Education Matters (Secondary) October 2019

A content rich, comprehensive, buyer’s guide for schools. www.educationmattersmag.com.au

OCTOBER

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EDITOR’S NOTE

As schools enter into the final term of 2019, educators can reflect on the year that was – where students started, to where they have come, practises that have worked effectively and those that could benefit from improvement, methods that have positively influenced student engagement, and the impact of new technologies introduced into classrooms.

In today’s digital world, technology is evolving at a rapid rate. Some of the technology we are seeing entering schools and classrooms goes beyond what some could have ever anticipated. New technology has brought about entirely new jobs, while making some obsolete.

Robotics and its role in the modern classroom is drawing a great deal of attention, as well as insightful debate. In this edition of Education Matters, we speak with several experts about why robotics has become an important learning tool (see page 20).

Peter Corke, Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision; Rod Bassi, Acer Sales Director Oceania; globally renowned robotics and computer programming expert, Dr Gary Stager; and Associate Professor of Educational Technology at CQUniversity, Dr Michael A. Cowling; all share their thoughts. VEX Robotics also talks about how its hands-on robotics solutions are encouraging collaborative student-centred classroom learning (see page 24).

Modern educational technologies are a key theme of this edition. Global tech giant Acer reveals how video games can be used to positively influence learning and skill development through the META High School Esports League (see page 26). Printer and projector specialist Epson unveils one of its latest laser projectors, offering exceptional brightness and clarity (see page 28). FLIR discusses how its thermal imaging cameras offer exciting learning opportunities in STEM (see page 32). And, Dr Shiva Pedram from the University of Wollongong discusses findings of a recent experiment that investigated the impact Virtual Reality had on students’ learning experiences (see page 30).

We also hear from experts about sexual education and body image. Dr Sharyn Burns from Curtin University discusses relationships and sexuality education, and the need for ongoing training and professional development opportunities in this area (see page 46). Danni Rowlands from The Butterfly Foundation also discusses the growing issue of body image and eating disorders among boys, and how they can be supported (see page 48).

In addition, Director-General of the Queensland Department of Education, Tony Cook PSM, discusses alternative schooling (see page 40); CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Mark Grant, talks about the professional learning resources available to support teachers and school leaders (see page 38); and Deakin University’s Linda Hobbs sheds light on the underrepresentation of girls in STEM (see page 50).

It’s an honour to join you for this edition of Education Matters – Secondary. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to email me at danielle.gullaci@primecreative.com.au. You can also sign up to our fortnightly email newsletter, The Whiteboard, by visiting our all-new website educationmattersmag.com.au. We hope you enjoy this edition and look forward to bringing you our next instalment in April 2020.

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Publisher: Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au Chief Operating Officer: Zelda Tupicoff zelda.tupicoff@primecreative.com.au Managing Editor: Toli Papadopoulos toli.papadopoulos@primecreative.com.au Editor: Danielle Gullaci danielle.gullaci@primecreative.com.au Design Production Manager: Michelle Weston Art Director: Blake Storey Designers: Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty General Manager (Sydney): Terry Wogan terry.wogan@primecreative.com.au

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contents SECONDARY October 2019 - March 2020

REGULARS

Editor’s note 5

Buyer’s Guide

8

News

10

ASPA column

14

A snapshot of some of the latest news and developments in the education sector.

In this edition’s Australian Secondary Principals’ Association’s column, President Andrew Pierpoint discusses why effective school leadership is vital for the nation’s education future.

Principally Speaking

16

Jamie Dorrington, Headmaster at Saint Stephen’s College on the Gold Coast, highlights the importance of encouraging a global perspective in students to prepare them for the world beyond school.

Hot Topic

20

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid rate, more and more of it is being introduced into schools. Education Matters speaks with various experts about the potential for robotics in the modern classroom.

The Last Word

58

Minister for Education, Dan Tehan; Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority CEO, David de Carvalho; Academic Director at the National Excellence in School Leadership Institute, Mike Gaffney; and eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant; offer opinion pieces on a variety of topical subjects.

Events

62

FEATURES

30 Virtual reality: Immersive learning

Dr Shiva Pedram breaks down the findings of a recent experiment that used virtual reality in the classroom.

34 Disrupting vocational education

VU Polytechnic’s Gail Bray talks about why vocational education and training providers need to adapt to the changing educational landscape.

40

An alternative approach

Tony Cook PSM, Director-General of the Queensland Department of Education, discusses why a small number of young people can benefit from alternative schooling.

46 Relationships and sexuality education

Dr Sharyn Burns from Curtin University speaks about why educators require ongoing professional development opportunities in relationships and sexuality education.

48

Boys and body image

50

Girls and STEM

52

Encouraging mathematical success

56

School design: The bigger picture

The Butterfly Foundation’s Danni Rowlands discusses how body image issues and eating disorders are affecting boys.

Deakin University’s Linda Hobbs highlights the underrepresentation of girls in STEM, including common challenges and how we can work to overcome them.

According to Mathematics expert Kim Beswick, the key to helping low attainers achieve success in this subject is by helping them believe they can achieve.

Architect Sam Crawford discusses school design and why schools should adopt the same level of detailed planning that goes into the design of our great urban spaces.

A calendar of upcoming education events happening around Australia.

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education matters secondary

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BUYER’S GUIDE

TECHNOLOGY

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

24 VEX Robotics: Education robotics solutions According to VEX Robotics, when students learn through exploration, it increases motivation and the desire to succeed. Its hands-on robotics solutions are encouraging collaborative student-centred learning.

37 Monash Education: TeachSpace With research stating that one in four students don’t feel a sense of belonging to their school, Monash Psychologist Dr Kelly-Ann Allen discusses strategies schools can adopt to help improve these statistics.

26 Acer: META Esports League Developed by the Adelaide Football Club in partnership with Riot Games and with sponsorship support from Acer and Intel, the META High School Esports League is providing schools with access to local and national leagues, training, development and esports arenas.

38 AITSL: Professional learning resources Ahead of World Teachers’ Day 2019, CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Mark Grant, discusses the resources the organisation provides to teachers and school leaders.

28 Epson: Projectors The recently released EB-L1070UNL laser projector is a new addition to Epson’s range and an ideal solution for large immersive spaces, with exceptional brightness and clarity.

42 Berry Street Education: Learning framework The Berry Street Education Model is a whole-school approach centred around positive education. It aims to assist teachers and school staff to learn effective strategies to engage students.

32 FLIR: Thermal imaging cameras

44 FutureSchools: Education event Event organisers have revealed an exciting line-up of key speakers and a new stream curated specifically for principals at the 2020 edition of the National FutureSchools Festival.

Helping to teach students the fundamentals of physics, by measuring heat, FLIR’s thermal imaging cameras are offering exciting learning opportunities within the STEM curriculum.

SUSTAINABILITY

36 EduTECH: Education event The largest education event in the southern hemisphere, EduTECH will shine a light on some of the important social issues affecting the sector, encouraging insightful conversation and debate.

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education matters secondary

54 TerraCycle: Recycling Program With millions of pens sold each year, contributing huge amounts of plastic waste to landfill, TerraCycle has launched a new Australian recycling program for used pens, markers and other writing instruments.

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NATIONAL EDUCATION NEWS

Diversity the key to improved performance A new evidence summary released by the Australian Institute for Teaching and

In terms of cultural diversity, while almost 25 per cent of Australian students

School Leadership (AITSL) highlights the benefits of a diverse school leadership

come from homes where a language other than English is spoken, only 9 per cent

workforce.

of primary and 11 per cent of secondary teachers speak a language other than

According to the ‘Diversity in School Leadership Spotlight’ report, improved diversity in schools leads to a range of benefits, including helping teams work smarter, increasing innovation and improving performance.

English at home.

Also, while almost 6 per cent of Australia’s students identify as Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander, only 2 per cent of Australian teachers identify as Aboriginal

The report supports calls for school systems and sectors to take active steps towards increased quality and diversity within their leadership pools.

and/or Torres Strait Islander, and an even smaller proportion of those are in leadership positions.

“We know that an effective school leadership strategy that is focused on

“We know that diverse leadership teams improve performance, increase

increasing the diversity of future leaders has considerable benefits. This is true for

innovation, and generate creative approaches to problem solving,” said Mr Grant.

all leadership roles, in all geographical locations from rural and remote to metro areas,” said Mark Grant, CEO at AITSL.

“It would be a tremendous boon for the education sector if teachers and leaders truly represented all of our community demographics, like different cultural and

Workplace research suggests that diversity in the teaching workforce can lead to improved outcomes for students, both academically and in their personal wellbeing.

societal backgrounds, or individuals who identify as having a disability.”

He added that improving diversity in schools begins with increasing diversity in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). “As ITE students are the teachers and school leaders

The AITSL report shows that while diversity among school students is broadly representative of the Australian population, the profile of teachers and school leaders does not currently match Australia’s gender and cultural diversity.

The report found that more than 70 per cent of school teachers in primary and secondary schools are female, with male teachers making up just 18 per cent of

of the future, there needs to be just as much focus on diversity in this group as on the current teaching and school leadership workforce.”

Mr Grant said the report highlighted the importance of increasing diversity in our schools, and he urged leadership teams to put a stronger focus on ensuring they reflect the broader community in their schools.

To view the full report, visit www.aitsl.edu.au/research/spotlight-diversity. EM

primary school teachers, and 40 per cent of secondary teachers.

The Girls in STEM Toolkit launches An innovative suite of resources designed to encourage girls to study and pursue

issue of under-representation of girls in STEM at school, university and the

careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has been

workplace,” he said.

developed by Education Services Australia.

According to a recently published report, ‘Women in STEM Decadel Plan’, over

Funded by the Australian Government, the Girls in STEM Toolkit (The GiST) is a new website that features information, resources, activities and a career quiz to build girls’ confidence in STEM. There are also real-life case studies, interviews with professionals, networking and school and community events.

80 per cent of employees agree that STEM qualifications are valuable to their workplace, but women make up just 16 per cent of the STEM skilled workforce.

Australia’s first Women in STEM Ambassador, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, is a strong advocate of the new website. “I’m delighted to see the Girls in STEM

The initiative is part of ongoing efforts by the Australian Government to address

Toolkit go live, a website full of resources for female students to explore the A-Z of

gender bias and stereotyping in Science and Maths, which begins as soon as the

STEM subjects and careers. I hope this website will enable girls to think broadly

early years of primary school through to tertiary studies and beyond.

about the diverse career options in STEM and provide visible role models in the

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science engaged Education Services Australia to develop and deliver the toolkit, which will help school-aged girls understand the diverse range of STEM careers available to them.

Andrew Smith, CEO of Education Services Australia, explained the importance of this new initiative. “We are so pleased to have the opportunity to work with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to help address the critical

10

workforce,” she said.

The GiST also offers resources to help teachers and school leaders inspire girls to feel confident and enthusiastic about STEM, including lesson plans and information about creating gender-inclusive learning environments, mitigating bias and encouraging whole-school STEM engagement.

To view the GiST website, please visit www.thegist.edu.au. EM

education matters secondary

WA makes decision after NAPLAN technical issues In Western Australia, students who had to re-sit NAPLAN will have their highest score reported, regardless of whether that was achieved in the first or second test.

A total of 17,000 students had to re-sit the writing tests in WA, representing 20 per cent of the state’s NAPLAN population – a much higher percentage than the reported national figure of 5 per cent.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has criticised the

issues experienced this year,” she said.

The information provided by the WA School Curriculum and Standards Authority showed examples of many students with dramatically worse outcomes between the two tests.

“Once we realised we had two sets of data, and I was shown clear examples that there were significant differences between the two test results, it would have

decision, writing to WA Education and Training Minister Sue

been irresponsible to use the earlier decision to only count

Ellery to express disappointment in the decision.

the second test result,” Minister Ellery added.

Minister Ellery has rejected this criticism, stating the decision was in the best interests of WA students.

“No student should be disadvantaged by the technical

“The integrity of NAPLAN is brought into question if parents are provided with information that clearly does not reflect their child’s proficiency.” EM

Engaging all students in the arts The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has launched its Schools’

Symphony Orchestra through subsidised tickets, transport,

Season 2020, which will include a new program open to

workshops, free teacher professional development sessions

schools and students experiencing the greatest barriers to

and accompanying concert resources.

accessing the arts, aiming to engage these students and support classroom learning.

The program is designed around three key strands – Discover, Explore and Extend. “The MSO Schools’ Season

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s (MSO)

brings together world-class artists and great orchestral

Schools’ Season is an inclusive and diverse program

repertoire in performances designed to complement and

of performances and open rehearsals for students

support classroom learning,” said Mr Nolan.

across all school years including kinder, primary and secondary students.

“Highlights in 2020 include our first ever Curriculum Concert devised in response to teacher feedback and exploring key works relevant to both the IB and VCE curricula;

“Our Schools’ Season and the accompanying resources and teacher information sessions transforms MSO into a valuable resource supporting the extraordinary work of Victoria’s generalist and specialist music teachers.”

MSO Ignite is the first program of its kind delivered by

performances by some of the greatest artists in the world

an Australian performing arts organisation. The Melbourne

including Sir Andrew Davis and Nicola Benedetti; a celebration

Symphony Orchestra will partner with eligible schools to help

of the life, music and legacy of Beethoven in our annual Meet

students discover a love of music. Eligible schools will have an

the Orchestra concerts; and all the passion and brilliance the

ACSEA of 1000 or below.

wonderful musicians of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

To respond to specific school needs, the Melbourne

bring to every performance,” said John Nolan, Director of

Symphony Orchestra engagement team will create bespoke

Education and Community Engagement at the Melbourne

pathways to address the requirements of each school.

Symphony Orchestra.

The 2020 program sees the launch of MSO Ignite, which is designed to support schools in accessing the Melbourne

For more information or to access learning resources, please visit the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra website at

“We know that diverse leadership teams improve performance, increase innovation, and generate creative approaches to problem solving... It would be a tremendous boon for the education sector if teachers and leaders truly represented all of our community demographics.”

Mark Grant, CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)

www.mso.com.au/education/schools-and-teachers. EM

education matters secondary

11

NATIONAL EDUCATION NEWS

69 million teachers needed by 2030 With many new teachers leaving the profession within just

experts Associate Professor Anna Sullivan and Professor Bruce

five years, teacher retention is a growing concern for schools

Johnson, together with local and international research colleagues,

across the globe. As Organisation for Economic Co-operation

take a close look at what is happening within the teaching

and Development (OECD) predictions show a need for even more

profession and what may be contributing to an industry exodus.

teachers in the near future, University of South Australia education experts separate the real issues from the myths.

According to the OECD, it is predicted that globally by 2030,

Associate Professor Sullivan said the book exposes myths and genuine problems. “There is one school of thought that young teachers need to be monitored and mentored, but overdone, that

nearly 69 million teachers will be needed – almost 25 million

process disempowers them and undervalues the learning and new

primary teachers and just under 45 million secondary teachers.

skills they bring to their role.”

While the bulk of that recruitment will be to replace retiring

She added there is an expectation that new teachers should

teachers, demand for extra teachers to expand access to education

be “classroom-ready” – but such a diverse range of classrooms

for as many children as possible, is also substantial.

makes that a challenge. “As with many debates – the truth lies in

These OECD predictions come as increasing teacher shortages

the middle ground. Nobody expects a newly graduated surgeon to

are being felt around the world. In Australia, New Zealand, England

perform the trickiest heart surgery, yet time and again we see new

and USA there are shortages of Maths and Science teachers, in

teachers only able to get full time work in schools where students

Germany there are primary teacher shortages and in many western

have the most complex and difficult education needs,” she said.

nations, low SES and or remote schools are difficult to staff.

“These are challenging jobs for even the most experienced

In their latest book, Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers (published by Springer), University of South Australia education

teachers, so when we put new teachers in that environment, the system is setting them up to fail.” EM

Student exam stress at worrying levels Student exam stress is a concern according to new data by youth

“While some study stress is normal and can help improve performance, it can grow into a major problem. So, whilst trying to get the balance right between studying and self-care can be tricky, it is key to keeping stress at a manageable level.”

Ashley de Silva, CEO of ReachOut

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“We want to encourage students feeling like their stress is

mental health service ReachOut, with almost two thirds of young

at an unhealthy level and affecting other parts of their life to seek

people experiencing worrying levels of exam stress, and one in 10

support, and that could be talking to a trusted adult, their GP or

suffering extreme exam stress.

visiting ReachOut.com.”

Its national representative survey of 1000 people, aged between 14 and 25, also found that despite these high levels of exam stress, 66 per cent of students said they do not seek external help to manage their stress.

The survey also showed that internal pressure to succeed and concern about the future are key drivers of exam stress.

Sixty-eight per cent of young people said exam stress was driven by a self-generated pressure to succeed. Almost 40 per

Ashley de Silva, CEO of ReachOut, said the organisation is

cent said that worrying about finding a job was also increasing

encouraging young people to have plans in place to manage exam-

stress and one third were concerned about securing their preferred

related stress this year and to seek help early if they are struggling

tertiary course.

to cope with exam pressure.

While most young people do not seek external help, the past

“Preparing for exams is about doing your best and working

two ReachOut surveys show a positive trend in the number of

towards achieving a result that you are happy with. While some

students calling on others when stress levels rise. The number of

study stress is normal and can help improve performance, it can

students seeking external support has increased from 28 per cent

grow into a major problem. So, whilst trying to get the balance

to 34 per cent in the last two surveys. Of those that did seek help

right between studying and self-care can be tricky, it is key to

for exam stress, two-thirds of those surveyed sought this help from

keeping stress at a manageable level,” he said.

their parents. EM

education matters secondary

$50,000 incentives for teachers to relocate The Victorian Government has announced incentives of up to $50,000 for the state’s top teachers to relocate to rural and regional schools, as part of a $45.2 million investment that aims to bridge the divide between student results in Melbourne and country Victoria.

The funding is part of a wider initial package to support recommendations from the Expert Advisory Panel for Rural and Regional Students.

The incentives aim to increase the attractiveness of teaching positions in rural and regional schools and include: • $12.5 million towards offering the best teachers up to $50,000 each to relocate to country areas to fill hard-to-staff positions, as well as a range of non-financial support to assist with relocation, such as help with finding

• $7 million to fund additional Executive Class Principals to take on the most challenging, complex and specialised school leadership roles.

• $12.8 million to increase the number of high-quality teachers specialising in VET and VCAL so that more students from country areas can access and complete apprenticeships, traineeships and further education.

Professionals from a range of industries will also be retrained as VET qualified teachers.

Grants will be available to Victorian schools to share VET trainers between schools and TAFEs, and VET and VCAL teachers will have access to professional learning programs and scholarships.

“Our priority is making sure all students, no matter where they live, have the

housing. Teachers will also be eligible for retention payments of up to $9000

best possible start in life and are able to attend a great local school and get a

per year in their first three years if they remain in these roles.

great education,” said Victorian Minister for Education James Merlino.

• $12.9 million to support school leaders with additional expert Turnaround

“We have heard first-hand that the divide between schools in the regions and

Teams to work with individual schools facing barriers to addressing

the city is one of the biggest issues facing our schools and that is why we are

underperformance.

getting on with the job of fixing it.” EM

ASPA COLUMN // Andrew Pierpoint

Future schools, future leadership ANDREW PIERPOINT, PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN SECONDARY PRINCIPALS’ ASSOCIATION (ASPA), SPEAKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANT ROLE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PLAYS IN THE NATION’S EDUCATION FUTURE.

Andrew Pierpoint is President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association – the peak body for school leaders across Australia. He was previously President of the Queensland Secondary Principals’ Association for four years.

Mr Pierpoint has over 35 years of experience in high schools as a Science Teacher, Head of Department (Science), Deputy Principal and Principal, as well as having several system positions in the support of principals. Throughout his career, he has worked in complex rural and remote communities through to large regional and metropolitan schools. He has led communities and reference groups at district, regional, state and national levels.

Mr Pierpoint’s special interests are the provision of high quality professional learning for school leaders, school leader wellbeing and he is personally highly active in school sport – particularly cricket and golf.

Mr Pierpoint has demonstrated a passion for state education in Queensland for many years and possesses an excellent understanding of the principalship from first-hand experience. Most importantly, he has a genuine desire to make a meaningful difference for school leaders in the application of their ever-increasing, complex roles in schools and the broader communities they work in.

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Australian public secondary schools serve a pivotal role in diverse communities across our nation. They enrich the lives of children and young people by helping them to reach their potential, play an active role in civic life, act and interact as effective global citizens and contribute to the economy through work. They demonstrate the principles and values of democracy, social justice and equity that we need for our future society to thrive.

Some popular commentators would have us believe that education in Australia is broken. It is not. Far from it.

Can we improve? Yes of course. But to do so principals must be empowered by a vastly improved professional landscape: one that enables school leaders to focus on what we understand to be the local and global challenges ahead and, therefore, to fulfil our moral obligation to prepare graduates with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values they need for the future.

School leadership is vital for this education future. Understanding that we are leading our school communities at a time of rapid change and in a world of increasing complexity is central to this future. Future education success is strengthened with a combination of parent associations, principal associations, subject associations and professional bodies (e.g. AITSL, ACARA and ESA) aligning their work for the many communities in which we work.

Professor Alan Reid AM, from the University of South Australia, states in the ASPA monograph ‘Beyond Certainty: A Process for Thinking About Futures for Australian Education’ (www.aspa.asn.au) that we find ourselves at

education matters secondary

an educational crossroad, characterised by two competing discourses. We can either support the standardisation agenda (with policy choices such as school choice, competition between schools in an education market, high-stakes standardised testing and narrowing the curriculum) or we can take a futures-focussed approach (where the policy choices value flexibility, adaptability, collaboration, agility and school autonomy). The futures-focussed approach is characterised by student-centred teaching, integrated and project-based learning, inquiry, formative assessment and teacher autonomy.

Importantly, Professor Reid goes beyond identifying what is wrong to show what could be.

He makes the case for us to adopt a contemporary futures-focussed curriculum: one that balances disciplinary learning and interdisciplinary/ multidisciplinary/transdisciplinary learning, with one that actively promotes the development of the general capabilities and of meta-learning.

ASPA believes there are five key characteristics that all effective secondary principals have: • Purposeful – They make a difference to young people’s futures and demonstrate education gravitas.

• Strategic – They bring together challenge, complexity, problem solving and diversity. They see the big picture.

• Edu-preneurial – They are creative, educative, imaginative, dynamic and have political acumen.

• Collaborative – They work together to create positive futures and strong communities through relational trust.

ASPA believes effective secondary principals should be purposeful, strategic, edu-preneurial, collaborative and inspirational.

• Inspirational – They positively influence others, giving joy and fulfilment.

An emerging (initial) finding in joint research between ASPA and Monash University around principal autonomy is that the position description of the principal may need to change to reflect the needs of future education.

Leadership and leader professional learning is of course central to all the above. Of greatest concern is the lack of a high-quality national leadership development program that underpins and sustainably supports the future of secondary education in Australia.

ASPA strongly believes that such a high-quality program would have the following fundamental elements: • An emerging leaders’ program that identifies potential leaders and hones those skills for future leadership positions. A program such as this may identify future leaders and engage them for several years prior to commencement of their leadership journey.

• A high quality, leadership orientated induction

School leadership is vital for this education future.

Understanding that we are leading our school communities at a time of rapid change and in a world of increasing complexity is central to this future. program that sets out the way forward for the newly appointed leader in the respective jurisdiction. This part of the program must address school leader wellbeing (and continued school leader wellbeing) as an enabler of sustained, successful leadership.

• A mid leadership career check that promotes successful leaders to mentor emerging leaders and refines leadership skills after a period of school leadership (say 10 to 15 years). It is

education matters secondary

acknowledged that successful leadership is context based (compare a rural/remote school to a large metro school), therefore enhancing the leadership ‘toolkit’ of a principal needs to be context orientated.

• A high-quality leader retirement program to capture the cultural and systemic leadership knowledge of the leader as he/she prepares to leave the profession. This component of the program may also be gradual with the retiring leader mentoring incoming leaders for a period of time.

ASPA is highly committed to working with the Federal Government and jurisdictional authorities in the development and implementation of such a program. We believe that a program such as this is greatly needed.

The role of principal associations such as ASPA has never been more vital and they have a large role to play in all of the above, in collaboration with jurisdictional authorities.

The time for meaningful change for the future of education in our Australian society is now. EM

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PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING // SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE

Encouraging a global perspective AT SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE ON THE GOLD COAST, THERE IS A STRONG EMPHASIS ON DEVELOPING THE SOFT SKILLS AS WELL AS THE HARD SKILLS, TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE FUTURE WORLD. EDUCATION MATTERS SPEAKS WITH HEADMASTER JAMIE DORRINGTON.

WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE AND HOW DOES IT GUIDE YOU AND YOUR STAFF? First of all we believe that people generally, and students in particular, work better when they have clear and reasonable boundaries, so they know where they stand. We believe that all students have untapped potential and need to be encouraged to try new things so they can discover where their passion lies. Students are encouraged to participate in different subjects and extra-curricular activities and know that they are supported by staff who care about them. At Saint Stephen’s, we use blended learning, combining educational technology with face-to-face contact. That’s why we build a lot of facilities that are geared towards that blended style of learning. It’s about providing contemporary learning spaces and pedagogies, combined with

Headmaster Jamie Dorrington joined Saint Stephen’s in 2013.

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promoting mutual respect and an understanding of how we can support each other.

HOW DOES SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE DIFFER FROM OTHER SCHOOLS? I’m sure all schools have a commitment to their students. Our approach is comprehensive because we have coordinated a range of innovations across all areas of the school.

We want to ensure our students develop the skills to work effectively in teams, apply interdisciplinary knowledge, communicate effectively in a number of ways, have learning networks that extend beyond the classroom, and develop self-mastery or self-regulation for life beyond school. In other words, we don’t just pay lip service to the skills and attitudes that will allow our graduates to thrive.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE EVOLVED SINCE YOU JOINED THE SCHOOL AS HEADMASTER IN 2003?

First of all, when I got here around 60 per cent of the school was made up of tin sheds or demountable buildings. Now, we have undisputedly some of the best learning facilities in the country. We have a lot of visitors from other schools coming to see what we have done.

I’ve also built on some of the things that I inherited. While a lot of schools claim to be P-12, we are genuinely a P-12 school. There are many shared learning spaces and students of all ages share the grounds.

When I joined the school, we had only two international students, now we have more than 160 plus a lot of short-stay visitors. We are really trying to promote that global perspective so that students can form friendships and grow up with people from difference places. This is so important because one day in the future they will go on to work with people from various backgrounds. We have built a solid reputation internationally and have a high demand for international students at the school.

HOW DO YOU PROVIDE SUPPORT AND LEADERSHIP TO YOUR STAFF? Hopefully by leading by example. I make sure I appoint good people and then support them however I can.

Staff are provided with many professional development opportunities in-house as well as externally. We have staff attending and speaking at conferences in Australia and overseas.

Together with my executive leadership team and other members of staff, we work to ensure that all staff are well resourced and part of a team that really supports each other.

HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE WELLBEING AMONG STAFF AND STUDENTS? For our students, Saint Stephen’s has a positive education program that came into place this year.

This is in addition to our strong pastoral care program that has been in place for many years.

For staff, the school has a great employee assistance plan. We also watch out for each other and make sure everyone feels supported, not just in terms of professional fulfillment, but also if an employee feels they need support with personal issues too.

The school’s Centre of Music Excellence is used by students from Prep to Year 12.

WHAT ROLE DO YOU PLAY IN THE DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITIES OF THE STUDENTS? I hope the students see me as one of their biggest supporters. I attend as many events as I can. I have not been in the classrooms as much as I’d like, but that’s because there are so many programs we are currently delivering and working on. Although I’d like to be in the classrooms more, I ensure I attend 80-90 per cent of the school’s events. I also attend the Year 11 camp every year.

WHAT SORT OF AN EMPHASIS DOES THE SCHOOL PLACE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, ARTS AND MATHEMATICS (STEAM)?

STEAM is a huge strength at the school. We have a lot of students interested in each of those areas. At Saint Stephen’s, Science has traditionally been strong for both boys and girls. We are really proud of the great programs we have put together in the STEAM space in the last few years.

The part of STEAM that often gets missed is Engineering. We have two highly skilled teachers at the school who previously worked in the engineering profession.

Saint Stephen’s also won the regional Science and Engineering Challenge in 2017 and 2018, and came second this year. Our senior Science students have presented a STEAM program to local primary

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schools for a number of years, and we have had students presenting at the Griffith University Pop-Up Science Show. This same group of students has also been invited by an education group in China to do their presentation over there. Additionally, the school has just developed a new STEAM expeditionary learning space.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES CURRENTLY FACING THE SECONDARY EDUCATION SECTOR? There’s a call now from employers, not just in Australia but globally, to rethink what we are doing with education. We always have a high proportion of students going on to university, but there will be a move more towards micro-credentialing.

Not all students will go on to university, and those that do may not find full-time employment in their chosen field for some time. When students join the workforce, to be successful, they will need to continue to learn throughout their employment, they will need to be able to work collaboratively and have a learning network that extends beyond the school or workplace.

It is an interesting and challenging time in education, where education is transitioning to a more contemporary approach that involves more than great results at Year 12.

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PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING // SAINT STEPHEN’S COLLEGE

Using wearable headsets, this group of students investigates virtual reality creation and 3D spaces.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT EITHER AS A TEACHER OR SPECIFICALLY IN THE ROLE OF PRINCIPAL? The Year 11 Leadership Retreat is a definite highlight. It is something I started at a different school in 1992. In all those years, I have only missed out on attending two of these camps.

People often point to the facilities and the programs we are doing at the school, but for me, the most memorable moments come from those retreats and the day-to-day interactions with the students.

It’s interesting because this year we were nominated for six awards at the Australian Education Awards; and were also in the finals for the 2019 Financial Review BOSS Magazine Most Innovative Companies list.

It’s great to have this sort of recognition because it shows that all of the hard work we are doing is being recognised. It’s wonderful to be nominated for these sorts of awards, provided they accurately reflect the positive impact we are having on students.

Saint Stephen’s places a strong focus on STEAM, particularly Science. Senior Science students have presented to local primary schools, at Griffith University and will soon be presenting in China.

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WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT NAPLAN AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS? As we all know, NAPLAN has morphed into something it was not intended to be. It was originally designed as a safety net to identify students who required additional help. We always had a handle on this.

Schools have traditionally been fairly cocooned – they weren’t open enough about what they were doing. Then NAPLAN came about, and some people have used it as a measure of school effectiveness.

As educators, we should have been on the front foot and presented more comprehensive measures. Of course, quantitative data can only measure a tiny fraction of what we refer to as ‘education’. Most of what we do is about the character being developed among students, how they interact with each other and their ability to forge their own future.

WHAT TRAITS MAKE FOR AN EFFECTIVE AND SUCCESSFUL LEADER IN EDUCATION TODAY? I think persistence, clear communication and a commitment to both students and staff are important. A leader should have a genuine desire to empower their staff. There is no room for any principal to run a school from a central control room.

Instead they need to be there to support their staff and ensure staff have the resources they need so they can continue to do a wonderful job for their students. EM

Trauma-informed positive education strategies The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) is a training course that enables teachers to increase engagement with challenging students and successfully improve all students’ self‑regulation, growth and academic achievement. BSEM has been shown to contribute to more than two years academic growth in one year.* You can also find out more on our research strategies for teachers at www.bsem.org.au

Strategies for educators and allied services professionals Join us at one of our upcoming public courses or contact us to discuss a whole of school approach for your organisation.

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More information E: bsem@berrystreet.org.au T: (03) 9429 9266 W: www.bsem.org.au * Stokes, H., & Turnbull, M. (2016). Evaluation of the Berry Street Education Model: trauma informed positive education enacted in mainstream schools. Melbourne, VIC: University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Youth Research Centre.

HOT TOPIC // ROBOTICS

The rise of the robot TECHNOLOGY IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICATED AND ITS CAPABILITIES MORE DIVERSE. WITH THE ONGOING DESIRE TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE FUTURE WORKFORCE, EDUCATION MATTERS DISCUSSES ROBOTICS AND ITS PLACE IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM.

As robotic technology evolves so too does its ability to impact the way we live and work. The concept of machines replacing work previously done by humans isn’t new. Switchboard operators and knocker uppers (i.e. human alarm clocks) have long been replaced by technology; and ATMs and self-checkouts are performing tasks previously done by staff. In recent times, fully automated factories have resulted in factory workers being replaced in favour of machines, with robots capable of undertaking tasks with absolute precision and enhanced speed.

Rod Bassi, Acer Sales Director Oceania, says robotics has become an essential tool for preparing students for the jobs of the future.

“Automation of the world through IoT (Internet of Things) is happening all over the world today, via our smart phones, vehicles and the other modes of transportation we use, and in our households and appliances. The world has changed dramatically in the last 15 to 20 years and will continue to do so.

Today’s students are our future. By understanding robotics, how it works and impacts the world, students can continue to innovate and build on the transformation that the workforce of today has begun,” he says.

“Teaching the fundamentals of robotics has clear pathways immediately in today’s world, however moving forward within the next five to 10 years, this will increase exponentially as technology continues to expand and be embraced in everyday life.”

According to a recent report released

by Oxford Economics in June 2019 – ‘How

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According to Acer, bringing robotics into classrooms of all ages not only develops students’ understanding of STEM, but also gives them the basic tools they need for the future workforce.

robots change the world’ – up to 20 million manufacturing jobs globally could be replaced by robots as early as 2030. In Australia, the report identifies South Australia as likely to be the most affected by manufacturing automation, followed

by Victoria.

And, in a major report released by the Centre for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), ‘Australia’s future workforce?’ (June 2015), it was predicted that over five million jobs – almost 40 per cent of Australian jobs that exist today – had a moderate to high likelihood of disappearing by 2030 due to technological advancements.

But as some jobs become obsolete, various new jobs are being created, some of which don’t even yet exist. So with this in mind, how do we prepare today’s students for the world of the future when we don’t know for certain what the future will bring?

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Information Technologist and Associate Professor of Educational Technology at CQUniversity, Dr Michael A. Cowling, labels robotics as an important tool in preparing students for the jobs of the future. “More than teaching students how to code, robotics teaches students a set of new digital skills that they will need in the future workplace. Skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, functional decomposition and algorithmic thinking are all important components of working with robots that students can learn.”

He says robotics is an excellent way to get students involved in hands-on learning and enhance student engagement. “Robotics makes STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) learning more physical.

Rather than just working with lines of code to make a control on a screen change, robotics allows students to complete coding they can

see reflected in the real world. Robotics can also be used as a tool to teach more theoretical concepts in Science and Maths, such as incident angles, distances, measurements, etc.”

Global advanced electronics business Acer adds that the potential for robotics in the classroom is huge. “We see robotics as a necessity to correctly skill up today’s students for our evolving technological world. It is important to teach robotics today but it is also very important for the total learning eco-system to be sufficiently skilled so that the teachers of today and tomorrow can appropriately teach and keep up with students. We also want to see the tertiary sector be sufficiently ready and capable to receive students that have gone through secondary schooling acquiring years of STEAM, coding and robotics learning to arrive at university and take this learning to the next highest level,” explains Mr Bassi.

Acer continues to push the envelope in innovative classroom technology. Its Mixed Reality Headset for example, is designed to bring classroom experiences to life and create engaging, informative and memorable experiences for students. Acer is also actively working with schools in the mixed reality field, where students can create their own models in a mixed reality world.

When it comes to robotics, Mr Bassi says the fundamentals begin with coding. “It is incredible that today’s generation are learning the basic skills of coding in early primary across many schools in Australia. It is quite typical for beginner coding principles to be applied to classroom robot kits to

demonstrate the application of coding. Acer believes this early onset of coding and robotics learning will increase students’ natural desire for expanding their learning in this field. If you fast forward to when this generation enters university and the workforce, robotics will be an essential skill which will give them the correct platform for future career pathways and at the very least an understanding of how the world of today and certainly the future will operate.”

As robotics continues to disrupt the workforce and its capabilities become more widely understood, the reasons businesses are choosing to implement this technology is changing.

In the fourth edition of Deloitte’s Global Robotics Report, ‘The robots are waiting: Are you ready to reap the benefits?’ (June 2018), organisations from around the world took part in a survey, with responses coming from various industries. While Deloitte’s 2016 and 2017 research indicated that cost reduction was a key influence in the decision to implement robotics, 2018 data showed the top three priorities as: • Increasing productivity (38 per cent) • Improving customer experience (18 per cent) • Delivering automation at significant scale (16 per cent) We hear a great deal about the importance of preparing students for the future workforce, Dr Gary Stager, a globally renowned expert in robotics and computer programming, warns that schools should ensure they understand the bigger picture.

“In a learner-centered context, robotics adds colours to the crayon box. If in the recent past, seven-

Distinguished Professor Dr Peter Corke is the Director of the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

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“More than teaching students how to code, robotics teaches students a set of new digital skills that they will need in the future workplace. Skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, functional decomposition and algorithmic thinking are all important components of working with robots that students can learn.” year-olds made dinosaurs out of cereal boxes, now their cereal box dinosaurs can sing, dance or send a text message to their grandmother. While it’s surely the case that any new idea introduced in schools runs the risk of stealing time and attention from something else, robotics is an interdisciplinary medium for expression – like drawing, painting, writing, composing. Schools need to embrace project-based learning, not as the pudding you get after suffering through a semester of instruction, but as the primary educational diet. Once that occurs, the power of robotics/physical computing as a vehicle for personal expression becomes self-evident.

“Schools make a terrible mistake when they see their purpose as vocational in nature. The sorting of kids into winners and losers with career pathways determined by some artificial school assessment should be relegated to the dustbin of history. Schools should prepare children to solve problems that none of their teachers ever anticipated. Schools should do everything possible to create the conditions in which children can become good at something, while gaining a sense of what greatness in that domain might look like. The ‘something’ is irrelevant.

Currently, academic success has little to do with the development of expertise,” he says, applauding Australia for having the first schools in the world to pioneer 1:1 personal computers for every student.

According to Dr Stager, in a wealthy nation like Australia, every student should have their own personal multimedia laptop computer; and they should learn to program that computer and control external devices. “Not because it might lead to a job someday, but because programming and physical

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HOT TOPIC // ROBOTICS

Dr Peter Corke with some of the team who developed the CartMan robot (pictured) that won the Amazon Robotics Challenge in 2017.

computing (a term preferable to robotics) are ways of gaining agency over an increasingly complex and technologically sophisticated world.

“Programming and robotics answer the question Seymour Papert began asking more than 50 years ago, ‘Does the computer program the child, or the child program the computer?’ In an age of rising authoritarianism and ‘fake news’, learner agency is of paramount importance.”

With the speed at which technology evolves happening so quickly, how can students – and their teachers – be expected to keep up? “It’s likely that any language taught to students during their schooling will be superseded by the time they move into the workforce,” says Dr Cowling. “Coupled with the use of education specific languages such as Haskel, and block programming tools such as Scratch or Sphero, it’s clear that the value in teaching students to code is not the language syntax, but rather the skills that learning the language gives students in solving problems and learning from their mistakes. The Digital Technologies Curriculum reflects this with a focus on iterative practice. Working out how best to invest in modern technologies for the classroom, such as robotics can be a challenge for many schools.

“Couple this with a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of the digital competencies students need, as well as the need to reskill teachers so often

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on a changing technology landscape, and it’s often hard to work out what technology is best to embrace.

But having said this, many schools are trailblazing in this area, moving beyond the technology to the skills and taking the risk to put a stake in the sand and try out various new types of technology, even if there is a risk it will become outdated,” Dr Cowling adds.

Organisations such as the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision are working to take robotic technology to an entirely new level, moving beyond programming by humans, and researching the possibilities of creating intelligent robots that can learn, see and understand the world around them – which would create a whole new range of possibilities. “When most people think of robots, they have this vision in their head that comes from what they’ve seen on television and films,” says Dr Peter Corke, Director of the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. “Robotic machines capable of doing useful work came around in the late 1950s, when an American company began shipping robot arms that could unload items from manufacturing machines. Technology has evolved greatly since then but robots still can’t see what’s going on. Instead they rely on the fact that they are inherently accurate. Robots are completely blind and don’t actually know where anything is.”

If a robot is used in assembling a car, for example, the robotic equipment is programmed to move the components to a specific place. Not being

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able to see, learn or understand means that robots are limited in their applications.

“We don’t see robots in many other places besides factories because the rest of the world is quite chaotic, and this hinders the introduction of robotics into other areas. Robots are fast, accurate, relentless and never get tired. Our idea is about creating robots that can see. We are working on problems that relate to how a robot understands what is in its world. Once a robot sees and understands what is in the picture, it can plan what it needs to do,” explains Dr Corke.

He believes that robotics and coding are important skills for students to have, because in the future, coding won’t only be required for robotics, but for many other jobs too.

“In factories we don’t need robots to interact with people, but the robots we want in our houses and around our workplaces in the future will need to be able to interact, so an understanding of human centred design is also important. If you look at the trends in technology today, everything is getting smarter. Once upon a time a car was made largely of metal, but a modern car has upwards of 20 computers in it. Smart phones, toasters and air conditioners are simple mechanical machines but the computer-based intelligence improves it in many ways. This is a trend that has been going on for a while now and it’s getting stronger,” Dr Corke adds.

“Schools need to embrace project-based learning, not as the pudding you get after suffering through a semester of instruction, but as the primary educational diet. Once that occurs, the power of robotics/physical computing as a vehicle for personal expression becomes self-evident.”

Robotic vacuum cleaners and self-driving cars are examples of how robotics can impact on the way we live and work. Dr Corke says in coming years, we can expect to see more service robots or concierge robots created using technology that already exists.

Pepper the humanoid robot, created by SoftBank Robotics and unveiled in 2014, is one example of a

social robot. It has been programmed to recognise faces and basic human emotions; and can interact with people via its touchscreen and through conversation.

“School systems around Australia are wrestling with the question of: What does the future look like?

And, what will future jobs look like? No one really knows what the future will bring. We know there is rapid change and we have a hunch that maths and coding will be important skills going forward,” Dr Corke adds.

But coding, he says, is boring unless you are doing it for a particular purpose. “So robots are used as a means to motivate coding. Lots of schools are doing robotics activities but it’s not standardised in any way. How robotics is taught depends on the motivation and confidence of teachers and the funding available to support it. It really relies on teachers going the extra mile and having the passion and knowledge to teach it.”

In the STEAM space, Dr Cowling says Australia is very well placed. “We are at the forefront and recent work with the Digital Technologies Curriculum puts us in a good place. The biggest risk is that

the message on what teachers should focus on can sometimes become muddled. With campaigns focused on teaching every student code, or putting robots in every school, teachers can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the rapid movement of technology.

But if we can instead put pedagogy first, remind teachers that knowledge and skills are important here, then we can remove this fear and make the message clearer – pedagogy should come before technology, teachers should focus on teaching the knowledge and skills, and remember that the technology is only a tool.

“Robotics and the Digital Technologies Curriculum go together very well because robotics is often about problem solving and breaking large problems into smaller parts, and the Digital Technologies Curriculum focuses on iterative development. So students can be presented with a large problem to solve with robotics, and then encouraged to use a design science approach to break that problem down into smaller parts, solve each part individually and then iterate through the solutions to come up with the final larger solution to the whole problem.” EM

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TECHNOLOGY // VEX ROBOTICS

Tools to inspire WITH STEM EDUCATION FRONT AND CENTRE, THERE IS A GROWING FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING STUDENTS TO INNOVATE, THINK CRITICALLY AND PROBLEM SOLVE. VEX ROBOTICS IS HONING IN ON THIS NEED WITH ITS ENGAGING HANDS-ON SOLUTIONS THAT ENCOURAGE COLLABORATIVE STUDENTCENTRED LEARNING.

Demand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals is expected to grow significantly in coming years, so encouraging more students to pursue and gain a greater interest in STEM-related subjects and fields is an ongoing challenge.

The study of robotics inherently relates to all facets of STEM, and when students learn through exploration, it increases motivation and the desire to succeed. VEX embraces this model of explorative STEM learning, allowing students to create something exciting using a combination of technology and their own hands. By providing the right tools, students are given the chance to

A student works to complete her VEX EDR Robot.

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problem-solve in a fun and imaginative way.

VEX was founded over 10 years ago by two engineers, who continue to run the business today. It has grown to have offices in nine countries across the world, including the Australian arm, which was launched three years ago. To date, VEX products are being used in over 60 countries, 22,000+ schools and by more than 1 million students.

Teachers can use VEX to achieve a variety of educational outcomes. VEX provides access to free curriculum that has been matched to leading educational standards so that teachers can build lessons around key educational outcomes. This gives teachers everywhere the opportunity to adapt VEX for their classroom or incorporate it into afterschool activities.

The business offers two separate platforms: VEX IQ for primary students and VEX EDR for secondary students.

VEX IQ aims to peak a child’s mind and encourage an interest in STEM early on. During these formative years, VEX hopes to instil a lifelong interest in STEM by providing a fun, engaging and hands-on opportunity for students to explore and experience it for themselves.

A snap-together robotics system, VEX IQ has been designed from the ground up to cater to all skill levels. By packaging advanced concepts into an accessible package, the system encourages teamwork, problem solving and leadership.

Each kit includes graphical step-by-step build instructions to help students build their first robot.

These kits are also structured around the VEX IQ Curriculum to ensure seamless integration into a STEM classroom.

In the secondary years, VEX EDR allows students to continue to grow and develop their

interest in STEM and robotics, moving up from the plastic snap-together components of VEX IQ to a nuts and bolts solution. Driven by cutting-edge technology, VEX EDR robots can also bring code to life when programmed using a software solution like VEXcode which is available on all platforms including Windows, Mac, Ipad and Chromebook.

To facilitate the teaching of VEX IQ and VEX EDR, the business provides Online Teacher Certification with access to an online community upon completion, training and STEM Labs which are educational lesson plans tied in with programming software VEXcode. These free online curriculum lesson plans provide content and support for inclassroom delivery. Each STEM Lab contains handson lessons with guided explorations that encourage teamwork and collaboration.

As VEX has an Australian office, the business is accessible, affordable and sustainable, supplying the market with over 1500 parts.

VEX also offers robotics as a sport and is a twotime Guinness World Record holder for the ‘World’s largest robotics competition’, hosting local, national and international championships.

In these competitions, teams of students are tasked with designing and building a robot to play against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Tournaments are held all year-round and culminate in the VEX Robotics World Championship each April.

During the World Championship, held next year in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States, VEX launches its Game Reveal for the upcoming season. The Australian competition season kicks off soon after, each May. From May through to December, students build, code and compete at local scrimmages and tournaments. The Australian VEX Robotics National Tournament is then held in December, with around 60 VIQC and 60 VRC teams competing. EM

In the VEX IQ challenge, students are required to design and build a robot and then play against other teams.

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TECHNOLOGY // ACER

Game on ONCE VIEWED AS MORE OF A DISTRACTION THAN A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY, VIDEO GAMES ARE NOW FINDING THEIR PLACE IN THE MODERN CLASSROOM. FOR BASS HIGH SCHOOL IN SYDNEY, THE META HIGH SCHOOL ESPORTS LEAGUE IS RESULTING IN POSITIVE LEARNING OUTCOMES, ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMMUNICATION, TEAMWORK AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS.

Developed by the Adelaide Football Club in partnership with Riot Games and with sponsorship support from Acer and Intel, the META High School Esports League is an initiative that provides schools across Australia and New Zealand with access to local and national leagues, training, development and esports arenas. It offers infrastructure and support to schools, enabling students to further develop their skills and passion in esports, while aiming to improve student engagement and school attendance, and currently has more than 1500 students involved.

“The META Esports League is instrumental in helping high schools in Australia to shift their thinking towards esports and help students unlock formative life skills, such as selfdiscipline and the ability to deal with adversity.

Acer is proud to support META and be part of a movement that goes beyond non-traditional teaching methods to tap into what students are interested in today,” explains Darren Simmons, Oceanic Managing Director at Acer.

“Competitive gaming can not only help facilitate improved social and academic progress, it can also teach skills that are translated into everyday life, promoting team spirit and friendship, as well as allowing natural leaders to emerge. We have seen this firsthand through Acer’s annual Predator League tournament, and felt it was important to support a local education initiative, giving students access to the opportunities that esports provides as an alternative to traditional school sports.”

Bass High School is one of approximately 30 schools in New South Wales and 150 schools across Australia and New Zealand participating in the league. The school started its esports club in

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late 2018 when first-year teacher in Technology and Applied Studies, Tracy Ge, convinced the school’s leadership team of its potential benefits for students involved. When META expanded into Oceania in 2019, the school’s team joined the Australia and New Zealand competition.

“During the initial stages of trying to launch

Bass High School’s esports team compete in the META High School Esports League each week.

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an esports club at the school, the idea wasn’t perceived very well. There was a view that gaming led to violence and wasn’t educational.

But once the school’s senior executives recognised the positive aspects of esports, they decided to give it a go – and it’s brought a lot of change to the school,” says Ms Ge.

The 2019 Melbourne Esports Open took place on 31 August and 1 September.

As a high school student, Ms Ge played traditional sports such as basketball and netball, as well as video games. “From personal experience, I found video games had many aspects that were just like the real world,” she says.

“Esports encourages students to work together, use effective communication and build resilience under pressure. It also helps discipline students, helps them learn what responsibility is and develop leadership skills. When playing in a team, you need to be able to communicate and deliver critical information to teammates. Esports participants need to learn online etiquette too, as there is no tolerance for any toxic or malicious behaviour.

“Additionally, analysis of a team’s performance is a key learning skill the students develop when being part of the esports club. These developing analytical skills enhance their critical thinking which is fundamental to an independent learner when faced with a challenge.”

META League Commissioner, Woody Wu, has welcomed the positive feedback from schools taking part in the competition. “It is great that Bass High School is seeing such benefits from competing in META and we know from speaking to teachers and students across the country, they are not alone,” he says. “Resilience, communication and discipline are critical to esport success, as well as being important life skills which students learn while competing with their teams.”

Bass High School’s esports team currently consists of 12 players, who engage in the esports program for two hours every week – one hour competing in the META tournament and one hour analysing their performance. The participating schools compete against schools from within their state, with finalists going on to compete in the national final.

Esports students at Bass High School are required to maintain their school attendance rate.

For students who aren’t passionate about traditional sports, esports provides an opportunity to learn

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many of the same sorts of skills.

“There are a lot of students out there that don’t typically like to play traditional sports. Our school is very big on rugby but there are students interested in team games but not the physical side of it. For those who may have been disengaged, it attracts them to come to school more often. Some of our junior students who had low attendance rates are now participating in esports. Through esports, we are creating something that is very inclusive,” explains Ms Ge. “Esports students have been telling us that other students want to be part of their gaming sessions. A lot of their rugby friends are asking what it’s about and how they can get involved. That makes these students feel good about their involvement because they are proud of what they’re doing.”

Ms Ge says esports has also opened the doors to various potential career pathways. “Some of the Year 12 esports students are hoping to go on to study game development after high school. The team has also created promotional videos for the program, and there are a few students interested in exploring the marketing side. Other students are quite creative and hope to get into visual design.”

As the esports program continues to gain traction at Bass High School, more and more students are putting their hands up to be involved and Ms Ge says she is planning to double the program’s intake for 2020.

Mr Wu adds, “We know our league makes a real difference in engaging high school students who aren’t interested in traditional extracurricular activities, like sport or the arts. We hope that hearing stories like that of Bass High inspires other teachers to reach out for information on how their students can get involved in 2020.”

The META High School Esports League was also recently named Winner of Best Retail, Hospitality, Tourism & Entertainment Innovation Program in the 2019 Australian Financial Review BOSS Most Innovative Companies list. EM

Buyer’s Guide Acer Computer Australia Ph: 1300 308 056 Web: www.acer.com/ac/en/AU/ content/home

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TECHNOLOGY // EPSON

Epson’s high achiever WITH LARGE, IMMERSIVE LEARNING SPACES BECOMING MORE COMMONPLACE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS, EPSON HAS FILLED A VOID WITH ITS NEWLY LAUNCHED PROJECTOR, THE EB-L1070UNL, DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL BRIGHTNESS AND CLARITY. The EB-L1070UNL laser projector features WUXGA resolution with 4K enhancement technology.

Among its most versatile projectors to date, Epson’s compact EB-L1070UNL features native WUXGA resolution with 4K enhancement technology and a colour light output up to 7000 lumens. So what does that mean? It means sharper, crisper, brighter images that go well above and beyond high definition. The EB-L1070UNL produces impressive laser image quality and creates rich colours, high contrast, clear whites, defined shadow details and deep blacks for outstanding images.

Among the world’s largest manufacturers of projectors, computer printers, robotics, and

There are 11 interchangeable Epson lenses that can be used with the EB-L1070UNL, ranging from short to long throw projection.

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information and imaging related equipment, Epson continues to go beyond the boundaries to produce innovative equipment. Its extensive range of projectors are used in schools, businesses and homes across the globe, with a broad range of models to suit varying needs.

Epson continues to connect people, things and information with original, efficient, compact and precision technologies.

The new EB-L1070UNL is part of Epson’s new range of compact, 3LCD installation laser projectors with interchangeable lenses. It was unveiled for the first time in May this year.

Featuring an inconspicuous, clean-lined design and quieter fan, the EB-L1070UNL fits seamlessly into a wide variety of environments – the perfect solution for larger school spaces such as immersive learning spaces, school halls and assembly areas.

As well as finding their place in schools, these innovative projectors can be found in lecture theatres, museums, meeting rooms and more.

According to Epson, the EB-L1070UNL laser projector hits a sweet spot in terms of brightness versus cost, and is an ideal solution for schools requiring a projector for use in a large space. At 7000 lumens, these projectors are very bright and sharp.

Each EB-L1070UNL projector is available as ‘body only’, which provides the user with a wide choice of optional lenses. This flexible design approach means the end user can fit the most appropriate lens for their particular needs. A total of 11 interchangeable Epson lenses are available, ranging from short to long throw projection.

Epson’s 3LCD projectors offer greater power efficiency too, resulting in savings in energy consumption. 3LCD projectors use no moving parts in the light control system, which ensures added reliability over many years of operation.

The Epson EB-L1070UNL is designed for easy installation, with fit-and-forget reliability. They also benefit from 360-degree installation flexibility and are quieter and lighter than the previous series. Once installed, these laser projectors are maintenance free for 20,000 hours.

These projectors also feature geometry correction, and edge blending, which means multiple individual images can be combined to create one seamless giant image. EM

At 7000 lumens, the EB-L1070UNL produces crisp, sharp images, with rich colours, clear whites and deep blacks.

Like all Epson projectors, the EB-L1070UNL uses 3-chip LCD technology for exceptional colour, detail and reliability. This means it features three separate liquid crystal panels, with each one dedicated to processing a different colour – red,

green and blue. Projectors that use 3LCD technology are easy on the eyes because they reproduce images in bright, natural colours with smooth motion and no colour break-up. 3LCD projectors are the most widely used projectors in the world.

Buyer’s Guide Epson Australia Ph: 1300 361 054 Web: www.epson.com.au

DON’T MISS OUT ON OUR UPCOMING MARCH PRIMARY EDITION OF EDUCATION MATTERS. This bumper edition will include:

CYBER SECURITY In today’s classroom, information technology is firmly intertwined into teaching and learning, making it vitally important for schools to protect their digital assets.

In this feature we examine the various cyber security tools, software and programs currently available.

SCHOOL BUILDING AND DESIGN Creating school learning spaces requires a great deal of thought and consideration, with the needs of the students placed at the heart of many design decisions. We speak with a variety of experts about school building construction, design, renovation and upgrades.

To be part of this exciting issue, please contact:

Andrew Morrison M 0411 755 432

Sarah Leptos E andrew.morrison@primecreative.com.au

M 0403 485 140

E sarah.leptos@primecreative.com.au

TECHNOLOGY // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

Virtual reality: Immersive learning ENGINEER AND RESEARCHER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG, DR SHIVA PEDRAM, DISCUSSES THE FINDINGS OF A RECENT EXPERIMENT THAT ALLOWED STUDENTS TO EXPERIENCE THE ANTARCTIC BY ENTERING INTO ITS VIRTUAL WORLD.

Virtual reality (VR) as a teaching and learning tool has gained significantly renewed popular interest in the last few years. A range of new technologies have emerged in the market making VR more accessible to the average person and potentially to more schools.

The perceived benefits of VR are the learning possibilities afforded by an immersive environment. This has given rise to the question of how to best use these new immersive and rich environments to support learning.

In a recent study, we aimed to investigate students’ learning experiences in a headset VR-based learning environment by measuring the various dimensions of technology by using a mediated approach.

The research was conducted at the University of Wollongong’s SMART Infrastructure Facility. To achieve our objective, we partnered with emerging Australian technology start-up business Devika to conduct our research. Data was collected from 130 students in Years 5 to

Dr Shiva Pedram is an engineer and associate research fellow at the SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong. She has a PhD in Computing and Information Technology. Her expertise is in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience (UX) and her research interest is in advanced and emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and extended reality.

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11, from schools across the coastal region of Illawarra in New South Wales.

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) defines learning as: “The process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.

Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (D. Kolb, ‘Experiential learning as the science of learning and development’, 1984). ELT emphasises on the principle that learning is a process and not only an outcome. Therefore, to enhance learning, students must be engaged in the process.

This includes receiving feedback, and learning processes that stimulate students’ thinking process and facilitate learning by drawing out students’ beliefs and ideas about the topic and integrating these with new or more refined ideas.

The greatest capability of VR is in creating ‘experiences’ close to real life events. VR technology brings immersive and interactive features that allow users to ‘feel’ the experiment.

Tassos A. Mikropoulos defined a VR learning

Wearing virtual reality headsets, students experienced the sights and sounds of Antarctica.

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Using virtual reality, students explored the Antarctic.

environment as “a virtual environment that has one or more educational objectives, pedagogical metaphors, provides users with experiences they would otherwise not be able to experience in the physical world and leads to the attainment of specific learning outcomes” (‘Educational virtual environments: A ten-year review of empirical research’, 2001).

There are many factors impacting learning experiences and outcomes in VR environments.

The objective characteristics of VR is immersion, which makes it possible to experience and be present within the environment. This sense of presence enhances the student experience and gives them the chance to interact with the virtual or real world. This sense of presence encourages students to engage and become active participants of the virtual world.

Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Task-Technology Fit (TTF), technology must be easy to use, useful and fit the task in order for users to enjoy their interaction and experience, so they can ultimately engage with the task to achieve the expected outcome. Contrary, if students feel excessively distressed and worried due to

difficulties in using the technology or if they find the learning material difficult based on flow theory, that would adversely affect their learning process. In our research, we used questionnaires before and after exposure to VR to capture student experiences.

For the purpose of this study, students experienced the Antarctic and learnt how to interact with penguins and collect data like a scientist. This was done through Devika’s learning program Kolb which uses VR headsets to transport students to the sights and sounds of the landscape and ecosystem of the world’s harshest environment. Students were able to navigate different scenarios of the inhospitable continent, in line with the Australian Curriculum. A total of six New South Wales schools took part in the experiment.

Students began their VR journey with an introduction by a scientist, who spoke about the topic, explained the reason for their presence, discussed their significance with the ecology and revealed some of the activities that were about to take place.

The scenario aimed to teach students about Antarctica by placing them in a VR experience that requires them to first listen to a scientist

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in Antarctica, before taking on a similar role themselves. This is achieved by having students complete a series of tasks, such as photographing penguins with the aid of a narrator.

Findings of this research suggest that game play provides learners the opportunity to learn by doing and through roleplay, enhancing students’ learning outcomes. In this study, students played the role of a scientist in a VR world. As our subjective (perceived learning) and objective (results of content-related questions) analysis revealed, students’ knowledge level enhanced by 37 per cent. Moreover, the result of correlation indicated that there is a relationship between students’ knowledge gain in VR and students’ learning experience through a perceived sense of presence, immersion, realism, interaction and affective factors including perceived sense of enjoyment, engagement, usefulness and attitudes towards using technology.

Based on these findings, the trends observed in students’ performance after the VR session and their positive perception of their VR learning experience, there is certainly room for schools to further investigate the possibilities of VR integration for their classrooms. EM

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TECHNOLOGY // FLIR A thermal image of the moon during a lunar eclipse; where white is the hottest colour, followed by red and then black.

Measuring the heat of the moon BRINGING THERMAL IMAGING INTO THE CLASSROOM, FLIR’S THERMAL CAMERAS ARE OFFERING EXCITING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THE STEM CURRICULUM. SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT FLIR SYSTEMS, AUSTIN RICHARDS, DISCUSSES AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THIS TECHNOLOGY IS CURRENTLY BEING USED IN THE REAL WORLD – AND BEYOND.

FLIR’s thermal imaging cameras are helping to teach students the fundamentals of physics, by measuring heat. Offering exciting opportunities for classroom learning in the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), FLIR allows students to see and discover friction, insulation, heat and other thermodynamic phenomena and reactions.

Thermal imaging cameras make it possible to easily see the thermal properties of materials and objects; heat conduction, convection and radiation; heat insulation, friction, energy transformation and phase change.

A LUNAR ECLIPSE Earlier this year, as the earth briefly passed between the sun and the moon, a phenomenon known as a lunar eclipse occurred. During a lunar eclipse, the moon has a bloody appearance, a consequence of being cast in the earth’s shadow and illuminated only by red sunlight refracted by our atmosphere. This much can be seen by the naked eye, but advanced thermal imaging reveals even more. The moon’s surface, normally heated to high temperatures

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by the sun, radiates heat away rapidly when sunlight is blocked during an eclipse, resulting in extraordinary pictures when the moon is imaged by a long-range thermal infrared camera.

It was a partly cloudy evening on 20 January 2019 in Goleta, California where I set up an FLIR RS8303 thermal infrared camera telescope to image the eclipse at its maximum at 9:12pm PST. The telescope is a high definition midwave IR camera behind an infrared zoom lens with a 10:1 zoom ratio. It’s a massive beast that military range customers typically attach to a kinetic tracking mount. The RS8303 was originally designed for tracking missiles and rockets, but it has other uses like long-range surveillance, animal studies and astronomy.

I had used it previously to capture mid-wave IR images of the total solar eclipse in August of 2017.

The RS8303 was mounted on a heavy-duty tripod and pointed east at the moon’s path. At the full zoom setting of the lens, the field of view was just about the same size as the full moon.

Since I don’t have an equatorial tracking mount for this camera, I had to manually track the

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moon in between gaps in the clouds. I used FLIR ResearchIR software to continuously record one frame per second to a laptop’s hard drive.

When the moon finally showed itself during a gap in the clouds, the eclipse was close to its maximum extent. The view was stunning.

Hundreds of craters showed up as hot spots on the surface, a testament to the higher absorption of sunlight by the crater surface relative to the smoother mares (basaltic plains on the moon’s surface). The hottest, brightest crater is Tycho.

The large craters Copernicus and Plato are also notable.

Earlier temperature measurements of Tycho taken during the total lunar eclipse on 5 September 1960 have been attributed to a couple of factors. One, the thermal properties of the dust and rock in the crater, which are thought to slow the radiative heat loss that occurs during the eclipse. And two, optical properties of the crater’s surface which cause higher sunlight absorption than surrounding areas. Whatever the cause, the result is a fascinating phenomenon and a memorable lunar eclipse.

The images were captured using an FLIR RS8303 thermal infrared camera telescope.

The thermal image of the moon during a lunar eclipse is made of two images stitched together vertically to show the entire surface. White is the hottest colour, followed by red and then black, based on the colours of the ‘blood moon’.

THERMAL IMAGING IN THE CLASSROOM FLIR systems bring the power of thermal imaging to school classrooms with its specially priced C3 or E6 education kits. Available exclusively to qualified educational institutions, educators and students, the kits include a FLIR C3 or E6 thermal imaging camera with integrated tripod mount, FLIR tools software, and access to FLIR education content with lesson plans, experiments, training videos and application notes.

These educational kits can be used for a range of practical exercises, allowing students to collect and collate quantifiable data that can form the basis of further lessons and discussions. EM

Buyer’s Guide FLIR Ph: 1300 729 987 Web: www.flir.com.au

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED educationmattersmag.com.au Education Matters Magazine and educationmattersmag.com.au are informative, valuable resources for decision makers of both primary and secondary schools Australia-wide.

We provide a content-rich, comprehensive buyer’s guide of the most reliable, trustworthy school suppliers in the market. This is coupled with the latest in news and expert views about the topics and issues currently impacting the education sector.

For further information, contact: Sarah Leptos Mobile: 0403 485 140

Email: sarah.leptos@primecreative.com.au

TECHNOLOGY // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

AI, Industry 4.0 and disrupting vocational education GENERAL MANAGER FOR LEARNING, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY AT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY (VU) POLYTECHNIC, GAIL BRAY, CAUTIONS OF THE PRESSING NEED FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROVIDERS TO SPEED UP AND ADAPT TO NEXT-GENERATION EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY 4.0 OR RISK MISSING OUT ON UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES.

Gail Bray is General Manager for Learning, Innovation and Technology at Victoria University (VU) Polytechnic. Her work and that of her team has been recognised as best practice, taking out multiple LearnX awards and the Australian Institute of Training Development award for work in learning and development. She is fascinated by how technology can benefit education and transform people’s lives.

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In a rapidly digitised world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming every facet of life, work and learning. We are about to enter an age people refer to as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ or ‘Industry 4.0’. The pressing need for educators to be prepared is paramount. Teachers and students must become tech ready, work ready and life ready. The speed, scale and impact of this revolution will be unparalleled – every job of the future will involve technology.

According to Google Australia’s boss, Australia needs to ‘speed up’ on AI or risk missing out on a $2.2 trillion boom.

Educators, students and the Australian workforce must prepare for the near-future reality of complete digital transformation – and they must do this quickly. At VU Polytechnic we are responding to this need through the creation of a digital arm that includes the development of a range of digital and emerging technology programs.

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VU Polytechnic recently opened a cybersecurity training centre in partnership with global networking giant Cisco to address the increasing shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Part of our award-winning work includes the creation of modern digital learning programs that have been benchmarked against the best in the world, but we need to do more.

As a sector, we need to be seen as leading, not lagging, and leveraging opportunities before corporations beat us to it.

VU POLYTECHNIC’S STRATEGY VU Polytechnic is front and centre in preparing the workforce for a digital future. In addition to our award-winning digital programs and a new cybersecurity centre, we are launching a Future Skills Accelerator that will address the skills gap emerging due to automation. Skills that include coding, cloud computing, data analytics, cyber awareness, design and others yet to be identified.

Our current, future-ready strategy includes

VU Polytechnic recently opened a cybersecurity training centre in partnership with Cisco.

project-based learning comprising of design thinking, skill development and prototype testing; all in partnership with industry clients. Students will work with businesses to problem-solve and get hands-on experience developing solutions that include 3D printing, machine learning and robotics.

Professional development opportunities to upskill teachers will also be available.

Issues VU Polytechnic is working to address include the underrepresentation of women in tech. Sadly, there are less women in tech today than in the 1970s; a statement about cultural and attitudinal norms rather than capability. As technical skills become increasingly essential, it is crucial to bring more women into IT. Many secondary schools are struggling to continue to run IT programs due to lack of funding and interest. Enterprises and educators will need to start thinking about their staff’s digital IQ and EQ and adapt and work intelligently to upskill, cross-skill and re-skill staff. To help Australia grow this rapidly changing sector and remain competitive globally, Vocational Education and Training (VET) has a huge role to play.

MERGING SKILLSETS WITH TECH OPPORTUNITIES The good news for educators is that everyone needs the skills and training for an ever-evolving workforce. Recruiters and employers are no

longer happy with just a degree, they want to see examples of work, such as production of a digital portfolio. They want to know a candidate’s industry connections and their practical, hands-on experiences.

There is a huge amount of training we need to do to prepare Australia for such rapid change.

Contrast to popular belief, robots and other technological advancements don’t steal jobs, they create them.

The World Economic Forum projects that, while 75 million jobs will likely be displaced by robots, 133 million new jobs will be created. This would be a net gain of more than 50 million jobs globally, albeit with new skills and knowledge (WEF Future of Jobs, 2018).

ADDRESSING EVOLVING WORKPLACE NEEDS Training in technology easily complements existing qualifications and presents a unique opportunity to continue learning throughout one’s career. But there’s a gap between the skills needed in AI and the current education system.

In the next five years alone, the Australian Financial Review says that Australia will need 200,000 more tech workers. What’s more, the World Economic Forum predicts 54 per cent of employees will need re-skilling by 2022. The report says that striking a balance between hard and soft skills, such as communication, active learning and analytical thinking will be critical.

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EDUCATORS RISK MISSING OUT As educators lag in the uptake of digital technology and AI, corporations are overtaking us.

More contemporary providers such as Amazon, Coursera, General Assembly, Netflix Education and even Australia Post’s Tech Academy all pose a genuine risk to educators.

Australia has a lot of work to do in preparing education providers to tackle these opportunities face-on, so ongoing funding and awareness will be critical. Partnerships between industry, academia and the government will be essential to succeed in Industry 4.0. To create skilled workers, we need the right funding and educational know-how.

INDUSTRY 4.0 The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here and it’s real. With knowledge available everywhere, as educators we must ask ourselves what our point of difference or X-factor is. What is our value to the consumer when content is ubiquitous?

Robots may not take our jobs, but we will be working together. Through all of the technological advancements and change, humans will remain at the centre of everything we do. The roles of teachers will look different to today but will always be essential.

The future is here – the role of vocational education providers is critical in providing industry with a highly skilled workforce to ensure Australia remains competitive globally. EM

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TECHNOLOGY // EDUTECH

Supporting the education community AS THE LARGEST EDUCATION EVENT IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, EDUTECH 2020 BRINGS TOGETHER THE ENTIRE LIFECYCLE OF EDUCATION UNDER THE ONE ROOF AND SHINES A LIGHT ON SOME OF THE IMPORTANT ISSUES AFFECTING THE SECTOR.

Based on a mission to work together to lift and lead education in Australasia, EduTECH will place an even greater focus on giving back to the community in 2020, by highlighting and supporting a range of important social issues.

The event will encourage insightful conversation and debate on how we as an education community can work together to reduce the incidence of youth suicide and selfharm, support Indigenous education, support the war on plastic waste, and encourage and boost music in education.

Taking place from 2-3 June at the International Convention Centre in Sydney, the theme for EduTECH 2020 is ‘Disruption,

Creativity, Diversity’. Spread across 12,000 square metres, this enormous event includes a free expo featuring over 300 exhibitors which will host seminars, launch new products and offer demonstrations.

EduTECH 2020’s congress will feature six parallel streams: School Leadership, School Teaching, School ICT Management, Design/Build, Tertiary Education and Workplace Learning.

Local and international speakers will take to the stage presenting on the latest research, case studies and innovations. Key focus areas will include improving teaching methods and learning outcomes across all subjects; promoting gender equality, inclusiveness and equity;

demonstrating how new technologies such as robotics, VR, AR, drones and 3D printing can be integrated into mainstream learning; and enhancing STEM education.

EduTECH has now announced a series of confirmed speakers for the schools streams.

These will include senior fellow at Intel and Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell from the Australian National University; Finnish educator, author and Gonski Institute Professor, Dr Pasi Sahlberg; businessman, philanthropist and author of the Review of Funding for Schooling, known as the Gonski Report, David Gonski; Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian Piccoli; Global Teacher Prize recipient Maggie McDonnell; CEO of Alive project, Tamsyn Rosenberg; distinguished educator and consultant Ken Shelton; Physicist Josh Richards; and neuromusical researcher and advocate of music education Anita Collins.

EduTECH 2020 is expected to bring together over 10,000 people from across the entire education and training sector delving into and developing the ideas that will help shape the next decade of education.

EduTECH is co-located with two other expos: EduBUILD, Australia’s largest event for education buildings and infrastructure; and Learn@ Work, designed for workplace learning and development, and training for the business and government sectors. EM

Buyer’s Guide EduTECH Web: www.edutech.net.au

Over 300 exhibitors will host seminars, launch products and offer demonstrations.

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MONASH // PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Boosting your students’ sense of belonging BELONGING IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN NEED, YET ONE IN FOUR STUDENTS AROUND THE WORLD DO NOT FEEL A SENSE OF BELONGING TO THEIR SCHOOL, AND NUMBERS ARE STEADILY RISING, ACCORDING TO MONASH EDUCATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST DR KELLY-ANN ALLEN.

A strong sense of belonging at school shapes students’ lives well into adulthood. For students who don’t feel a sense of belonging to their school, “The impact of this can be huge – not just on a student’s academic achievements, but on their overall wellbeing,” Dr Allen writes in TeachSpace, an online hub for teachers produced

by Monash Education.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BELONGING According to research, feeling belonging at school is linked to higher levels of emotional and physical wellbeing and better academic performance and achievement.

“It supports students through a particularly vulnerable time when they are forming their identity, developing psychosocial skills and being influenced by their peers,” says Dr Allen.

THE EFFECTS OF A LACK OF BELONGING Students who feel they do not belong to their school are more likely to miss school, behave in ways that are not congruent with successful academic outcomes, leave school early, and are at greater risk of school-based violence.

“A low sense of attachment to school can increase the academic achievement gap, particularly for the most vulnerable students,” Dr Allen adds.

HELPING STUDENTS BELONG Dr Allen acknowledges that there is no one strategy or intervention that fosters school belonging, and that there are limited opportunities for schools to access focused interventions.

“Schools should tackle belonging using a whole-school approach that incorporates a range of measures that help to build collaborative and inclusive communities for learning and belonging.”

These include encouraging positive relationships with teachers and school staff, creating a positive peer culture of belonging, valuing learning and involving parents.

Dr Allen encourages schools to invest in professional development for staff that equips them with the skills to be preventative and responsive when it comes to mental health.

“Proactive and preventative steps can be put in place before bigger problems emerge.” EM

Buyer’s Guide Monash Education Web: monash.edu/education/teach

Research suggests that feeling belonging at school is linked to greater emotional and physical wellbeing.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT // AITSL

World Teachers’ Day – a time to celebrate AHEAD OF WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY 2019, CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE FOR TEACHING AND SCHOOL LEADERSHIP, MARK GRANT, DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF TEACHERS AND SCHOOL LEADERS AND THE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT THEM THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREERS.

AITSL CEO Mark Grant has worked as both a teacher and principal.

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Like many of you, I started my career as a passionate teacher leading the learning of school students. I was also fortunate to spend 12 years working as a principal. Those experiences shaped me as a person and gave me a valuable perspective when I joined the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) as CEO. It is something that is top of mind as AITSL continues to put evidence-based tools and resources into the hands of teachers across the country so you can confidently lead the learning of your students.

A constant theme throughout my career has been the importance of making sure that teachers and school leaders are supported to address and respond to the varied and complex demands of the job.

World Teachers’ Day will be held in Australia on Friday 25 October 2019. This is an important day when we take the time to celebrate the work of teachers and highlight the benefits of working within the profession.

No matter what stage you are in your career, or where in Australia you teach, it is crucial that you have access to clear career paths with opportunities to grow and leverage your expertise.

AITSL is here to help support all teachers’ professional development in a nationally consistent way, one where quality and accessibility are key components. It is important that evidence-based resources are developed and offered, and that educators can apply them across all career stages, experiences, locations and modes of teaching and school leadership employment.

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Across Australia there are more than 328,500 dedicated teachers and school leaders charged with the responsibility of educating the next generation of young Australians. You are part of this immense and impressive group and face a complex range of challenges and factors that impact your day-to-day professional experiences.

In an environment characterised by constant change, with a diverse range of students, there are also a wide range of professional learning needs within the secondary teaching profession.

While many of the professional learning needs and challenges may be specific to an educator and influenced by their school, location and community, the reality is there are many shared competencies that can be learned to meet the professional growth needs of all school educators.

Across Australia there are more than 328,500 dedicated teachers and school leaders charged with the responsibility of educating the next generation of young Australians. You are part of this immense and impressive group and face a complex range of challenges and factors that impact your day-to-day professional experiences.

Making use of new AITSL professional learning resources can help teachers contribute to improved student outcomes.

In fact, one of the things that really drew me to joining AITSL is the unique position the organisation occupies in the Australian education sector, and the incredible opportunity to directly support teachers in the classroom.

We are an independent voice for the teaching profession and use it to advocate on your behalf to key decision makers in all states and territories, across all systems and sectors.

Our work is geared towards promoting excellence and supporting educators to have the greatest possible impact on their learners. We pride ourselves on close collaboration with the profession and I’m determined to make our two-way engagements with teachers and school leaders even stronger.

Recently we consulted with more than 1000

teachers across Australia about their professional learning needs. Their responses reinforced the critical importance of professional learning. Based on what all respondents told us, we found that: • 76 per cent of teachers wanted to change something in their teaching.

• Only 20 per cent of leaders are involved in the professional learning of their school.

• A common barrier for rural and remote teachers and early childhood teachers is the shortage of casual relief teachers.

• While 64 per cent of teachers undertook four or more professional learning activities, 27 per cent of casual or relief teachers reported no professional learning activities.

• The most popular approach to professional learning is attending a course, though there are

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other emerging activities including professional reading, online learning and professional conversations.

I encourage you to check out our professional learning video case studies, new templates and guides, as well as the underpinning research and evidence. They have all been created to help you.

The new resources are available on the AITSL website at www.aitsl.edu.au/professional-learning.

We remain committed to ensuring that evidence informs the tools and resources we provide you. And we will continue to refine and co-develop resources you can use throughout your career.

The work you do in schools every day is vitally important and AITSL is proud to be able to provide support to teachers with the practical learning tools you need for achieving success in the classroom.

I wish you a highly successful World Teachers’ Day and I encourage you to watch out for the AITSL campaign to recognise and celebrate all teachers. EM

Buyer’s Guide AITSL Ph: 03 9944 1200 Web: www.aitsl.edu.au 39

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

An alternative approach ACCORDING TO TONY COOK PSM, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE QUEENSLAND DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, ENSURING EVERY CHILD LIVES A LIFE OF CHOICE, NOT CHANCE, IS KEY TO THE STATE’S DELIVERY OF A HIGHPERFORMING AND EQUITABLE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Responding to the challenge of creating a system in which every student is understood, engaged and successful at school requires the highest level of professional commitment and expertise.

There’s nothing simple about addressing the academic, health, safety and wellbeing needs of young people in education settings.

Our mainstream schools meet the needs of most young people, providing high-quality cognitive, social and emotional, and behavioural responses that ensure students are supported to succeed.

Mainstream schools have a responsibility to know their students and to adjust their programs and approaches to achieve the best outcomes for them. When students are disengaged or at risk of disengaging, schools must take targeted action to re-engage them.

Tony Cook PSM has been Director-General of the Queensland Department of Education since April 2018. Prior to this he worked as the Associate Secretary for Schools and Youth in the Department of Education and Training.

Mr Cook has held several senior executive positions in the Victorian public service, including Deputy Secretary, Government and Corporate with the Department of Premier and Cabinet; Deputy Secretary, Office for Children and Portfolio Coordination; and Deputy Secretary, Office for Planning, Strategy and Coordination within the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

His career began with Education Queensland.

In October 2013 Mr Cook was made an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Council for Education Leaders, and in January 2014 he was awarded a Public Service Medal.

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MEETING THE NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS While most of our students succeed in a mainstream setting, a small number of young people benefit from alternative schooling (‘alternative’ is used to describe Special Assistance Schools and other settings such as FlexiSchools and the Queensland Pathways State College. Alternative is used to denote positive attributes such as option and choice. It is recognised that some prefer other terms such as flexible or adjacent).

There is a range of alternative settings for young people in Queensland. This includes 44 non-state special assistance school sites, with the majority of funding provided by the Australian government. The state sector also has a small number of alternative learning schools, or Flexi Schools, a Queensland Pathways State College, and Positive Learning Centres.

These tailored environments can provide an important opportunity for young people who cannot thrive in mainstream education settings.

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While alternative settings may use customised approaches that set them apart from many mainstream settings, like all school settings, alternative learning schools aim to deliver highquality teaching and learning.

And like students in mainstream settings, it is important that students in alternative settings are supported to aspire to and achieve goals for their education outcomes and their future.

A WHOLE-OF-SECTOR COMMITMENT While it is essential we recognise the critical role alternative schools play within our education system, it is also important to ensure that mainstream schools continue to play their part, ensuring they share responsibility within their community’s system of schools.

In recognition of this, the Department of Education has collaborated with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and Independent Schools Queensland, to develop ‘Quality Pathways for all young people: A commitment to alternative education’ (a Statement of Commitment). This commitment is important for several reasons.

Firstly, and most importantly, it outlines how the role played by alternative school settings is a vital contribution to a strong school system. Secondly, it offers legislative and policy clarity for schools across all sectors, and documents their requirements as specified in either Queensland’s ‘Education (General Provisions) Act 2006’ in the case of state schools, or in the ‘Education (Accreditation of Non-State Schools) Regulation 2017’ for non-state schools. Thirdly, the document sets high expectations and provides support and resources for alternative education settings, so that high quality standards can be reached.

Finally, the statement recognises the importance of partnerships and shared responsibility across

all school settings. It outlines best practice in making transitions from mainstream schools into alternative schools, and highlights the roles and responsibilities of mainstream schools to exhaust every in-school option open to them to engage a young person before an alternative setting is considered.

MEETING OUR MORAL IMPERATIVE In its preamble, the commitment states: “… success will look different for every young person and our education system must deliver a diverse, adaptive range of schooling options to support the range of pathways they need.”

For me, this statement is so much more than just rhetoric. It goes to the heart of why we do what we do.

Each of us has a moral imperative to adopt the highest level of commitment to every child and young person, whatever their circumstances.

The co-signatories to the Statement of Commitment, Dr Lee-Anne Perry AM, Executive Director of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and David Robertson, Executive Director of Independent Schools Queensland, stand alongside me in recognising the essential role alternative learning settings play in supporting the success of every student.

I encourage all schools to consider the content of our statement – not only the standards it reinforces – but also its underlying ethos.

It’s an ethos that asks every one of us working in education to approach each child and young person as a person of promise and possibility, who should be defined not by their circumstances, but by their potential.

It’s only through making such a commitment as individuals that our collective efforts can meet the challenge of ensuring a life of choice, not chance, for every young person.

To read the Statement of Commitment, visit advancingeducation.qld.gov.au/youth-engagement. EM

In collaboration with the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and Independent Schools Queensland, the Queensland Department of Education has developed a new Statement of Commitment.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT // BERRY STREET EDUCATION The Berry Street Education Model is evidence-based and independently evaluated.

Trauma-informed Practice A WHOLE-SCHOOL APPROACH CENTRED AROUND POSITIVE EDUCATION, THE BERRY STREET EDUCATION MODEL AIMS TO ASSIST TEACHERS AND SCHOOL STAFF TO LEARN EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE EVEN THE MOST CHALLENGING STUDENTS AND HELP THEM ACHIEVE ACADEMIC SUCCESS.

What started as an approach to teaching and learning for the Berry Street School campuses in 2015 is now being requested by mainstream and specialist schools throughout Australia. The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) was created to better equip teachers to help students who have experienced trauma from violence, abuse and/ or neglect. BSEM alumni report that students’ engagement and learning are all significantly improved once BSEM strategies are applied in their classrooms. Their experience is backed up by an independent evaluation carried out by the University of Melbourne (2016). The BSEM model

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fuses together evidence-based strategies around positive education, trauma-informed practice and wellbeing. This unique combination educates school communities and their leaders to reinforce and sustain cognitive and behavioural change, thereby re-engaging young people in learning and progressing their academic achievement and subsequently their life opportunities.

“For the majority of the students it (BSEM) impacted on them. Respect grew, we grew up, we could see when people are feeling down – don’t ignore it, ask them, try to be there, help if they’re angry. It works for students and teachers. Respect

“For the majority of the students it (BSEM) impacted on them. Respect grew, we grew up, we could see when people are feeling down – don’t ignore it, ask them, try to be there, help if they’re angry. It works for students and teachers.”

grew more, teacher to student, student to student.

Before that everyone had their own group in the classroom,” says a Year 11 student who has taken part in the BSEM. Berry Street works with all school sectors, including special, high flying and independent.

Schools have adopted the model because: • It’s beneficial for all students, not just the ones with chronic stress and trauma.

• It is evidenced-based and independently evaluated.

• It consists of practical strategies that provide a consistent approach for a whole school.

• It is taught to teachers and all school staff so that they can teach skills to students.

• It is practiced in the classroom and can enhance or validate existing classroom management and pedagogical practice.

• It is contextualised for your context (it’s not an add on and can be woven into your current curriculum).

• It provides opportunities for participants to pilot learned strategies in their schools.

The BSEM’s framework is benefitting students of all ages, even younger students who have become disengaged. As one Year 6 student comments, “I can

tell it helps a lot of people in my class – I see people are a lot calmer and they focus a lot more.”

Another student from Year 7 adds that BSEM has been beneficial during some of the most stressful times of the school year. “With exams, a lot of us get stressed because of the time limit… the teachers know how you feel. In Semester 1, most of us all got pretty low (marks on a test). We’d only just started learning about them (BSEM techniques)… but then you can see the big jump from where we’ve gone from the end of first semester to the end of second semester.”

The five domains of the Berry Street Education Model correspond with developmental pathways each student must master in order to be ‘ready to learn’.

Focusing first on building their capacity to manage the learning ready skills and then nurturing student willingness to engage: • Body: Building students’ capacity by increasing physical regulation of the stress response, deescalation and focus.

• Relationship: Nurturing on-task learning through relational classroom management strategies.

• Stamina: Creating a culture of academic persistence by nurturing resilience, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset.

• Engagement: Motivating students with strategies

that increase their willingness to learn.

• Character: Harnessing a values and character strengths approach to instil students’ selfknowledge for future pathways.

BSEM is offered as a suite of structured professional development, consultation and mentoring sessions for school leaders, teachers and support staff. It is delivered on site at the school to all school personnel. Resources and tools to facilitate implementation of the model are provided, and additional mentoring and consultation to embed the interventions is available. BSEM also offers consultation and coaching days to monitor progress and implementation after the training has been delivered.

BSEM can be accessed by all education personnel. School courses are available, where Berry Street staff come to the school and train all staff.

Public courses are also available Australia-wide; and single day in-depth masterclasses are offered as an extension of concepts related to the Berry Street Education Model. EM

Buyer’s Guide Berry Street Education Model Ph: 03 9429 9266 Web: learning.berrystreet.org.au

UPCOMING 2020 BSEM COURSES Melbourne: 16-17 March & 7-8 May 2020 Darwin: 8-9 April & 24-25 June 2020 Sydney: 6-7 April & 24-25 June 2020 Brisbane: 15-16 April & 24-25 June 2020

The five domains of the Berry Street Education Model are Body, Relationship, Stamina, Engagement and Character.

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT // NATIONAL FUTURESCHOOLS FESTIVAL

Education experts focus on improved learning outcomes AS THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF THE NATIONAL FUTURESCHOOLS FESTIVAL GETS CLOSER, ORGANISERS HAVE REVEALED AN EXCITING LINE-UP OF KEY SPEAKERS AND A NEW STREAM CURATED SPECIFICALLY FOR PRINCIPALS.

Around 220 speakers will present on a range of topics across the two days of the event.

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Bringing together the entire K-12 sector, the upcoming National FutureSchools Festival has been revamped. A premier event on the education calendar, it will be held from 18-19 March 2020 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, offering an immersive and interactive experience.

Focusing on the key areas of technology, environment, pedagogy and curriculum; the redesigned event will allow participants to create their own agenda from 110 learning hours that are jam-packed with knowledge.

In past years, the event has featured a Future

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Leaders stream, but it has been renamed and will run as the Leadership stream, which is designed specifically for principals and school leaders.

Within the Leadership stream, a range of education experts from various fields will share their knowledge and provide their insight on a topical issues and subjects.

Celebrated educator Yasodai Selvakumaran will present a session in the plenary on Day One of FutureSchools called ‘Why are we educators?’

A humanities teacher at Rooty Hill High School in Sydney’s west, Ms Selvakumaran is the

The National FutureSchools Festival is designed to upskill, inspire and motivate.

only Australian teacher to be named as a top 10 finalist for the 2019 $1 million Global Teacher Prize.

Over 10,000 nominations were received from 179 countries.

She was also awarded the Australian Council of Educational Leadership Mary Armstrong Award for Outstanding Young Educational Leader in 2014 and the Australian Teaching Fellowship in 2018.

Also speaking in the plenary on Day One, Finnish education expert and Professor of Education Policy at the Gonski Institute for Education, Dr Pasi Sahlberg, will present a session called ‘Our place in the world – The latest OECD statistics’, where he will discuss data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Dr Sahlberg has worked as a school teacher, teacher educator, researcher and policy advisor in Finland. He has studied education systems, analysed education policies, and advised education reforms around the world. He has received numerous awards including the 2012 Education Award in Finland, the 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland, the 2016 Lego Prize, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Resident Fellowship in 2017.

Deputy Headmaster of Student and Teacher Excellence K-12 at Knox Grammar School in Sydney, Karen Yager, will host a session on ‘Collaborative teaching’. Recently, she led a school-based research project called ‘Aiming for student and teacher excellence’, designed to build a whole school culture centred around improving student learning outcomes using data to inform practice, and allowing teachers

The exhibition floor will give visitors the chance to test a wide range of products and solutions.

A humanities teacher at Rooty Hill High School in Sydney’s west, Ms Selvakumaran is the only Australian teacher to be named as a top 10 finalist for the 2019 $1 million Global Teacher Prize. Over 10,000 nominations were received from 179 countries. to work collaboratively for more effective classroom teaching.

CEO of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, Beth Blackwood, will discuss the topic ‘Principals as executives’. Her career has included 30 years as a teacher of History and Psychology, and 19 years as Principal of Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Perth, a K-12 all-girls school with approximately 1200 students.

Principal at Lithgow High School in regional NSW, Ann Caro, will present ‘School Transformation and Leadership. Earlier this year, she was awarded the Harvard Club of Australia Principals’ Scholarship, which gave her the opportunity to travel to Boston to take part in a brief professional education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian Piccoli, has also been announced as one of the event’s key speakers. His session will focus on ‘The complex nature of distance learning’.

Mr Piccoli served as a Member of NSW Parliament for 19 years and was the NSW Minister for Education for six years.

Tamsyn Rosenberg, CEO of Alive project, a community-driven organisation working to prevent youth suicide in Australia, will present on ‘Mental health in the classroom’. She is also the founder of Get Real International, which works to address challenges faced by young people and empower carers and professionals working with them.

Mitchell Institute education policy fellow, Dr Zoran Endekov has also been named as a key speaker. He is presenting on ‘A vision for the future progress towards the goals of the Melbourne Declaration’.

Keep an eye on www.futureschools.com.au for more announcements on speakers and agenda.

For tickets and more information, please visit the National FutureSchools Festival website. Tickets purchased before 7 February 2020 will be eligible for a discounted rate of $350. Group bookings are also available, with special rates for groups of four or more. EM

Buyer’s Guide National FutureSchools Festival Web: www.futureschools.com.au

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HEALTH & WELLBEING // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

Relationships and sexuality education in today’s world DR SHARYN BURNS FROM CURTIN UNIVERSITY DISCUSSES THE COMPLEX NATURE OF RELATIONSHIPS AND SEXUALITY EDUCATION AND THE NEED FOR ONGOING TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN THIS SPACE.

Dr Sharyn Burns is an Associate Professor of Health Promotion in the Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in the School of Public Health at Curtin University, Western Australia. Dr Burns is a health promotion practitioner and researcher with a specific interest in translational intervention based research. She is a former Health and Physical Education teacher and her research includes a specific focus on children, adolescents, young adults and parents and has been conducted in a range of settings with key focuses on sexual health, mental health and alcohol and other drugs. She is currently leading the Curtin University Relationships and Sexuality Education Project. Dr Burns teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate health promotion and public health students.

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Today school-aged children and adolescents face a broad range of relationships and sexuality issues including contemporary issues such as gender diversity, bullying, harassment and discrimination, violence, respectful relationships, pornography and the use of social media.

While the Western Australian and Australian Health and Physical Education curriculum includes learning outcomes focusing on relationships and sexuality education (RSE), our research has found many teachers feel ill-prepared and lack confidence teaching in this area. Teachers involved in our research are enthusiastic and committed educators yet our formative research found many feel they have limited skills to deliver contemporary RSE and expressed a specific need for training around sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, violence, gender diversity and sexual preference, along with contemporary issues related to social media. Teachers also identified a need for training to facilitate RSE with groups such as children and adolescents with special needs. The formative research found the majority of teachers reported receiving minimal or no specific RSE training during their tertiary studies; and limited opportunity for ongoing training once they become practising teachers. Given the issues young people face today, opportunities to participate in ongoing professional development is imperative.

Since 2014 the Curtin RSE Project, funded by the Department of Health WA, and led by Associate Professor Sharyn Burns and Dr Jacqui Hendriks with Dr Lorel Mayberry, Dr Roanna Lobo and Professor Lina Pelliccione, provides a range of training opportunities for practicing and pre-service teachers including intensive professional development, symposiums and short face-to-face and online training. By the end of

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2018 the project had trained over 1250 teachers and other school staff. Our focus is primarily on training teachers, however some training also provides opportunities for school nurses and other school staff. Recognising that relationships and sexuality is important throughout our lives, the training includes a focus on all school years and has attracted teachers with a broad range of experience and from a range of learning areas, highlighting the opportunities for cross-curricular implementation.

The size of WA represents a challenge. To-date the majority of the training has taken place in the Perth metropolitan area, however the Department of Health funding has provided travel for teachers from rural and remote schools. At least 25 per cent of attendees at intensive metropolitan trainings come from rural and remote areas and at least 50 per cent of teachers are teaching in areas of high need (low socio-economic areas, high proportion of Aboriginal students, and/or high proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse). More recently we have delivered intensive training in the Pilbara and Kimberly and plan a visit to the south west next year.

To support rural teachers we run additional webinars and at least one of our after school training sessions is delivered live and online each year. Trained teachers receive ongoing support through a web portal, via our Facebook site, and through the Department of Health WA’s Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships website www.gdhr.wa.gov.au.

Evaluation of the intensive two-day training has found significant improvements in teachers’ attitudes towards RSE and increased comfort in teaching RSE, facilitating discussion and facilitating skills and activities.

The Curtin Relationships and Sexuality Education Project has attracted teachers with a broad range of experience and from a range of learning areas.

Teachers involved in our research are enthusiastic and committed educators yet our formative research found many feel they have limited skills to deliver contemporary RSE and expressed a specific need for training around sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, violence, gender diversity and sexual preference.

“Vastly improved and broader knowledge base, particularly on the topic of gender diversity/equality.

Comfort or confidence with the subject area has also grown as I have increased awareness of all the wonderful organisations out there that are willing to assist schools in our delivery of RSE. Facilitation will

improve through increased practice, but lots of great ideas from which to get started,” participant, 2018.

In recognition of the importance of training pre-service teachers we have developed a specific unit for pre-service teachers, embedded in the Curtin University School of Education curricular, making us one of only two universities in Australia to offer a specific RSE unit for teachers. This unit has also received excellent evaluations and trained 224 education students.

Since 2018, the RSE project has been working with purposively selected school communities to facilitate the provision of a whole school approach to RSE delivery. Four unique school communities are currently engaged in this case study: metropolitan primary school (K-6), metropolitan secondary school (7-12), metropolitan education support centre (7-12) and remote rural school with a high Indigenous population (K-12). The case study approach allows schools to implement strategies specific to their school communities and adopt the Health Promoting Schools framework which recognises the importance of a whole of school approach including strategies in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning;

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School Organisation, Ethos and Environment; and Partnerships and Services. This approach also recognises the importance of RSE across all areas of the curriculum. While this is sometimes easier for primary teachers, involving the whole secondary staff in training offers a range of benefits in terms of whole school commitments and broader opportunities for integration into a range of subject areas. Our baseline research with students has found they are keen for a greater emphasis on RSE and have identified similar issues as teachers. When asked what they would like included in their RSE curricular secondary students suggested: “Sexuality (straight or otherwise), sexting/nude photos (it is very common), sexual harassment, protection/importance, the legal age (extremely important), cyberbullying/unwanted pressure (regarding sexually revealing photos/forced actions, etc).”

The complexity of RSE along with emerging issues highlights the importance of pre-service training along with regular professional development for teachers. Teachers are enthusiastic, committed and eager for training to support facilitation of engaging and contemporary RSE. EM

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HEALTH & WELLBEING // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

Boys and body image WHEN IT COMES TO BODY IMAGE AND EATING DISORDERS, MUCH OF THE RESEARCH AND FOCUS IS CENTRED AROUND GIRLS. BUT AS NATIONAL MANAGER OF PREVENTION SERVICES AT THE BUTTERFLY FOUNDATION DANNI ROWLANDS EXPLAINS, IT’S AN ISSUE THAT’S AFFECTING BOYS TOO – AT A GROWING RATE.

Danni Rowlands is the National Manager of Prevention Services at The Butterfly Foundation. Ms Rowlands has been facilitating, developing and managing the evidence-based whole of school and community education and health promotion programs at The Butterfly Foundation since 2007. These programs have an estimated reach of over 800,000 young people and 7000 professionals and parents Australiawide. Ms Rowlands was the project manager for RESET: a conversation about boys’ body image.

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Body image and eating disorders in boys have received increasing attention through research and other studies since the 1990s.

However programs and initiatives to support the development of a healthy body image in adolescent boys have been few and far between.

It is widely understood that there is a higher prevalence of these issues among females, but what isn’t well known is how they are affecting and increasing in males. For males who are struggling, it is often done in silence – with stigma a barrier to seeking help.

The Butterfly Foundation is among Australia’s largest not-for-profits, supporting people experiencing eating disorders and negative body image. Our prevention services offer evidence-based, health promotion programs to professionals, parents and young people in schools and communities around Australia. Over the years, through emerging evidence and our experience in schools, it became clear that it was time to find a better way to connect and relate these topics to boys.

In 2018, Butterfly launched Australia’s first digital body image program for boys.

The 30-minute video and its comprehensive facilitator guide aim to raise awareness, reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking. RESET: a conversation about boys’ body image, was developed to provide educators with a tool to safely and confidently address these topics in their classrooms.

WHAT IS BODY IMAGE? Body image is the perception that someone has about their physical self and the thoughts and feelings they experience as a result of that perception. How a person feels is influenced

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by many individual and environmental factors.

For males, family and friends, sporting coaches, celebrities and sports stars can impact how they feel about their appearance. While more research is needed on the impact of social media and males, from the boys we have spoken to, the narrow and stereotypical appearance ideals are reinforced through these platforms and affecting how they feel. When a person doesn’t measure by comparison, they can feel dissatisfied and turn to body changing behaviours for the solution.

WHAT ISSUES ARE SPECIFIC TO MALES? Male body ideals over time have been narrow and the stereotypical ‘athletic’ muscular and lean body shape reinforces traditional masculinity norms. Body image in males is far from simple and when issues do develop, it can also be harder to detect.

With the confusing messages surrounding obesity, it is also not surprising that the ‘thin ideal’ is driving problematic eating and exercise behaviours. We also know that, compared to females, body dissatisfaction typically develops later in boys.

Exercise and physical activity is paramount to physical and mental health. We also know that for boys experiencing negative body image or more serious eating and exercise issues, problematic behaviours are often disguised under the mask of wellbeing. Rigid and intense exercise regimes, restrictive dieting practices, over-supplementation and steroid use are behaviours and practices that are often celebrated and encouraged, particularly in sporting environments.

If exercise and training becomes all consuming, it can impact on other aspects of life: friendships, sporting and academic performance,

With the confusing messages surrounding obesity, it is also not surprising that the ‘thin ideal’ is driving problematic eating and exercise behaviours. We also know that, compared to females, body dissatisfaction typically develops later in boys.

mood and if injury and illness are ‘pushed through’ it may signal more than just a strong willed and determined boy.

Weight based bullying and teasing are risk factors to the development of eating disorders and

while it may be intended as a bit of fun or banter among mates there is a noticeable increased sensitivity to weight based teasing, particularly for those living in a larger body. The negative impact on self-image can be long lasting.

MALES AND EATING DISORDERS While there is not a known single cause for the development of eating disorders, there are the biopsycho-social factors that put a person at greater risk. Eating disorder research is now more inclusive of males, but they remain largely underreported.

We do know that male athletes and gay men and boys are understood to be at higher risk. For further information about eating disorders, please visit the National Eating Disorders Collaboration website at www.nedc.com.au.

SUPPORT A HEALTHY BODY IMAGE IN BOYS It is just as important to support a healthy body

image in boys as it is in girls. We need to understand that these issues are being experienced by males and be mindful of language when talking about male body shapes. Appreciate body diversity by not over celebrating muscularity, particularly in sports; and celebrate technique and effort over physical form.

Encourage boys to find physical non-competitive activities – focus on health gains, rather than aesthetic ones. Adopt a zero tolerance to weight and appearance based teasing and bullying.

Exercise and training is of course okay and it’s important that muscularity isn’t shamed – body shaming of any kind is not okay – but if the drive for increased muscle size and/or leanness is intensifying, it is important not to dismiss possible body image issues or an eating disorder just because they are a boy. Males should be included in positive body image programs and initiatives. It’s also important to role model positive, balanced, healthful behaviours and attitudes and challenge masculine ideals. EM

It’s important to appreciate body diversity and include males in positive body image programs and initiatives.

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CURRICULUM // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

Girls and STEM ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN SCIENCE EDUCATION AT DEAKIN UNIVERSITY, LINDA HOBBS, DISCUSSES THE UNDERREPRESENTATION OF GIRLS IN STEM, HIGHLIGHTING SOME OF THE MOST PREVALENT CHALLENGES AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP OVERCOME THEM.

Linda Hobbs is an Associate Professor of Science Education at Deakin University.

Through her teaching and research she has conducted a range of educational projects and initiatives, working closely with researchers and academics, school teachers and school supervisors, pre-service teachers, and key stakeholders with interests in STEM, science and education generally. Her recent work focuses on out-of-field teaching and STEM education, and she is currently leading an evaluation of the Tech Schools initiative in Victoria. A number of recent professional development projects have focused on building the capability of STEM teaching at the primary and secondary level.

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Some time ago I spoke to a teacher who brought his Year 9 and 10 elective flight class from his rural school to my university for some engineering activities. There was one girl in a class of 16.

On querying this poor female representation in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subject, the teacher said that girls sign up in droves to a girls-only woodwork class. So, what does this say about how we can encourage girls to follow STEM careers?

STEM is and will be increasingly important to the lives and work of today’s young people.

However, STEM subjects at school remain less attractive than other options, and pathways into tertiary STEM degrees are resulting in fewer graduates heading into STEM careers. While teachers have a desire to positively influence their students, there are factors within and outside of school that influence girls’ orientation towards STEM and whether they choose to participate or not.

But if participation is about choice, then what are the barriers to choice? The world of STEM is not like that girls’ woodwork class. It is more like that flight class, where there might be equal choice for girls and boys to participate, but girls just choose not to. But is there equal choice? What role does unconscious bias play? In a study of Year 10 girls’ perceptions of engineers in 2003 (Darby, Hall, Dowling and Kentish, ‘Perceptions of engineering from female secondary college students in regional Victoria’), I found that the barriers to participation in STEM are the same today: That is, when there is a lack of knowledge, and attractive and attainable role models, girls tend to rely on society’s expectations and images of STEM-related

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careers as traditionally male. This results in a lack of interest in the perceived image. They therefore choose not to participate.

I asked my 11-year-old daughter why she thought girls did not want to do that flight class, but would sign up to a girls’ woodwork class. Her experience at 11 is that boys can make girls feel uncomfortable. Also that boys can be overly critical of the girls when it is a typical ‘boy’ thing to do.

So what does this say about how to create an environment and society where unconscious bias is removed from the career choices of girls and women? The girls’ woodwork class is one step. But removing males from traditional male roles just leaves women, which is not the aim either. Getting to 50:50 is therefore a significant challenge.

The 2017 report ‘Girls’ Future – Our Future: The Invergowrie Foundation STEM Report’ provides important commentary not just on the issues influencing women in STEM; but also how as enablers we can influence the culture within which young girls and women can be raised. The critical role of schools and teachers is fore fronted, as is the importance of these enablers working with industry, businesses and those responsible for creating, imagining, representing and doing.

The challenge is to create successful learning experiences where girls can be exposed to a spectrum of real possibilities for their futures.

Exposing girls to possible careers in STEM and the associated subject choices in high school can help spark a greater interest in STEM fields.

STEM subjects at school remain less attractive than other options, and pathways into tertiary STEM degrees are resulting in fewer graduates heading into STEM careers. While teachers have a desire to positively influence their students, there are factors within and outside of school that influence girls’ orientation towards STEM and whether they choose to participate or not.

Opening up choice for young people, especially girls, means owning up to the challenges and looking for solutions. Here are some: Challenge 1: There is a disproportionate representation of females in STEM, limiting diversity in the workplace.

Solution: Continue to enable girls to make balanced and informed choices about their futures. Embracing

the language of diversity in the workplace and classroom enables more creative solutions and better conditions for both males and females.

Challenge 2: Outdated and misinformed career advice can lead girls astray, limiting their future career choices and participation in a STEM-rich society.

Solution: De-mystify ‘STEM jobs’ for students, teachers and parents through an education campaign in order to focus advisors, young people and their families on possible jobs of the future and the associated subject choices in high school. Increase visibility of the STEM sector so that young people are aware of new and possible futures.

Challenge 3: The wrong teachers may be teaching STEM subjects in secondary schools, limiting exposure to inspiring STEM-experienced teachers. While Australian teachers are highly qualified, there are no restrictions on which subjects they will be required to teach. A shortage of teachers with a background in STEM means we have relatively high levels of out-offield teaching in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics.

Solution: Attract more Mathematics and Science teachers, and address systemic pressures (shortage of teachers, unequal distribution of teachers) that result in the need for out-of-field teaching. More resources and due consideration needs to be given to supporting existing teachers to re-specialise.

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Challenge 4: Teachers face challenges in creating and implementing contemporary STEM curriculum, leading to a tendency to maintain the status quo of traditional siloed approaches to teaching Mathematics, Science and Technology.

Solution: Support teacher and school change through targeted professional learning and time for curriculum renewal. Little evidence is currently available of the longitudinal effects of one-off events nor the effects of the accumulation of experiences. Indications from ‘Girls’ Future – Our Future’, however, suggest that immersion in multiple events may have the greatest impact on identity development. Therefore, a regional approach to STEM renewal with regular STEM immersion activities and events stands to have the greatest impact on normalising STEM as a valued, achievable and socially acceptable/supported career option for young people.

Challenge 5: Unattractive STEM curriculum for girls, leading to poor engagement at school.

Solution: Consider pedagogies that are inclusive of all learning styles in Science and Mathematics subjects so as not to reinforce gender stereotypes. A move towards more inclusive pedagogies is likely to cater for the range of interests in the classroom, including girls and boys. It is important to not make assumptions about what girls want. Girls’ interests, learning styles and preferred ways of working are diverse: There’s not one thing called a girl, there are a billion, all with different likes and personalities, and so on.

Challenge 6: Unattractive storyline of STEM careers, leading to poor STEM identity development.

Solution: Produce stories about STEM in life and as career pathways to assist with creating positive STEM identities for girls. When STEM role models are lacking in a girl’s life, effort needs to be made beyond simple profiling of individual ‘superstars’ of STEM. Programs that bring girls together with people from industry and STEM professions potentially have greater impact.

In conclusion, STEM will be a critical part of the future of our young people. Attending to these key challenges will be critical to ensure that young people have the benefits of full participation in this future workforce. The first step is to be aware of biases that can exclude choice from girls, the next step is to be proactive in enabling and opening up choice. EM

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CURRICULUM // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

Encouraging mathematical success PROFESSOR KIM BESWICK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES DISCUSSES HER RESEARCH INTO MATHEMATICS SUCCESS AND ENGAGEMENT AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL, HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LOW ATTAINERS TO ACT LIKE HIGH ATTAINERS, AND LEARN IN THE SAME WAYS THAT SUCCESSFUL LEARNERS LEARN.

I recently had the pleasure of working on a grant application with a colleague with whom I had not worked before. He has been successful in these endeavours in the past, so I expected to learn things – and I did. The chance to observe his processes and thinking will help me to write better applications in the future. The experience prompted me to reflect on Mathematics classrooms and how we might provide similar

Kim Beswick taught Mathematics in secondary schools for 13 years and is now a Professor of Mathematics Education and Head of the School of Education at the University of New South Wales.

She researches Mathematics teachers’ beliefs, particularly about students, and has extensive experience in delivering professional learning for teachers of Mathematics.

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learning opportunities for students.

Mathematics classes in secondary schools are typically streamed by ability at least by Year 9.

Although there is still a wide range of attainment in these supposedly homogenised groups, lower attainers have no opportunity to learn from the best Mathematics students. It is worth considering whether low attainers, and indeed any students, might do better if they were taught to do what the

best students have figured out how to do.

When I asked a group of 18 secondary Mathematics teachers to describe their most and least capable students, the most commonly mentioned characteristics of the skills and knowledge of poor students were their lack of basic computational skills, poor understanding, lack of prior knowledge and difficulty grasping new concepts. Conversely, the best students were described as fluent with multiplication tables, understanding concepts, having broad background knowledge, being able to pick up new methods and explanation quickly and able to grasp concepts intuitively.

None of that is surprising but the non-cognitive characteristics they mentioned suggest ways teachers might intervene. Poor Mathematics students were described as disliking Mathematics and being unwilling to attempt difficult work, whereas their capable peers had positive attitudes towards Mathematics and even a love for the subject. The weakest students miss lessons, are inattentive, disruptive, unwilling to seek Low attaining students can understand how to learn better by encouraging them to think about how successful students learn and helping them believe that they can do the same.

help and have poor concentration. The best students attempt the hardest problems, approach problems methodically, take initiative to figure things out, set goals, make lots of effort, and learn from mistakes.

We cannot simply tell students to feel differently about Mathematics, to be more confident or motivated, or to have a growth mindset. It is understandable that students who have not been successful would not like the subject and might find ways to avoid experiencing failure again. Teachers in this study seemed to recognise this. When asked how they would help these students make progress they said that these students needed to develop confidence and motivation and that they would assign them work that was easy enough for success to be likely, provide lots of hands-on practical tasks and tasks that were relevant to them. Successful students would be provided with challenging, openended and problem-solving tasks, and encouraged to work hard and extend their knowledge.

At one level this is logical and certainly wellmeaning but how will low attainers ever learn to attempt difficult tasks, or to persevere if they are not offered challenging tasks that come with a risk of failure? Is succeeding at work you know is below the standard expected of most students really likely to build confidence and motivation? Might it not simply reinforce that you are not capable of learning Mathematics? If that is the case, why would you try? Teachers’ good intentions tend to play out as low attainers being given a mathematically impoverished diet of repetitive low-level tasks aimed at strengthening basic number work with the intention, at best, of laying the groundwork for higher level tasks sometime in the future. This progression almost never happens. Rather, the usual outcome is more avoidance and disruption (or passive tuning out), increasing dislike for the subject and continued underachievement. So, what might we do instead?

However students are grouped, they must know, not simply be told, that their teacher truly believes they can learn Mathematics. This means expecting them to learn the mandated content of the Australian Curriculum (or state-based version thereof) and teaching them how to do that. If students know that success at ‘proper’ Mathematics is possible and that failure is safe, they will work hard and enjoy the satisfaction of hard-earned success. For example, if capable students approach problems methodically, how can other students be taught to do that? What

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does it look like? What exactly is it that capable students do? What might students do when they don’t know what to do? What do successful students do in these circumstances? How can students learn from getting things wrong? These kinds of questions develop students’ metacognition.

Students who are currently low attainers have gaps in their knowledge, often of quite basic things like number facts and almost always have problems with major concepts like proportional reasoning. It is important to remember that learning primary school content as a 14 or 15-year-old is different from learning it as a primary school student. Filling the gaps does not have to take a lot of time and, most importantly, does not need to prevent learning year level curriculum.

If teachers start from an assumption that all students can learn the year level curriculum and convey this belief to students through their actions – i.e. teaching that curriculum to all of them and framing difficulties as shared problems that need to be tackled and solved together – almost all students will rise to the opportunity (once they believe the teacher thinks they can learn). Students need to also be taught how to learn better by challenging them to think about how successful students learn and how they can do those things as well. Students need to know that solving problems they encounter in their learning requires them to do their best. They also need to know that their teacher sees student difficulties not as evidence of inability but as opportunities to reflect on their teaching and to find new ways to represent and explain concepts, and to understand student thinking in order to address misunderstandings that result from gaps in prior learning.

In my experience, the most relevant concern of teenagers is to fit in with their peers and to avoid looking foolish in the eyes of those peers. The opportunity to succeed at the same Mathematics that their peers are learning is highly motivating and means that filling gaps in prior knowledge in the context of learning year level appropriate Mathematics is much easier and more likely to be effective than trying to address the gaps in advance.

No matter how successful they already are, everyone can learn by considering how others learn and think, and learning to reflect on their own learning processes. Teaching low attainers to learn in ways that successful students learn, and believing they can, can help high expectations lead to high attainment. EM

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SUSTAINABILITY // RECYCLING PROGRAM

Sisters Holly and Charli Garrity from Hilder Road State School in Queensland have shown their support for the program.

Writing towards a greener future A NEW AUSTRALIAN RECYCLING PROGRAM IS ENCOURAGING SCHOOLS, OFFICES AND COMMUNITIES TO COLLECT USED PENS, MARKERS AND OTHER WRITING INSTRUMENTS; DIVERTING THEM FROM LANDFILL AND TRANSFORMING THEM INTO SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW.

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Each year in Australia, over 140 million pens are sold, contributing approximately 700 tonnes of plastic waste to landfill sites across the nation.

In a bid to help combat this, global recycling business TerraCycle has teamed up with stationary company BIC to launch the Writing Instruments Recycling Program. Through this initiative, all brands of used pens, mechanical pencils, markers, highlighters, correction fluid and correction tape will become 100 per cent recyclable.

Through its European programs, TerraCycle and BIC have already diverted 40 million pens from landfills across Europe to date. With the program now launched in Australia, the businesses are hoping to see great results here too.

For Australians wanting to take part in the

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program, simply visit the TerraCycle website to sign up, then start collecting used writing instruments in any available cardboard box. Once the box is full, download a free shipping label from your TerraCycle account and drop the box off at Australia Post or at a participating Officeworks store for recycling.

TerraCycle will then sort, shred and melt the items down into plastic pellets, which will be used in the manufacture of new products such as garden beds, park benches and playgrounds.

For every kilogram of writing instruments sent to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 towards their school or a charity of their choice. Globally, over $45 million has been raised for schools and charities through TerraCycle’s free programs.

“At BIC our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint is ingrained in our values, so we are thrilled to be able to provide Australians with a free solution for recycling writing instruments at the end of their life,” says Mark O’Sullivan, General Manager at BIC Asia-Pacific.

“Our program with TerraCycle also reinforces BIC’s commitment to education. Educating current and future generations about sustainability is an important focus for us, and our TerraCycle partnership not only allows us to do this, but also provides the opportunity to use our recycled materials to give back to local communities in the form of parks and playground equipment.”

General Manager of TerraCycle Australia, Jean Bailliard, adds that TerraCycle is committed to educating Australians on the importance of resource conservation. “With the support of leading brands like BIC, we are able to teach both children and

“Our program with TerraCycle also reinforces BIC’s commitment to education. Educating current and future generations about sustainability is an important focus for us, and our TerraCycle partnership not only allows us to do this, but also provides the opportunity to use our recycled materials to give back to local communities in the form of parks and playground equipment.”

adults the value of recycling products they use every day at school or at work, that would otherwise end up in landfill,” she says.

Since being launched, the program has received a great deal of positive feedback. Sisters Holly and Charli Garrity from Hilder Road State School in Queensland were keen to show their support for the program.

“We want to do everything we can to protect our planet and all the amazing animals in it for generations to come. Inspired by our idols Steve and Bindi Irwin, we joined the Visionary Wildlife Warriors program in order to raise awareness of Australia’s endangered animals. Through this, we started looking into ways we can help keep more of our waste out of landfill and found out about TerraCycle,” they explain.

“Considering the amount of pens and markers we use in our school and across Australia, we think this new program is perfect for us to get involved in. We hope this recycling program will have a huge impact across Australia and reduce the amount of plastic entering our environment. We have 500 students in our school and would use about 20 pens each per year. That means, as a single school, we could recycle 10,000 pens alone.”

School teacher at Chatswood Hills State School in Queensland, Tina Cranley, was searching for a solution to the school’s used writing instruments for years.

“I can only imagine the number of pens, highlighters and whiteboard markers that are thrown away each day,” she says. “If these items could be recycled and made into other useable items, not only will this reduce landfill, but it will mean less plastic is needed to be produced. We are very passionate about our recycling here at Chatswood Hills and this initiative will add value to our current program and help us to recycle more materials that we have no option but to throw away.” EM

Buyer’s Guide Writing Instruments Recycling Program www.terracycle.com/en-AU/brigades/ writing-instruments-recycling-au

To take part in the program, simply sign up and start collecting used writing instruments in any cardboard box, ready to be returned for recycling.

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM // EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR

School design: The bigger picture ACCORDING TO ARCHITECT SAM CRAWFORD, SCHOOLS SHOULD THINK OF THEIR CAMPUSES AS MINIATURE CITIES AND ADOPT THE SAME LEVEL OF DETAILED PLANNING THAT GOES INTO THE DESIGN OF OUR GREAT URBAN SPACES.

Sam Crawford was appointed by the NSW Planning Minister to the State Design Review Panel April 2018, to review and raise design quality of state significant projects, including schools. Mr Crawford is a registered architect in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. His work has been widely published, nationally and internationally, and has received numerous local, state and national architecture awards.

Sam Crawford Architects is currently undertaking projects across the Sydney metropolitan area, as well as in Canberra, Newcastle and Melbourne.

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Density is increasing in all Australian cities. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that Australia’s population will grow 20 per cent by 2030, to almost 30 million people. Most of that growth will occur in the major capital cities.

Rising populations are putting pressure on our schools to continue to meet the needs of students, teachers and the communities they serve. The NSW Government alone is investing $6 billion over the next four years to deliver more than 170 new and upgraded schools across the state. Other states, albeit with smaller budgets, are following a similar pattern.

But with increasing student numbers and new schools planned for many communities, how is the design of our schools adapting to changing densities and pedagogies?

We must of course consider new educational models, such as shared classrooms and flexible learning spaces that support the latest pedagogies. But my own experience of visiting schools tells me that a school’s public domain – outdoor spaces, walkways, everything but the classroom – is often not well considered.

Students spend a lot of their time outside the classroom and that interaction is incredibly important. Every space can be a learning space,

from the cafeteria right down to the amenities.

The National Council for Social Studies says students learn invaluable life skills while they engage with a school’s in-between spaces. Learning the spoken and unspoken playground rules and chance encounters with peers and teachers all work to develop young people’s ability to actively participate in their communities.

While considering the in-between spaces is critically important, many schools are also falling behind in the design of their buildings and facilities. A well-designed space will make students more receptive to learning. Conversely poorly considered spaces do not support teaching and learning – the very thing that is at the core of the mission of any school.

Increasingly though, principals and school leadership teams are coming to understand the value of a high quality design process.

There are so many obstacles to achieving a great result – tight time frames, sensitive consultation with the school community and budgetary pressures. A good design process will help overcome these obstacles and help deliver better education outcomes for students, teachers and the community.

Every space is designed, whether or not a designer or architect thinks about them. They’re either designed by neglect or they’re designed with thought. If spaces are designed with thought and care, then they’re going to be more useful and more delightful for the people who use them. Delightful spaces give people a sense of wellbeing or elevated comfort. education matters secondary

Rising populations are putting pressure on our schools to continue to meet the needs of students, teachers and the communities they serve.

The NSW Government alone is investing $6 billion over the next four years to deliver more than 170 new and upgraded schools across the state. Other states, albeit with smaller budgets, are following a similar pattern.

Every space is designed, whether or not a designer or architect thinks about them. They’re either designed by neglect or they’re designed with thought. If spaces are designed with thought and care, then they’re going to be more useful and more delightful for the people who use them.

Delightful spaces give people a sense of wellbeing or elevated comfort.

Environments can evoke delight at the micro or macro level of a space – sitting in a classroom where sunlight falls on cold days or having a window to gaze out of while working on an essay. Delight occurs when designers demonstrate empathy and understanding for the people their spaces will surround and when designers and their clients listen to the end-users.

The spaces in which we live and move have profound impacts on our wellbeing, our psyche, and our behaviour. The decisions educators and architects make about built environments are critical.

Children spend a good part of their waking hours at school. Considerable thought needs to be put into how we design school campuses: the buildings, the grounds, the play equipment, the amenities and the spaces in between.

Wherever possible, school design should involve close and ongoing collaboration with various stakeholders: teachers, parents, the community and students. This can happen through workshops, forums or even through lessons. At my own

According to Sam Crawford, when it comes to school design, outdoor spaces and walkways often aren’t well considered.

children’s school, envisioning a new campus design was made into a classroom project. This gave the children and their teachers the opportunity to reconsider their environment and engage with quite complex issues including the lifecycle costs of the building and how the classroom relates to external play spaces and surrounding streets.

When it comes to classroom design specifically, teachers are one of the most important stakeholders.

But too often they’re left out of the process. Teachers need to be brought along for the journey of changing the way they teach. In visiting several schools recently, it strikes me how often I heard similar comments from principals, “We’re actively interested in group teaching, group learning and shared spaces between classrooms,” and yet only a very small percentage of the teacher body actually teaches that way. This attitude isn’t necessarily due to teachers’ resistance to innovative design or teaching methods.

It’s just that teachers’ current training hasn’t necessarily been considered.

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While comprehensive stakeholder engagement is often heralded, the actual implementation is more often than not perfunctory. A lot of care needs to be put into developing a process whereby people do have a say; not just once, but a number of times through the process so that users are not just shown a final design to rubber stamp.

If you deliver something to the school community they don’t love or need, then they’re probably not going to care for it and therefore the cost will be greater in the long run. Too often we only think about the cost of the project to completion, which is when it gets handed over by a construction team. But really the cost of a building is ongoing for as long as it exists. So while the initial cost of thoughtful design – design that is suited to the needs and aspirations of students and teachers – may be a little higher, the school buildings will last longer, require less maintenance and be adaptable to shifting needs, thus ultimately saving money, which is something everybody can agree is a good thing. EM

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THE LAST WORD // Minister for Education

Education for a fast-changing world MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, THE HON. DAN TEHAN MP, SPEAKS ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT’S COMMITMENT TO CHOICE AND EQUITY IN EDUCATION. We understand that an education gives you power over your destiny, helps you understand the world around you, and gives you the tools to participate in your community. The Australian Government believes that central to a high quality education must be a focus on literacy and numeracy that starts in primary school.

We are providing record funding of more than $310 billion to all Australian schools over the next 10 years. This is an average per student funding increase of 62 per cent.

But just spending more money won’t help our students if the money is being spent without a plan. That is why the Australian Government has reached agreement with every state and territory government to deliver the reforms recommended

by David Gonski in the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools. The Australian Government will take the lead on: • Enhancing the Australian Curriculum so it is tailored for development pathways so teachers can meet individual student’s learning needs.

• Creating a unique student identifier so students can be supported no matter where they move.

• Establishing a national institute to be the centre of excellence and research for teaching, school systems and policies.

Record funding matched with real reforms will improve student outcomes and help every child reach their full potential.

We want parents to see results from this funding. That’s why we back NAPLAN and the transparency it provides to parents and the feedback it provides teachers about their students’ progress, both what they do well and where they need more assistance. Parents should expect to be able to see progress in their child’s education.

At the election, our Government promised

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to roll out a free phonics health check for Year 1 students. This tool will help teachers and parents identify any students whose reading skills are falling behind and provide the support they need to progress.

South Australia has introduced a state-wide phonics screening check that is helping to identify students who need support. The introduction of the phonics check has also enabled a fresh emphasis on the quality of phonics instruction and on reading instruction in general.

We will also create a phonics resource hub for schools, teachers and families, provide $2.8 million for disadvantaged schools to access phonics resources and training, and ensure trainee teachers learn how to teach phonics in the classroom.

The Australian Government backs local communities and local schools. We back teachers and principals. We will reduce red tape to ensure teachers have more time to focus on teaching through a review into the compliance and regulatory burden teachers’ face.

We will develop a national teacher workforce strategy focusing on attracting and retaining quality teachers, supporting teachers and the teaching profession, and understanding supply and demand.

The Australian Government will also invest an additional $15 million to support more Teach for Australia graduates who will train specifically for school leadership roles in rural, remote or disadvantaged schools.

We will also develop a strategy to help schools address the abuse of staff.

In this year’s Budget we introduced the $30.2 million Local Schools Community Fund to help schools with small-scale projects. Every electorate around the country will have $200,000 that local schools can access to fund a school project.

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Schools will be able to apply for up to $20,000 in funding to support projects. The fund will be open to eligible state, Catholic and independent schools.

Applications for funding opened on 25 July and will close on 30 September 2019.

We know student wellbeing is an issue for parents and teachers, particularly with the rise of cyberbullying and the inappropriate use of new technology. The Australian Government supports the Victorian and New South Wales Governments’ ban on mobile phones in the classroom. We will use experts from Canada and France, where mobile phones have been banned in classrooms, to provide advice to school systems about best practice regarding mobile technology use in schools.

The Australian Government, through the COAG Education Council, is undertaking a review of the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals For Young Australians. The review will update the current Declaration to create a nationally consistent future direction for Australian schooling for the next decade.

Through our record investment in education, supported by a strong Budget and sensible reforms, the Australian Government is committed to delivering the quality education that every Australian child deserves.

We will continue to focus on ensuring that Australian students receive a world-class education, tailored to individual learning needs, and relevant to a fast-changing world. EM

THE LAST WORD // ACARA

Literacy is freedom – using data to monitor progress DAVID DE CARVALHO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM, ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING AUTHORITY (ACARA), BREAKS DOWN NAPLAN DATA, WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS. On 4 September we recognised Indigenous Literacy Day, a day for celebrating Indigenous culture, stories, language and literacy, as well as promoting access to literacy resources in remote communities.

Literacy and numeracy are essential foundational skills for success in life, and increasing the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students meeting the national minimum standard in NAPLAN tests is an important goal for everyone involved in education.

Since NAPLAN commenced in 2008, results have shown some positive improvements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

The most recent national results data from 2018 show that since the first year of NAPLAN, there were significant cumulative gains in a number of domains and year levels, including reading (Years 3 and 5), spelling (Years 3 and 5), and grammar and punctuation (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9).

Nationally, the average gain over time in reading for Year 5 in 2016, and Year 7 in 2018 was 53 score points for Indigenous students and 40 score points for non-Indigenous students.

Overall, the rate of growth in literacy and numeracy achievement among Indigenous students is double that of non-Indigenous students.

These gains are to be welcomed, and students, families, communities and teachers who have achieved these gains over time should be congratulated.

However, a lot more needs to be done. Using NAPLAN data, a recent Grattan Institute report showed that at the national level, Year 9 Indigenous students are on average three years behind non-

Indigenous students in numeracy, 3.4 years behind in reading and 4.2 years behind in writing.

We must not let these statistics become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In expressing his concerns about the pervasiveness of “the soft bigotry of low expectations”, Noel Pearson has said that “Australia and the world need to wake up to it. This form of prejudice wreaks a massive toll on the marginalised and perpetuates great social injustice.”

The 10 years of accumulated NAPLAN data and information show that the literacy and numeracy gap is still too great and is closing too slowly. However, the use of the data allows progress to be tracked so that schools, governments and education authorities can inform decisions and actions to better support the educational needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and support them to success in life and work.

The Nobel Laureate for Economics, Amartya Sen said, “Not to be able to read or write or count or communicate is a tremendous deprivation.

The first and most immediate contribution of successful school education is a direct reduction of this basic deprivation...”

If we are not literate and numerate, the range of practical choices open to us are severely constrained. As the Indigenous Literacy Foundation proclaims, “Literacy is Freedom”.

It is ACARA’s core business to develop and support the national curriculum, to administer a national assessment program, and report on the state of Australian schooling. Our vision is that through these roles, we will inspire improvement in the learning of all young Australians, including

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meeting the specific needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.

ACARA’s Reconciliation Action Plan plays an essential part in our work, ensuring: • Curriculum is inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures is a cross-curriculum priority of the Australian Curriculum.

• The National Assessment Program provides high-quality assessment that is culturally inclusive, respectful of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander historical and contemporary realities and is aligned with the Australian Curriculum and the priority areas.

• Tailored reporting provides the evidence base to inform policymakers and governments, and assists with ensuring equitable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

ACARA has a unique role – it operates nationally and works with our partners in state and territory departments of education, curriculum authorities, with school leaders and teachers.

In doing this, our role provides us with many opportunities to continue to contribute towards a nation that, in the words of the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, “Values Australia’s Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation’s history, present and future.” EM

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THE LAST WORD // National Excellence in School Leadership Institute

School leadership qualities for turbulent times PROFESSOR MIKE GAFFNEY, ACADEMIC DIRECTOR AT THE NATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (NESLI) DISCUSSES WHY PASSION, PRIORITIES AND PERSISTENCE ARE KEY QUALITIES FOR TODAY’S PRINCIPALS AND SCHOOL LEADERS. As a school leader, what drives you? How do you work with your community – staff, students, parents and others within and beyond your school community – to bring about positive and meaningful outcomes for students? These are questions at the heart of the principalship.

The questions we have about ourselves, as teachers and leaders, are a consequence of our personality and professional development – what has brought us to this point – and our aspirations.

Am I making a difference? That’s a good question. To delve deeper, we need to consider the passions we have and espouse, the priorities we identify and pursue, and the persistence with which we enact and model what is important.

What we have done in the past does not always inform what we do in the future. Shifting societal expectations, political concerns, changing social capital and disruption in how we communicate and learn are having a profound impact on how schools and school leaders operate.

School leaders are known by their actions.

Leadership is inspiring work, but it is also fraught with tension and dilemmas about what is appropriate in changing contexts. Qualities that underpin actions of inspiring school leaders in contemporary school settings are passion, priorities and persistence.

The report ‘Learning: The Treasure Within’ (Delors, 1996) identified four pillars that need to underpin student learning into the 21st century: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be.

Since its publication, the relevance of its commentary and recommendations remains apparent. The importance of education in enabling student agency is highlighted, now as it was

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then, in a context characterised by issues of globalisation, interdependence, social cohesion, the impact of technologies, future of work, balancing and integration of economic growth and human development, and the sustainability of life on earth.

The four pillars continue to provide a ready reckoner to pass over curriculum and assessment frameworks. For school leaders, the challenge is to see through jargon to identify the worth of content being taught and the process of bringing that to life. Those who are authentic leaders ask questions about worth and value, and advocate their passion for student learning, engagement and agency.

So, what implications does this have for school priorities and the ways we design learning opportunities? In contrast to the depersonalised, key performance-indicator driven, systemically sanitised and politically correct priorities which have characterised ‘school improvement planning’, what is really needed is an educational overhaul – one where real efforts are directed toward enabling teachers to develop and exercise mastery and autonomy, and build a sense of shared purpose. The role of school leader is not primarily to ensure staff compliance but rather, as Ken Robinson advocates in Finding Your Element (2014), to inspire and guide teachers to discover (or re-discover) their talent and passion for teaching. This provides a foundation for developing innovative approaches to pedagogy, curriculum and assessment.

Life and learning in schools are not linear.

Standards and programming can only take us so far. What is needed are school leaders who help teachers celebrate why they got into teaching in the first place and the value of their teaching.

This is a challenge about reasserting professionalism. It is risky, but necessary. To

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prioritise a system that advocates standards, standardisation and compliance is to be complicit in threatening the future of the profession. Who would be a teacher or stay in teaching in circumstances of supervised constraint and bureaucratic data checks, justified under the guise of gathering evidence and demonstrating accountability? Instead, we should be encouraged by school leaders who have the courage to have a go, accept barriers and risks, and stay on the educator course anyway – because it’s the right thing to do. To do this takes persistence: persistence in working with tensions, ethical dilemmas and problems. In their new book, Navigating the Principalship (2019), Jim Spillane and Rebecca Lowenhaupt focus on dilemmas that mark the principalship – those conflict situations (or ‘wicked problems’) that resist simple solutions.

Addressing the demands of multiple overlapping stakeholders, achieving limitless tasks in limited time, sharing leadership responsibilities while being responsible for running the school, creating safe spaces and facilitating a balance between work and home can feel impossible.

It’s important to realise these are problems that cannot be solved; they can only be worked on.

There is a freedom in accepting you can only do your best. You will make mistakes, people won’t agree with you and sometimes that will be hard to deal with. The key is to live with your decisions gracefully, sure in the knowledge that they have integrity with your passion and priorities. EM

THE LAST WORD // eSafety Commissioner

Responding to nude photo sharing ESAFETY COMMISSIONER, JULIE INMAN GRANT, DISCUSSES THE ISSUE OF NUDE PHOTO SHARING AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE EDUCATION RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO ASSIST TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO RESPOND TO IT. It’s on the news, it’s in our feeds and it’s even the theme of our television shows: the sharing of intimate images or videos without consent is one of the big issues faced by young people, families and school communities today.

A recent Australian drama on SBS, The Hunting, accurately depicted the community-wide fallout of a teen nude photo scandal, where the collision of technology and sexual exploration was devastating.

It’s the responsibility of everyone in our communities to support young people to use digital devices and online services in safe, informed, respectful and responsible ways.

As a first line of defence, parents and teachers can start age-appropriate conversations about acceptable and harmful online behaviours. To assist, eSafety collaborated with SBS to develop education resources (www.sbs.com.au/learn/thehunting) that have practical information about how to handle image sharing and cyberbullying, and how to talk about respect and consent online.

At eSafety we acknowledge that the sexual development of young people is a delicate and vulnerable time. We also understand that often the practice of non-consensual image-sharing is less about sexual curiosity and exploration, and more about exhibiting power over peers. With girls and young women much more likely to have their image shared without consent, there is no denying that image-based abuse is also a gendered issue.

However, there is always a choice between calling out harmful behaviour or feeding into it. So much of this comes down to helping young people stand-up to friendship pressures and to challenge the status quo of stereotypical, sexist behaviours.

Parents and carers can positively influence their children’s sexual exploration, helping to

bolster both their safety and their ability to develop and navigate healthy, respectful and consenting intimate relationships. It’s important to play an active role in shaping their values, attitudes and expectations, because what they see and do online is difficult to predict or control.

Exposure to sexually explicit material can also desensitise them, so it’s essential to have these delicate conversations sooner rather than later – particularly about the reality (or fictitiousness) of pornography. Parents can point out that portrayals of male dominance and female subservience are neither healthy nor something to aim for.

As adults, we can play a part in guiding young people to understand intimacy should be founded in respect, trust, empathy and clear consent.

You can help parents at your school start conversations with their young people about sexually sensitive issues online by directing them to the Hunting Parent Discussion Guide (www.sbs. com.au/learn/the-hunting).

Schools should also examine their systemic preparedness for preventing and responding to the sharing of intimate images. Schools should be ready for when the issue arises. Questions need to be asked about how incidents involving explicit imagery will be handled and by whom.

Curriculum is also an important consideration – content that explores age and stage appropriate themes of privacy, respect, intimacy and consent in all contexts, including online, should be scaffolded across K-12 and embedded within all subject areas.

School leaders also play a critical role in ensuring their staff are equipped and confident to have conversations about what healthy, respectful, trusting relationships look like, so they become part of practice for every teacher, every day.

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Students tend to be more responsive to these sensitive subjects when they are delivered by prepared and assured teachers. There is no better time for principals to be investing in the capacity building of their staff with sound, evidence based professional learning on digital wellbeing.

More broadly, we all need to challenge and reject attitudes that allow anyone to think the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images is harmless, funny or justified. We need to help young people understand that while technology can be used to express sexuality or share intimacy, it’s not without risk, responsibility and potentially devastating impacts. We are all responsible for being aware that when a nude is shared without consent, it’s a serious breach of trust that can be felt for a lifetime. eSafety is committed to providing information and advice about image-based abuse and other online safety issues, as well as curriculum-aligned educational resources. We also support Australians who have experienced the sharing of intimate images without consent – including the threat to share nude images or videos – by providing reporting options, support and resources for victims and those close to them. We have helped over 1400 Australians remove such images from public view, with a 90 per cent success rate, and we are exercising new civil powers targeting individual perpetrators and content hosts. You can visit eSafety’s image-based abuse portal for more info or to report at www.esafety.gov.au/iba. EM

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EVENTS

CAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1 November 2019 Sydney, NSW Web: www.caa.nsw.edu.au The Career Advisors Association of NSW & ACT Inc covers topics such as counselling students on career choices, career programs, and pathways, training and work experience required for students wanting to enter various industries.

MINDS ON FIRE 4 November 2019 Sydney, NSW Web: www.aisnsw.edu.au/courses A masterclass aimed at principals and senior executives, it will look at ways of embedding critical and creative practices into schools.

STAFF AND STUDENT WELLNESS AND WELLBEING CONFERENCE 12-13 November 2019 Melbourne, VIC Web: www.informa.com.au/event/conference/staffstudent-wellness-wellbeing-conference This event will showcase wellness programs for staff and students and delve into the legal and moral responsibilities of schools when it comes to wellbeing.

MAWA PRIMARY & SECONDARY CONFERENCE 18-20 November 2019 Perth, WA Web: mawainc.org.au/primary-secondaryconference/ The Mathematical Association of Western Australia will feature Eddie Woo and Penny Crossland as keynote speakers. The event will offer opportunities for professional development and networking.

ITE CONFERENCE 2019 27 November 2019 Sydney, NSW Web: iiate.com The Institute of Technology Education – Annual Teachers Conference aims to assist teachers to learn about current and future directions in STEM education, focusing on Engineering, Technology and Industrial Arts.

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AATE NATIONAL CONFERENCE 30 November – 3 December 2019 Melbourne, VIC Web: www.vate.org.au/2019aateconference Hosted by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, this year’s event is based on the theme of ‘My story flows in more than one direction: Power of story, politics of voice’.

ACHPER (SA) SECONDARY CONFERENCE 2-3 December 2019 Adelaide, SA Web: www.achpersa.com.au Hosted by the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation South Australian Branch Incorporated, this event looks at ways to effectively engage students in Health and Physical Education.

MAV ANNUAL CONFERERENCE 5-6 December 2019 Melbourne, VIC Web: conference.mav.vic.edu.au The Mathematical Association of Victoria’s conference brings together 1400 mathematics educators including teachers, academics, policy makers, curriculum experts and resource developers to share their experience and ideas.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SCHOOLS SUMMIT 20 February 2020 Sydney, NSW Web: www.smhschools.com.au Aiming to facilitate insightful debate and discussion around the future of Australian education, this event offers a professional development opportunity for teachers.

NATIONAL FUTURESCHOOLS FESTIVAL 18-19 March 2020 Melbourne, VIC Web: www.futureschools.com.au This is Australia’s largest K-12 education showcase.

It is a schools-only education event, designed to upskill, inspire and motivate educators as they deal with disruption within the education landscape.

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NATIONAL EDUCATION SUMMIT – BRISBANE 15-16 May 2020 Brisbane, QLD Web: www.nationaleducationsummit.com.au/ brisbaneabout Combining three conferences, a symposium, free seminars and a free expo, this event is aimed at principals, school leaders and educators across the K-12 sector.

EDUTECH 2-3 June 2020 Sydney, NSW Web: www.edutech.net.au A giant festival of education, EduTECH includes a free expo featuring over 300 exhibitors which will host seminars, launch new products and offer demonstrations.

EDUBUILD 2-3 June 2020 Sydney, NSW Web: www.edutech.net.au Australia’s largest education buildings and infrastructure conference and trade show for education leaders involved in design, construction, renovation, maintenance, operation and management of buildings for schools and universities.

SASPA CONFERENCE 13-14 August 2020 Adelaide, SA Web: www.saspa.com.au/conference The South Australian Secondary Principals’ Association annual conference is open to all secondary education leaders.

NATIONAL EDUCATION SUMMIT – MELBOURNE 28-29 August 2020 Melbourne, VIC Web: www.nationaleducationsummit.com.au/ melbourne-about Combining three conferences, a symposium, free seminars and a free expo, this event is aimed at principals, school leaders and educators across the K-12 sector.

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