Minnis Journals

ET News Digest

Your Weekly Education Newsletter

Apps counter-productive against cyber bullies
There’s a plethora of online parental control apps but whether they’re doing any good is questionable, in fact it looks like they’re achieving the exact opposite of their intention with teens accessing more online nasties with the apps installed.
What is certain is that apps are no replacement for good parenting. Child safety apps damage the trust between parent and child and reduce their ability to respond to online threats. Their use is also associated with an authoritarian brand of parenting which kids chafe against, unsurpisingly. Read More

Help with homework no help
You can help a kid with their homework but there are ways to do it; too much help is a detriment to their development of persistence and self-reliance.
University of Eastern Finland and the University of Jyväskylä researchers in the longitudinal First Steps Study found that the more opportunities for autonomous work the mother offered the child, the more task-persistent the child’s behaviour.
It’s a feedback loop, as the children showed persistence Read More

$27.5m centre for Vic high-flyers to be sited at Melbourne High
High-achieving students in Victoria will have access to a $27.5 million co-educational Centre for Higher Education Studies to be built next to Melbourne High School in South Yarra.
The partner schools are Melbourne High School. MacRobertson Girls' High School, Richmond High School, Prahran High School, Melbourne Girls College and Regional Secondary Schools.
The Centre will have state-of-the-art classrooms, specialist facilities for science, technology, engineering and maths studies as well as lecture spaces and a theatre. Read More

NAPLAN paints half of the equity picture
So you have a school, there’s a number of different creeds, colours and backgrounds from wealthy to not so represented. The NAPLAN scores arrive and the school has generally done well, so that means that the school is winning on the equity front as all the students are performing, doesn’t it?
Yes and no, research out of Western Australia from Glenn Savage at the Uni WA indicates that the NAPLAN data gives an indication of what is happening but is far from a comprehensive picture of student abilities and outcomes. Read More

Montessori supports Gonski 2.0
Montessori Australia has come out in support of Gonski’s recommendation to place the learning growth of each student at the centre of the Australian education model.
Christine Harrison, President of Montessori Australia said: "We view transformation of the current education model as an urgent priority and support evidence-based changes that provide students with the capabilities to flourish in the knowledge economy. Read More

Class clowns have short careers
They’re the stars of the class and playground, but their careers are brief. In Year 1 and 2 class clowns are the most sought after playmates and the centre of attention, but by Year 3 things change.
As the others mature, the class clown plummets to the bottom of the social circle as classmates' disapproval of their behaviour grows.
That reversal of fortune can mean that the playful boy, and they’re usually boys, can begin to see himself as a failure which may lead to poor academic performance and developmental outcomes.
Read More

NSW / ACT Catholic teachers to vote ‘yes’ to new enterprise agreement
Catholic teachers and support staff in NSW and ACT schools will vote ‘yes’ to a new enterprise agreement next week, following an 18-month industrial campaign which included two stop work meetings.
The ‘yes’ vote will bring to an end the protracted dispute between the IEUA NSW/ACT Branch and the 11 Catholic dioceses, with teachers and support staff winning provisions that will benefit themselves and their students. Read More

Big problem, shrimpy solution
A bright idea and some mentoring will take 15-year-old Angelina Arora all the way to the USA; Arora’s shrimp bioplastic will be representing Australia at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania alongside over 1800 high school students from 75 countries, regions, and territories. Read More

Tomorrow Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen
A $3.7m milestone gallery redevelopment at Scienceworks in Melbourne is set to reveal STEM futures. It immerses visitors in large-scale exhibits revealing the invisible fields and forces that surround us such as gravitational waves, invisible light, turbulence, sound and the electromagnetic spectrum. Read More