the most disadvantaged schools in NSW that were promised new language centres and science laboratories have lost their funding under the Federal Government's $1 billion building program for secondary schools.

Their plans have been scuttled by a $1.5 billion blowout in the $14 billion primary school program that delivered grants of $3 million each to affluent schools such as Abbotsleigh, Knox Grammar, The King's School, Cranbrook and Shore for new halls and other facilities.

Yesterday the NSW Government confirmed the 26 central schools would miss out because the money was being redirected to cover the blowout in primary school funding.

School with one child to get $250k The Australian September 3, 2009

School stimulus plan fails test for neediest The Australian September 2, 2009

The neediest high schools in Australia have been denied funding to build science labs and language centres after the federal government ignored its own guidelines and redirected $200 million to help pay for a blowout in its primary school building program.

The Australian understands 140 of the nation's most disadvantaged and under-resourced high schools have missed out on the new facilities after the government last week cancelled a planned second round of the $1billion program.

The three schools judged by an independent panel to be most in need of the science labs and language centres are in remote areas and have a high proportion of indigenous students. They had applied for projects with a combined value of $3 million but have received not one cent between them.

Instead, the federal government has used the money to meet increased demand in the last round of its $14bn primary school program, in which private school PLC Pymble on Sydney's affluent north shore received $3m to refurbish a multipurpose hall and library.

Lost for words at this science The Australian September 2, 2009

Kevin Rudd's education revolution has sold out his principles and our principals.

The decision to rob high schools of science labs and language centres to help pay for the blowout in the cost of sheds in primary schools has left high school principals furious, and betrayed the Prime Minister's stated priorities of improving science and language education.

The only program in the $16billion Building the Education Revolution to have real educational merit was the smallest, the $1bn - reduced last week to $800million - to build sciences and language centres in high schools.

The remaining $15bn was handed to schools regardless of their existing facilities, their community's resources, or whether they even needed a hall or library.

Police lock down elite school as former student arrested The Australian 03.09.09

Students 'hypnotised for sex' at St Stanislaus Daily Telegraph September 2, 2009

Former teacher says he witnessed sexual assaults SMH September 2, 2009

Students forced to engage in group sex in 'rampant pedophilia': court

SMH September 1, 2009 - 3:01PM

Students at a Bathurst high school were allegedly forced to engage in group sex and were hypnotised to have intercourse with teachers, in what has been described as a culture of "rampant pedophilia", a court has heard.

The allegations were heard during a bail application by Brian Spillane, a former chaplain at St Stanislaus' College.

Bad food can cut two years off a child's lifespan SMH September 2, 2009

The nation's children will live two years fewer than their parents unless there are urgent changes to lifestyle, government experts warn.

They are calling for a ban on TV advertising of junk food targeted at young viewers, a move at odds with the media watchdog's views.

In a report released yesterday, the National Preventative Health Taskforce has proposed a battery of measures including higher taxes and bans to combat obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking.

AMA supports report

Red Bull charges towards school DT September 1, 2009

Red Bull "ambassadors" brazenly took samples of the high-caffeine energy drink into a public high school which had banned the product on health grounds.

Office staff at Sylvania High School were forced to rebuff the Red Bull representatives who tried to distribute material promoting the energy drink and a surfing event at Cronulla.

Hunters hold Nathan Rees to ransom DT September 1, 2009

Premier Nathan Rees has offered to let hunters into national parks to shoot feral animals on a trial basis in exchange for support in the Legislative Council to reverse the ban on publishing school leagues tables.

Teachers take fight to school gates SMH August 31, 2009

A peak group of principals and teachers will bombard parents outside schools this week with thousands of pamphlets opposing league tables for schools.

Why schools deal with bullying better than most SMH September 1, 2009

Opinion: Chris Bonnor

Let's have peace SMH September 1, 2009

Mullumbimby High School

Students demand principal's sacking after schoolmate's death SMH August 31, 2009

Police detectives and liaison officers will today meet with Mullumbimby High School students planning a walkout over the death of 15-year-old Jai Drummond Morcom.

A number of students are planning a 10am protest to remember the Northern NSW teenager and demand the sacking of school principal Ian Graham.

Fatal school fight walkout planned against bullying, violence in school after Jai Morcom died Daily Telegraph August 31, 2009

Classmates of a school student who died after a playground brawl are planning a mass walkout today to protest against school violence.

Students claim a culture of bullying and violence has been allowed to fester at Mullumbimby High School, where Jai Morcom, 15, was involved in a fatal fight over a lunch table.

Private schools win cash bonuses SMH August 29, 2009

Private schools in Australia will receive up to $23 million each in overpayments over the next four years because of the Rudd Government's commitment to a deal that John Howard struck.

Some NSW schools will receive up to $15 million more than their entitlement under a funding formula that measures need according to the socio-economic status of the school community.

Download list of schools from SMH site pdf 52.5 kb.

Second girl dies after skiing into tree SMH August 28, 2009 9:14AM

A year 11 student at Barker College in Hornsby (Amelia McGuiness, 16) has died after skiing into a tree whilst competing with classmates in the NSW Interschool Championships at Perisher Blue ski resort.

Building the Education Revolution changes

PM Kevin Rudd revamps stimulus package The Australian 28.08.09

Kevin Rudd has dramatically reconfigured his $43 billion economic stimulus package after warnings it could expose taxpayers to unacceptably high costs delivering promised new school buildings.

The government has also revised guidelines for its $16.2bn primary schools building program, inserting for the first time a "value-for-money" requirement, compliance with council building laws and involvement of apprentices on building sites.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told The Australian last night the changes would deliver greater flexibility and accountability, and were based on lessons learned in implementing early rounds of the spending.

Change of rules for school projects The Australian 28.08.09

Any changes to school building projects in the Rudd government's $16.2 billion education infrastructure program must be sanctioned by the federal education department, under revised guidelines released yesterday.

School principals must also agree in writing to a reduction in their grant or to any unspent money being transferred to another school, while state governments must demonstrate value for money in their contracts with builders and purchasing of materials. All projects must also comply with local planning regulations.

Real tragedy is lost opportunity The Australian 28.08.09

Comment: Justine Ferrari

For a government committed to an education revolution, there are arguably more worthwhile areas in which to invest than school buildings. The standout item is teachers, including bigger salaries to attract brighter people into the profession and better training programs for new and existing teachers. Gillard will rightly counter that the government is already investing heavily in this area, and it is, but still the amount is one brick in the $16bn worth of bricks in the BER.

The buildings built with the BER billions will be used by the grandchildren of the students now in school. They should be buildings to inspire, to last generations, to equip every community with a school environment worthy of pride. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build schools that are special. The tragedy of the BER is that we will shudder as we walk past these hastily built, cookie-cutter buildings, often plonked on a basketball court or open space that a school can ill afford to lose.

Building the Education Revolution website

Economic Stimulus Plan - Education

Building the Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21^st Century Round Three Results LIST OF SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS

School signs 'cynical election ploy' SMH August 28, 2009 - 7:26AM

A requirement for schools to display a road sign as a condition for receiving federal government stimulus money is a cynical election ploy, the opposition says.

Parents sued for school fees after bullying dispute SMH August 27, 2009

A Sydney couple who refuse to pay thousands of dollars in private school fees claim the school failed to stop bullying which led to one of their daughters harming herself, a court has heard. Grant and Gloria Mears owe Roseville College about $20,000 in tuition fees and penalties after they removed their four daughters from the school in early 2007, claiming it had provided a sub-standard education and had failed in its duty of care.

Funding of Private Schools

Enrolments cash doesn't add up SMH August 25, 2009

Increases in private school enrolments only partly explain the 32 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding, which will rise to more than $26 billion over the next four years.

Jim McMorrow, an honorary associate professor of education at the University of Sydney, said projections in this year's federal budget papers reveal non-government school enrolments are projected to rise by only about 5 per cent over the next four years.

''It can't be the case that increases of 32 per cent in non-government schools funding are solely attributable to higher enrolments in those schools,'' he said. ''Policy decisions, not enrolments, explain the bulk of the increases.''

Canberra's courage fails on schools SMH Editorial August 25, 2009

Kevin 07 left a difficult legacy for Kevin 09. Campaigning for office against John Howard, Kevin Rudd tried to be as unthreatening as possible - to mimic the incumbent and allay voter fears of change. He made a big show of confirming virtually all Howard's tax cuts. He did something similar with private school funding. Both promises are now haunting his Government following the global financial crisis. Both areas need reform, but perhaps the unfairness the Rudd Government is content to perpetuate in school funding needs it more, because it is the more glaring.

Rudd's $26b funding gift to private schools SMH August 24, 2009

The Rudd Government will deliver an estimated 32 per cent increase in funding to private schools, raising their national windfall to more than $26.2 billion over the next four years, new analysis shows.

Despite a federal Department of Education review which uncovered entrenched ''inequities'' in the system, Kevin Rudd has remained committed to maintaining the Howard government's controversial funding arrangements for private schools until 2012.

It means Labor will release more than $2 billion in ''over-payments'' during the next four years to schools that receive more than their strict entitlements under the Commonwealth funding system. This measures the socioeconomic status of each school community using census data.

A Greens analysis of Senate budget estimate figures shows already wealthy independent schools in Sydney, including Trinity Grammar, The King's School, Newington, Moriah and St Andrew's Cathedral School, will receive funding increases of up to $5.3 million each over four years.

Exceptions that disprove the rules SMH August 24, 2009

When the Howard government decided it would change the system of federal funding for private schools, it made half the schools exempt from the new rules.

Mind the gap year: Gillard hears student protests SMH August 25, 2009

The federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, appears set to give ground on Labor's planned overhaul of youth allowance in response to the protests of regional students who would be worse off under the changes.

Ms Gillard met about a dozen young people in Canberra yesterday to hear their concerns about the proposed changes, announced in the budget in May.

Gap-year students put case to Gillard SMH August 24, 2009

Thousands of gap-year students threatened with losing up to $371.40 a fortnight in government support will rely on a proposal before Julia Gillard today to give them a six- to 12-month period of grace to qualify for the full income support.

Smack the child, go to jail: parents pressured Sun Herald August 23, 2009

Veterans turn page on another quest Sun Herald August 23, 2009

Story about Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Private school's league table fear SMH August 22, 2009

The prestigious Sydney private school Cranbrook has warned parents that it may ''suffer'' in league table comparisons with schools that, unlike itself, are academically selective.

New national school report cards will compare the academic performance of schools within groups of similarly wealthy or disadvantaged school communities.

It means that schools such as Cranbrook, which are not academically selective, will be compared with others - including Sydney Grammar - which are, because both schools draw from communities with a similar socio-economic status.

''It is constantly aggravating to me that the three-dimensional knowledge about the whole development of a child is reduced to a one-dimensional dot on a spreadsheet and represents the final summative statement about their worth in the overall system,'' said the head of Cranbrook's senior school, Michael Parker.

For more articles on League Tables – search this page for “league”.

School children need food for thought during the day Daily Telegraph 20.08.09

Under a statewide program called Crunch and Sip, pupils from kindergarten to Year 6 are able to eat fruit and vegetables and drink water or unsweetened juice in class for about an hour from 10am.

School heads claim earlier and healthier eating has cut the number of playground altercations because healthy snacks such as apples, carrots and watermelon produce calmer and more contented children.

Principals ask for national training standard SMH 20.08.09

Professional development programs for school principals are ''piecemeal'' and not nationally cohesive, peak school principal groups across Australia have warned.

A submission from secondary and primary school principals representing public, independent and Catholic sectors calls for the creation of a national body to co-ordinate and accredit professional development programs for school leaders.

Prefab library 'cheats' school in southwest Sydney The Australian 20.08.09

The small community of Douglas Park Primary School outside Sydney is feeling cheated of the benefits of the federal government's $14.7 billion school building program after being charged three times more than the amount quoted for a prefabricated school library.

The school applied for a new administration centre with its entitlement under the Rudd government's Building the Education Revolution, which was worth about $850,000.

Instead, the school of about 130 students near Camden, southwest of Sydney, was offered a "factory-built transportable" library, or prefabricated demountable, for $285,000. It is now outraged that the state government is charging the full $850,000 and has failed to explain where the extra money is going.

Boy was lured to storeroom with promise of a cigarette SMH 20.08.09

A former teacher at Knox Grammar School who admits a sex offence against a student lured the boy to a deserted storeroom with the promise of a cigarette.

The incident was detailed in papers tendered to Hornsby Local Court, where the case of Damien Piers Vance was yesterday adjourned for sentencing. Vance, 55, is one of five former teachers charged over alleged sexual abuse of students at the Wahroonga school.

Funding for teenage road trauma program in doubt SMH 20.08.09

The future of a confronting road accident prevention program for teenagers, run by doctors who treat catastrophically injured victims, is in doubt after the NRMA said it would review its $150,000 funding contribution and the Roads and Traffic Authority called into question its use of graphic crash scenes.

Time for a devolution revolution Daily Telegraph 19.08.09 11.48 am

Maralyn Parker – article & blog

Western Australia announced this week it is following the world-wide push to give public school communities and school principals more control. It is happening just about everywhere - except in NSW. We are headed in the opposite direction.

But first prize so far goes to Western Australia for creating the best way to make public schools more like private schools.

It plans to give a few select public schools full control of their school budget and the right to hire teachers and to write their own curriculum. School councils will have a name change to school boards_very posh_and the schools will be called Independent Public Schools.

Of course this also earns WA first prize for the best education oxymoron. Mercifully only 30 of WA’s 778 public schools initially will be honoured with such a title.

Private school parents put tables low on list SMH 19.08.09

Parents of children at private schools say they are not as interested in school performance tables as the Federal Government claims they are.

The parents are more interested in the happiness, safety and social development of their children, says a position statement being drafted by the Australian Parents Council, a national federation of organisations representing parents of non-government school students. The council's executive director, Ian Dalton, said parents ranked happiness and safety way ahead of student results in public tests.

Rudd increases funds for Brethren schools SMH 19.08.09

The Federal Government was criticised yesterday for increasing funding for Exclusive Brethren schools to an estimated $62 million over the next four years.

The Government has chosen to continue with the previous government's controversial funding formula for private schools, which will deliver an additional $24.6 million to the Brethren schools over the next four-year funding cycle, according to budget projections.

Spies to swoop on children's energy drinks Daily Telegraph 18.08.09

Supermarkets and corner stores will be asked to spy on students who buy large amounts of high-caffeine energy drinks amid increasing fears about their health risks.

And the state's most influential parents' lobby group wants a NSW-wide school ban on the controversial beverages. The push for a crackdown by the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations is backed up by concerns over students becoming loud and hyperactive in class after consuming drinks such as Red Bull, V, Mother or Cocaine.

Testing futile unless teachers read data: study SMH 18.08.09

National testing will not improve literacy results unless teachers are taught how to interpret the data properly and help students make improvements, NZ research has found.

Politicians fail kids most in need

Education funding farce Manly Daily 17.08.09

State Education Minister Verity Firth has all but rejected a request from Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard for the NSW Government to come up with additional funding for Royal Far West and Stewart House schools.
Both schools provide services for sick children but missed out in funding under the Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution program (BER).
Under the BER neither peninsula school is eligible for funding because they don’t have full-time student enrolments and instead take students with medical problems from other schools for a short period.

Share the best teachers and pay well: report SMH 17.08.09

The best teachers would be given healthy pay rises and shared between schools as part of a performance-based system, a government report says.

The report, commissioned by the Howard government and made public yesterday, has backed pay based on merit, but not if it is linked exclusively to students' results.

Instead, it says, teachers should be able to opt in to a performance-based system that offers higher wages in return for teaching in demanding schools, taking part in training and being judged by a set of national benchmarks.

The report concludes by suggesting a private management style for teachers in order to ''underpin a performance culture in teacher employment''.

But, it says, experience from other countries suggests that performance-based pay works best when people are able to choose whether to take part.

Download FULL REPORT (pdf, 1.25 Mb) and Julia Gillard's media release

Leading researcher says ditch the A to E reports

Daily Telegraph 12 August 2009 Maralyn Parker – article and blog

Australia’s controversial A to E reports could be harmful to children according to Professor Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

Building the Education Revolution

Millions wasted at every school Sunday Telegraph 16.08.09

Schools have accused the NSW Government of wasting millions of dollars in federal building grants by forcing them to accept inflated quotes.

The NSW Teachers Federation, the Parents and Citizens Association and the State Opposition have been swamped with complaints from school staff who accuse the Education Department of approving bloated prices for classrooms, halls and building upgrades.

They say centralised state bureaucrats are freezing out local builders who have quoted to do the work cheaper, raising concerns that huge amounts of taxpayer money will be wasted.

Parents too busy for P&C Sunday Telegraph 16.08.09

Canteen mums and referee dads are becoming endangered species. Parents, consumed by work and family, no longer have time to volunteer at their children's school, new Sydney University research shows.

The perceived exclusive culture of Parents and Citizens' groups and the inconvenient times of monthly meetings also kept parents away.

Despite the results, the researcher Dr Rawsthorne said the P&C movement was not in crisis - it was simply failing to keep up with the times.

However, NSW Parents and Citizens' Federation president Di Giblin said the downturn was a concern. She said: "Our numbers are declining. Lives are generally busier and it's the changing nature of the workforce - we have an increase in the number of single-parent families and mums need to return to work.''

P&C Media Release Dr Rawsthorne’s discussion paper

Class heater tests not up to scratch, experts fear smh.com.au 16.08.09

Tests taking place to determine whether public school students are being exposed to dangerous levels of gas could be flawed because the State Government bought cheap equipment that does not meet the Australian standard.

Support for parents to go back to work smh.com.au 16.08.09

A program that gives parents of teenagers with an intellectual disability more support so they can pursue jobs and study is to be expanded across NSW.

Bourke Street Public School canteen gifts row Daily Telegraph 15.08.09

A school canteen made a profit of $3753.75 while its female operator received a $4000 "gift" from the parents and citizens' committee for her work.

The payment, announced at an end-of-year school function last December, fuelled a bitter row within the P&C and led to an audit of its accounts.

Capped funds for pupils with disabilities SMH 15.08.09

School funding for students with special needs will be capped and no longer distributed according to the number of individual students, under NSW Department of Education proposals.

Principals and teachers are concerned that funding for students with autism and mental health disorders will be capped for the next three years at 2009 levels. The State Government plans to allocate grants based on the prevalence of disorders in the wider community.

Drop A-E grades to keep pupils motivated West Australian 15.08.09

In a move set to ignite debate about how the new national curriculum will be assessed, Australian Council for Education Research chief executive Geoff Masters will tell the council's annual conference in Perth on Monday that using A to E grades contradicts what is known about the best ways to help students learn.

Ken Boston’s views on school league tables and accountability

Ken Boston is a former head of the NSW DET and England’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Ken Boston urges principals to embrace "rich" school performance reports The Australian 10.08.09

Leading Australian education policymaker Ken Boston today called on primary school principals to embrace "rich" school performance reports, arguing better schools were worth the "greater external scrutiny".

League tables can play to fears of parents SMH 11.08.09

National testing has a critical role to play to improve the performance of Australian schools, says Ken Boston, who was England's former curriculum chief, and the director-general of NSW education for a decade until 2002.

He warned yesterday that results should not be used to construct school league tables.

Ken Boston’s powerpoint presentation will be available soon at

http://www.appa.asn.au

State schools get new powers The West Australian 12.08.09

Public schools would have freedom to shun official curriculum and offer the International Baccalaureate under sweeping reforms unveiled by the State Government yesterday, which give principals power to hire teachers and expel students more easily.

Premier Colin Barnett said the plan to create independent public schools would cut red tape and allow parents more say in their children's education.

WA public schools to become independent Perth Now news.com.au 12.08.09

Dozens of WA state schools will become "independent", handing greater control to principals and cutting bureaucracy in the public school system.

Hailing the plans as ``a new era in West Australian education'', Premier Colin Barnett and Education Minister Liz Constable said public schools would be invited to apply for independent status.
Those chosen to be categorised as an Independent Public School would be “empowered to make decisions that best suits the needs of their students and local communities'', Mr Barnett said in a joint statement.
“It represents one of the most significant changes to the state's education system in many decades,'' he said. Up to 30 WA public schools will be run independently next year with more schools to follow, giving principals the power to select teachers and change the curriculum.

Also of interest:

Review Of Teacher Recruitment Practices – report for WA Department of Education, March, 2007

Performance audit for Julia Daily Telegraph 12 August 2009

Maralyn Parker – article and blog

If there is anything dodgy going on with Building the Education Revolution at your school now is the time to do some dobbing.

Young people not happy, Julia The Australian 10.08.09

Julia Gillard is the darling of the Canberra press gallery. This makes some sense: she is erudite and sometimes funny in question time, a welcome break from the tedium of our Prime Minister's mangled bureaucratese. She is also "the woman most likely", a potential female prime minister in a city obsessed with the symbolism of such potential.

But increasingly concerns are growing in the education sector that she may be out of her depth when it comes to delivering in her very large portfolio areas. On last week's Q&A program on ABC1, in which she was up against Malcolm Turnbull and three young political activists from across the spectrum, her most problematic political failing was on display. She is all style and very little substance. Long on rhetoric, but short on delivery.All foam, no beer.

Julia Gillard backs school-by-school report cards The Australian 10.08.09

Julia Gillard has strongly backed the move by Queensland to release a school-by-school report card on literacy and numeracy, saying it was "time we stopped averting our eyes from poor performance" in the classroom.

The Deputy Prime Minister and architect of Kevin Rudd's education reforms spoke out yesterday after Queensland made public what was trumpeted as the most comprehensive list of national test data to be released by a state government. The move will ramp up pressure on the other states to give parents greater detail on how individual schools stack up on national benchmarking of literacy and numeracy.

Teaching for tests rejected Courier-Mail, Brisbane 10.08.09

Principals of some of Queensland's top-performing schools in last year's national exams have lambasted a push to teach students the tests to help lift literacy and numeracy standards.

Some of the top-performing schools don't even believe in testing.

Kids lose without competition Daily Telegraph 11.08.09

Why, all of a sudden, do we have to protect kids from the reality that there are winners and losers in the world

Tables will compare rich, poor schools SMH 07.08.09

New league tables would compare the performance of schools in the same local area, pitting the likes of Newington College and academically selective Fort Street High School against public schools such as Marrickville High and Belmore Boys High in Sydney's inner west, a study suggests.

A study to be published today by Trevor Cobbold, an economist for the Australian Productivity Commission for more than 30 years and convener of the Save Our Schools public education advocacy group, suggests the kinds of comparisons parents can expect to see from later this year.

"Local-area school performance tables will compare government schools and private schools in disadvantaged suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra with other government and private schools serving very high socio-economic status communities in neighbouring suburbs," he said.

Sydney girl, 9, killed by bus SMH 05.08.09 2:41PM

A nine-year-old girl from William Carey Christan School in Prestons, has died after being hit by a school bus on the way to school this morning.

Solar schools still in the shade SMH 05.08.09

No public school in NSW has yet been able to install solar panels funded by a $300 million national program because the State Government has insisted on a centralised tendering process.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, announced the funding more than a year ago, and dozens of schools in other states have the panels operating.

Schools 'call kids disabled for cash' The Australian 04.08.09

The number of schoolchildren diagnosed with behavioural or emotional disorders is soaring, driven by funding programs that give schools extra money for students with disabilities.

A study by Macquarie University researchers has found the proportion of school students diagnosed with a disability has more than doubled in the past decade, with extra funding effectively placing a "bounty" on students' heads.

Uni student mentoring program for aboriginal students

Australian Indigenous Menroring Experience AIME

A persuasive push all the way to university SMH 03.08.09

It is hard to know who is gaining more from a breakthrough mentoring scheme for indigenous secondary students, writes Nick Galvin.

Four years ago it was a nervous Jack Manning Bancroft who walked into Alexandria Park Community School, in Sydney’s inner south, accompanied by 25 other students from Sydney University. Passionate about improving educational opportunities for indigenous young people, Manning Bancroft had a big idea and he was about to see if it worked in practice.

The plan was to set up one-on-one mentoring sessions between university students and indigenous pupils. With a combination of encouragement, practical assistance and good role models, he reasoned, maybe more young Aborigines could be persuaded to complete their schooling and even go on to university. AIME website

In a class of their own new friends AIME high SMH 03.08.09

Top boarding schools are full of city kids DT 03.08.09

Warning parents are becoming irrelevant

Dads told to make more time for their kids

Hundreds of parents pay more than $28,000 a year to send their children to boarding school in the city - although some live within walking distance of the college gates.

Schoolgirl dies in ski accident at Thredbo SMH 03.08.09

A 16-year-old on a year 11 trip with James Sheahan Catholic High School, Orange died while on a school skiing trip at the weekend. She hit a tree on a run at Thredbo and was killed instantly.

Don’t bury school data, warns US expert SMH 01.08.09

Moves to restrict the publication of data on school performance, like those proposed by the NSW upper house, are shortsighted and stifle discussion about school reform, the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has warned.

Excellence hubs: 50 schools recognised SMH 31.07.09

Fifty schools in NSW will be designated ‘‘centres of excellence’’ and link with universities to specialise in teacher training and development.

Principals refuse to trust data on schools performance DT 30.07.09

Principals challenged Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday over the release of information on school academic performance, claiming it was based on flawed data.

But the Federal Education Minister, addressing an education forum organised by The Daily Telegraph and the University of Technology Sydney, said there was no intention of damaging any school when performance data was released online.

Gillard answers principals about league tables DT 30.07.09 09:29am

Maralyn Parker Article & blog

The message is clear to principals - Julia Gillard will not back down. This year Australian parents will start to get the most comprehensive data available anywhere in the world about school performance and no amount of protest will stop it happening.

Gillard has said repeatedly she does not support simplistic league tables. But this did not stop principals at yesterday’s Education Forum at News Ltd’s News House in Sydney from attacking her about them.

Julia Gillard starts a class war over school test results DT 29.07.09

A battle is brewing over attempts to ban the publication of school test results, Education Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday.

She launched a stinging attack on trade unions, teachers and their supporters, who want to stop school academic data being published.

Warning they would be defeated by parent power, she said opponents of more public information on school performance were burying their "heads in the sand" and would not help struggling students improve.

Chairman of the new Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Professor Barry McGaw backed the minister's stand on transparency, telling The Daily Telegraph parents had a right to know if a school was failing.

"These transparency measures will give parents, communities and the public much better information about school performance," he said.

"You will find some schools are doing very much better than others. They (poorly performing schools) need to be confronted."

Bullying victim gets $484,766 SMH 29.07.09 1.00pm

A victim of school bullying in northern NSW has had his damages award increased by more than $16,000 to $484,766.

Impact of teachers and schools on student learning

An education revolution does not compute without quality teachers SMH 25.07.09

Adele Horin

The Rudd Government's education revolution will amount to little if it fails to lift teacher quality. Computers, libraries, arts centres and well-functioning buildings are vital in improving the learning environment, and the appeal of schools. Only a curmudgeon would quibble over the extra expenditure. But unless teacher quality also improves, the revolution will be half-baked.

With so many baby-boomer teachers retiring over the next seven years - in NSW virtually half the teaching population - there is both opportunity and imperative to raise the standard.

Any parent knows the quality of the child's teacher is critical. That is why the pushier parents lobby to secure the best teacher for their child, and more reticent parents accept with sinking hearts the lost year or lost marks a bad teacher represents.

Based on extensive work, conducted partly in the Texas school system, Professor Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford University, estimates the students of a bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's worth of material in a year. The students of a good teacher will learn 1 ½ year's worth of material. That's a whole year's more learning with a quality teacher.

To people who say family background is the most decisive influence on children's academic attainment and that teachers can't compensate, Hanushek says: "Dead wrong."

Hanushek suggestion for attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is the much-lambasted idea of performance pay. Under the single-salary structure that operates here, a bad teacher costs the state as much as a good teacher; across-the-board pay increases give the bad teacher no incentive to leave, and the talented no incentive to stay. The idea is so resisted by teacher unions around the world there is little empirical evidence that performance pay delivers for students.

Teachers key to improving the education system SMH 24.07.09

Greg Whitby, executive director of Schools of the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta.

The greatest influence on the future of quality Australian schools will not be the Federal Government's school building program or the national publication of league tables. It will be the collective wisdom of a teaching profession and community committed to shaping educational policy based on professional integrity and intellectual rigour.

Teacher quality makes little difference, study shows SMH 24.07.09

An Australian study has cast doubt over the "teacher effect", by suggesting differences between teachers play only a minor role in how well a child will learn.

The global study, led by the University of New England, monitored 500 pairs of identical twins during their first three years of school.

Educating teachers to be the best news.com.au 22.07.09 12:38pm

Maralyn Parker – article and blog

We currently have some of the world’s best educational researchers and teacher educators working in our universities teaching our teachers about quality teaching. Unfortunately - are we surprised - the state government is not making the most of this great advantage.

I spent all of Tuesday at the Pedagogy in Practice conference run by the University of Newcastle about quality teaching. While many teachers do as much as 12 hours and more professional development every month, presenters Gore and Ladwig discovered some teachers do as little as 4 hours or less - including staff meetings.

And from one of the bloggers: “I think the biggest problem in ‘quality teaching’ is desire. Every single teacher who gets positive results out of their students did so because they are passionate about what they do and they are willing to go the extra mile for their students. The opportunities are there for the teachers, some just aren’t taking them”.

'Defamed' school principal seeks $200,000 SMH 23.07.09

A Beecroft school principal suing an angry father who wrote an allegedly defamatory email is seeking up to $200,000 in damages because the man refuses to apologise, a Sydney court has been told.

Rudd's laptops send standards backwards SMH 20.07.09

The centrepiece of the Federal Government's so-called education revolution may be worse than useless, a visiting American researcher says.

Here we go again - Vouchers for school children DT 20.07.09

Maralyn Parker article and blog

The right wing Institute of Public affairs is suggesting a “real” education revolution would be to encourage “choice” in schooling by introducing a voucher system.

The paper by IPA’s research fellow Julie Novak suggests a range of different voucher systems that could be used from a universal voucher of $12,000 for each student through to targeted vouchers for Indigenous students and low income students of up to $15,000.The paper argues vouchers “encourage more choices”, “improve academic outcomes” are “highly popular with parents” and are “mainstream policy pursued in 30 countries from the US to Columbia”. All of which are contestable.

But probably the most fallacious argument given is “One of the greatest advantages of vouchers is that they allow children from disadvantaged backgrounds to access high performance schools.”

For many, benefits flow in schooling at home SMH 20.07.09

As politicians argue over school league tables and teaching standards, parents are increasingly taking their children out of the school system

Answers sought on high youth jail rate SMH 20.07.09

A review of the state's juvenile justice system will investigate why NSW has an incarceration rate more than four times that of Victoria's and what can be done to reduce high rates of reoffending.

Minister moves to buy back Islamic school site SMH 17.07.09

An ALP-dominated western Sydney council has lobbied the NSW Government to prevent an Islamic school opening in its area, despite Land and Environment Court approval for the development.

Soon after the court dismissed Bankstown Council's appeal against the school, the council wrote to the Minister for Education, Verity Firth, asking that the Government acquire the Bass Hill site, either by agreement or compulsorily.

This week Ms Firth ordered the Education Department to negotiate to buy the site but denied the council's letter played a part in her decision. The land was now needed for a school for disabled children, she said.

Secret hit list - state schools set for sale DT 15.07.09

Children are set to lose their playgrounds to developers with almost 700 state schools classified as too big by the Government's bean counters.

The hit list of schools deemed greater than "standard size" in an internal Department of Education strategy document can be revealed for the first time.

Under pressure to raise $200 million in just 12 months from the fire sale of school land, the department wants to audit the schools on the hit list to determine if portions of the schools can be sold. Daily Telegraph’s full list of schools (spreadsheet)

Editorial DT 15.07.09

Stop the schools sale scam

Australia is said to be in the midst of a nationwide obesity epidemic, with schoolchildren especially vulnerable to fast food and lack of exercise.

Millions of state and federal dollars have been spent combating this, with programs encouraging an increase in outdoor activities and turning kids away from fries and other low-value fare.

What, then, to make of secret State Government plans - revealed in today's The Daily Telegraph - to sell off so-called "excess land" around the state's schools?

Keep kids safe

We have witnessed tragic deaths in recent years of toddlers and young children left for long (or not so long) periods in parked cars.

HOT ISSUE School League Tables

Parents caught in the league table storm Daily Telegraph 15.07.09

Maralyn Parker

The new teacher union leadership is stirring up a storm over league tables and parents are going to suffer.

The immediate aim of the union campaign seems to be to stop this newspaper from publishing “simplistic league tables. But parents should be concerned about the long term aim - to stop the federal government from administering national tests and reporting on them.

The Green’s amendment to NSW laws banning newspapers from publishing league tables was supported by the NSW Parents & Citizens Association. And while I sympathise with the concerns of the P&C I see it as a naive move.

Teachers fear of knowledge Daily Telegraph 14.07.09

NSW Teachers' Federation president Bob Lipscombe is absolutely correct, in one case at least. Yesterday he had this to say: "Certain newspapers support league tables because they know parents will be curious about how schools are performing."

Spot on, Mr Lipscombe. And that's why The Daily Telegraph will continue to campaign for the publication of comparative school tables - because parents are justifiably interested in the education of their children and how the schools they send their children to are conducting that education.

Teachers hold kids to ransom as strike action planned Daily Telegraph 14.07.09

Militant teachers yesterday spent the first day of their holidays playing crosswords and voting for industrial action that will bring months of disruption and chaos to schools.

Public school teachers have threatened an indefinite campaign of strikes and bans on national testing if league tables are published ranking schools on their academic results.

Thousands of Year 12 students preparing for the HSC are likely to be among the first hit by industrial action approved unanimously by the annual conference of the Teachers Federation at Darling Harbour.

Ban Is a guarantee league tables will be published Daily Telegraph 14.07.09

Maralyn Parker – article & blog

The call to ban “simplistic” league tables has been a great political boost for the new leadership of the NSW Teachers Federation. They needed a cause to rally the troops and prove their worth. And as far as getting teachers worked up all over the state, especially at the union’s annual conference, it has been highly successful.*

The trouble is their actions have absolutely guaranteed such tables will be published. In fact The Australian has already had a go at it _ daring someone to sue.

Trying to impose teacher union values on newspapers was never going to work.

O'Farrell backflip on league tables leaves Libs fuming SMH 14.07.09

One of the most controversial decisions of Barry O'Farrell's two years as NSW Opposition Leader - the decision to impose $55,000 fines for the publication of school league tables - was not taken to the shadow cabinet or the Coalition party room.

The move has angered some Liberal MPs as Mr O'Farrell had argued that parents be given information at the only shadow cabinet discussion on the issue.

News of disquiet within Liberal ranks follows the NSW Teachers Federation decision yesterday to block national literacy and numeracy tests if the federal and state governments allow the publication of league tables this year.

Teachers threaten to strike over league tables SMH 13.07.09 4.32 pm

Teachers have told the NSW Government they will walk off the job if school performance tables are published using national assessment data.

The NSW Teachers Federation has passed a motion supporting "all appropriate measures, both political and industrial" if 2009 national assessment data is used to publish league tables.

Teachers to get tough on league table plans SMH 13.07.09

Teachers are prepared to walk off the job over the controversial issue of league tables and will consider running aggressive campaigns in Labor's most marginal seats if the State Government allows tables to be published.

The NSW Teachers Federation will discuss the issue at its annual conference today and has signalled that it is prepared to ban national numeracy and literacy testing next year if this year's results are used in league tables.

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE ON SCHOOL LEAGUE TABLES

Schools seize incentives for kids DT 13.07.09

Schools in New South Wales are reporting a stunning turnaround in Aboriginal student test scores after receiving thousands of dollars in incentives to improve.

Principals are being paid an extra $6000 a year and teachers offered special financial inducements under a $40million plan to lift the performance of indigenous children in class.

Knox teacher guilty of child sex charge Sun Herald 12.07.09

No class act SMH 11.07.09

The Newcastle Waldorf School, a Rudolf Steiner school, espouses children's freedoms as a cornerstone of its teaching, but it has been dogged by allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Sacked teacher back at school SMH 11.07.09

In 2001 an English teacher at the Newcastle Waldorf School began writing love letters to a 16-year old female student.

Top pay for teachers of neediest students The Australian 11.07.09

The NSW government has unveiled a merit pay scheme offering the state's best teachers almost $100,000 to teach in disadvantaged schools.

The scheme creates a new level of classroom teachers called highly accomplished teachers, allowing teachers to reach their maximum level of pay in eight years, and breaks the nexus, championed by teachers unions, between length of service and salary.

The government will initially fund 100 positions at a pay rate of $98,000 that will be additional to the schools' existing teaching staff. It will also provide an alternative career structure for teachers that allows them to increase their pay without having to seek promotion outside the classroom as principals or in other administrative roles.

The initiative is funded under the federal government's National Partnerships program and was announced jointly yesterday by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and her NSW counterpart, Verity Firth, at St Mary's North Public School in Sydney's west, which is one of the schools that will benefit from the program.

Further Information: NSW Smarter Schools National Partnerships - agreements between the Australian Government and all States and Territories to improve the quality of education across the country.

HOT ISSUE School League Tables

Teachers to get tough on league table plans SMH 13.07.09

The tables are turned SMH 11.07.09

School gradings are clashing with political traditions, writes Jessica Irvine.

The political debate would have been a foregone conclusion but for an unlikely NSW upper house alliance between the Liberals - who might have been expected to support promotion of individual choice and the peeling away of official secrecy - and the Greens, who at least stuck to form in doing the political bidding of the teachers' union.

Tabling truth on schools The Australian 10.07.09

Opinion – Brendan Nelson, Federal member for Bradfield, and former Minister for Education.

Opponents of the publication of school performance, league tables and comparisons other than on similar socioeconomic profiling, should ask of themselves whose interests they serve.

This debate has its political origins when as education minister, I observed parents bypassing frequently good public schools to spend thousands of dollars on non-government alternatives. Among those reasons was ignorance of school performance.

Dunce Cap Fits Libs DT 09.07.09 3.24 pm Maralyn Parker Article + blog

Leader of the opposition Barry O’Farrell is wrong to claim NSW parents currently know all they need to know about school performance.The annual school reports O’Farrell claims are sufficient, and supposedly generated by all NSW schools both public and private, are in fact woefully inadequate.

Public schools best in Barry O'Farrell's seat The Australian 09.07.09

Public schools are outperforming private schools in the Sydney electorate of NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell, who has supported a law that would fine The Australian $55,000 for publishing this information.

To make choices, parents need facts The Australian 09.07.09

Analysis: Justine Ferrari

To be properly informed about school and student performance, parents need raw score league tables so that parents in Orange in western NSW or Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory know their children are reading at the same level as children in Killara in Sydney, Toorak in Melbourne or Ascot in Brisbane. More importantly, parents need test results over time so they can track their child's and school's performance, and how that changes as students progress through school. This shows how much the school "value adds" to the raw potential of the student.

The comparison of schools in peer groups - the "like school groups" proposed by the federal government, comparing schools with students of similar social backgrounds - is also valuable for removing any excuse for low performance. Schools will no longer get away with low expectations for poor students if governments can point to similar schools with better results.

Parents are entitled to the information in simple league tables - it is, after all, public information. But in trying to ban them outright, the NSW Coalition - and the Greens, principals groups and teachers unions - have created a debate about the freedom of the press and raised concerns about what they are trying to hide.

It would be more productive to have a debate about school performance and educate the community about the limits of league tables.

Graphic A comparison of school results from Barry O’Farrell’s electorate (for readable quality use “Save As”).

Comparisons may be tough but it's 'the story of life' The Australian 09.07.09

Gordon West P&C president David Jordan sees merit in both sides of the debate. "With the league tables, it seems both sides of politics are making good arguments," he said.

"On the one hand, we require transparency for parents ... so that they can make informed decisions. On the other hand, taking results from West Gordon or Killara, where the environment is conducive to learning, and comparing it to other areas, like Mt Druitt, and saying that a particular school is failing or is incompetent, is unfair."

Socio-economic factors must be considered if schools are going to be ranked across the state, Mr Jordan said. He said that concentrating solely on academic results would disadvantage public schools compared with private schools.

Coalition may talk to editors SMH 08.07.09

The State Opposition remains opposed to school league tables but could be prepared to back away from fines for newspapers that publish school results.

Rees turns tables on O'Farrell over release of school results SMH 07.07.09

Nathan Rees will reintroduce league tables legislation to Parliament to pressure the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to back down from his controversial decision to block the publication of school results.

The Government will move to strike out an amendment the Opposition supports which would allow newspapers to be fined $55,000 for publishing tables comparing school results.

A curious alignment is political opportunism DT 01.07.09

Maralyn Parker article + blog

Julia Gillard is right in dismissing this curious alignment led by the Greens, including the NSW Coalition as well as upper house oddballs such as Fred Nile and Gordon Moyes, as political opportunism. Their amendment to State laws has become a farce.

The Mt Druitt story, used for over a decade for scaremongering by teacher union officials, could be published under the new laws. There was one great positive outcome from the Mt Druitt story and the subsequent campaign by The Daily Telegraph. The Education Department changed forever how it delivers schooling to children in Sydney’s west. Funds were spent on text books and other resources, teachers with low expectations of the children in the area moved on, Mt Druitt high school was subsumed into a newly created Chifley Secondary College and today children from this college get University Admission Index rankings, similar to the old TER, in the high nineties.

'Pupil kill attempt': teacher held SMH 08.07.09 8.18am

A teacher at a school at All Saints' Roman Catholic School in Nottinghamshire, England has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a teenage pupil and assaulting two other children, police said on Thursday. The boy was taken to hospital with serious head injuries after an incident in a classroom.

Call for revived Colombo plan The Australian 09.07.09

Heritage school sale infuriates residents SMH 08.07.09

The former Enmore Public School was snapped up yesterday by a Sydney property developer who plans to convert it into townhouses.

First three years key to school success: study SMH 06.07.09 Adele Horin

How children are faring before they turn four is a strong guide to early school success, according to a major study. It is more important than what happens to them in the year immediately before they start school.

The Child Care Choices study, led by Jennifer Bowes of Macquarie University's children and families research centre, is unique in Australia for having followed an initial group of children - more than 670 - from child care to school for six years.

Child obesity figures are 'understated' SMH 06.07.09

Parents to count cost of better child care SMH 04.07.09

The cost of child care is set to rise under recommendations being considered by the Federal Government that all staff be trained either to TAFE or university level and more staff be employed at each centre.

A panel of 11 child-care professionals and developmental experts has told the Government the ratio of staff to children must rise to ensure children receive the best preparation for school.

It argued that the higher cost of more highly qualified staff would be outweighed by a rise in development.

Yesterday the Minister for Child Care, Kate Ellis, said the Government's strategy for children aged up to eight was the first step towards a national child-care system.

Ms Ellis said new guidelines for child-care centres would better prepare children for going to school.

"Importantly the framework has a strong emphasis on play-based learning, in recognition that play is the best vehicle to help young children learn," she said.

Tables stance is right: O'Farrell SMH 03.07.09

Barry O'Farrell has defended himself against a growing chorus of Liberals who have criticised his opposition to school leagues tables. He denies he is at odds with the party's policies.

"I don't think there is any Liberal Party policy that says we should stigmatise great teachers or great students," the Opposition Leader told the Herald yesterday.

Controversial rankings have proved to be popular with parents SMH 03.07.09

Britain has published a form of league tables for 16 years - a system of ranking primary schools that began with a bang and is now faltering, under threat and on the brink of ending with a whimper.

Teenager's peanut death should be probed, judge SMH 01.07.09

The role of a Melbourne private school in the death of a teenage boy who had a fatal allergic reaction to peanuts while on an army cadet camp should be investigated by the Victorian Coroner, a judge said as he fined the army more than $200,000 for negligence.

Federal Court Justice Tony North fined the army $210,100 over the death of Nathan Francis, 13, who died after eating a mouthful of beef satay at Wombat State Forest in March 2007. A written warning by Nathan's mother about the boy's allergy was ignored by Scotch College, which told parents not to send their own food as "great care" had been taken with camp meals.

Parents shut out by ban on school league tables SMH 26.06.09

The NSW Opposition and the Greens have combined to outlaw the publication of school league tables, a measure they say would protect poorly performing schools from public humiliation.

Sale of Enmore Public school is a Scandal DT 24.06.09 Maralyn Parker

The planned auction of Enmore Public School grounds next month has mobilised a range of inner city locals from parents of pre-schoolers to TAFE teachers and students. It is another great example of how to stir up a local community.

Anger at sale of school SMH 26.06.09

Former Enmore Public School.

Boarding school closes after swine flu strikes SMH 26.06.09

St Joseph’s, Hunters Hill.

Education seen as key to keep indigenous kids out of jail The Australian 25.06.09

Each indigenous child should be given their own education fund to help keep them in school and avoid the path to prison.

Education, along with greater diversion of indigenous offenders with drug and alcohol problems from the justice system into the health system, are the keys to stemming the rising tide of Aboriginal incarceration in Australia, a report says.

The Australian National Council on Drugs report on indigenous incarceration, "Bridges and Barriers" (pdf 420 kb), will be launched in Canberra today by Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

How Nathan Rees ripped off primary students DT 25.06.09

Millions of dollars earmarked for primary school students have been seized by the Rees Government to pay for a teachers' pay rise.

Principals were shocked to learn yesterday that funding approved by the Rudd Government for primary students had been hijacked because of a shortfall in covering the pay rise.

IQ2 debate

There is no excuse for funding private schools SMH 25.06.09

Tim Matthews, vice-captain at Caringbah High School, will argue for the proposition that public funding of private schools is unconscionable at tonight's IQ2 debate in Sydney.

Julia Gillard claims Australia suffers from a "serious educational equity problem". The irony seems apparent to most but the minister herself, for it is not the schools failing the children of Australia but the irresponsible distribution of government money.

How can we conscionably allow our taxes to fund the effective stratification of our schools? While no situation will ever be entirely equitable, the Government should not drive such inequality.

Robbing private schools of public funding makes everyone poorer SMH 24.06.09

Sam Molloy, debating captain at Sydney Grammar School, is opposing the proposition that public funding of private education is unconscionable at tomorrow night's iQ2 debate in Sydney.

Whether public funding of private education is unconscionable is a trade-off between different values and consequences. There are moral trade-offs and practical trade-offs, and for such funding to be "unconscionable" the benefits that would arise from ending it would have to outweigh the costs.

Private schools lose out in funds deal SMH 25.06.09

Some of Australia's neediest private schools are not receiving the funding they are entitled to under the Federal Government's model of resourcing independent schools, the Auditor-General has found.

The report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, identifies several problems with funding arrangements as the Government prepares to begin an anxiously awaited review of how it supports private schools. It also comes as the Government faces criticism of its $14.7 billion school building program, which has delivered millions of dollars to the nation's richest primaries.

The audit office's analysis found that systemic schools servicing poor communities receive less federal funding from their school systems than they would if they were funded directly by the government under the SES model, as independent schools are.

Commonwealth Auditor General’s Report: Funding for Non-Government Schools (pdf 1.59 Mb)

Schools are failing us, says Gillard SMH 22.06.09

The Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has told a US audience that Australia has a "serious educational equity problem", with too many poor students concentrated in a small group of schools that have low expectations and low rates of achievement.

Home schooling

The schooling choice we love to hate SMH 22.06.09

It is often derided as a 'hippie' alternative, but for many the decision to home school a child is the right one.

Leunig: 'Everything I believed has come true - their eagerness to learn is intact' SMH 22.06.09

The cartoonist and philosopher Michael Leunig home schooled two children for more than 10 years "because they wanted to do it". They went to school this year for the first time - again because they wanted to.

A theme develops when you speak to Leunig about education: a child's natural love of learning is paramount and it is all about protecting that so it lasts for life.

Straight from the student's mouth SMH 22.06.09

When talking to Jenni Hodgman, 19, her confidence and friendliness are palpable.

Jenni had her first day of school in year 11. She describes her experience of home schooling before that as "very unstructured", working a short part of the day to meet curriculum - and more on some days when she was absorbed in a particular project.

When asked about the most memorable aspects of being home schooled, Jenni says: "Having time to play with my brother and being able to follow what interested me - learning because I wanted to, not just to pass a test.

"By the time I arrived at school I had so much natural interest and curiosity and was willing to put in the effort, unlike peers who seemed a bit burnt out."

School principals do the sums on wasteful system SMH 22.06.09

The principal of a school in country NSW put in an order for supplies under the Department of Education's new guidelines. All they wanted was a box of ice creams, a bag of cheese and four bags of muffins.

But instead of buying them from the local shops, the department arranged for them to be delivered by three different suppliers in Sydney. The incident is among hundreds of complaints in response to a survey by the Public Schools Principals Forum.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, said the centralised procurement system focused on the purchase of non-perishable items and saved the department about $31 million each year.

Wealthy schools win cash bonanza from grants SMH 20.06.09

Sydney's wealthiest private schools are being given as much as $3 million each from the Federal Government's school building program while making annual surpluses of up to $3.6 million. The bonus is on top of the $13 million in government funding some already receive.

Grants to primary schools from the Prime Minister's $14.7 billion stimulus package take no account of wealth but are based on the number of students. Secondary schools receive bonuses under the Building the Education Revolution program based on need.

The acting federal Minister for Education, Kim Carr, said the stimulus program was for all schools. "The Rudd Government is committed to making sure every school in Australia is a great school and every child receives a world-class education," he said. (Under this approach, some schools will be much greater than others – Editor).

Bullying victim awarded $468,736 SMH 19.06.09 - 4:51PM

A man has been awarded nearly half a million dollars in damages for the "consistent and systemic bullying" he endured while attending high school in Tamworth in the 1990s.

Bully victim awarded more than $450k The Australian 19.06.09

Ban lifted on school league tables SMH 19.06.09

The State Government introduced a bill yesterday to lift its 10-year ban on the creation of school league tables.

The Minister for Education, Verity Firth, said the amendment to the Education Act was necessary for NSW to qualify for $4.8 billion in recurrent Federal Government funding.

Despite the Government's long-standing opposition to school league tables, Ms Firth said she would not "put billions of dollars of funding at risk".

Download Education Amendment (Publication of School Results) Bill 2009 from NSW Parliament site.

Building the Education Revolution implementation problems

Randwick Public School P&C says it's out of time The Australian 19.06.09

The government's defence of the problems arising out of the rushed implementation of the Building the Education Revolution was the need to spend the money quickly to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

But with two weeks left before the deadline for the start of building of the first tranche of projects, the parents and principal at Randwick Public are yet to even see plans of their new school hall.

Rigid rules rile schools as Education Revolution complaints roll in The Australian 19.06.09

Twenty-four schools have complained to the Rudd government over its $14.7 billion schools infrastructure program, which the opposition savaged yesterday as a shambles and an exercise in political pork-barrelling.

Plans axed as pledged funds fall short The Australian 19.06.09

South Australian schools that were promised new buildings from the Rudd government's education stimulus package have been told by state authorities that their allocated money is not enough to pay for what was first pledged.

South Australian Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock yesterday expressed concern that schools were not getting value for money from the $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution program.

Kindergarten checks a test for young learners SMH 17.06.09

All kindergarten children in public schools will be tested in basic literacy and numeracy to help teachers assess their skills and progress.

The State Government will spend $117.4 million over four years on the Best Start program which was introduced to 18,000 students last year and 40,000 students this year.

Another budget move is to make four NSW primary schools bilingual from next year under a $2.25 million four-year program. One of the schools will specialise in Mandarin, while the others will each teach either Korean, Japanese or Indonesian.

The importance of languages

Schools to offer bilingual education SMH 15.06.09 12.33pm

Some NSW primary schools will soon offer students a bilingual education, with subjects taught in Asian languages. The NSW government is funding the four-year $2.25 million program in tomorrow's state budget, with the first four schools to start offering the stream next year.

NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said that with Asia on the doorstep, the program was vital to the state's future economic and social prosperity.

Brainy bunch cast a magic spell SMH 15.06.09 Paul Sheehan

On May 28, 10 million Americans, and uncounted foreigners, including me, watched Kavya Shivashankar win the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The bee is one of the most compelling TV spectacles of the year.

The chance that an Indian American was going to win was high, because seven of the 11 finalists this year were Indian Americans. Six of the previous 10 champions were also Indian American. They have come to dominate the event even though they make up just 0.9 per cent of the US population.

… this was the fourth consecutive year she has placed in the top 10, it marks Kavya as a stand-out in the 84-year history of the National Spelling Bee. Asked if her advantage was memory, she replied: "I don't use memorisation as a technique. It's really hard to memorise all the words in the dictionary. It's just not possible. So my dad is my coach and he and I work together and find the roots of the words, and we study patterns from the language of origin, like French and German [and Latin and Greek]."

$14.7 billion for education in NSW budget smh.com.au 14.06.09 10.02am

The NSW government will allocate $14.7 billion in its 2009-10 budget for education and vocational training.

Schools funding comes under fire Sun Herald 14.06.09

Queensland schools groups have criticised the Federal Government's $1.2 billion education funding for being inequitable and not based on need.

Margaret Black, the president of the Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens' Associations, said if the funding was needs based, some schools that had received millions of dollars would not have received any funds.

Principle has been abandoned, say principals SMH 13.06.09

Education ministers are no longer committed to avoiding "harm" to school communities in the publication of school league tables, say teachers and principals.

Anti-abortion group barred from schools SMH 13.06.09

The four-MP gambit in the schools' chess game SMH 11.06.09

It took four politicians to announce $2.3 billion in stimulus spending for NSW schools at Eastwood Public School yesterday – Nathan Rees, Verity Firth, Maxine McKew and Julia Gillard.

Unhealthy PE teachers giving wrong lesson to children SMH 11.06.09

Trainee physical education teachers are more likely to be dieting, using laxatives and over-exercising than other teachers, prompting fears they could convey inappropriate and dangerous messages about eating to vulnerable students.

A study of more than 500 student teachers at three major universities found male physical education teachers were almost five times more likely than other teachers to fast and twice as likely to use an illness to avoid eating. They were also more likely to smoke, take laxatives, slimming pills or to vomit to control their weight.

Late-running bus driver dumps kids at shopping centre DT 11.06.09

Labor's largesse to private primary schools The Australian 10.06.09

Elite private schools that boast of their superior facilities were handed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding for new libraries, halls and refurbished classrooms yesterday.

Education Minister Julia Gillard - who is insisting that she be personally invited to open new facilities in all the nation's 9540 schools - yesterday defended as equitable the decision to give infrastructure funding to some of the nation's wealthiest primary schools.

Schools move fast to get in for chop The Australian 10.06.09

Kevin Rudd's education revolution was a $14.7 billion juggernaut and schools needed to jump on quickly if they wanted their share of the money, according to a Perth school principal.

Unions recruit high school students for $10 a month DT 10.06.09

Unions have hatched a controversial plan to turn around dwindling membership - by targeting children as young as 14 in their classrooms.

The state's peak union body Unions NSW has hired two young activists to go into public schools and lecture students on "industrial relations" as part of its UnionStart program.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the lectures on workers' rights and the role of unions will be built into the curriculum in subjects such as business studies, careers education, vocational work placements and the School to Work program.

There's no such thing as a perfect child when it comes to the HSC SMH 10.06.09

Higher School Certificate students will no longer be able to get a perfect score of 100 with the highest university entrance rank to be pegged at 99.95 (Bradman fans would, of course, prefer 99.94 - Ed).

HSC 100 top ranking scrapped DT 10.06.09

In Asia, English tongues still tied SMH 10.06.09

Australia is the third most monolingual nation in the world, a report by the Griffith Asia Institute says. Three-quarters of the population speak only English.

Within 30 years half of Australia must be fluent in an Asian language or risk falling further behind other countries, says the report, Building An Asia-Literate Australia: An Australian Strategy For Asian Language Proficiency. Lead Author Professor Michael Wesley

School formals now rival weddings in cost DT 08.06.09

Catholic schools take to radical teaching DT 07.06.09

Children as young as five will be given control of the classroom in a revolutionary overhaul of the Catholic education system. Primary schools in the Sydney archdiocese will transform the way they teach students from kindergarten and Year 2 by allowing them to shape the syllabus, challenging traditional teaching methods.

Under the Early Learning program, children will be encouraged to lead classes, discover their "spiritual side'' and work in small groups.

Lessons could last up to two hours and the syllabus will be matched to children's interests.
More than 20 Catholic primary schools across Sydney have already implemented the system, following a successful pilot last year.

Years of waiting do not compute SMH 05.06.09

Some schools may have to wait up to eight years to be connected to the national broadband network as part of the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution, the Opposition has found.

School chalks the line for higher standards DT 03.06.09 Maralyn Parker

Sydney Islamic school rejected SMH 02.06.09 10.09am

A controversial Islamic school will not be built in Camden after a court today rejected an appeal by the school's backers.

Public school's $700 plea to parents SMH 02.06.09

A North Shore public high school is pressing parents to make "voluntary" contributions of up to $700 a year, more than double the rate charged by most schools, to make up for a "shortfall in government funding". The Mosman High School P&C has written to parents urging them to pay an average of $400 for subject contributions in addition to the voluntary general contribution of up to $254 for year 12 students.

"At MHS we don't want to lose any of our teachers to better resourced schools," the letter says. "Parents and students can show their appreciation by paying the requested school and subject contributions. In doing so, our principal can say "YES WE CAN" when teachers request funds for resources that enable the continuation of the high standards that we have come to expect."

Horrifying video of latest schoolyard attack DT 02.06.09

The teenage victim of an alleged schoolyard bullying campaign has revealed his torment amid a culture of violence at a public high school in Sydney's west.

Ask bullying expert Dr Helen McGrath: How to stop the attacks DT blog 01.06.09

As bullying continues to spiral out of control in the nation’s schools with one in four children from Year 4 to Year 9 claiming they are regularly attacked, we are now giving readers a chance to arm themselves with more information on how to stop it taking place.

Deakin University senior lecturer Dr Helen McGrath is a member of the National Centre against bullying and an author of a major report with the Department of Education on Bullying in Schools.

Send her your questions on bullying, cyber bullying and any other bullying-related issues you are worried about below. She will blog live with readers on Tuesday at 4pm.

Links Making Australian Schools Safer Kids Matter ABC Interview with George Negus

Bullies rule in nation's primary schools DT 01.06.09

BAD NEWS Schools miss out on lab upgrades The Australian 01.06.09

Hundreds of high schools will miss out on a $1 billion federal government program to upgrade science laboratories after the Government refused to widen guidelines for eligible schools.

Under the program, schools needing new science buildings are favoured over those asking for improvements to existing facilities.

NSW had proposed the Government spread the funding among more schools.

A working group of parents, teachers and principals in conjunction with the NSW Government argue a more cost-effective way to spend the money is to refurbish existing laboratories rather than construct new buildings from scratch.

But federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has rejected NSW's push to revisit the guidelines. A spokesowman for Ms Gillard said it was always intended the program would focus on the construction of new or "substantially refurbished" science labs "to support the maximum number of jobs possible" at 500 of the nation's neediest schools.

Under the NSW plan, about 430 of the 455 secondary and K-12 schools in the state could be refurbished, but Ms Gillard's decision means only about 150 NSW schools will benefit.

Herald Education feature

Tell me, where do the children play? SMH 01.06.09

As principal for the day at her old school, Anna Patty discovers that some things change, and some just stay the same. One ex-student, who graduated from Katoomba High in 1976, believes the secret to a good education is a happy child.

Stifled by the three Rs: restrictions, red tape, rigidity SMH 01.06.09

Independent schools should be allowed to be just that, writes Jenny Allum, Principal of SCEGGS Darlinghurst.

I support the right of those schools to pay teachers the best way they see fit (meeting certain minimum award conditions, of course) rather than use the "one size fits all" salary scales determined by the Government. Bureaucratic requirements have also grown exponentially over the past couple of decades.

My worry is that this trend of imposing such restrictions on schools will grow, as governments seek to enact more of their political will on all schools, government and independent.

Schools move to bankrupt parents SMH 30.05.09

Recent court records show the elite schools St Joseph's College, SCECGS Redlands, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, The Scots College, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst and Cranbrook School have started bankruptcy proceedings against 13 families to recover more than $500,000. This follows earlier reports that every week parents are losing their homes to bankruptcy actions brought by schools owed up to $2 million in fees.

NSW Greens MP John Kaye said the six schools involved in the actions received a total of $23.9 million in state and federal funding and should be able to absorb any pain felt from the global financial crisis.

"They're already doing very well off the public purse," Dr Kaye said. "They're putting people who have presumably paid fees in the past up against the wall and saying you will be bankrupt. This is not about school choice; this is about school greed."

Banned heaters in NSW schools SMH 28.05.09

The NSW Government will continue to fit out public schools with gas heaters that have failed World Health Organisation tests, as it awaits further tests taking place in schools this winter.

The unflued gas heaters, which emit carbon monoxide, nitrous dioxide, carbon dioxide and formaldehyde fumes, can only be used safely if classroom windows and doors are left open.

Michael Coutts-Trotter, the Director-General of the Department of Education, said he had been told by NSW Health that the heaters were safe. That contradicts the results of a 2004 Health Department study.

Students exposed to dangerous gas levels SMH 27.05.09

Public school students across the state are being exposed to dangerous gas levels above World Health Organisation standards, according to CSIRO tests that the NSW Department of Education kept secret for nine months.

Thousands of school classrooms are equipped with unflued gas heaters, which can fill rooms with carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and formaldehyde fumes if the windows are shut - as they frequently are during cold weather.

Don’t take Public Schools for granted Maralyn Parker Daily Telegraph 27.05.09

If you want a quality public education system in Australia’s future then you have to be a political supporter of your public school - go to school meetings, know what is happening in your local school area, write letters to politicians, get involved, join the P&C.

In this 2009 Public Education Week public education needs support - yours.

Readers break first rule and talk about Knox Fight Club SMH 27.05.09

One of the boys allegedly assaulted as part of the fight club at Knox Grammar School had a death threat issued against him on a social networking site yesterday, police were told last night.

Most students who took part were good friends, a Herald reader said, and claims of beatings and vilification were incorrect.

School fight club exaggerated: head SMH 26.05.09

Stand-off looms over high school league tables SMH 26.05.09

High school principals are threatening to withhold results of the national literacy and numeracy tests from the Federal Government to prevent the creation of school league tables.

Masked gunmen hit Cranbrook School's tuckshop DT 26.05.09

Travel bans to slow swine flu spreading at school DT 25.05.09

Students who have been on overseas trips will be banned from school for a week after they return to Australia, in an effort to slow the spread of swine flu.

Dragon's teeth to guard school zones Sun Herald 24.05.09

The NSW Government will spend $13 million on new line markings near every one of the state's 10,000 school zones. The new line markings - known internationally as dragon's teeth - are designed to make sure motorists know they are entering a 40kmh school zone.

Scotch College parents lash school over camp tragedy DT 23.05.09

Grieving parents of a Scotch College student who died after eating peanuts on an army cadet camp have told a judge they feel betrayed.

Schools 'stripped of autonomy'

Independent schools are being stripped of their autonomy in school reporting and how they select and reward teachers, according to the headmistress of a leading girls' school.

Writing in the school's news publication, Jenny Allum, the head of SCEGGS Darlinghurst, said: "The ability of schools to be truly independent has been seriously eroded." (How can a school be truly independent when it receives the majority of its funding from government? – Editor)

Ms Allum has also challenged the state government requirement for every teacher to have a diploma of education. She would have no hesitation in hiring academics of the calibre of Julius Sumner Miller who did not have standard qualifications.

Irish Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Report

Irish Times Reports

Bishop says report reveals church's 'shameful betrayal of sacred trust' 23.05.09

The Church’s failure to protect those in its care, as highlighted in the report on child abuse at State-run institutions, was a “shameful betrayal of a sacred trust”, a conference on the role of the Catholic Church in primary education heard yesterday. Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly was speaking at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick at a conference on Catholic Primary Education in Contemporary Ireland: Facing New Horizons - organized by the Catholic Primary School Management Association.

An issue that had been raised in the media, he said, was whether society should “look to change a system where so much of the educational and care provision for our children is farmed out to organisations who are unaccountable”. This is not true, he said. “School patrons, whether Catholic or otherwise, are fully accountable to the law of the land.”

Law of anarchy, cruelty of care

Homeless activist denies knowledge of abuse at school

Sex-abuse priest took secrets to grave Sun Herald 24.05.09

Queensland schools' academic ratings compared Courier Mail 22.05.09

For the first time in Queensland, parents tomorrow will be able to compare their primary school's academic performance to others in a special liftout.

More than 1300 state, Catholic and independent primary schools will be listed in The Courier-Mail with information based on school annual reports.

The Queensland Teachers Union has labelled the liftout irresponsible and "bordering on deliberate fraud" but parents and the state Opposition have welcomed it.

Shadow Education Minister Bruce Flegg said the publication of academic information was necessary to drive change.

Number's up for secret school tests Editorial Courier Mail 22.05.09

Tomorrow, the Courier-Mail will publish for the first time a comprehensive rundown of how each school in the state fared in national literacy and numeracy testing.

The results will interest all with a stake in improving Queensland's education system, and that should be just about everyone.

Nelson appointed to kids' music board SMH 21.05.09 12.44pm

Former opposition leader Brendan Nelson has been appointed to the board of the Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF). In 2005, as minister for education, Dr Nelson commissioned the National Review of School Music Education.

Child-care centres to focus on preparing children for school SMH 21.05.09

All child-care centres will be required to begin baby learning and child development programs from July as part of a Federal Government push to make sure children are ready to learn when they start school.

"We want children to start school as happy, confident learners," the parliamentary secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, Maxine McKew, will tell a conference in Hobart today.

Government had early warning on school test failures Courier Mail 21.05.09

Alarming figures show the Queensland Government knew exactly how badly state school students were performing in reading and numeracy at least a year before it commissioned an expert to lift results.

Another brick in the wall Daily Telegraph 20.05.09

Maralyn Parker article and blog on Building the Education Revolution.

Vague school syllabuses in the firing line The Australian 20.05.09

The incoming head of the nation's most influential school curriculum body has declared the days of the vague curriculum over, saying syllabuses have to specify precisely the knowledge students should be taught.

The newly appointed president of the NSW Board of Studies, Tom Alegounarias, said yesterday having explicit syllabuses setting out mandatory knowledge in a systematic course of study was the only way to ensure all students, regardless of their family background, had the same opportunities for learning.

The appointment of a board president from outside a university education faculty or the mainstream teaching ranks -- and ahead of candidates with doctorates or professorial chairs -- is viewed as a sign the NSW Government intends to curb some of the progressivist excesses in some state and education circles.

Mr Alegounarias's reputation is for supporting rigour and quality in education, often aligned with more traditional teaching approaches. While the education debate has been characterised by often-heated disputes over what should be included in school curriculums, Mr Alegounarias believed teachers' views were more closely aligned with those of the wider community than the public debate suggested.

Intimating professional associations purporting to represent classroom teachers take a more extreme view than the majority of the profession, Mr Alegounarias said the disputes were a reaction to a perceived dichotomy.

Teachers' chief to lead studies board SMH 18.05.09

The new president of the NSW Board of Studies says he will guard the state's school syllabus standards in the development of a national curriculum.After leaving the position vacant for more than a year, the State Government has appointed the chief executive of the Institute of Teachers, Tom Alegounarias, as president.

Mr Alegounarias has worked within the education bureaucracy for the past 17 years. He replaces Gordon Stanley, who left last year to take up a position as director of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment.

Mr Alegounarias represents NSW on the National Curriculum Board. As president of the Board of Studies he will be required to maintain gains NSW has made in curriculum development over the years.

Rule changes will widen gap for many students SMH 18.05.09

Thirty thousand students who work before starting university will miss out on the highest level of income support from the Federal Government under rule changes designed to save $1.8 billion over four years.

Brawling Victorian students share $235,000 payout DT 18.05.09

Knox abuse case: ex-teacher in court SMH 18.05.09 4.44pm

Rookie teachers quitting Sun Herald 17.05.09

Young teachers are leaving the profession at an "alarming" rate, new figures reveal, threatening a staffing crisis in NSW public schools, with half of the teaching workforce approaching retirement.

Apple for Miss: the battle to lure staff back to classroom Sun Herald 17.05.09

Court allows Islamic school SMH 15.05.09

One of the biggest Islamic schools in Australia will be built in south-western Sydney after Bankstown City Council lost an appeal in the Land and Environment Court.

Bankstown backlash over Muslim school Daily Telegraph 17.05.09

Ace exams? Thank your parents SMH 14.05.09

Parents have more influence on children than their peers when it comes to academic performance, new Australian research has found.

From University of Sydney "Parents and teachers who might feel powerless during adolescence have a bigger influence on academic motivation than they think - sometimes up to three times the impact of peers," said Andrew Martin, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education and Social Work and the study's lead researcher.

Soon to be published in US Teachers College Record

Girls focus of sport plan The Australian 13.05.09

The success of programs using sport to encourage indigenous boys to attend school will be adapted to target indigenous girls in a $10million expansion of the Sporting Chance program.

After a year, Board of Studies finally gets new head SMH 13.05.09 12.05pm

New head Tom Alegounarias (Bachelor of Economics, Diploma of Education) is now the Chief Executive of the NSW Institute of Teachers and represents NSW on the National Curriculum Board. He has worked within the NSW education bureaucracy for 17 years.

National test for students begins Daily Telegraph 12.05.09

Teachers will boycott standardised schools tables SMH 12.05.09

Teacher unions have threatened to ban national literacy and numeracy testing if school league tables are published from data in national report cards.

State and federal governments say they are opposed to "simplistic league tables", but later this year they will release test data comparing schools with others of a similar demographic and size. More than 1 million students nationwide in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will sit for the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests from today.

Beat the bullies: a web fix for children SMH 12.05.09

Young victims of cyber bullying can use friendships on social networking websites to help protect themselves, an inquiry into bullying has heard.

Parents given a caning in truancy crackdown SMH 12.05.09

Schools face ranking to help parents choose SMH 11.05.09

Parents would be able to use university entry scores to compare high schools under a new national system of reporting to be recommended to education ministers.

Devil in the detail: the fear