Music by public school students
Welcome to country

Panel: A National Curriculum - What does it involve?

Tony Mackay (Deputy Chair of the new National Curriculum Board), Leonie Trimper (President Australian Primary Principals Association), Jenny Branch (President ACSSO), Andrew Blair (President Australian Secondary Principals Association), The Warren Centre (University of Sydney, Science and Engineering), Asia Education Foundation (Asian Languages)

This session will consist of four brief presentations, then a panel to help raise issues then workshops to provide a blueprint for future directions. These will be reported back towards the end of the day. Tony Mackay will facilitate the key discussions.

Some of the threshold questions to be answered by session one will be:

• Who needs to be consulted about the national curriculum? How are they to be consulted?
• What professional development for teachers will be required? How will it be provided?
• What will be included in a national curriculum? What is core curriculum and where should engineering, sciences, music, drama, values, languages etc sit?
• What should be the relationship between national curriculum and national testing?
• How should that national curriculum be tested?
• What about league tables and their possible emergence and effects?
• Are our current curricula really relevant to student and societal needs or are we baby sitting for too many young people who need something different?
• What would you recommend to the Education Minister about representation on the National Curriculum Board?
• Should the National Curriculum Board be expanded to include responsibilities for assessment and reporting?
• Do we err in believing our schools should be doing everything and that only professional teachers should be offering foreign languages, music and dance, financial management, trade skills and art? When do we tap into the whole community for our learning resources?

Showcasing our Students
Secondary school students will debate critical questions about our education system. This will be followed by musical presentations.

7 pm Formal Dinner at the Royal on the Park
Music background by students then dance band later

Values, Civics and Citizenship - The Big Debate and Poll
Angelo Gavrielatos (President, Australian Education Union), Terry Aulich (Executive Director ACSSO), a representative of the National Schools Chaplaincy Association.

In the light of recent debates about school chaplains, binge drinking, school invasions and the future likely high turn-over of teachers, this debate will cover at least the following questions.

• Why bother about values education?
• Do you need religion in state schools to ensure values are taught?
• When do we set boundaries for young people?
• Are we all too soft when it comes to disciplining young people?
• Is the law a clumsy and ill-fitting tool for kids at risk?
• Are our teachers trained to meet the challenges and the opportunities they will encounter?
• Should we provide pastoral carers rather than chaplains?

This session will be an opportunity for Terry Aulich to present original research about young people, discipline and the law.

A poll will be conducted at the conclusion of the panel discussion.

Building a Communications Strategy for Your School
Panel: Brian Johnson (Fingerprint Communications), Mandy Stevens (Direct Digital), Chris Althaus (Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association), Brenton Holmes and Dr Denis Muller (for the Family School and Community Partnership Bureau), Liana Gorman (Part-time Online).

This session will provide original research from the Family School and Community Partnership Bureau and will cover at least the following issues.

• Building relationships between schools and parents.
• Using new technologies such as mobile phones to reach parents and make learning continuous between home and school (how is your homework going?)
• What role can fundraising play in bringing parents, the community and schools closer?
• What has the Family School and Community Partnership Bureau done? A report.
• What can Parents and Citizen groups do to help the personal and professional development and job opportunities of their own members; that is, what can you do for P&Cs and what can they do for you? How can active membership of your P&C help you get a job or fulfil yourself in ways that suit your family life?
• Should schools help to build or maintain communities? If this is one of its roles, how can a school do that?

Workshop: Designing a Total Communications Strategy for Your School or Bureaucracy
The panel session will be followed by workshops. Participants will be given the opportunity to work as a school council or education administration designing a communications strategy for their organisation. Those strategies will be presented to the plenary session. There will be a strong training component to this exercise which will provide participants with a useful methodology when they return to their home bases.