What's newEducation ministers meeting: CommuniquéThe Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC) met on Friday 3 August 2012 in Sydney. The agenda topics included the recently completed Biennial National Education Forum; school funding reform; the Early Years Workforce Strategy; Indigenous enrolment and attendance in early childhood education in remote communities; the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework; the Australian Charter for Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders: supporting students with a disability; and harmonisation of regulatory frameworks for non-government schools. See Communiqué. See also article in The Canberra Times 3 August 2012. 2012 Biennial National Education ForumEducation ministers and leading educators held an online forum on 2 August 2012, focused on how well Australian schools are achieving equity and excellence. See statement 2 August 2012 from Tasmanian Minister for Education and Skills, Nick McKim. National strategies to tackle school bullyingAustralian School Education Minister, Peter Garrett, has announced that the Australian Government will provide $4 million to develop new online toolkits to help parents, teachers, those training to be teachers, and students deal with school bullying. See also Communiqué 31 July 2012 from the recent National Anti-Bullying Forum. NSW discussion paper on teacher qualityThe NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, has launched a discussion paper titled Great Teaching, Inspired Learning, designed to seek advice about what can be done to improve the quality of teaching in NSW schools. See Minister's statement 31 July 2012. See also article in The Sydney Morning Herald, report on ABC News, editorial in The Daily Telegraph and statement from the NSW Teachers Federation, all 31 July 2012. Model for NZ charter schools announcedEducation Minister, Hekia Parata, and Associate Education Minister, John Banks, have announced the framework for the New Zealand Model of Charter Schools. See also comment from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education and comment from the Maxim Institute, both 2 August 2012. Follow CL journal on TwitterFor news updates between editions of the journal follow Curriculum Leadership on Twitter. |