Parent Contact Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends Inc.

March 2010 Welcome to Parent Contact for 2010.

In the lead up to the State Election, TASSP&F put a list of questions to the three political parties and invited them to attend our Management Committee meeting on February 13th.

Premier and Minister for Education the Hon , Hon Will Hodgman, Liberal Leader, Nick McKim, Tasmanian Greens, and outgoing Liberal Education Spokesperson Hon Sue Napier joined us for an hour to give their position on the issues we raised.

As only two of our questions could be covered at the meeting due to time constraints, we requested that each provide a written response for inclusion in Parent Contact. However due to the length of the documents this is not possible but the responses can be found on our website.

The Committee felt that it was very important to make these responses available to all parents to help you make informed choices on the best policies about the future of education in our State schools.

I urge you to take the time to read them and consider any possible impact these changes may have on our students and their teachers.

There are unanswered questions with the policy to roll back Tomorrow that neither the Liberals or Greens have addressed such as how they intend to approach altering the Education Act to reflect these changes and indeed to include the Australian Technical College. It took over 12 months for the current Legislation to be written and passed. Added to this is the cost of dismantling the Boards of the Academy and Polytechnic.

TASSP&F supports the policy of providing free transport for students, retention of Pathway Planners, the employment of extra Guidance Officers and renewal in high schools, as we have lobbied strongly for these things.

The policy to fund healthy eating in schools is admirable. The current “Move Well Eat Well” program has been in place for many years to help children develop good eating and exercise habits. We acknowledge and congratulate the schools that have taken on this program.

It is frustrating for us when our Education system is continually politicised. Too often at these times the great things our schools are doing are overlooked and programs that are producing great outcomes are scrapped or modified when there is no need for change, but maybe just increased funding.

I recently attended the Australian Curriculum Symposium in Melbourne. This was an interesting weekend with many concerns raised by the attendees. Nine Tasmanian State Schools have been chosen to pilot the first stage of implementation. They will be trialling English, Mathematics, Science and History. TASSP&F will be in contact with them to check on their progress and the impact the new Curriculum will have for us all.

Jenny G  www.parentsandfriendstasmania.asn.au Party leaders were invited to our February meeting, we requested they each provided written responses to the following questions.

1 What measures do you intend to take to turn the Post Year 10 reforms into a success?

2 How will you ensure that parental representation at the Academy and Polytechnic campuses will be implemented to ensure true parent input?

3 How do you plan to renew secondary school education?

4 How will you address the shortfall of special needs funding?

5 How do you intend to improve education in the early years?

6 What will your party do to ensure that student absenteeism will be significantly reduced in the next 3 years?

7 How will you improve teacher quality for both new teachers and current staff?

8 Student transport is an issue that we deal with on an ongoing basis. We regularly field queries and complaints from parents on topics including bus fares, safety and bus routes. More recently transport to and from Polytechnic campuses has been an issue as well. How would you deal with these issues?

Liberal and Labor both provided lengthy responses addressing most questions. The Greens have responded with their Education Policy.

Head to our website www.parentsandfriendstasmania.asn.au for the answers!

ASCIA have launched a free online anaphylaxis e-training course People who may wish to undertake this course are school and childcare staff (as an adjunct to face to face training), parents, friends and carers.

About anaphylaxis e-training ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training has been developed by the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), in conjunction with the Health Departments of Western and New South Wales, to provide ready access to reliable anaphylaxis education throughout Australia and New Zealand, at no charge.

Development of ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training has included an extensive review process which in- volved ASCIA members, Health Departments and Education Departments as well as representatives from schools, childcare services and education departments throughout Australasia.

ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training (Version 1.0) has been developed for school and childcare staff where face to face training is not possible (or feasible), or as a refresher, or for interim training whilst waiting for face to face training. ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses can also be taken by parents, friends, carers or patients themselves. australian society of clinical immunology and allergy www.allergy.org.au/etraining My School Website

There has been much publicity about the launch of the My School website, but what’s it all about, and as a parent, is there useful information which can help me determine whether my school is doing OK?

The My School website is a Government sponsored website giving information on about 10,000 schools across Australia, in all sectors, - State, Private, Religious and independent schools.

It gives a range of information including :

o Basic information – location, type of school, enrolments, teacher and staff numbers, attendance rate, gender mix, Indigenous students.

o School rating – for social / educational advantage – this is based on a variety of factors which can affect student performance, everything from parent income, education level of parents, through to internet access and geographic location.

o School’s test result – average performance, in national tests of reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy at year 3, 5, 7, 9 (NAPLAN)

o Comparison of test results – compared to other schools with a similar rating for social and educational advantage.

o Links to other schools in the local area.

How do I use this information:

Remember this is about the performance of a school, not the individual student, in the NAPLAN testing which takes place on one day. Schools teach much more than the subjects assessed under NAPLAN. For parents, there are many more important reasons for choosing a school, including the subject range, culture, and suitability for your child. Not all schools have the same focus on NAPLAN and curriculum. Some schools teach students to take the tests, others have wider priorities.

The best way to learn about a school, is to visit – talk to the staff, see how they treat you, how do they speak to other staff and the students, do the students appear happy, what do other parents say, and what support do they offer for struggling or gifted students.

To compare schools:

Go to the website www.myschool.edu.au and type your school’s name in the search window. This brings up a page which includes a statement by the school about itself, all the basic facts and a table of NAPLAN results for 2008 and 2009.

Terms used on the website include ‘SIM’ – which compares the schools average score with the average for schools with students from similar backgrounds. ‘ALL’ compares with the average of all Australian schools. As there are so many differences in schools due to location, and social needs this is a less valuable comparison.

The coloured strip shows the school’s score (in blue), and below the score for similar (SIM) and ALL schools.

You can then look at the similarities or differences between age groups such as year 3–5, or 7–9. This may show trends which reflect a changing focus and programmes for literacy and numeracy.

If you are concerned about the results of your school this becomes a great start for discussions with your teachers – find out what programmes they have in place.

Overall, do not use the website to create the simplistic league tables so popular with the media.

Remember that factors most important to parents in choosing a school are things such as student/teacher ratio, class sizes, quality of school facilities, and approach to discipline, together with diversity in the curriculum, and overall that their child is valued no matter what their academic ability is.

Cheryl Wickham TASSP&F - With thanks to the APC.

With the start of the new school year behind you, you may have been asked about helping out with fundraising, or maybe you already give a hand.

Many of Tasmania's 121 Move Well Eat Well primary schools are taking a fresh look at their fundraising this year, and choosing new ideas that don't promote high fat, sugary 'occasional' foods, and some that don't promote food at all!

If you'd like to think about some new fundraising options, why not visit the Move Well Eat Well website at www.education.tas.gov.au/movewelleatwell and follow the links For Families?

You'll fund a wealth of information and contact details for fundraising that will bring in the cash and move your school in a healthy direction.

While you're there, why not encourage your school to become a Move Well Eat Well school? It's a positive move for you, your kids and all the other families at school

For more information contact Sue Moir on ph 6222 7328 or email [email protected] Educating for Sexual Health Begins Early

In today’s world we are inundated with information about sexuality and relationships (both positive and negative) from many sources. Many parents/ carers believe, therefore, that their children “know all there is to know about sex”. How can anyone ever know all there is to know about sex?

Parents/carers are the primary sex educators of their children and children will learn about sexuality from the moment they become aware of what is around them. They will learn from what they see and hear - and they will learn from what they don’t see and hear. Parents and others who avoid answering questions or don’t answer questions honestly are giving children strong messages that this is a topic that should not be discussed.

This can expose the young person to risk. The bottom line is that knowledge and understanding of sexuality can prevent exploitation and physical and emotional harm.

Good quality sexuality and relationships education can start when a child is very young. Now I don’t mean that you should read the Karma Sutra to your young person but there are stories that can be read to children such as “Mummy Laid an Egg” that are fun and have great illustrations.

Of course children of 2 and 3 years are not going to understand the content at first but experiencing the story over time with a trusted adult will create an environment in which the child learns that it is OK to talk about this subject and to ask questions. This is an important first step in developing an open and healthy attitude to learning about sex.

Parents and carers can maintain this positive environment as children grow up in a number of ways including:

* Asking for their opinion on sexuality issues that are raised on TV, movies or in the news

* Having a range of educational books and DVDs available in the home

* Answering questions simply and honestly (without interrogating them about why they want to know)

As children get older, they will be exposed to the knowledge, ideas, experience, practices and attitudes of their peer group. It is an essential part of their learning and development but, unfortunately, can also spread misinformation, misconceptions and negative attitudes. This is why comprehensive and sequential sexuality and relationships education in schools is so important because these issues can be openly discussed in the peer group and, together with the education from home, can equip the young person to handle the challenges they will face.

Sue Williams - CEO Family Planning Tasmania

Stay in touch...... If parents, carers or friends have any concerns regarding their children’s school education please contact our friendly staff on 6234 9488 or [email protected]

All submissions to Parent Contact to be made no later than the 25th of each month. Please send information to Cassanrda: [email protected] or phone 6234 9488 fax 6234 9378

The views expressed by individuals and groups contained in this publication are not necessarily recommended nor endorsed by the editor TASSP&F.

www.parentsandfriendstasmania.asn.au