What's newDebate continues over proposals for school performance reportingThe Australian Government's Acting Education Minister, Mark Arbib, has rejected concerns about plans to publish data comparing the performance of schools. See article in The Australian 24 July 2009. ABC Radio National's Edpod, 23 July 2009, has provided a podcast of a debate on this topic between John Ainley, Deputy CEO and Head of Research Division, Australian Council for Education Research, and Angelo Gavrielatos, Federal President, Australian Education Union. Bilingual children better language learnersA recent study has shown that bilingual infants are more flexible than their monolingual peers when it comes to learning language. Although they have to learn twice as much as monolingual children, bilingual children acquire language at roughly the same rate as their monolingual peers. See article in Yahoo! News 9 July 2009 and research paper abstract at Science.com also 9 July 2009. Refugees' plight portrayed in online game from United Nations refugee agencyThe United Nation's refugee support agency, the UNHCR, has produced an online game titled Against All Odds, 'which lets you experience what it is like to be a refugee'. Industrial campaign continues in QueenslandThis week the Queensland Teachers' Union (QTU) has continued its industrial action around its pay campaign. See report on ABC News 20 July 2009 and reports on the QTU website. Four student suicides at Geelong school, the latest blamed on cyber-bullyingCyber-bullying has been blamed as a contributing factor to the suicide of a 14-year-old girl at a Geelong school, the fourth suicide at the school in six months. See report on ABC News and article in the Herald Sun, both 21 July 2009. See also commentary by Colin Jacobs, Vice-Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, described in a report on ABC News 24 July 2009. Sydney principal sues parent over emailA school principal in Sydney is suing a parent over an allegedly defamatory email. The case is being heard in the New South Wales Supreme Court. See article in the Herald Sun 21 July 2009. Cuts loom for School of Historical Studies at University of MelbourneA report has recommended that staff numbers at the University of Melbourne's School of Historical Studies should be cut by over one-third. See article in the Age 21 July 2009. |