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2017 (7) 10 April 2017


ET News Digest
Your Weekly Education Newsletter
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The dog ate my homework
The value of homework or lack thereof. By Annie Facchinetti

Have you ever considered that the excuses that students come up with for not submitting homework might just be a lot more creative than the homework task itself? Students might come at their excuses from a perfectionist perspective (My mum did it wrong, so I threw it out of the bus window), as a compassionate class member (I didn’t do it because I didn’t want to add to your corrections workload) or even as a humanitarian (I gave it to a homeless man to help him insulate his cardboard box). Rather than questioning the excuses, research is suggesting more and more strongly that we should be questioning the concept of homework itself. Read More
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Top Arts 2017
The fragility of human connection in an increasingly uncertain world, the degradation of the environment, and the journey to self-discovery are just some of the themes explored in Top Arts 2017, now at The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia.

Image left – Meg Tully, Hugo Blomley, Praise, Jeong, Brodie Lowe, Cameron Moorhouse and Brendan Hartnett, inside Top Arts 2017. (Photo: Eugene Hyland) Read More

Campaign educates about back to school asthma
A campaign by Asthma Australia and Teachers Health has shown potential to reduce the impact of a rise in asthma flare-ups at the beginning of the school year.
The Ask About Asthma campaign reached over 5.5 million Australians during January and February 2017 calling on parents of students with asthma to talk to teachers about the condition and follow simple management steps. Read More
WA continues trend to public school option
Student census figures in WA from April show there are 302,271 students enrolled in public schools (semester one, 2017), an additional 5,894 students from the same time last year.
Public schools’ market share of enrolments has jumped markedly to 67.2% in 2017, up from 66.2% in 2014. Read More
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Inactivity and screen time linked to teen depression
Researcher Dr Asad Khan, of University of Queensland’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, found that teenagers in Bangladesh who did less than one hour of moderate exercise and had more than two hours of screen time per day were twice as likely to report depressive symptoms than those who exercised for an hour a day.
“High screen time and low physical activity is a global phenomenon,” Kahn said. Read More
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Independent schools funded at half the rate of government schools
The latest government figures show that on average government schools are publicly funded at around twice the amount of independent schools.
“Students attending independent schools receive significantly less funding than government school students, with the majority of funding for ndependent school students coming from after-tax private contributions by parents and school communities,” said ISCA Executive Director Colette Colman. Read More
2017 ASG National Excellence in Teaching Awards
ASG’s National Excellence in Teaching Awards (NEiTA) Foundation was established in 1994 to honour exemplary teaching throughout Australia and New Zealand.
For more than 23 years, these awards have provided communities with the opportunity to formally recognise and thank outstanding teachers and leaders. Read More
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Queensland pulls out of NAPLAN online trial
Queensland state schools will withdraw from the NAPLAN online testing trial this year; the announcement was made ahead of the Education Ministerial Council meeting in Hobart.
New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory will also conduct the 2017 NAPLAN tests as traditional pencil and paper tests this year. Read More