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Advice to students on writing Letters to the Editor Daily Telegraph

Building the Education Revolution

Latest BER Information – Federal Government’s website: The BER National Coordinator’s Implementation Report is now available, reporting on the progress of the initiative in its first eight months.

Building the Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21^st Century Round Three Results

Laptops for Year 9 Students

Laptops4Learning Program

Info links:

PC World 1/4/2009

ZDnet 1/4/2009

Lenovo 30/3/09

Smart Office 1/4/09

SCHOOLS SPECTACULAR 2009 - VIDEOS

Individual Songs

Schools Spectacular DVD (2009 and earlier years)

Available for purchase from the ABC

SCHOOLS SPECTACULAR iView

No longer available

Old news is still 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 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)

See our TECHNOLOGY page being developed. Suggestions welcome.

Something's rotten in the state of NSW - comprehensive public schools SMH February 8, 2010

Opinion: Ross Cameron, former Liberal MP for Parramatta.

The problem for public schools generally had been a vacuum of culture. While the non-government schools could define themselves by some coherent religious (or Steiner or other) ethic and community, the public system, in the absence of selectivity, took refuge in concepts of inclusiveness and tolerance, which lacked the horsepower to inspire commitment from parents, teachers and students.

The resulting vacuum has been filled by behaviourally challenged students and defensive, disengaged parents - a problem massively exacerbated after the state selective schools and the non-government sector hoovered up the most talented and motivated students.

The so called "comprehensive" school lost its student role models. One public high school principal confessed to me the difficulty he was facing in getting students to accept academic awards at speech day for fear of being mocked and bullied in the playground.

The comprehensive primary school often evidences a complete drought of male teachers. Low remuneration, low prospects of merit promotion, the risk of sexual allegations in a low-trust culture, and the militant feminism of the teacher unions, creates an intensely male-unfriendly environment. The absence of strong, sporty male teachers is a disaster for boys' education. Education unions, rightly sensing the odds were stacked against them, adopted a strategy of resisting any kind of accountability for teacher and school performance and resisting the empowerment of principals that might distinguish one school from another.

Controversial My School index to be reviewed SMH February 8, 2010

The controversial system used to measure the social disadvantage level of school communities used on the federal government's My School website is under review, less than two weeks after the site's launch.

Ms Gillard yesterday announced that an extra $11 million in funding over one year would be provided to 110 disadvantaged schools in addition to the government's $2.5 billion national partnership package with the states to assist disadvantaged schools.

Ms Gillard said the additional $11 million was a response to data from the website and that the schools would not have otherwise received funding under the $2.5 billion Smarter Schools National Partnership. (NSW implementation)

No thanks, I'd rather go public: website data sways student SMH February 8, 2010

In a letter to the editor, Roland said the school rankings, which placed Normanhurst Boys High School 14th in the state, had helped him convince his father against taking him out of the school.

Reading, writing and number crunching SMH February 8, 2010

My School aims to raise standards, but the idea is a huge gamble, writes Anna Patty.

$11m 'won't fix schools' The Australian February 8, 2010

Unions have warned that Julia Gillard's pledge to spend $11 million to lift standards at an additional 110 struggling schools falls well short of the government's own estimates of what is required to improve results.

More time in class for pupils Sunday Telegraph February 7, 2010

The Federal Government will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into disadvantaged schools identified by the My School website, funding longer school hours and specialist teachers.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has revealed that her plan includes providing breakfast and after-school activities for underprivileged students.
Literacy and numeracy coaches and extra teachers will also be employed under the $2 billion package, based on My School feedback.

Ms Gillard said disadvantaged schools had been neglected for too long, but she vowed to leave no school or student behind.

Bullying confessions made by half of city's secondary students SMH February 8, 2010

Half of Sydney's high school students admit to being bullies, but one-third of bullying victims don't tell anyone about it, new research shows.

Building the Education Revolution BER

Education revolution leaves pupils in limbo Sun Herald February 7, 2010

The federal government's education building program has left hundreds of primary schools as building sites, with some losing their entire play area.

Smack those kids - a new US bestseller says we have it all wrong about parenting Sunday Telegraph February 7, 2010

All that firm but gentle persuasion and all those time-outs may have been a waste of time - you really should have been smacking your children.

At least, that's a theme of NurtureShock, a US bestseller that will enrage the touchy-feely school of parenting. (The NatureShock website includes a range of interesting views on learning eg impact of background noise ).

School canteens under fire for flouting unhealthy lunch items plan Sunday Telegraph February 7, 2010

Doughnuts, meat pies and lollies are still being served in school canteens six years after the NSW Government promised to ban them.

Parents and nutritionists have slammed the NSW Fresh Tastes @ School strategy as a toothless tiger following revelations fatty foods remain a mainstay on some school tuckshop menus.

School bans go nuts Daily Telegraph January 31, 2010

Belief builds in Aboriginal schoolkids The Ausralian February 6, 2010

The professional isolation felt by teachers of indigenous students prompted the head of the Stronger Smarter Institute at the Queensland Institute of Technology, Chris Sarra, to establish a network of "learning communities" across the nation to spread a culture of high expectations for indigenous students.

My School website – scroll down page for more items with mauve background

For good schools, forget the net, try the toilets SMH February 6, 2010

By John Marsden, author of 30 novels

Julia Gillard has said that ''parents go to hell and back'' trying to get information about schools. Hence, the My School website. It made me wonder who Julia's been hanging around with.

To me, hell is a place of earthquakes, bushfires, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, and that's just the natural catastrophes. Don't get me started on the man-made ones. Trying to find out the curriculum at Cowra High School or the NAPLAN results of Beecroft Primary School or whether there's any bullying at Tara School for Girls … I can't imagine these missions qualify as trips to hell.

But how do parents get really useful information about schools, without risking torture, anguish and despair?

Schools website leads parents to change address SMH February 6, 2010

League tables will influence parents to buy homes in suburbs with top-ranking schools, university researchers and real estate agents predict.

Letters Scroll down to “No editing means more information”

Schools sharpen up their profiles SMH February 5, 2010

About 80 schools have asked the agency responsible for the My School website to alter the statements they submitted about themselves after seeing how other schools described themselves.

Children shifted to violent families: Bath report The Australian February 6, 2010

Aboriginal children in care are routinely being placed with relatives in remote communities where they are exposed to sexual abuse and alcohol-fuelled violence, a wide-ranging report on child protection - kept hidden by the Northern Territory government - has revealed.

Shush, folks, we're trying to read SMH February 5, 2010

Children with language difficulties should be allowed to get a word in while their parents are reading to them for their language skills to improve.

A new study by the University of Sydney has found that children with below-average language skills performed almost as well as their normally developing peers after their parents changed the way they interacted with them.

Dalwood parents 'in dark' SMH February 6, 2010

Parents of rural students with severe learning difficulties have questioned the ''iron-clad'' promise by the Premier, Kristina Keneally, to reopen a specialised residential school, saying they have been left in the dark over their childrens' futures.

Keneally slammed on school closure SMH February 5, 2010

One of Kristina Keneally's first promises as Premier - to save a unique residential school for hundreds of children with severe learning disorders - has been broken.

The Dalwood Assessment Centre and Palm Avenue boarding school at Seaforth has been shut, and the 15 specialised staff made redundant.

Don’t use the My School website to choose a school Daily Telegraph February 3, 2010

Maralyn Parker - Article & Blog

The My School website has given us at least one nasty revelation - how out of touch some parent organisations are with Australian parents. The website is the hottest Australian educational site ever.

Teachers union is shielding the duds Daily Telegraph February 2, 2010

David Penberthy- Article & Blog

In the mid 1990s, teachers credit union Satisfac came up with a kindly and seemingly innocent idea to celebrate the excellent work of its members. The credit union, which historically served teachers but developed a wider customer base, decided that to recognise the role of the teaching profession it would establish The Best Teacher Awards.

The reaction from the teachers union was one of outrage and dismay.

Satisfac was told in no uncertain terms to shelve the idea, with the union arguing it was the height of impertinence for a credit union or anyone else for that matter to declare some teachers better than others.

This quaint Marxist view of the world has been on full display this past week as teachers unions around the country descend into apoplexy over the Rudd Government’s apparently wicked policy of letting parents know how their kids’ school compares to other like schools.

The unspoken backdrop to the unions’ hostility to any form of comparative rankings is industrial self-interest.

School is back - as is the flak The Age February 1, 2010

Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek insists he did not set out to become a thorn in the side of the Victorian Education Department.

But almost a year to the day since the Federal Government announced its $14.7 billion schools stimulus package, Mr Grossek remains at an impasse with the department over his school's $3 million project.

Teachers warned about befriending students on social websites Daily Telegraph January 31, 2010

Teachers could be sacked or have their pay docked for befriending students on Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites in a move aimed at preventing inappropriate relationships.

Under a revised code of conduct effective from this year, public-school teachers have been told not to get personal in email, blogs and wikis.

Exodus from public to private slows down SMH January 29, 2010

The movement of students from government schools to private ones appears to be slowing. While independent and Catholic schools continue to show steady growth, data released yesterday show their share of the rise in enrolments has dropped substantially on the previous year's figures.

My School website and accountability

Video: Michael Coutts-Trotter, Director-General of the NSW Department of Education and Training, talks about what the MySchool website means for parents and how information will be used to improve NSW public schools.

YouTube or DET Website

See latest from NSW P&C AEU NSW Teachers Federation

P&C Spokesperson Sharon Johnson on NSW TF site or You Tube

Parent power wins top spot on My School SMH 01022010 (palindromic date)

The federal government has confronted concerns that information on its My School website is too limited by promising to expand the site's content to include details such as the level of bullying and parents' satisfaction with teachers.

In his first election promise for the year, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said that if Labor was re-elected, the website would be broadened to provide information beyond student performance in reading, writing and numeracy.

The extra information would be collated using a survey of parents to canvass their levels of satisfaction with teachers and various aspects of school life.

Federal support favours the privileged SMH February 1, 2010

It is the tale of two schools, Knox Grammar School and Boggabilla Central School.

One school has been ranked the highest in NSW for the percentage of students from a privileged background. The other school was deemed to have the state's highest proportion of disadvantaged pupils, with all its cohort Aboriginal.

Boggabilla is awaiting final approval on federal government stimulus money to build a library.

Knox Grammar is overseeing a multimillion-dollar construction program for a new boarding centre and a great hall/aquatic centre with three Olympic-size indoor basketball courts, a performance centre and an indoor 50-metre swimming pool. On the construction site billboard, Knox acknowledges the generous contribution made by the federal government to the project.

For the first time, under Julia Gillard's My School website, the superlative degree of comparison can be made online.

Opponents are free to launch private action SMH February 1, 2010

Teachers and parents upset at newspapers publishing information from the My School website are legally entitled to launch a private prosecution.

The Attorney-General's Department says it is yet to hear of any cases initiated since Friday when the Herald and other newspapers ranked schools based on information from the controversial website.

My School website in a league of its own Letters SMH February 1, 2010

There is a parallel to be made between the publication of school league tables and best performing hospitals. In both situations there is an absence of a level playing field. Some hospitals attract patients with more complex morbidities and will always have worse health outcomes. In the school situation often the best performing schools are selective and, due to a competitive entry exam requirement, the intake comprises students of above average intelligence.

PM wants to expand school information site smh.com.au January 31, 2010 11.18am

The Rudd government will expand the controversial My School website if it wins the next federal election.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it should also include information on school bullying, classroom innovation and local community participation.

"In other words, the rounded view of the school's overall culture," Mr Rudd told the Nine Network.

"(And) If we are re-elected that's where we'd take My School in 2011."

Parents rush to switch schools after My School website goes live Sunday Telegraph January 31, 2010

Top marks to Julia Gillard as My School website proves a hit Sunday Telegraph January 31, 2010

Glenn Milne: Julia Gillard was at the Australian Open on Friday night, with her partner Tim, looking like a woman who was enjoying some well-earned time off after a productive week at work.

That would be putting it mildly. The phenomenal success of the launch of her information website, My School, as part of her responsibilities as Education Minister now looks as if it will be one of the landmark initiatives of the Rudd Government's first term.

Teachers slam index comparisons Sun Herald January 31, 2010

Some of the most elite private schools have been classed as comparable to regional public schools on the controversial My School website, in a move teachers say is another sign that the website is deeply flawed.

Being labelled worst still causes pain Sun Herald January 31, 2010

Education website My School a huge hit with parents Daily Telegraph January 30, 2010

The Federal Government's revolutionary new website revealing the academic performance data of almost 10,000 Australian schools has been inundated with nine million hits.

Traffic on the My School site since it opened generated more Google entries than Britney Spears, Serena Williams, interest rates, desalination, Australian cricket, surf reports and AC/DC.

As increasing numbers of families jumped on the website yesterday to compare schools, vested interest groups led by the Australian Education Union accused federal Education Minister Julia Gillard of allowing the publication of simplistic league tables.

Why we are publishing a league table SMH January 29, 2010

Editorial: This newspaper has been a consistent supporter of quality education. That is not the same, of course, as unquestioning support for whatever education lobby groups and teachers may have demanded at a given point. It is rather support for whatever promotes a flexible and responsive system that challenges young people, enriches their experience, enlarges their imagination and horizons, and equips them where appropriate with vocational skills. Above all, it is support for raising the status of education - of schools and teachers, of teaching and learning - in Australia's priorities. The clever country is a much overused slogan, but it does express a worthwhile aim. If Australia is indeed to become the clever country, we believe greater variety, and greater choice in education, informed by accurate information, are essential.

We believe there is a strong case for a national body - a bureau of education statistics - to publish and analyse the information in an impartial and apolitical way.

By making public the comparative performance data on all schools it is allowing all Australians to see, in effect, how each school, public and private, is using its funding, and to judge how well taxpayers' funds are being spent. It should lead eventually to thoroughgoing reform of education funding. In a field where public debate about the distribution of funds between public and private schools has for too long been conducted in a thick fog of rumour and prejudice, accurate comparisons will for the first time shine a clear light. Read full editorial

A victory for everybody who believes in education The Australian January 30, 2010

Editorial: The My School website will be endorsed by all who believe in equality of opportunity, in the right of all Australians to attend a school - be it public or private - that allows them to make the most of their abilities. In creating this site in the face of state government inertia and the active opposition of teacher unions, Ms Gillard shows she is a friend to every parent who wants the best education possible for their children.

So why does the Australian Education Union want to stop the site being widely used to the extent that it threatens not to collect the test results it depends on unless league tables, that rank the performance of all schools, are made illegal? Union officials argue information will embarrass poor- performing schools, as if it is better for them to keep doing a bad job undetected than for parents to know their children are being let down. They point to problems with the data, as if occasional anomalies in comparing schools invalidates the entire approach. They argue such complex issues should be left to experts, demonstrating a contempt for the intelligence of average parents. They worry that if schools are compared, their members will be as well, putting paid to the fiction that all teachers are equally excellent, that there is no need to reward the best and sack the worse. The union, plus politicised parents associations, also loathe the site lest it encourage competition between schools. To left-wing unionists who abhor the idea of self-improvement, less it makes the mediocre among their students and members miserable, this will never do. There is a great deal of 1970s socialism in the union's argument, dating from an era where the nanny state was expected to provide an average living for all, before Australians understood competition drives social and economic improvement.

There is still much to do before all Australian children are taught in the best possible schools. We need many more metrics to track teacher and pupil performance. School principals lack the autonomy they need to hire and fire staff in most states. And the day when all students have a national ID that allows their academic achievements and needs to be tracked when families move between states or suburbs is a long way off. But all these reforms require public data - which Ms Gillard has begun to deliver. This is a revolution we all should support. Read full editorial

Julia Gillard drives the Education Revolution Brisbane Courier-Mail January 29, 2010

Julia Gillard was born for the role of bad cop. The Deputy Prime Minister is relishing being the Federal Government's red-headed hard-head, determined to push through reforms. It's no mistake that her recasting of the Australian schools system is called the Education Revolution.

Gillard takes no prisoners and that means muscling up to one of the nation's most powerful left-wing outfits – the Australian Education Union. The AEU represents more than 180,000 teachers in government primary and secondary schools across the nation. Teachers have traditionally been rusted-on Labor supporters.

Scattergun approach may shoot Abbott in the foot The Australian January 30, 2010

Opinion: This week's launch of the My School website encapsulates the way the government likes to do business: be popular with voters, remain disciplined within ranks and be prepared (sometimes for appearances only, but not on this occasion) to take on vested interest groups.

Gillard defends My School index SMH January 30, 2010

The Education Minister, Julia Gillard, has conceded the index used to group ''similar'' schools on her controversial My School website does not accurately reflect the student mix of some schools.

Funding details not included on site, say teachers SMH January 30, 2010

The Federal Government's new My School website failed to reveal the wealthiest private schools in Sydney each received up to $8.5 million in annual government subsidies and up to $42 million in private income.

Teachers and principals yesterday said reporting of the income data, which was supposed to be released on the website as part of contextual information for each school, is vital to judging their performance. Pymble Ladies College received $6.2 million in state and Commonwealth funding last year and raised an estimated $38.5 million in fees and other income.

Poor children more disadvantaged in Australian schools Daily Telegraph January 30, 2010

Poor Australian children are less likely to do well at school than disadvantaged children overseas, the architect of the My School website declared yesterday.

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority chairman Barry McGaw called on governments to do more to "reduce the impact of demography" on school results.

He said any additional taxpayer funding for schools should be reserved for the most disadvantaged schools -- not spent on high-performing private schools.

"We ought to be doing better in reducing the impact of demography," he said.

Professor McGaw -- a former director of education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development -- said demographics had a stronger influence on educational outcomes in Australia than in the comparable high-performing countries of Canada, Finland, South Korea and Japan.

NSW Labor refuses to move against league tables SMH January 30, 2010

The NSW State Government will not prosecute the Herald for publishing school league tables, the Education Minister, Verity Firth, said.

However, the NSW Teachers Federation says the Government must enforce the controversial law banning publication.

League of difference on ranking schools The Australian January 30, 2010

Fairfax mastheads go head to head over the value of publishing school league tables.

Tests just child's play for top-performing school SMH January 30, 2010

When you are already learning Sanskrit, Latin, Spanish and putting on a Shakespearean production each year, the national literacy and numeracy tests might seem like a cinch to children at John Colet School.

Gilbert Mane, the headmaster of the independent school in Belrose, which came sixth overall in a ranking of NSW primary schools based on results from NAPLAN tests, said the students also studied philosophy and meditation.

While other schools have abandoned traditional grammar, John Colet has maintained a strict approach. Its students also learn their times tables the old-fashioned way, by rote.

Mistake spurs parents to question low-ball result SMH January 30, 2010

When the 200-pupil Saint Ignatius' preparatory school at Lane Cove was mistakenly given the bottom ranking in the list of NAPLAN test results published in yesterday's Herald, the reaction was immediate.

Despite the error, Principal Shane Hogan said he remained a supporter of the Federal Government's My School website and the publication of comparative information.

Education groups slam My School website The West Australian January 29, 2010 – 1.14pm WA time

Sharon Johnson, of the NSW Federation of P&C Associations, said the schools website is a curiosity, and it makes for some interesting aspects if you want to look at it for what it is.

"But it's just another vein and another stream of information, certainly nothing that can validate some of the choices that parents make."

Ms Johnson said there would be a "lasting stigma" as a result of the league tables.

"It's my child that goes to those schools that don't necessarily rank so well, and no child should be told that they can't succeed, they won't succeed and they might not succeed," she said. Also at Yahoo!7 4.14pm

My School data will mislead parents, say principals The Age January 29, 2010 – 3.06 pm

Newspaper broke law running My School stats, say Greens The Australian January 29, 2010 – 3.22pm

Focus falls on big-fee schools The Australian January 29, 2010

Some elite private schools charging high fees scored lower on the national literacy and numeracy tests than neighbouring public schools.

► WEBSITE: Comparisons just don't add up

► FAMILY: Site tests view on public option

► POLITICIANS: How their alma maters fared

► EBRU YAMAN: Parents are hungry for schools information

► PDF: My School - public vs private

Tables based on the results of NAPLAN tests for NSW primary and secondary schools SMH January 29, 2010

NSW Primary Schools - all Top 50 Primary Schools

NSW Secondary School - all Top 50 Secondary Schools

Local primaries go head to head with high-rollers SMH January 29, 2010

The My School website is pitting the likes of the Scots College against Newtown North Public, Trinity Grammar with Bulli and Kiama high schools and Concord West Public with The King's School and Kincoppal-Rose Bay.

What the key players said SMH January 29, 2010

Key players weigh in on the controversial new My School website.

Rich or poor? Gillard plans to put it all online this year SMH January 29, 2010

The financial resources of every school in Australia will be on public display in the next version of Julia Gillard's My School website, due later this year.

Keneally attacks 'crazy' gag on newspapers SMH January 29, 2010

Painful memories of Mount Druitt's maligned class of '96 SMH January 29, 2010

Free access to the My School website exposes schools to the risk of being named and shamed like the class of 1996 was at Mount Druitt High, education experts warn.

Having data freely available showing whether schools are above or below average could be used maliciously, some believe.

Cash needs must be met SMH January 29, 2010

The My School website shows Dapto High School, near Wollongong, is a prime candidate for a cash boost to meet its ''bottomless pit'' of funding needs, its principal, Andrew FitzSimons, says.

Index doubles indigenous count SMH January 29, 2010

Aboriginality was literally counted twice and in effect counted many times more in determining the disadvantage of schools.

The percentage of indigenous people living in an area is one of 16 factors that make up the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage. Aboriginality is then counted again, because the index also includes the percentage of indigenous enrolments.

Happy learners in a class of their own SMH January 29, 2010

An eastern suburbs school has scored number one in NSW at primary level in numeracy and literacy.

Top schools lagging on reading, writing tests The Age January 29, 2010

My School gets an F Crikey January 28, 2010

PM's high school fares poorly on website Brisbane Times January 28, 2010 - 9:54AM and Yahoo!7

James Ruse outpaces rivals on schools website SMH January 28, 2010 4.39pm

My School website glitches: overload or flaw? SMH January 28, 2010 1.49pm

Julia Gillard wants private and public schools to reveal funding The Australian January 28, 2010 1.53pm

Julia Gillard wants to force private and public schools to declare all sources of income under the next phase of the government's controversial My School website reforms.

Public schools in wealthy areas outperforming private colleges, My School website says The Australian January 28, 2010 1.40pm

Public schools in wealthy areas are outperforming some of the nation's most expensive and prestigious private schools in reading and writing, according to the Rudd government's controversial new My School website.

Gillard delivers for parents on schools transparency The Australian January 28, 2010 7.20am

My Schools website early morning tech problem SMH January 28, 2010

The data unions want kept secret DT January 28, 2010

Maralyn Parker Aticle & blog

Julia Gillard has to win the confrontation with teacher unions that was sparked today by the launch of the My School website.

As I see it, our elected governments should continue to make the decisions about collecting and releasing information to the public - not unions.

And if there is any perceived misuse of information it needs to be the subject of heated public discussion by anyone who wants to join in rather than a flimsy justification for press censorship by a union.

But the union scaremongering is also based on what happens in Britain and the US, where governments themselves reduce schools to one score and then rank them. Governments produce the league tables. Failing schools are labelled as such - and closed - by governments.

Real improvement comes with fair comparisons SMH January 28, 2010

Opinion: Professor Barry McGaw, chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

My School provides better information that can be used productively to improve Australia's schools. It will be further developed and improved.

A dangerous recipe for dumbing down our curriculum SMH January 28, 2010

Opinion: Robyn Ewing, Professor of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney

Assuming My School will lift the performance of underachieving schools and teachers is not logical. Reliance on such test results may lead to real dumbing down of our curriculum with a focus on technical skills and rote learning, when creativity, flexible thinking and problem solving have never been more important for our children.

Why should teachers remain unaccountable? The Punch January 28, 2010

Opinion: Chris Gardiner - CEO of Police & Community Youth Clubs (PCYC) NSW

We should pay teachers more and be seeking to attract more of our best young people into teaching. But we also need to address what is usually un-discussable industrially: poorly performing and unprofessional teachers in some schools.

Gillard's New Website Misses The Point New Matilda January 28, 2010

Opinion: Jane Caro

The Federal Government's new site comparing school test performances conceals a whole world of murky detail that you're not meant to understand.

Disadvantage index is the key to performance SMH January 28, 2010

As unions and professional groups have railed against Julia Gillard's transparency agenda, the Education Minister has defended her My School website by promising it would help parents to compare ''like'' schools.

The mechanism for doing this is the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage, a measure specially developed for the website.

The index takes into account 16 variables that have been proven to influence educational outcomes, including the levels of income, employment and educational attainment in the census districts where students live and the proportion of people who do not speak English well.

Truth about our education system will set us free SMH January 28, 2010

What parents need to know, at the tip of an index finger SMH January 28, 2010

Teachers are but one factor in a sea of variables SMH Letters January 28, 2010

Public schools in wealthy areas outperforming private colleges, My School website says The Australian January 28, 2010

Back to basics of a good education DT January 28, 2010

In a landmark day for education, families finally have access to test scores enabling them to compare the performance of almost 10,000 schools across Australia.

The Federal Government's My School website showing mums and dads how their child's school fares against others in the core disciplines of literacy and numeracy went live at 1am today.

Education Minister Julia Gillard blogged exclusively with readers of The Daily Telegraph yesterday, answering parents' questions and concerns about how the new website would work.

My School's bright future ahead DT January 28, 2010

Back in the early days of the internet, many imagined that this new communication technology would be an unalloyed boon for education.

This hasn't entirely come true; just ask any teacher weary of marking essays clearly cribbed from websites. But in one very crucial area, the internet - and the Federal Government - just took a big step forward.

Principals complain about missing details SMH January 28, 2010

The Federal Government's new website which today publishes performance data for all schools in the country was plagued by glitches during a special preview for principals.

The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said he had received numerous reports from principals who were unable to access the site yesterday, using their assigned access codes.

High-stakes testing for easy gain SMH January 28, 2010

Comment: Anna Patty

Julia Gillard blogs live on My School for parents DT January 27, 2010

The much talked about, much criticised, My School website will go live tomorrow, and I urge you to log on, explore and judge the new resource for yourself.

On myschool.edu.au you will see more information about Australia’s near-10,000 schools than you ever have before. For the first time, parents will be able to see exactly how their child’s school is doing.

Julia Gillard’s Blog

League tables will improve the education system The Age January 27, 2010

Opinion: Hutch Ranck, chairman of the Business Council of Australia Task Force on Education, Skills and Innovation and managing director of DuPont Australia and New Zealand.

The one outcome from education reform that matters most is improvement in student learning. This means the learning of relevant knowledge and skills by students in all schools.

The launch this week of the My School website is an important step towards this overall goal because it introduces greater transparency and accountability into our school system. The Business Council of Australia supports this key reform, and the commitment of the federal, state and territory governments to its implementation.

Ladder of opportunity rises above league tables SMH January 27, 2010

Opinion: Tim Hawkes, headmaster of The King's School, Parramatta.

Tomorrow, the Federal Government activates its My School website. This initiative has been described as a disaster by many educators and has led to threats of industrial action by teachers and school principals. The main concern is that the information given is but a simplistic representation of a school's performance and the My School website is in danger of presenting misinformation rather than information. A further worry is that schools will retreat from a broad educational curriculum to one that is limited to preparing for the tests reported online.

After tomorrow, half of the school principals in Australia will be ''under the hammer'' because half may well be seen to be underperforming relative to ''like schools''. This is an uncomfortable place to be, but perhaps it is a necessary place.

Remove yourself from my class, Ms Gillard Letters SMH January 27, 2010

If Julia Gillard wants to lift the performance of school students, she needs to go further than empowering parents to complain about poor teachers (''Tell off deficient teachers: Gillard'', January 26). Teachers and principals must also be able to complain about poor parenting.

Principals rally troops to combat new website SMH January 27, 2010

Principals will enlist parents and former students to counter any negative publicity stemming from the launch of the My School website tomorrow.

The NSW Secondary Principals' Council has devised the campaign to protect its members, who get their first look today at how their school will appear on the website, a day before it is made public.

In Melbourne yesterday, the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, declined to address Opposition claims that she is inciting parents to take vigilante action against poor-quality teachers identified in the Government's new rating system.

My School website data 'inaccurate and unfair' The Australian January 27, 2010

The Rudd government's My School website compares schools based on an inaccurate measure of their performance that casts the worst light on schools in disadvantaged areas.

A report to be released today by independent think tank the Grattan Institute - Measuring What Matters: Student Progress - calls for schools to be judged on the individual improvement students make every year rather than the comparison based on raw test scores used on My School.

Parents' guide to My School website The Australian January 27, 2010

Julia Gillard's threat to classrooms over literacy and numeracy testing DT January 27, 2010

Outsiders could be brought in to take over classrooms if teachers refuse to take part in national tests on literacy and numeracy.

Tell off deficient teachers: Gillard SMH January 26, 2010

Teachers identified as underperformers by the Government's new school rating system should expect to be roused at by disgruntled parents, the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, says.

The My School website, to be launched on Thursday, will allow parents to compare schools and will have enough data to pinpoint specific subject areas of underperformance, potentially identifying the responsible teachers.

Each school will be graded using a colour-coded system on its national tests performance in the areas of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy for years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Each school will be compared with about 60 other schools that cater to ''statistically similar'' student populations, according to a specially developed Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage. Each school will also be compared against the national average.

Barry McGaw, who is chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which created the My School website, said schools in wealthy communities that were performing below expectations would be exposed.

Mr McGaw said it would show which schools in affluent areas were ''coasting''.

Rank your child's school Daily Telegraph January 26, 2010

Parents will be able to instantly compare their child's school with 20 others in the same area on a controversial Federal Government website that will go live this week.

The detailed figures on the My School website will also allow mums and dads to match the school's performance against up to 60 others with similar social and economic profiles.

Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday made no apologies for the website, despite fierce criticism by teachers who argue parents will favour the better performers, worsening the plight of many less well-off schools.

However, Ms Gillard insisted data collected from about 10,000 schools nationally would be used to help fix needy classes and would provoke "school conversations" between parents and teachers.

"We're going to shine a light on best practice," she said.

'Coasting' schools exposed on MySchool website but parents cannot see rankings The Australian January 25, 2010

The Rudd government has ranked the richest and poorest schools in Australia to develop the new MySchool website but will not be releasing the findings to the public.

But wealthy schools that are performing well against the national average but are “coasting” because they are not performing compared to other similar, well-resourced schools will be exposed by Julia Gillard's new transparency agenda.

Scroll down for further extensive coverage on Testing & Accountability

It's all English, but vowels ain't voils SMH January 26, 2010

Australians are being asked to take part in an interactive website that will track the evolution of our accents.

Felicity Cox and Sallyanne Palethorpe have spent two years preparing the Australian Voices website. They have already nominated three dialect sub-groups: Standard Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English and Ethnocultural Australian English varieties, such as Lebanese-Australian accents.

Website traces the state of Strine The Age January 26, 2010

Protesters demand public funding for blind school The Age January 26, 2010

Greater front-line roles on child welfare watch at school SMH January 25, 2010

In preparation for the start of school on Thursday, most government school principals have been trained in new guidelines aimed at reducing calls to the overwhelmed Department of Community Services' Child Protection Helpline, which received 309,000 reports about suspected cases of child abuse or neglect last year.

School criticised for 'party' with bullies after student's suicide SMH January 25, 2010

Charge parents for kids' crimes says Dr John Irvine DT January 25, 2010

Bad mums, dads must share the blame DT January 25, 2010

Sun Herald Feature – EDUCATION: A NEW YEAR.

Pages 14-15. January 24, 2010

1064 schools get lessons in construction

Early help gives kids like Christa hope

Ten years ago children with a profound hearing impairment, like Christa Dracopoulos, would have attended a special school and relied on sign language.

Learning comes naturally for some

Children who play in ''nature-inspired'' playgrounds have improved concentration compared with children who stay indoors, a new study has shown.

Education program fails to make the grade Sun Herald January 24, 2010

Opinion: Christopher Pyne, federal Opposition Education Spokesman.

Labor's ambitious schools policy has good intentions but falls short on a practical level ; at the expense of taxpayers.

Accountability of Schools

Schools will be rated Sun Herald January 24, 2010

Schools will be given a "disadvantage" rating as part of a controversial plan by the Federal Government to publish comprehensive information about schools.

The My School website will go live on Thursday to coincide with the return to school for hundreds of thousands of children.

Ratings will be based on 16 categories including parents' income, year 12 retention and numbers of indigenous students. Education Minister Julia Gillard said the "disadvantage" ranking was important information for parents and would allow the Government to direct funding based on need.

Schools to be ranked on parents' income Daily Telgraph January 24, 2010

Parents tick school data site The Age January 24, 2010

Australian parents are mainly in favour of a Federal Government website that compares schools' performances, but they do not want to see schools ranked, like footy teams, from best to worst based on a single score.

A Sunday Age readers' poll found 60 per cent of parents thought the My School website, which goes live this Thursday, was a good idea and 90 per cent believed they had the right to know how their child's school compared with others.

Why school league tables will not work The Australian January 23, 2010

Opinion: Peter van Onselen, Contributing editor

There is little value providing parents with the capacity to compare the quality of public schools if you don't give public school principals greater autonomy to manage their schools, or through a system such as a voucher scheme give parents complete autonomy to decide which public school their children attend.

In recent years we have seen a rapid exodus from the public school system. Once private schools were the domain of the boutique elite student, or children directed into schools of a particular religious denomination. Today close to 50 per cent of students at secondary level attend private schools and at the primary level the figure is about 30 per cent.

It says a lot about parents' attitudes to the public school system if they are prepared to pay sometimes exorbitant sums of money for their children's education when the state provides universal education free of charge. It tells you there isn't much confidence in the public school system.

Given that we live in a liberal democracy there is no point debating the merits of abolishing private schools to improve egalitarianism within a socialist state.

The debate, therefore, needs to move to what can be done to improve public education; and whether to fund such improvements should entail curtailing public funding of private schools.

Parents slap down union on school league tables The Australian January 23, 2010

Public-school parents have expressed anger at a union-led campaign against league tables, accusing the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens of failing to consult them and misrepresenting their views.

Education out on the table The Australian January 23, 2010

Like many parents facing the daunting task of choosing a school for her children, mother of three Nina Berry was desperate for information. The stakes were high - her family was preparing to sell their house and move to an area with a good school to ensure the best education for her children.

But as the Berrys drew up lists of school catchment areas and scoured the property market, gathering ready and reliable information about schools proved an almost impossible task.

The results of each school in national literacy and numeracy testing under the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) program will be displayed (on My School website) and the public will be able to compare these results with those of up to 60 statistically similar schools.

For the first time, public schools can be directly compared academically with independent schools, and Gillard has promised to direct greater resources towards schools whose students consistently struggle to meet benchmarks in literacy and numeracy.

One of the nation's foremost advocates for indigenous education, Chris Sarra, rejects the notion that underperforming schools will be damaged or humiliated by the publication of comparative data on rates of achievement in reading, writing and arithmetic.

Advocates of public school education reject the notion that schools should be compared at all. NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens president Dianne Giblin told Focus that the federation believed the My School website would encourage parents to compare schools by area rather than simply by statistical similarity.

Much of the angst over league tables has focused on the potential stigmatisation of students at disadvantaged schools.

By any measure, a fairer performance indicator Opinion The Australian January 22, 2010

Threats by the Australian Education Union to boycott this year's literacy and numeracy tests must have many scratching their heads. Why would teachers be opposed to better public information about what is being achieved in our schools?

In Australia, education systems have chosen not to go down the path of trying to construct a measure of each school's performance so that every school in the country can be compared with every other school in a single league table.

Instead, the decision has been made to report actual student test results for each school, including on the My School website.

This is real transparency. It does not obscure actual student performances, and it does not suppress information on the assumption that the public might misinterpret it.

The Australian approach is to put test data into the public domain with increasingly rich information about other student outcomes and schools' circumstances and resources so that users can make their own interpretations and judgments.

Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research and author of Reporting and Comparing School Performances(pdf). ACER site

Bring back school inspectors, says national teachers union The Australian 13 Dec 09(older article)

The national teachers union is calling for a return to the days of school inspectors, proposing a system of external reviews of performance conducted by panels of principals, teachers and education experts.

In a significant shift on its previous opposition to external reviews, the Australian Education Union is advocating a system of regular assessments against a set of standards and then working with schools to improve their performance.

Scroll down for further extensive coverage on Testing & Accountability

Report calls for action on dyslexia SMH January 23, 2010

National recognition of dyslexia as a disability, with improved training and professional development for teachers to deal with the problem, are needed to address a source of poor literacy skills, says a report to the Federal Government.

The report by the Dyslexia Working Party to the federal parliamentary secretary for disabilities and children's services, Bill Shorten, says up to 10 per cent of people struggle to cope with dyslexia.

Boot camp plan gets teachers trained faster SMH January 22, 2010

Stephen Flegg might be sitting behind a computer screen in a glass tower in Sydney, working for a bank or a stockbroking firm, were it not for a presentation one of his friends attended at Sydney University in April.

Instead, after a six-week ''boot camp'' at the University of Melbourne, he is preparing to move to Shepparton in Victoria for a two-year adventure as a secondary school teacher.

The group giving that presentation was Teach for Australia, an organisation championed by the federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard. It aims to recruit talented non-teaching graduates to the most challenging classrooms.

Funding cuts hit Aboriginal literacy SMH January 22, 2010

Tranby College in Glebe - which for more than half a century has helped adult Aborigines from around the country to ''catch-up'' and get jobs or study - has had $200,000 cut from its funding every year for the past four years, leaving it with nothing to pay the teacher, Anne Ndaba.

Ms Ndaba said the Federal Government's failure to help the college recover from the Howard government cuts was hypocritical and contrary to Labor's social inclusion policy.

A matter of course for applicants SMH January 21, 2010

From 9pm yesterday, almost 85,000 university applicants were able to go online to learn if they had received one of 56,154 main-round offers for courses.

School's in for summer - books win out over beach SMH January 21, 2010

Leisurely university holidays may be a thing of the past with more and more students taking summer-school classes so they can finish their degrees more quickly. The University of NSW recorded a 52 per cent increase this year in students enrolling to learn over summer, and over the past five years there had been a a 40 per cent increase.

Government calling for more foster carers Daily Telegraph January 21, 2010

A dramatic rise in children needing protection has forced the State Government to make an urgent appeal for foster carers.

Kids benefit from out-of-school activities The Australian January 20, 2010

Extracurricular activities are good for children but questions remain about which ones are the most efficacious and why, information that would help governments and other funding bodies work out the best way to direct resources.

An emerging factor -- and possibly a partial answer -- is that students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds seem to gain a lot of benefit from extracurricular activities.

"Those from disadvantaged backgrounds who are involved in activities will do much better in terms of wellbeing than if they don't do activities," Barber says.

"Sport could be a place where you get to do things you otherwise don't get to do in your less advantaged life. Kids from less advantaged schools are less likely to participate, but those who do, look really good."

Testing and Accountability

By any measure, a fairer performance indicator Opinion The Australian January 22, 2010

Instead, the decision has been made to report actual student test results for each school, including on the My School website.

This is real transparency. It does not obscure actual student performances, and it does not suppress information on the assumption that the public might misinterpret it.

Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research and author of Reporting and Comparing School Performances(pdf). ACER site

School comparisons turn the tables - in the wrong direction The Herald-Sun January 22, 2010 Opinion Rebecca Wilson

Some of us are lucky enough to be able to choose a school for our kids based on the quality of learning, extracurricular activities and the availability of specialist subjects.

Testing time for teachers Editorial SMH January 21, 2010

Many will feel some sympathy for teachers about their suspicion that national literacy and numeracy tests are the forerunner of school league tables. But efforts to test literacy and numeracy against standard criteria are a reasonable way of letting parents know whether or not their children are acquiring the basics.

A test of schools and governments Editorial The Age January 20, 2010

Only transparency on results and resources will raise standards.

Underperforming schools have slipped under the radar for too long, at their students' expense. The AEU's fears about misleading, damaging and demoralising league tables - while legitimate if schools are inappropriately compared - should not distract anyone from the grim reality of failing schools. While socioeconomic factors are powerful, schools can learn from others that have made progress in similar circumstances, but only if both can be reliably identified.

Sadly, only if the process is public can one reasonably expect governments to provide anything like the funding and support needed by underperforming schools.

Yesterday Ms Gillard said: ''The worst thing in the world is for a child to be at an underperforming school and for no one to know that, and no one to do anything about it.'' In fact, it would be worse for a child to be at an underperforming school, for everyone to know that, and still no one does anything about it. The responsibility is now on the Federal Government, in conjunction with the states, to ensure that does not happen.

Teachers united in league table boycott SMH January 20, 2010

Teachers at the Australian Education Union Annual Conference have voted unanimously to boycott national literacy and numeracy tests in May, in a protest against the creation of school league tables.

Earlier in the day, Ms Gillard said: ''Parents are hungry for information about how their child is going at school and national testing gives parents information about how their child is performing compared with children right around the nation.

''I would say to the Australian Education Union the worst thing in the world is for a child to be in an underperforming school, not getting a good education and for no one to ever know about it and no one to ever do anything to remedy it. Transparency will make sure we shine a spotlight on where we need to do better as well as celebrating when schools are doing really well.''

Ban on school testing `no solution' The Australian January 20, 2010

Since the introduction of the national numeracy and literacy tests three years ago, Michael Phillips has used their results time and again to identify students who need additional help, as well as those who are excelling and could be placed in advanced classes.

The principal of Ringwood Secondary College, in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs, says the tests, in conjunction with teacher judgment and other internal assessment, have become invaluable in the way the school structures student learning.

Teachers fail the sense test Editorial Daily Telegraph January 20, 2010

The Australian Education Union represents a large and influential group of people - teachers - who are keen on handing out tests, but who aren't so keen on being tested themselves.

As The Daily Telegraph has noted previously, this is an unusual situation. If anyone should know the value of testing, it should be teachers who use the method to judge the progress of their students.

But teachers have fought attempts to conduct national literacy and numeracy tests of Australia's students.

The reason is, although teacher unions claim otherwise, because these tests will effectively measure teacher performance in educating their young charges.

One might ask exactly what it is the teachers are so frightened of.

Interestingly, school principals don't seem anywhere near as opposed to the tests. If the tests are going to create "damaging league tables" as teachers assert, you would expect principals to share teachers' attitudes.

Principal benefit in school league tables Daily Telegraph January 20, 2010

A decision to boycott national literacy and numeracy tests was not supported by all school principals, with some yesterday backing the Rudd Government's decision to publish school performance data.

Teachers face pay being docked over tests boycott The Australian January 20, 2010

Test boycott could cost schools funding Adelaide Now January 20, 2010

A national boycott of literacy and numeracy testing will be a strain on schools and could cost some schools crucial funding.

The South Australian Primary Principals Association has said the Australian Education Union's vote to not support NAPLAN testing would create "difficult and awkward" circumstances for schools and school leaders.

Teachers set to boycott NAPLAN skills tests The Australian January 19, 2010

Public school teachers will vote today to boycott national literacy and numeracy tests in protest over the launch of a government website that uses the test results to judge the performance of every school in the country.

Just one week before school information goes live on the Rudd government's My School website, the Australian Education Union will rally its members at the national conference to vote to disrupt the administration of the tests.

Top of the class for selfishness Editorial The Australian January 19, 2010

The education union lets down public school students.

The Australian Education Union always argues that public school teachers do a terrific job - so why are the comrades so terrified of the evidence that would prove it?

The AEU's attitude reflects an assumption that its officials are the real clients of the education system, that classroom teachers interested to know how their school is doing have no right to the information and that public school parents should accept what officialdom decides to tell them - which in the past was not much. There is no doubting the My School website will shake up the cosy arrangement that allows peak union officials and public servants to run schools without interference.

Teachers plan test boycott over league table fears SMH January 19, 2010

Tension between the national teacher union and Labor governments will escalate into industrial warfare as teachers prepare to boycott national literacy and numeracy testing this year.

The Australian Education Union, which represents more than 180,000 teachers in public schools around the country, will put the recommendation to delegates at its annual federal conference in Melbourne today.

Rupert MacGregor, the executive director of the Australian Council of State School Organisations, representing parent organisations, said parents would be angered by a ban.

''Parents would be deeply troubled and concerned,'' Mr MacGregor said. ''They put considerable importance on it because literacy and numeracy are foundation skills.''

However, he said that while parents wanted information from literacy and numeracy tests, they did not support the Federal Government putting too much emphasis on the results through its national My School website.

I was wrong on league tables for schools SMH January 17, 2010

Opinion: Dr Kevin Donnelly, author of Australia's Education Revolution: How Kevin Rudd Won and Lost the Education Wars (Connor Court Publishing) and is director of Education Standards Institute

Gillard joins the blame game Daily Telegraph January 20, 2010

Responding to the McMorrow report’s criticism of federal funding for schools she told us state governments “remain the predominant funders of state schools’’ and “direct comparison with Commonwealth funding of private schools is disingenuous’’. Download McMorrow Report

Private school gain means public pain: report SMH January 18, 2010

The Federal Government's decision to retain an unfair funding model will result in a $12 billion gap between private and public school monies by 2012-13, a report commissioned by the Australian Education Union says.

Despite Kevin Rudd's promise before the 2007 election of a digital education revolution at all schools, the report shows that the public school system is being shortchanged $500 million for computers and trades training facilities.

In his review of federal budget commitments, an honorary associate professor of education at the University of Sydney and former public policy adviser, Jim McMorrow, said it was difficult to justify spending only 58 per cent of the Commonwealth's $2.1 billion computers in schools program on public schools. Download McMorrow Report

Schools levy for Kevin Rudd's laptop plan The Australian January 18, 2010

Examples from South Australia plus AEU’s study on funding.

Public school costs soar to $90k Sunday Telegraph January 17, 2010

Parents of children starting kindergarten this year will pay more than $90,000 to educate them to year 12 in the public system.

At a private school, they can add another $250,000 per child. Catholic schools are not cheap either, with the average education bill topping $175,000 for a dozen years of education.

Political Testing Time DT January 13, 2010 Maralyn Parker Article & Blog

We are about to launch into election mode at both state and federal levels for 2010. Education and schooling will be used mercilessly, as usual, for political fodder. Expect Adrian Piccoli, to be a major player.

Piccoli, deputy leader of the NSW Nationals, member for Murrumbidgee and the NSW Coalition’s shadow minister for education, says if he ever gets the job of NSW Minister for Education he will track down public school students in the bottom twenty percent of the state and fund individual improvement programs for them.

Exclusive Brethren enjoying $1m taxpayer windfall The Australian January 11, 2010

The Exclusive Brethren is getting more than $1 million a year in "overpayments" for its NSW schools under the Rudd government's independent schools funding system.

Despite being assessed as wealthy, the Brethren's mushrooming network of schools is being funded at a higher rate than independent schools in battling regional communities such as Bourke and Longreach.

Kevin Rudd endorses Exclusive Brethren fire book The Australian January 15, 2010

Education boost for indigenous families SMH January 11, 2010

An early education program run successfully for New Zealand Maoris and American Indians will be introduced across NSW in an effort to break the cycle of poverty in indigenous and disadvantaged families.

Two of the new Children and Family Centres will trial a model credited with adding $160 (NZ$200) to the weekly incomes of participating New Zealand families.

ADHD linked to obese mothers SMH January 7, 2010

Children are at double the risk of displaying symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder if their mother was overweight or obese when she became pregnant, according to European research.

Cartoon trains teach autistic children about emotions SMH January 7, 2010

The Reverend W. Awdry, the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, was on to something in 1943 when he developed the smiling steam engine. It turns out that putting a human face on a cartoon train, bus or tram can help children with autism understand emotions.

The head of the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, conducted a study using a series of 15 animated stories called The Transporters. Each episode focused on a different emotion - from simple ones such as happy, sad and angry to more complex emotions such as sorry, ashamed, tired and joking.

HSC slammed as second best SMH January 5, 2010

The head of a leading Sydney girls school believes the International Baccalaureate is an academically superior year 12 credential to the Higher School Certificate, which has been eroded and stripped of its more challenging subjects.

Baccalaureate joins national curriculum SMH January 2, 2010

The Federal Government yesterday confirmed that schools will be allowed to offer the International Baccalaureate year 12 credential as part of the new national curriculum.

It's goodbye Mia and Jack, hello Isabella and William SMH January 3, 2010

After a five-year reign, Jack has lost its stranglehold on the title of NSW's top name for newborn boys, replaced by William. And the top girl's name - Isabella.

Call to halt schools building SMH December 31, 2009

The Federal Government should suspend its $16.2 billion school building program until the Auditor-General's office delivers its findings on whether the stimulus money is being spent efficiently, the Opposition said yesterday.

The call follows the Herald's report of a public school in Wollongong that was told it could not build a hall large enough for 320 students within its $2.5 million budget from the Commonwealth. This was despite a nearby Catholic school building a hall for 1000 students at less than half that price.

Department inflating price of school hall, say parents SMH December 30, 2009

Bureaucrats have told a public school that it cannot build a hall for 320 students within a $2.5 million budget, even though a nearby Catholic school built one to fit up to 1000 students for less than half the price.

Parents at Mount St Thomas Public School in Wollongong have complained to the NSW Auditor General, Peter Achterstraat, about what they say are inflated costings from the Department of Education and Training.

On behalf of the school's P&C, Arthur Rorris, a union official whose child attends the school, has written a complaint to Mr Achterstraat.

Mr Rorris, who is secretary of the South Coast Labor Council, said the school's $2.5 million allocation under the Federal Government's $16.2 billion stimulus program was up to twice the amount needed to build a 250 square metre hall. He said the Holy Spirit College in Bellambi had built a larger hall for less than $1 million.

School fees hit record highs SMH December 26, 2009

Payment plans are being introduced to help parents meet the soaring cost of private schooling as fees pass $26,000 for the first time in Sydney.

Private schools are raising their fees by as much as five times the inflation rate of 1.3 per cent - this despite a 32 per cent increase in federal funding, which will exceed $26 billion over four years.

New light on where money goes SMH December 26, 2009

Where does the money go? The question of what private schools do with federal funding and income from fees is sure to be discussed by families whose children are pupils.

Junk food meal toys do not foster 'pester power': watchdog SMH December 24, 2009

Fast Food companies can continue to give away toys based on well-known cartoon characters with junk food meals because they do not constitute pester power, the advertising watchdog has ruled in a decision that health food campaigners say is ''illogical''.

The self-regulatory Advertising Standards Board said that because toys that come with a McDonald's Happy Meal or a Hungry Jack's Kids Clubs meal are an ''integral'' part of that meal they cannot be regarded as an incentive.

School fees hit $26K Sunday Telegraph December 20, 2009

Why it pays to mind two languages SMH December 20, 2009

Primary school pupils chosen to take part in bilingual classes may receive an unexpected long-term benefit: learning in two languages could stave off the onset of dementia in their senior years.

Primary principals voice concern over child welfare role SMH December 19, 2009

Primary school principals fear new child protection guidelines require them to take a more interventionist role in the lives of problem families.

Under changes to take effect next month, principals, along with other key workers, including police, will be expected to share the burden with the Department of Community Services for child protection.

HSC 2009 more information on this site

Board of Studies STATISTICS FOR 2009

All Rounders List

Distinguished Achievers List

First Place in Course List

Top Achievers in Course

HSC Band Descriptors & Performance Data

Student Entries by Sex

Total Candidature

And more, including information from previous years, and School Certificate information.

HSC Top 100 Schools 2009 Daily Telegraph December 17, 2009 at 2:47pm

Maralyn Parker’s blog

HSC help most often for private students SMH December 18, 2009

Almost 42 per cent of students at one private school received special allowances in this year's Higher School Certificate exams - almost eight times higher than the average proportion at public schools.

Twenty-five private schools - including Reddam House, Scots College, Masada College, Frensham, Cranbrook and SCEGGS - received special consideration for their HSC students at more than twice the rate of public schools.

James Ruse in a class of its own SMH December 17, 2009

Public selective high school JAMES RUSE has topped the HSC performance list for the 14th consecutive year, but private schools in the eastern suburbs have pushed two other government selective high schools out of the top 10.

Video - HSC State Awards Ceremony

Worrying is over as HSC pupils get results SMH December 17, 2009

If Killara High School student EMMA BOWERS was still only half asleep when her mobile phone beeped at 6am yesterday, she was definitely wide awake by the time she had read the SMS announcing her Higher School Certificate results.

Hunter's top HSC achievers Newcastle Herald December 17, 2009

They're a class act: everyone's a winner SMH December 16, 2009

Traditional roles were reversed when girls topped the sciences and boys were placed first in English in the Higher School Certificate this year. Overall, girls made up two-thirds of the 119 students awarded first place in 100 subjects.

HSC science shows girls are in top form DT December 16, 2009

Female HSC students driven by passion and talent have topped the state in five of the major science subjects and also made further inroads into the traditional male stronghold of mathematics.

Unique program produces results in the HSC for Menai High School DT December 16, 2009

A unique teaching program which includes a four-day week for senior students is returning amazing HSC results for a small high school on Sydney's suburban fringes.

Menai High School is blazing a trail of success in the HSC including a top five placing for its students in advanced English.

It scored 103 mentions on the distinguished achievers list in the HSC, jumping 37 places on the top schools honour roll.

Better behaviour leads to higher exam scores DT April 1, 2009

Mary and Joseph choose a school for baby Jesus. Is this cartoon funny or what? DT December 18, 2009

Maralyn Parker

Reprieve for unique school – Dalwood, Seaforth SMH December 18, 2009

The only school in Australia that supports children from rural and remote areas with severe learning disorders has won a reprieve after the Premier, Kristina Keneally, intervened to postpone its closure.

Hundreds of the state's most disadvantaged children were abandoned when the health and education departments decided in September to terminate the Dalwood Assessment Centre and Palm Avenue boarding school without devising a replacement.

Series on schools by ABC investigations editor Suzanne Smith

Sick leave blowing school budgets ABC News On Line December 17, 2009

Article and blog

This month, 344 primary schools in New South Wales asked the Department of Education for what is known as a "short-term relief budget allocation".

To translate the jargon, it means those 344 schools have not been able to survive on their global budgets - the money the Department hands out for essential educational and teaching resources.

Parents paying for teachers, toilet paper

Article and blog

Parents are paying for essential educational resources, including teaching positions, in many public primary and secondary schools, a survey by the Federation of Parents and Citizens groups across New South Wales has found.

The survey results - exclusive to ABC News Online - reveal a deep frustration among parents that fundraising, rather than educational outcomes, is now the key priority in many schools, and that many principals are distracted by the need to find money for basic educational and teaching resources.

Third Knox teacher admits abuse of students SMH December 16, 2009

Craig Treloar was still teaching at Knox prep school in Wahroonga - and had just returned from a school trip - when he was arrested in February. Facing Central Local Court yesterday, he admitted sex charges against four students, aged 12 and 13, between 1984 and 1987.

Bring back school inspectors, says national teachers union The Australian 13 Dec 09

Kristina Keneally's new cabinet SMH December 8, 2009

Verity Firth continues as Minister for Education and Training.

Education system too old-school for a new generation of students SMH December 3, 2009

Australia's education system is outmoded and old-fashioned, with a growing gap between the skills young people learn at school and those they need in a fast-changing, contemporary world, a review has found.

Core aspects of our education system were designed to meet the needs of students growing up in the 1950s, but have changed little and are ill-suited to young people who live in an era of uncertainty, the Melbourne University Professor Johanna Wyn, argues in a report for the Australian Council for Educational Research. Media release Download REPORT

Today's lesson: condoms in the classroom cause controversy SMH December 3, 2009

A privately run sex education program operating in NSW public high schools questions the effectiveness of condoms for preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Real Choices Australia operates the program, Choices Decisions Outcomes, mainly in government schools across Australia. One of its directors and spokeswoman, Debbie Garratt, has links to the Catholic Church and has worked with anti-abortion groups.

You can’t fake true talent - what are parents paying for? DT December 2, 2009 at 11:26am

Maralyn Parker article & blog

The role of coaching colleges in the selective school entry process in this state has reached a new level. Pre-Uni New College is boasting on its website it helped place a quarter of all of the children who made it into selective schools next year.

Schools linked to Scientology will get $1.6m SMH December 2, 2009

Fewer than 100 children will benefit from more than $1.6 million in Federal Government subsidies over four years to two schools strongly linked to the Scientology movement.

The Athena School in Newtown will receive $751,519 in recurrent funding from the Federal Government for the 2009 to 2012 funding period. It has also been allocated $135,287 for a new library, $114,713 for primary classroom refurbishments and $50,000 for other refurbishments under the Rudd Government's Building the Education Revolution program.

Principal tells parents to respect teachers SMH December 2, 2009

The head of a leading Sydney girls school has cautioned parents against playing an adversarial role and failing to give teachers enough respect.

In notes for a speech to her school last night, Jenny Allum, the headmistress of SCEGGS Darlinghurst, said some parents assumed that they should ''automatically adopt an adversarial role in support of their daughter''.

After noting that society needed to value the teaching profession, Ms Allum said it was incumbent on ''all in our society to respect teachers; to respect the authority of the position''.

Children with better educated mothers watch the least TV SMH December 2, 2009

Almost 15 per cent of Australian children aged three to four have television in their bedrooms and, by the age of seven to eight, the proportion has risen to one in five, a new study shows, raising concerns about the lack of parental regulation of children's viewing.

The study, to be presented to the Growing Up in Australia conference today, shows that concerns about the digital divide may be overblown.

Counsellor abused molested boy, court told SMH December 1, 2009 2:23PM

A Catholic brother is accused of sexually assaulting a boy he had been counselling after the youngster was molested by another man, a court has been told. Former Vincentian brother William Stanley Irwin, 54, of Pyrmont in inner Sydney, appeared briefly in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court today charged with two counts of gross indecency on a male under the age of 18 in the mid-1980s.

The court was told Mr Irwin was arrested last week and had since been stood down from his teaching job (Religious Education / Chaplaincy) at St Aloysius' College at Milsons Point on Sydney's lower north shore.

Hills school takes the lead Ethics v religion classes trial to start Hills News December 1, 2009

Baulkham Hills North Primary School has been listed to participate in a trial of ethics classes as an alternative to religious studies.

Schools face struggle to find new teachers The Age December 1, 2009

Meningococcal outbreak at school formal at Aquinas College at Menai DT December 1, 2009

Fears grow over killer meningoccocal virus spread DT December 2, 2009

Primary School League Tables released – UK

Sats = Standard Attainment Tests (UK)

Primary school league tables expose shortcomings BBC December 1, 2009

How to read the primary school tables The Guardian December 1, 2009

Plus links to stories

Targets are not the way to make schools accountable 23.10.09

Opinion: Sats tests cause pupils great harm and the information they provide is often of little use

UK Daily Telegraph December 1, 2009

Primary league tables: Key Stage 2 results for 2009 (more links on this page)

Should SATS be axed?

Poor teachers linked to GCSE grades slump

Faith schools dominate top places

School Prospectus Guide 2010 Paid advertising UK Daily Telegraph

Labour’s £30 billion annual spending on schools fails to boost standards The Times 2 December, 2009

Billions of pounds channelled into schools under Labour have failed to produce a corresponding improvement in standards, the Government’s statistics agency said yesterday.

Although spending has increased by more than £30 billion a year, value for money from schools has fallen steadily and is no better than in the final years under the Conservatives, it said.

The findings by the Office for National Statistics will embarrass ministers and infuriate teachers. The Conservatives said that higher budgets had not been matched with lasting reforms and had been wasted on Whitehall bureaucracy.

The Sunday Times Parent Power

Are NSW graduates too dumb for the Teach for Australia program? DT November 30, 2009 at 03:59pm

Maralyn Parker article & blog

Only 3 graduates from NSW have been chosen to take part in the inaugural Teach for Australia program.

The 34 of the 45 successful applicants are from Victoria - with New South Wales (3), ACT (3), Western Australia (2), Queensland (2), South Australia (1). The majority (27) are female.

The government has not given us a breakdown of where the 750 applicants are from. But I suspect NSW graduates are not terribly interested.

Children young for grade do less well SMH November 30, 2009

Children who start school young for their grade perform less well than their older peers by the second year of school, a new study shows.

The gap between the younger and older children in the class on a range of cognitive skills was large, the Australian Institute of Family Studies found.

The research is part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a federal government-funded project that will follow children for years. It will be released at the longitudinal study conference this week.

Overseas students are as good as gold SMH November 30, 2009

Education helped to prop up the NSW economy by generating $6.4 billion for the state despite revelations of shonky colleges and violent attacks on Indian students.

Tenth man charged over Bathurst school sex assault inquiry SMH November 26, 2009 7.50 am

Education plan earns poor report SMH November 26, 2009

The Australian education system has failed to deliver any significant improvement in Aboriginal literacy and numeracy standards following a four-year national strategy to target the learning crisis.

Only lip service has been paid to some vital strategies to improve the literacy and numeracy of Aboriginal children, which overall, falls far below the national average. And non-Aboriginal people have dominated the national approach to addressing the problem.

The chief investigator, Peter Buckskin, from the University of South Australia, said: ''There is a level of cultural arrogance from bureaucracies that they know best and talk to us rather than with us.''

Public schools do not need Christian chaplains DT November 25, 2009

Maralyn Parker Article & Blog

As NSW finally introduces ethics classes as an alternative to scripture classes in public schools, the federal government is headed in the opposite direction.
Kevin Rudd announced last week another $42 million, on top of the initial $165 million, for the national school chaplaincy program that employs religious operatives to work in public schools.

Given only 2 million of 21 million Australians are church goers this is without doubt a misuse of taxpayer money.

Worse - Rudd justified the extra spending on a deeply flawed recent study of the chaplaincy program that deviously concluded it was a good thing for public schools to have Christian religious workers on staff.

Rees plans to introduce ethics classes in school SMH November 25, 2009

Ethics classes will be introduced in NSW schools, offering an alternative to religious studies for the first time in 100 years, the Premier, Nathan Rees, will announce today.

Lend a hand for literacy SMH November 25, 2009

Only one in five children in remote indigenous communities can read to the minimum standard. That is the startling message of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, which wants to make it known and to change the situation.

Tomorrow, the Hands Across the Nation Indigenous Literacy Appeal - of which the Herald is a media partner - will ask people to raise their hands if they care enough to want to help the most marginalised Australians become literate and numerate.

Boarding school mistress faces charges she 'had sex with boys' Sunday Telegraph November 22, 2009

Seven boy boarders at one of the State's most exclusive private schools have alleged they were raped by their female house mistress earlier this year.
Their 40-year-old "house mother'' appeared in Forster Court last week charged with 34 counts of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecency with the students.

Scientology targets young kids Sunday Telegraph November 22, 2009

The NSW Government has warned principals about a Church of Scientology attempt to infiltrate primary schools with propaganda videos and booklets aimed at Year 6 students.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned an organisation called Youth for Human Rights, which is sponsored by the controversial group, sent an educational DVD about human rights to schools last month.

Alarm over bank's bid to sign up schoolkids Sun Herald November 22, 2009

A $40 MILLION attempt by the Commonwealth Bank to revive school banking is worrying principals, who believe it will be used to recruit cradle-to-the-grave customers.

School sports losing the race The Australian November 21, 2009

There wasn't much that everyone in sports administration liked about the Crawford review of sport, released by the federal government this week, but they did support one recommendation: that physical education be made a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

That proposal has universal support in the national sports community, which has noted with concern the dramatic drop in the physical abilities of young athletes coming into the elite system in the past 20 years as physical education has declined in schools.

"The young athletes we saw 20 years ago were vastly superior in all-round fitness and general co-ordination," says Australian Institute of Sport athletics coach Craig Hilliard. "The ones we see now lack fine motor co-ordination.

"Basic skills like hopping and skipping are lacking. Everything involving physical exertion in schools is seen as too risky. There's a whole element of sport and physical education that's gone out of schools because people are afraid that children will get hurt.

See Crikey

Ministerial Media Release Kate Ellis, Minister for Sport

FULL REPORT

Rudd to pledge $42.8m to school chaplain program SMH November 21, 2009

Kevin Rudd is expected to use an address to the Australian Christian Lobby today to announce continued funding for chaplains in schools.

The Australian Christian Lobby has advertised Mr Rudd's speech as being on the topic of ''Building a Nation of Character", with a sub-theme of "In The Best Interests of the Child''.

Rudd to give $42.8m for school chaplains Daily Telegraph November 21, 2009

The announcement, to be made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at the Australian Christian Lobby's annual conference in Canberra today, comes after the Opposition called for the program to be made a permanent part of the education system.

Christian Lobby welcomes Rudd Government support for school chaplaincy Media Release

School principal sex sentence 'too lenient' SMH November 20, 2009 4:42PM

A girl left broken and devastated after being sexually assaulted by her high school principal has finally achieved closure as he was sentenced in the NSW District Court, her family says.

But her mother says the sentence is far too lenient and they cannot bring themselves to think about him being released next year.

School principal jailed for sex with student SMH November 20, 2009 12:06PM

The former principal of a Christian school at Grafton in northern NSW, previously pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse over four days with a 16-year-old under his care.

Principal jailed for student sex The Australian November 20, 2009 3.30pm

Telstra bags $280m NSW DET deal Daily Telegraph November 19, 2009

NSW public schools are set to lead the world in computer technology after the Rees Government signed a $280 million deal with Telstra to roll out optic fibre in classrooms.

In the largest contract of its type in Australia, the broadband system will increase computer speeds by up to 20 times for more than 1.2 million students in 2400 schools and TAFEs.

Schools a hotbed of racism: study SMH November 19, 2009

Cruises to defy schoolie order The Australian November 19, 2009

Cruise ship operators say they are prepared to defy a Human Rights Commission ruling preventing them from banning schoolies from their vessels over binge-drinking concerns.

Building the revolution libraries falls short DT November 18, 2009

Maralyn Parker – article and blog

Firth blamed for delaying ethics pilot SMH November 18, 2009

The St James Ethics Centre has accused the State Government of deliberately stalling approval on an ethics pilot program for schools, saying the education minister is bowing to pressure from church groups in the hope the issue will go away.

The program would offer ethics teaching to primary school children who opt out of scripture but who are prevented by government policy from receiving formal tuition during the time other students attend scripture.

Spelling is the bee-all and end-all for these kids DT November 18, 2009

Confidence is just one word that could stump our state's top spellers today but after weeks of hard study it is something they certainly have in spades.

More than 87,000 students from across the state have competed for a spot in today's final of the Premier's Spelling Bee.

McDonald's wins 'shame' awards SMH November 17, 2009 - 3:34PM

Voted by more than 200 members of the Parents Jury, an online network of parents who advocate improving children's food and physical activity, McDonald's was named the most irresponsible creator of food promotions in three out of four categories.

These included McDonald's sponsorship of a high school maths website (the inaugural 'Techno Hack' category), the 'Pester Power' award for animated Happy Meal TV ads which feature animation and play equipment, and the Jury's 'Bad Sport' category for sponsorship of grassroots state Little Athletics competitions.

The 'Smoke and Mirrors' category was won by Kellogg's Nutri-Grain ads, deemed misleading due to the high-sugar cereal's promise of turning young boys into elite athletes.

NEWS.com article

Learning to read English is hardest - brain expert SMH November 17, 2009

It's official. Research has confirmed that English is ''the worst'' language to learn to read, with students taking at least two years to grasp it, as opposed to three or four months for students learning to read a ''transparent'' language like Italian.

Schools unite against rankings SMH November 17, 2009

Six peak national groups representing parents, teachers and principals from public and private schools have signed a letter to the Federal Government asking it to prevent the publication of ''misleading and damaging'' league tables.

The letter says NAPLAN test results provide only a snapshot of academic achievement and provide a statistically unreliable basis for comparing schools.

League tables law is simply rank SMH November 17, 2009

Opinion: George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW.

First we had the Herald brazenly breaking the law last week by publishing a comparison of the test results of three schools, and next we were told there was a real possibility that the ban on publishing such material breached the constitution by restricting freedom of speech about politics and government. This, of course, means the Herald may not have broken the law at all.

The ban criminalises speech of a kind that the constitution protects. The law is also drafted in a way that is ineffective, discriminatory and over-broad. No case of this kind is ever a lay down misere, but it is certainly arguable that the law is invalid.

Ban on school league tables illegal, minister told SMH November 14, 2009

The state Education Minister, Verity Firth, has warned that laws passed by the Opposition introducing $55,000 fines for newspapers which publish comparisons of school results are likely to end up in the High Court, after receiving legal advice the legislation may be unconstitutional.

On Wednesday the Herald risked prosecution by publishing results from Hornsby Girls, Sydney Girls and Macarthur Girls High. The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, is under pressure to repeal the law.

Federal Coalition sources said yesterday that shadow ministers were ''gobsmacked'' by Mr O'Farrell's decision to support the Greens in introducing the legislation in June, saying it was against Liberal Party principles.

Transparency benefits parents, children and schools SMH November 14, 2009 Editorial

The reaction to the Herald's challenge to the school information ban this week has been strong. Teachers have responded vociferously to the Herald's challenge to the ban on printing comparisons between schools' results in standard literacy and numeracy tests. So have parents.

There are two separate arguments on the issue. One is based on the right, in a democratic country, to know how schools are performing relative to one another.

On this point, it has been baffling - even to many party members- to see the Liberal Party persist in supporting the ludicrous ban on printing information which is freely available in other forms. The party appears simply to have lost its way.

Clamour for action on league tables row SMH November 13, 2009

The Premier, Nathan Rees, dared the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to take the Herald to court yesterday to secure a $55,000 fine after the paper published details of the test results of three schools in breach of Opposition-backed laws.

Publish and be damned SMH November 12, 2009

The Herald today challenges the absurdity of NSW's ban on letting parents know about the schools their children attend.

We publish and compare the NAPLAN test results of three schools. We are breaking the law - the stupid, oppressive law - of NSW by doing so, and risk a fine. Readers are not allowed to see these comparisons in print. Only in print. Other media, which operate - thank goodness - beyond the State Government's control, can make these comparisons.

Breaking the law: the exam results they don't want you to see SMH November 12, 2009

The Herald is breaching state law today, risking a $55,000 fine by comparing the test results of three schools.

After an announcement by the federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard, that she will publish test results from around Australia on a new website in January, the Herald has learnt that publishing the exam results of just two of the schools could result in a fine in NSW.

Hurlstone High faces overhaul SMH November 16, 2009

Schools website given test run The Australian November 11, 2009

The federal government yesterday unveiled a sneak peek at its much-feared schools website, to be launched next year, that will for the first time compare test results, student characteristics and financial resources of all schools.

At a forum in Canberra attended by more than 150 school principals, Education Minister Julia Gillard gave them the first look at the myschool.edu.au website being developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority.

Only tepid support for new report cards SMH November 11, 2009

The Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has lifted the veil on the long-awaited report cards that will reveal unprecedented levels of information about every school in the nation.

Ms Gillard displayed the features of the controversial report cards - which will be published on a new website called My School - to an audience of 150 principals who had been invited to Canberra to discuss the Government's education agenda.

But the website, which will publish test results, staff and student numbers, attendance rates and socio-economic data for each of the country's 10,000 schools, received a lukewarm response from principals, some of whom fear it will demonise struggling schools and pressure teachers to focus excessively on test preparation at the expense of other subjects.

HSC religion testing faces the inquisition DT November 11, 2009

Teachers have said a question in the studies of religion HSC exam was almost impossible to answer.

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.

Private school banished for having public school values DT November 4, 2009

Maralyn Parker story and blog Macquarie Grammar School

Money for schools withheld DT November 2, 2009

Maralyn Parker story and blog

The government announced today it is withholding $500 million of its Building The Education funding school funding due to a better mid-year economic outlook than expected.

The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2009-10 released by Wayne Swan today was quickly followed by a release from Julia Gillard’s office announcing changes to BER funding.

$500 million scheduled to be spent on schools in 2010 -2011 will now be “rephased” to be spent in 2011- 2012. The funding affected is The Primary Schools for the 21st Century element of the BER.

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