And that’s where we’ll leave today’s live coverage.
Thanks for reading, and good night.
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon
By Broede Carmody
Advertisement
This was published 1 year ago
The Age Schools Summit LIVE updates: Education minister announces teaching overhaul
Key Posts
Principals ‘competing with’ Andrew Tate
By Bridie Smith
The final panel discussion has just ended. The thoughts of Dr Mark Merry, principal of Yarra Valley Grammar, were in high demand.
As principal of the private school in Melbourne’s outer-east, Merry had to manage and respond to news that a spreadsheet ranking female students had been produced and circulated on social media.
Two boys were expelled over the spreadsheet containing photos of their female peers posted to messaging app Discord. The document ranked the students in categories including “wifeys”, “cuties”, “mid”, “object”, “get out” and then finally “unrapable”.
Merry said his school, sadly, was not alone.
Low-level disengagement ‘normalised’ in classrooms
By Bridie Smith
The final presentation at today’s summit was made by Australian Education Research Organisation chief executive Dr Jenny Donovan, who advocated for routines and rules in the classroom.
“Classroom management and quality teaching go hand-in-hand,” she said.
Donovan said pervasive, insidious behaviour at a low level is disruptive and negatively impacts student learning outcomes. Low-level disengagement is behind the behaviour which, she said, had “become almost normalised in our classrooms”.
Advertisement
Curriculum shake-up ‘aligns Victoria with best practices’
By Broede Carmody
The reactions to today’s phonics announcement keep rolling in.
Among those celebrating is Dyslexia Victoria Support founder Heidi Gregory, who had this to say:
This decision will empower educators with the tools and training necessary to deliver structured and effective reading instruction, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to succeed.
The removal of balanced literacy from our schools signifies a bold and necessary step towards rectifying past educational shortcomings and aligns Victoria with best practices in literacy education worldwide.
‘Families’ of 10 to 100 schools: A new idea for Victoria
By Bridie Smith
Back at the schools summit, attendees have reconvened after lunch, and the Grattan Institute’s education program director Dr Jordana Hunter has outlined a case for multi-school organisations, or “families” of 10 to 100 schools.
While the model exists overseas in government and independent school sectors, it’s new to Victoria.
Multi-school organisations benefit from a shared leadership. Hunter said most school “families” consisted of 20 to 40 schools.
“They sit in that sweet spot – not too big, not too small,” she said.
Operational support from multi-school organisations can include back-office help, professional development or teacher recruitment. Another benefit, she said, was that if a principal moved on, a school’s success did not become vulnerable as the leadership network was robust.
Hunter said feedback from overseas suggested the model better supported principals, meaning they had more time for staff.
Liberals say phonics should be rolled out faster
By Broede Carmody
Staying with that press conference for a moment, and the Liberal MP for Kew went on to criticise the timeline for mandatory phonics education in all Victorian government schools.
As we learnt this morning, the rollout will begin next year, but schools will have three years to completely transition.
Jess Wilson said other states rolled out their phonics programs immediately.
“In a three-year rollout, more students will be left behind,” the opposition education spokeswoman said.
Advertisement
Phonics overhaul too little, too late: opposition
By Broede Carmody
Earlier, we flagged that the state opposition was holding a press conference to respond to Education Minister Ben Carroll’s announcement about mandatory phonics for students from prep to grade 2.
Here’s what shadow education minister Jess Wilson told reporters a little while ago:
It is simply unacceptable that it has taken a decade for the Labor government to introduce phonics, evidence-based learing and explicit instructions in our classrooms.
The minister himself this morning said the evidence has been clear for over 20 years about the impact of evidence-based learning in our classrooms. [A] Labor government has been in power for 21 of the last 25 years in this state. Yet, over that time, thousands of Victorian students have been left behind when it comes to how we teach them to read.
This is too little, too late from this government.
This afternoon’s agenda at a glance
By Broede Carmody
The Age Schools Summit is taking a break for lunch. Here’s today’s agenda for when attendees return.
2pm The case for trialling multi-school organisations in Victoria
Dr Jordana Hunter, education program director, Grattan Institute
2.20pm Panel discussion: School improvement and turnaround
Elaine Hazim, principal, Victoria University Secondary College
Jacquie Burrows, principal, Churchill Primary School
Dan Steele, former assistant principal, Aldercourt Primary School
Direct instruction ‘can reduce behavioural problems’
By Bridie Smith
Returning to the schools summit, and attendees have heard from three school leaders about the benefits of direct instruction.
Kitty Hancock, principal at St Mary’s Primary School in Myrtleford, described explicit direct instruction as a game changer for her school, which she admitted had student behaviour problems when she arrived as principal.
Hancock said instructional teaching was a major part of improvements to student behaviour and engagement – but apparently simple things, like facing desks forward to the teacher, had also worked wonders.
“The children are all very focused. They are engaging with the teachers, and that’s right across the school – it’s the same in foundation as in grade 6.”
Advertisement
No child will be left behind: speech pathologists
By Broede Carmody
Speech Pathology Australia supports today’s phonics announcement from the Allan government.
Here’s what its president Kathryn McKinley had to say in a statement:
We’ve been advocating for the introduction of systematic synthetic phonics into the curriculum for a long time.
A child’s early years at primary school are critical for learning to read and this change means that no child will be left behind.
SPA is committed to supporting the successful implementation of these reforms.
We commend the Victorian government for its commitment to evidence-based practice in education.
We look forward to continuing to work with educators, policymakers and other stakeholders to enhance language and literacy outcomes for all Victorian students.
Advertisement