Scroll down to find out about Cambridge Park Public School's amazing 'welcome back' mural and how your school's great moments can be featured here, too

Is your glass half full?

Hello, friends.

As we look to round out this utterly disrupted term, and look back at the past few months and contemplate what could have been, I’m disheartened that we continue to count what we missed out on, instead of what was saved.

We’ve read that students may have fallen behind by up to 6 weeks of school learning this year; but what about the countless lives saved from COVID-19 – where is that celebration? Not, what is the true cost, but rather what were the true savings.

The missed assessments and bringing our students 'back up to speed' have been clear agendas used to highlight what’s been wrong with learning from home. While it seems the former normal is gradually resuming, and most of us might soon enjoy proper school holidays, spare a thought for our communities that remain in the grip of this pandemic.

Testing our education system

Our education system has been tested by this pandemic, which raises common questions in everyone’s minds for future reviews.

How can our schooling systems cope in the event of a future crisis? Do they support remote learning? Do they fully rely on face to face engagement? What will our education system look like if we continue to ask these questions and challenge the former norm? Is learning from home now a valid option?

I want to see continued and serious consideration of how we support remote learning in future. It can work, where there is a will, and we can benefit from it. Our education system needs to learn from itself.

The new appreciation

Learning from home has shown us many key things such as:

• we appreciate our local teachers a whole lot more
• we acknowledge the teaching profession is a significant community contributor
• increased family engagement in school learning supports improved outcomes
• and, of course, how much many of us have forgotten since our own school days!

We are also appreciating that the need for qualified and skilled counsellors in our schools is greater than ever. This is particularly to support the continuous growing anxiety for school leavers looking at a changed tertiary landscape and their other pathways. We need counsellors, too, to establish channels for affected communities to realign with this changing environment.

Reflect, review, revise

It is timely that curricula are under review with clear expectations to “declutter” the content. Surely this is a positive outcome to reduce learning anxiety and stress, but unfortunately not soon enough to support our 2020 school leavers. ACSSO will proudly work with national education organisations to support this review cycle.

The constant consideration of pathways in education is drilled into the minds of our students and it's a clear form of anxiety to 'be the best you can' to obtain desirable university ranks. Yet the risk from changes to funding to our university degrees has a clear impact on what our students are focusing on.

A continued concern for me is how my children will enter the workforce and in what capacity. For them to 'do what they love and are best at' is now driven not only by entrance exam marks, but also on the perceived usefulness of their choices within our society. Coupled with the recent deals to non-government schools, this shirt-front approach is, I believe, contrary to the Australian way.

Remember what we learn from refugees

This past week we’ve remembered refugee week. There are around 16000 refugees in the public education system spread across Australia. Does your school or community support refugees?

Learning from others is a key concept in education, experiencing and appreciating differences produces better outcomes as we understand the diversity driving Australia and our global citizenship Refugees have a lot to offer us and our communities.

Without families, what are schools?

As always, thanks to all the families that contribute to your local schools and communities. Our schools and our society would fall apart if it wasn’t for the volunteering, engagement, and services you provide. After this time of crisis, I sincerely hope that you are able to have a refreshed view of the schooling environment and can continue to be part of the life of your school, community and region in your part of this country.

Andrew Bidwell
Chair
Australian Council of State School Organisations

June 2020

Change of CEO in Queensland 

P&Cs Qld retiring CEO Kevan Goodworth OAM with his wife Sandra Goodworth, Education Minister, Grace Grace and new CEO Scott Wiseman at Kevan’s retirement function last Friday 

We would like to congratulate Kevan Goodworth OAM, Chief Executive Officer, P&Cs Qld on his upcoming retirement from the role on 3 July, 2020.  

In seven years at the helm Kevan has made an amazing contribution to public education and has a firm and genuine commitment to the parent voice. In fact, Kevan has developed extensive networks which have considerably enhanced the profile of family engagement in the sunshine state.

A significant national contribution

Kevan is currently a director on ACSSO’s Board, where he has not only brought his experience with P&Cs Qld but his many decades as a teacher, a secondary school principal and an Assistant Director General in the Department of Education.

With such a depth and breadth of education and family knowledge and experience, Kevan has been a driving force behind many positive changes in ACSSO’s operation. He has also made substantial contribution to our national policy with his . always well-informed and considered views.

Kevan was chair of the ACSSO Board from 2018-2019 and leads ACSSO's rural and remote external reference group. His contributions as ACSSO's representative to the Asia Education Foundation and Australian Council of Children and the Media have been significant. 
 
We wish both he and his wife Sandra a long and happy retirement of travels and fun with their grandchildren.

Welcoming Scott Wiseman

ACSSO welcomes Scott Wiseman (pictured above, right) who began the transition to the P&Cs Queensland CEO role from 22 June. Scott recently held the position of CEO of the Canine Control Council Queensland (Dogs Queensland). He has extensive experience in senior management roles across the not-for-profit sector and has served on a wide variety of industry, advisory and training committees.

A state school parent himself, Scott has two children at Craigslea State High School in north Brisbane and is currently the President of Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Queensland. P&Cs Qld President, Matthew Rowan, has welcomed Scott to this vital role representing the interests of state school parents.
- Dianne Giblin, CEO, ACSSO

Have your say on the new My School and other ACARA updates

ACARA is embarking on an organisation-wide project to redesign its website portfolio, which has a combined audience of more than five million visitors a year.

The aim of this project is to make sure you can easily access information on ACARA’s work and improve your website experience.

To make sure their new websites are designed around you, they need to gather your insights on the usability and opportunities for improvement of their websites, and would appreciate if you took the time to complete some surveys on their various websites:

• Please complete the ACARA/NAP website survey.

• Please complete the My School website survey. 

• Please complete the Australian Curriculum website survey.

Your time and feedback through these surveys is greatly appreciated.

Catch up on the National Report on Schooling

The National Report on Schooling in Australia for 2018 has been released. ACARA produces this report on behalf of the COAG Education Council.

The 2018 report includes a summary of nationally agreed policy initiatives and a report on national key performance measures. A dashboard represents any statistically significant changes in key performance measures.

Data reported for 2018 include that:

• The national school enrolment rate for the 6–15-year-old population was 99.7%
• The average national attendance rate for all students (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in Years 1–10 was 91.9%. Average attendance rates were higher for Years 1–6 than for Years 7–10.
• At 82.3%, the average attendance rate for Indigenous students was 10.2 percentage points lower than for non-Indigenous students (92.5%). This gap increased by 0.4 percentage points from 2017.
• • Three quarters (75.2%) of all Australian students in Years 1–10 attended school for at least 90% of school days. However, less than half (48.7%) of Indigenous students within this group met the 90% benchmark.
• • NAPLAN participation rates were over 90% for reading and writing for each of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and for numeracy for Years 3, 5 and 7. Year 9 participation rates were lower than for other years across all domains.

ACARA’s online data portal was also recently updated with the latest 2018 and 2019 data available. Information updated on the data portal in April 2020 includes the latest available data for:

• key performance measures for schooling
• school numbers, student numbers and staff numbers
• student–teacher ratios
• student enrolment and retention rates
• school funding
• school students with disability
• NAP Sample – Science Literacy
• teacher education.  

See the National Report on Schooling and the data portal.

Act now for UNICEF grants for bushfire/drought

UNICEF Australia has 30 grants of $3000 each for parent and community associations at schools in bushfire or drought affected areas, but you must act quickly as the applications close on 30 June 2020. The grants are part of UNICEF's response to the additional pressures COVID-19 has placed on communities already under strain.

To apply, associations must:

1. Read the important information below to ensure their school is eligible to apply for a grant.
2. Understand that these grants are open to schools in bushfire or drought affected areas only.
3. Apply by clicking on this link and submitting your application by 30 June 2020.

Important information:

• To be eligible, your school needs to be located in a drought and/or bushfire-affected area.
• Only ONE application per school/Parents and Citizens' Association, and if successful, the maximum award granted for each school is $3,000.
• Applications must be received by 30 June 2020 and decisions will be communicated via phone calls and/or emails by 27 July 2020. 
• UNICEF Australia will award grants to maximum of 30 schools in this grant round. 

To ensure this grant is targeted at those most in need, UNICEF will be prioritising an ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage) percentile of 40% or lower according to the My School website.

Successful applicants are expected to adhere to Section 8.1 of  UNICEF Australia’s Child Safeguarding Policy for one-off, short-term or small-scale partners and contractors.

For grant enquiries, please contact Sue-Ellen, Australian Programs Officer, or Juliet, Program and Advocacy Manager, on schoolgrant@unicef.org.au or call 02 8917 3261.

Survey on schooling in the pandemic

Schools Plus grant applications open 20 July

Schools seeking funding for projects that improve learning outcomes can now apply to the Schools Plus 2020 open round. 

Funding from $20,000 to $250,000 is available for individual and cluster schools. Submit a simple Expression of Interest (EOI) before 7 Sept to be matched with a donor. 

Schools Plus is a national organisation that provides funding to schools in disadvantaged communities. Since 2015, Schools Plus has funded over 700 projects, benefiting more than 230,000 students and 12,500 teachers. 

Schools eligible for support through Schools Plus have a value below 1000 on the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA).

Visit www.schoolsplus.org.au/for-schools/grants/

Mission Australia Youth Survey returns for 2020

Visit www.missionaustralia.com.au/youthsurvey and click on ‘toolkit’ to download all the relevant information about how your school can participate in the survey.

Ethics podcasts for kids

Are you really free? Did your brain make you do it?  Why is your room so messy?

For some fantastic listening - at home and in the classroom - and many more curly questions introducing children to the subject of ethics, head over to this link to ABC's Short and Curly Podcasts.

Primary school resources: ATO

ATO Paying it forward teaching resource, K-6  learning about Tax and Superannuation.

 The Paying It Forward resource has been co-designed with primary school teachers, is aligned with the Australian and state curriculums, and includes 120 fun and engaging standalone activities for K-6 students in digital and printable formats.

Download more information here

More online safety and screen addiction resources

Online apps such as Tik Tok, or games like Fortnite, raise increasingly worrying new issues for parents. And signs of internet or screen addiction are appearing even in preschool children. So what can we do?

Do we stop them or monitor use and take measures to protect their safety? Keeping our children safe from online predators, bullying and inappropriate material can be challenging, especially when it seems so hard to contain screen usage at any age.

While there are many reliable resources available to help families with these worries, ACSSO continues to bring you new materials as they emerge. Two of them are below.

MamaMia

The Safe on Social toolkit, is supported by MamaMia - an online media publisher.  While the tool kit isn’t free, it appears to have some great practical information, tips and guidelines that would allow kids to enjoy these activities in a safer way and give parents some peace of mind.

This Staying Safe on TikTok cheat sheet can be downloaded for free: My kids are already on TikTok, how can I keep them safe?

First Five Years

An article about young children and internet dependence appeared in today's First Five Years newsletter by Brad Marshall, Director of the Internet Addiction Clinic at Kidspace.

Mr Marshall suggests, by the age of three, it’s time to set up the healthy practices in your family that will aid you when your child attends preschool and school.

But, he claims, simply removing the device isn’t always the best thing to do.

“For most parents who think their child has had enough screen time, they’ll just take the device away. That usually works because the child is young and might be difficult to argue with. Of course, you might have to deal with a meltdown!” Mr Marshall says.

“But when it comes to the time when you have to take a device away from an older child, particularly teenagers, it will be a completely different story and things can quickly escalate until it can get quite physical. That’s why it’s important to have a plan in place for children aged five and under, where you set up suitable tech in your home that allows you to have control over the devices.”

Read the full article and it's useful parent tips, here.

Refugee Council petition

 There are currently around 16,000 children in families seeking protection in Australia. Many people seeking asylum have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19, as they often work in the service sectors worst affected.

People seeking asylum are not eligible for the JobSeeker or JobKeeper payments, like many other workers. Some don’t even have access to Medicare.

The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) is bringing together a coalition of educators, carers and students are working to put pressure on the Federal government to ensure adequate support is provided for people in this situation.

COVID-19 does not discriminate, and neither should access to a safety net or assistance during this time. We are in this together and there must be support for all who need it, regardless of visa status.

RCOA is collecting signatories from educators, parents and students, and the relevant bodies representing them, for a joint statement directed to the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and Minister for Families and Social Services, Anne Ruston.

You can add your name here.

Free finance mag for teens

The Wealth Academy prepared this story for us:

The Wealth Academy is offering a free copy of the recent financial life skills ezine Teenfinca® for all public secondary schools and colleges. Please download and share with your school community. Download the magazine here.
 
This issue features:
•    are you financially smart?
•    school stories
•    careers
•    entrepreneurship
•    in the news
•    the importance of habits and attitudes
•    financial mathematics
•    helping new arrivals
•    wants have consequences.

These days many families are relying more on in-home entertainment than ever, but even if you're able to go out to a screening it can be hard to pick an enjoyable film that’s also suitable for everyone.

ACSSO suggests you check out the Australian Council on Children and Media website for the latest guides to family movies available via Disney+, Netflix, Stan and SBS On Demand. 

The Know Before You Go site offers you access to more than 1000 reviews developed over the past 18 years. In addition, there are review of app entertainments and games for smart phones and tablets - really valuable for inspiration and when you want to know about what games your kids are playing on small screens!

Head to https://childrenandmedia.org.au/ for more.

Caught you being great, Cambridge Park Public School, NSW!

This stunning new mural was created to welcome everyone back to school this year. The mural is a reflection of the nearby Nepean River and the native wildlife that’s visited the school. How good is that bee on the right? 

For more like this, head to Facebook and enter the hashtag #caughtyoubeinggreat .

We love to hear your stories of schools and communities doing great things. 

Send your #caughtyoubeinggreat stories to comms@acsso.org.au and use the hashtag on Facebook to find other wonderful stories.

Save the date

With continuing uncertainty around in-person gatherings, we recommend subscribing to any information emails that conference organisers might be issuing.

• Parents Victoria – Friend not Foe – 19-20th October at the Pullman Melbourne on the Park.
• ACSSO AGM and Roundtable – 30-31st October Perth (location TBC)