Tag Archive - School

“My School” Looks Dangerous

February 4, 2010 in Education with 3 Comments

My School is a tool that was launched (on 28/1/2010) by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and is designed to be an “information service” for parents.

The site allows you to type in a schools name, and then a profile for that school will appear showing statistics about enrolment, socio-educational status and academic results. The main purpose is to compare schools academically, below is a screenshot of the site.

My School Academic Comparisons

This school is above the national average, and statistically comparable with similar schools

The issue with the academic results is that they are based of singular nation wide tests called the NAPLAN tests.

Parents are being encouraged to use the “My School” website to compare their school to similar schools, and they are also being encouraged to talk to teachers about their schools results. The website states that it aims to introduce “a new level of transparency and accountability to the Australian school system.”

If parents are encouraged to judge schools based off this one test, then this test will start to take over teaching. Instead of teachers teaching students what they need to know over the course of a year, teachers are going to be forced to teach students what they need to know to do well in the NAPLAN test.

Teaching for a test is not good for learning.

I doubt that the “My School” website will benefit education in Australia.

What do you think?

Public vs Private #8 | Parents Who Care Too Much

December 23, 2009 in Education with 3 Comments

The demographics of students and parents that attend public and private schools tend to be pretty stereotypical. As in certain types of parents send their children to private schools, and certain parents send their students to public schools. Although, sometimes schools can break these stereotypes (ok, a lot of the time).

So, instead of talking about private and public schools in this post (and the next few), I’m going to be talking about two ends of the parent spectrum. Those who care too much about their child’s education, and those who don’t care enough. Of course most parents will fall somewhere between these two, but will probably lean either way. So here are some characteristics of parents that care too much.

Parents who care too much

  • There will likely be a lot of pressure on the child to perform
  • Students may often be forced to go to tutoring (I onced tutored a Kindy girl in maths, she was doing year 2 maths at the time…)
  • The parents will put stress onto the teacher, and ask questions about why their child isn’t getting straight A’s
  • Although because of this, the teachers are accountable and teaching remains excellent
  • Students may be forced to do tests for selective schools when they have no chance of getting in, and therefore are under unnecessary stress
  • Parents will support the teacher in learning, and students will value learning as their parents do

Most private schools have parents that exhibit above symptoms. This can be both harmful and helpful. And some parents may only be helpful, or may only be harmful. But in deciding where to teach consider the parents that you will be partnering with in educating their children.

Stay tuned for Parents who don’t care enough.

You can read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.

No Such Thing as a Private School

December 2, 2009 in Education with 4 Comments

This semester at Uni I have been doing some research into the funding of Public and Private Schools.

Through this research I have come to believe that (in terms of funding), there is no such thing as a Private school in Australia.

On the right is a breakdown of funding in Australian schools from 2008. As can be clearly seen, both private and public schools receive government funding. Of this, Public schools receive far more State funding and Private schools receive more Federal funding.

Government (Public) schools receive $1022 per student from the Federal government and $10222 per student from the State government, for a total of $11244 per student from government funding.

Non-government (Private) schools receive $4713 per student from the Federal government and $1664 per student from the State government, for a total of $6377 per student from government funding.

How can we can non-government schools “Private” when they clearly receive government funding. Sure, they may have policies that are not dictated by the government. But why cant we have a system where every student goes to the local comprehensive government school? I understand that there are reasons for this (I will detail these reasons in a future post), however surely a single system of education would benefit the education of all.

Australia has a history of a split system of education (mainly based on religion), which is where a lot of these issues come from. Other countries such as Canada and England have a more mainstream system of education, where there are Private schools, but they are for the VERY rich only. I wonder if there is any possibility of a single mainstream system of education in Australia?

What do you think?

Public vs Private #6 | Freedom

August 4, 2009 in Education with 7 Comments

BibleIn a Christian private school, a teacher will have significant religious freedom.

I recently received a Facebook message from somebody who has recently graduated as a teacher and is in her first year of teaching (Hey Liz), and she mentioned that she has the joy of reading the Bible to her students each and every morning. She also said that they even go home and ask there parents to read the Bible to them!

And it’s not like her students are all Christians, she estimated that around 90% are from non-Christian homes!

How exciting is that!

I must say that I do not have a public school teachers experience to draw from, but in my experience, this would never happen at a public school.

The freedom that Christians would have at private schools is certainly an exciting prospect as a pre-service teacher…

You can read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.

Public vs Private #5 | Lunchtime Group

July 28, 2009 in Education with 1 Comment

Awesome sandwichA school Christian lunchtime group is a great place for Christian students to invite their friends to hear about the gospel.

One of the catches with a school lunchtime group at a public school is that a teacher of the school is required to sign off on the group. This means that if their isn’t a teacher to sign off on the group, then a lunchtime group cannot exist.

So for lunchtime Christian groups to exist, then Christian teachers must be present in public schools. Their would also be opportunities for a Christian teacher to run the group.

This doesn’t mean that a Christian teacher couldn’t be involved with a lunchtime group at a private school, but there are most likely chaplains or youth workers to run these groups.

Lunchtime groups are a great place for students to hear the gospel, as well as receiving leadership training, so it would be sad if they weren’t able to run.

You can learn more about lunchtime groups at the Scripture Union website.

If you have any thoughts on anything that I have said, please share below in the comments section.

You can read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.

Public vs Private #2 | Scripture

June 23, 2009 in Education with 4 Comments

ClassroomNSW is one of the few places in the world (I do not know of any others) that allows scripture to be taught in public schools.

This is an incredible opportunity.

(If you have not read the first post in this series, please read it here now, it is a basis for all thought)

Scripture (or SRE, Special Religious Education) is mandated to be part of NSW government schools.

“In every government school, time is to be allowed for the religious education of children of any religious persuasion, but the total number of hours so allowed in a year is not to exceed, for each child, the number of school weeks in the year.”

Education Act 1990 No 8, Part 6 – 32 Special religious education

So SRE has a definite space in public schools,. SRE in NSW is also mandated to be based on an opt-out system, rather than an opt-in system (Education Act 1990 No 8, Part 6 - 33 Objection to religious education).

Scripture is the norm, and the public support it as well! 65% of the broad population in NSW support SRE (From here).

So scripture is in schools, and it is important, but what does that mean for teachers?

Teachers can have an impact on the number of hours of scripture that is taught, and also on when it is taught. This can be done through a few main avenues.

  • Teachers can be a voice in the school that supports SRE, this is vital as the principal decides when and where scripture is taught.
  • Teachers can also support clergy and other lay teachers through actively encouraging scripture publicly.
  • Teachers can also encourage students to learn during scripture by valuing it themselves, rather than dismissing it as “time off”.

If you are a teacher in a public school, then you can actively support the teaching of scripture at your school. You cannot do this at a private school.

Read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.

Public vs Private #1

June 16, 2009 in Education with 16 Comments

TeachingOver the coming months, I’m going to be trying to decide whether to teach in a private school or a public school. This is going to include a series of posts documenting my ideas on this issue.

A few things to note before I start

  • I know there are great reasons for teaching in both private and public schools. There is not a right or wrong choice.
  • I want to know which would be best for me in serving God.
  • My views on this could change, so although I am trying to work this out early in (not even half-way through) my degree, I may not feel this way in 2 years.
  • I would really appreciate others jumping in on the discussion.
  • This process will also hopefully help me (and others) to think about how we can actively serve God through teaching
  • This process involves thinking mainly about Primary schools, but a lot of it will be relevant for Secondary schools as well.
  • Finally, in this process I am referring to private (independent schools) and public (government schools). I personally do not think that I would teach at a Christian school or a Catholic school.
  • UPDATE: Will be referring to the school system within NSW, Australia.

That’s the basis from which I will be writing the rest of the posts.

Let’s see what happens…

Read the rest of the posts in this series at Public vs Private | Main Page.