Announcements - November 2011 Issue of Notepad

,Draft Australian Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders

On 28 October 2011, AITSL released a draft Australian Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders for national consideration and discussion.

AITSL is seeking feedback on the Charter and advice from the profession, interested stakeholders and the broader community about how best it can support the establishment of a vibrant national professional learning culture.

There are a number of ways in which members can be involved.  AITSL will be advertising consultation and engagement opportunities.  You can also provide feedback directly to AITSL by emailing professionallearning@aitsl.edu.au

Members interested in working on a submission from ACE are invited to email the office to register their interest - email ace@austcolled.com.au with the header AITSL Consultation

AITSL is also working to support excellence in professional learning by providing and promoting access to tools, materials and research that will support teacher and school leader learning and improvement.

To inform its work, AITSL is commissioning research and evaluation studies on key aspects of professional learning.  The following papers are available to date:

Diane Mayer and Margaret Lloyd, "Professional Learning: an introduction to the research literature", October 2011

http://www.aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/Professional_Learning_An_introduction_to_research_literature.pdf

Dr Helen Timperley A background paper to inform the development of a national professional development framework for teachers and school leaders, October 2011

http://www.aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/Background_paper_inform_the_development_of_national_professional_development_framework_for_teachers_and_school_leaders.pdf

Rob Gilbert, Professional Learning Flagship Program: Leading Curriculum Change  Literature Review , October 2011

 http://www.aitsl.edu.au/verve/_resources/Professional_Learning_Flagship_Program_Leading_Curriculumo_Change_Literature_Review.pdf

National Curriculum

The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) endorsed the Foundation to Year 10 Achievement Standards for English, Mathematics, Science and History at their meeting on 14 October 2011. For more information and to view version 2.0 of the Australian Curriculum please visit http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

To read the Validation Report documenting the Foundation to Year 10 Achievement Standards go to http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/F-10_Achievement_Standards_Final_Validation_Report_%2819_October_2011%29.pdf

With the first phase of the Australian Curriculum approved by Education Ministers, work is now underway to implement the F-10 Australian Curriculum in English, history, mathematics and science.

For information on the coordination of implementation including state and territory plans go to http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/implementation_coordination.html

Draft F-12 Australian Curriculum: Geography in Consultation

ACARA is conducting consultation on the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography from 20^th October 2011 to 29^th February 2012. You are invited to provide feedback to ACARA through the consultation survey, available until 29 February 2012. Access: http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/  

Following consultation, the geography materials will be revised prior to publication on the Australian Curriculum website in the last quarter of 2012.

National Statement on Asia Literacy released

Developed by the Asia Education Foundation and noted by AEEYSOC, the National Statement on Asia Literacy in Australian Schools 2011-2012 supports the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians which recognises that the growing influence of India, China and other Asian nations, both globally and in Australia, is a major change in the world that impacts on the future of all young Australians.

The National Statement identifies the broad knowledge, skills and understandings required by all students to achieve Asia literacy in the context of existing policies and practices in teaching and learning and sets out six interlinked areas of action required to achieve Asia literacy and deliver on the intent of the new Australian Curriculum.

To read go to

SCHOOL CHAPLAINCY

Applications Open For School Chaplaincy And Welfare Services

The Hon Peter Garrett MP, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, 30 September, 2011

Minister for School Education Peter Garrett has released new guidelines for the Government's National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program, enabling the extension and expansion of chaplaincy and welfare services in schools.

Under changes to the program announced last month, school communities will be able to choose a chaplain or a secular student welfare worker. The scheme has also been strengthened with the introduction of minimum qualifications, benchmark standards for service providers, and improvements to the complaints management system.

Mr Garrett said the Gillard Government has committed $222 million over three years to extend chaplaincy and welfare services to the existing approximately 2,700 schools and to increase the services to up to 1,000 new schools.

"From today, schools are able to apply for funding to continue their chaplaincy or welfare services," Mr Garrett said.

Read more: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Garrett/Media/Releases/Pages/Article_110930_122038.aspx

ACCSO National Conference papers

Look out for papers from the ACCSO National Conference that took place on 14 and 15 October 2011. 

Speakers for the conference included Justice Michael Kirby, Professor Peter Freebody, Margaret Hunter and Lyndsay Connors.  Students from both the Talent Development Unit as well as participants in the Songroom program performed at the conference.

There was also a presentation on Social media in education by NSW DEC Director of Corporate Communications, Tracey Sen on the world of parent engagement in education through these channels.

A number of speakers showcased successful parent engagement programs and the conference wrap up was provided by Verity Firth, the former NSW Education Minister and now Chief Executive Officer of the Public Education Foundation.

Congratulations to Tony Ryan

Tony, ACE's archivist, is editor of Learning Works on PBA FM.  His Men and Sheds program, broadcast  on Monday 7 March, gained second place in the Radio - Best Current  Affairs segment/series, in the 2011 OPSO Media Awards.

In the program Professor Barry Golding, University of Ballarat, talked about the important role that these sheds play in providing men who may be depressed because they are unemployed or coping with early retirement or the loss of a life partner, with a safe place to relate to other men whilst involved in learning new skills and also learning to talk and share with other men. The program included interviews recorded at the Community Shed at Aldinga, a beachside suburb south of Adelaide (South Australia), and then an extended interview with Professor Barry Golding from the University of Ballarat, and the Executive Officer of the Australian Men's Shed Association, David Helmers.

New Centre for Child development in NT

At the launch of the Centre for Child Development and Education that will be run at Charles Darwin University by the Menzies School of Health Research the Chief Minister Paul Henderson said the Northern Territory government will have to accept evidence produced by a new research centre on what works to improve indigenous children's lives.

"We have to accept the evidence as it stands to inform policy and practice on the ground," he said.

Centre director, Professor Sven Silburn, says evidence-based research is already producing better school results for indigenous students. "We are already seeing some of the results, with the Families as First Teachers programs in some communities," he said.

"When these kids now begin year one, they're doing very much better, they're attending more regularly and we are seeing those benefits flow through just in a matter of one or two years."

But Menzies School of Health director Jonathan Carapetis cautions that researchers often produce detailed academic reports that are ignored by governments.

It will be interesting to see if and how the new centre will fulfil this brief, especially if its evidence on key matters is politically unpalatable.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-23/new-document/2939536?section=nt

Launch of TRIPS - a study that follows the National Partnership money

The report, Targeting support for high-need students in primary schools: Report of the TRIPS study was prepared by Professor Max Angus and Harriet Olney from Edith Cowan University for the Australian Primary Principals Association and funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). 

It examines the allocation of money which flowed to primary schools from the more than $2 billion COAG National Partnership funding to improve educational outcomes for students, particularly those who need it most. 

The study involved schools from government and non-government systems in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

The study tracks the passage of the National Partnership funding as it passes through several stages:

• the point at which it was allocated to States and Territories,


• the selection of schools which would receive the additional funding,


• the classrooms in a sample of 33 schools that were expected to receive the funding, and finally


• the targeted students in the classrooms who were struggling to reach minimum standards.

Norm Hart, National president of APPA, said that the study highlighted several issues that require more policy focus. 

1. The design elements of some funding meant that

• funding was not allocated according to need but on the basis of whether schools and students are likely to reach cut-off points that are linked to reward funding.


• in some systems, schools were encouraged to focus only on those students likely to reach the required target, placing those difficult cases which required a lot of intensive support into the 'too hard basket'

2. Most of the decisions about how the funding was to be used were made away from schools and school principals. In some cases schools had no say in how the funding was to be spent. While schools that did receive the extra help made good use of it, most principals in the study believed that they could have achieved better value if they had more control over how it was spent."

Disturbingly, teachers expected less than a quarter of the target students to reach or exceed minimum standards by the time they completed primary school assuming that the level of support available to them was unchanged.

"Many of the students have very real difficulties. Despite the rhetoric there is no obvious, simple solution. We have a complex national system of schools and a messy set of school funding arrangements that arise because of the separate funding streams of the Commonwealth and state governments. I am hoping that the school funding review panel will look at this matter and recommend what needs to be done."  

APPA believes that there are several important implications arising from the Study. They are that

• additional support provided to a school should be tailored to take account of what is already in place;


• there needs to be a better match between the support needed and the support provided when a school's leadership team is actively involved in the negotiations around its students' needs and the delivery of support; and


• principals and teachers should have opportunities to present their insights about the efficacy of the reforms.

To read the full report go to http://www.appa.asn.au/images/news2011/tripsreport20110927.pdf

New Position Papers from APPA  on Performance Pay and School Autonomy

Three key points from the Performance Pay Position Paper are:

• There are many factors that contribute to the performance of students, with principals being well aware that the performance of schools on national tests is generally associated with the socio-economic background of the school's student intake.


• Performance pay systems have the potential to undermine the teamwork that is a key feature of successful primary schools.


• Student educational outcomes diminish over time as a result of simplistic performance pay systems especially when aligned with student test results.

Three key points from the School Autonomy are: 

• Governments must work collaboratively and consult widely with principals, staff, parents and the broader school community about school autonomy.


• There is a need to ensure the healthy diversity of schooling in Australia is not confined or constrained by any blanket policy that shifts responsibility for appropriate resourcing of education away from Governments and onto local communities.


• Principals should only be accountable only for those aspects of school governance over which they have authority and control.

These are available on the APPA website

The draft papers were substantially revised as a result of the input from delegates at the APPA 2011 National Conference Business Sessions. 

Economic fallout sees big business tighten belts on training

1 November 2011

Australian employers, particularly those employing 100 people or more, are reducing training for their staff, despite the majority considering it important.

New data released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows the proportion of businesses using the vocational education and training (VET) system to meet their skill needs has fallen by 2.8 percentage points to 53.9% since 2009.

This decline was due to the drop in employers' use of nationally recognised training*, which fell by 4.4 percentage points. The greatest decrease was among large enterprise (11.1 percentage points).

The 2011 Survey of Employers' Use and Views of the VET System also found that the use of unaccredited training fell by 6.2 percentage points to 46.5% since 2009, with the largest decrease being among small and medium employers.

Copies of Australian vocational education and training statistics: employers' use and views of the VET system 2011 are available from www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2409.html

New Associate Secretary for DEEWR

Mr Tony Cook has commenced in the role of DEEWR Associate Secretary, Schools and Youth.

Tony was previously Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Premier's Department. Prior to taking up this role, he was Chief Communications Officer in the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, providing high level leadership on strategic planning, performance monitoring and service review in the areas of Children and Early Childhood Development as well as Portfolio Governance and Coordination. 

Tony has strong career experience in Education with over 20 years in Queensland and Victorian Government contexts as well as some teaching in London in the early 1990s.  His career spans pre-school and school based positions as well as advisory and supervisory roles. His experience has encompassed responsibilities for school education in the areas of assessment, innovation, research and policy. Amongst his major achievements he includes the work done on the Victorian Education Blueprint (2004-5) which reworked the level of devolution in Victorian schools. In terms of policy and strategy work, he made a major contribution to the development of the student level performance card, working extensively with the teaching profession as stakeholders. Over the past year he has been particularly heavily involved in COAG agendas and national reforms. 

Tony was previously seconded to DEEWR for five months last year in the role of Deputy Secretary Office of Early Childhood Education and Child Care.