Welcome to the June 2006 edition of Public Education Voice.

This edition concentrates on the key issue of values in Australian schools. It shows how teaching and practising values, especially in our public schools is often a crucial factor in student well-being, academic achievement and school morale. As one teacher tells us “ after all, teaching and practising good values is about building good relationships where we treat each other with respect”. Try it for yourself. Look at the way you relate to other people. Is the relationship based on suspicion, self-centred competition, a desire to have others fail, an unwillingness to listen or a consistent wish to boss others around? Do our low expectations about someone actually affect the way he or she actually performs, especially young people? American journalist H.L.Mencken said “a string quartet usually performs badly if there is a howling mob outside the window baying for their blood.”

As always, would principals and teachers please forward copies of this newsletter to parents on your governing councils and parent associations.

Click on the link to visit www.acsso.org.au

President's Column

New Education Minister
ACSSO warmly welcomes Minister Julie Bishop to the education portfolio. We have profiled the Minister elsewhere in this newsletter. We look forward to working with the Minister in advancing and continuing to improve the quality of public education in Australia.

Pre School Education
One of Minister Bishop's first major policy stance as reported in the media is her support for compulsory pre-school education. Research shows that a quality pre-school experience can make a huge difference in the "school readiness" of children entering Kindergarten. It also provides long term societal benefits, as more children achieve success at school and are less likely to enter the juvenile justice systems. ACSSO has long supported the needs of early childhood education, and is pleased that the Minister also recognises that the present ad hoc provision across the eight states and territories is in need of a a major overhaul.

Reporting to Parents
As President I want to make it clear that ACSSO is not opposed to A-E reporting per se as some ideologues have tried to imply. We want to work towards an effective system of reporting so that parents are meaningfully involved with the education of their children. Essentially we want reporting to parents to be:

· straightforward and in plain English

· part of a continuing dialogue between parents, student and teachers; if the report card is the first time a parent is made aware of a problem with their child, then the system is not effective

· consistent between schools and, where possible, consistent between states and territories

· encouraging to the student so that you do not knock their confidence and self-esteem around

· accompanied by some practical advice about what the school intends to do about any problems mentioned in the report, especially how the school will engage with the parents to provide remedies or help a bright student to do even better

Jennifer Branch

Top

Ages and Stages of Learning

Understanding your Child

The Two to Four Year Old
This is the egocentric learner in full flight. They
can now store memories and images in their minds,so they like to role-play, act out, act powerful, experiment, test and generally just check out how powerful this new creature really is. The terrible twos are the result of this need to ego-satisfy and many parents mistakenly believe that their child is personally rejecting them.
Because of their inflated ego they respond to being told how big they’re getting and how good they’re getting. This can also work to your advantage because every time you reward them for doing the right thing, it makes them feel good, up jumps their ego and they’ll do more of it – not out of love for you, but out of love for themselves! At this stage anything involving
their ego or their imagination will work wonders. But their world is immediate, so if they’re to be rewarded or punished it must be as close as possible to the action so they link the two together. Waiting is one of the things they need to learn but start it in small chunks they understand, eg when the oven timer goes.

The Five and Six Year Old
These kids still have their lovely imagination but their ego has settled and they’re now keen to make others feel good. If you capitalise on their thirst to be told they’re good then you can develop the most adorable kids. Their behaviour can be reinforced even by abstract symbols of parental approval, such as star and charts
and their behaviour can be shaped by consistently reinforcing behaviour you want and consistently punishing behaviour you don’t. Because they believe in their world, things that shatter that faith hurt hard. If a dog is nasty to them or somebody hurts them then they
can wear the scars for a long time.

Dr John Irvine is one of Australia's most well known child psychologists. The ACT Government's ParentLink program publishes a series of pamphlets that draw on his work. To read about the 7-11 and teenage years, or some his other publications, click on this LINK.

Top

ACSSO ANNUAL CONFERENCE

October 26th and 27th 2006

ACSSO’s National Education Conference for 2006 will be held in Melbourne on 26 October and 27 October

“The Schools We Need Tomorrow - How to Get There”

This year the Conference will encourage the participants to plan the kind of schools and education that we will need in the near future. Experts will discuss the issues and you will then design all the necessary components of tomorrow’s schools. Those components that you will help design will cover physical design and construction including appropriate school size, curriculum, teacher training and methods, student health and well-being, management, funding, capital works and how to pay for them, communicating with parents and the community, the use of technology, early childhood and parenting assistance.

This is not crystal ball gazing, this is your opportunity to influence the school models that ACSSO will be pursuing in every decision making forum in the future.

Bookings available soon at www.acsso.org.au or admin@acsso.org.au

Top

VALUES A KEY TO SCHOOL SUCCESS
As part of the Australian Government and State Governments’ programme of promoting the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools. ACSSO has been asked to enable a full understanding of the role values play in our schools.

WHY VALUES ARE IMPORTANT?
All ACSSO’s research has pointed in one direction; that teaching and practising values in our schools is about building respectful relationships; respecting yourself and others. This applies to their beliefs, their contributions and their value as citizens, schoolmates or colleagues in the work force.

Top

NEW MEDIA LAWS-WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT TO OUR VALUES?

What do you think?

The Australian Government is moving to change Australia’s media ownership laws, starting with key issues such as foreign ownership controls, ending analogue television and dropping cross-media ownership rules which previously prevented media proprietors from owning both newspapers and television stations in the same city.

For parents and children, it is a major issue because the media has a major influence on our lives. The values that we uphold and that we want our children to practise are affected by what our young people see on television, at the movies or in the print media. This is often then reinforced or influenced by their peer group.

In addition, despite globalisation, all cultures try to train and mould the next generation in order that they can become worthy and fulfilled citizens in that society. Most of us recognize that Australia is unique and the way we practise our values is worth retaining. That is why all our Education Ministers have agreed on a National Framework of Values which sets out nine key values that they want taught and practised in Australian schools.

If the media is a major influence on the way those values are taught and practised, what questions do we need to answer before we finalize the new media rules? ACSSO wrote to the enquiry which the Government set up about the new media rules and we asked some key questions which we believe all Parliamentarians ought to be able to answer before they lock down the new rules.

ACSSO has provided a submission to the committee examining the potential impact of these changes. To read ACSSO’s submission click on the following link www.acsso.org.au

Top

SA POLL- PUBLIC SCHOOLS DO WELL WITH VALUES EDUCATION

The Australian School of Government Studies recently polled a random sample of 400 South Australians about their views on the teaching and practice of values in South Australia public schools. The results were very positive with more than 39% agreeing that state schools teach values such as doing your best, being responsible, care and compassion. A further 16% said maybe. Nearly 32% disagreed.

The telephone poll, conducted over the week ending 29th March, asked one simple question, a polling technique which gets a more representative response than long interviews which many people find intrusive.

Question: “ Do you believe that state schools teach values such as doing your best, being responsible, care and compassion?”

The respondents were asked to indicate
Yes - No - Maybe - Don’t Know - No comment

The Responses

Yes - 39%
No - 32%
Maybe - 16%
Don’t Know - 12%
No Comment - 1.5%

Since parents of private schools were also represented proportionately in the sample, the results are a significant pat on the back to the state system, teachers and parents. Of even more interest is the percentage of respondents who have firm views about the issue.

Photograph courtesy Modbury School SA.

Top

VALUES-PRACTISING WHAT WE PREACH

A Test Case
As part of its Values Alive and Well! programme, ACSSO and Australian Parents Council ran a workshop and active focus group at the 2006 Values Education National Forum. An active focus group is a technique which tests a proposition through an exercise designed to test people’s reactions then draw conclusions from their behaviour.

The workshop/focus group was run by ACSSO President Jennifer Branch, ACSSO Executive Officer Hon.Terry Aulich and APC Executive Director Ian Dalton.

The proposition to be tested was simple; that the values we hold need to be practised in a real world that is not always perfect and that treating people with respect actually leads to better outcomes in the workplace, especially schools.

We divided the focus group into two groups and provided them with a scenario which was based on a clash of values of the kind that can face school principals and school communities. Details of the scenario follow, and can be used by any group for their own training and awareness raising purposes.

Unknown to the other participants, two real life principals were asked to play roles. One was to be inclusive, understanding, respectful of the parent representatives whilst the other was to be pushy, single minded and determined to get her own way. The three facilitators then attempted to ensure that, within the two groups, there was a potential clash of values wherever possible.

The Results
The group with the inclusive principal actually achieved more and their strategy was far more effective than the other group which had been driven in directions overtly dominated by the principal. For example, the inclusive group actually produced a well balanced media statement and had a reasonable compromise in place when the two groups joined up again. The second group couldn’t actually agree on what they had decided or even what had gone on in the negotiations. They had no press release and were already wary of what the principal might do with the media.

Top

RESOLVING A CLASH OF VALUES IN A SCHOOL SITUATION

The following scenario was used in a workshop at the Values Education National Forum held at the National Museum in Canberra on 4 nad 5 May 2006. Readers are welcome to use this in their own schools.

Suggested Format
Ten minute introduction and scene setting
Twenty minute School Board meeting
Fifteen minute report back from the three Board meetings
Fifteen minutes plenary analysis

Scenario
Your school, Northfield High, is a large high school of 1000 students in the inner suburbs of Melbourne It is quite multicultural given that there are 25 nationalities and many religions represented in the student population. A number are recent immigrants from the Middle East, such as Iraqis and Iranians and many from Indo-China.
The school board has already selected and applied for major capital funding under the Australian Government’s Investing in Our Schools Programme. The deadline has closed for 2006.
The project is the building of a badly needed covered structure which, in the overcrowded school grounds, will provide a sealed lunching and meeting area. The school and parents are delighted with the proposal, without understanding all the planning issues like siting, sewerage connections etc
The Victorian Education Department has previously advised the school that the structure can only be built in that position.
The trouble now begins.
The project will pave most of the memorial gardens which were planted to commemorate two former students of the school who were killed in the first Gulf War and in Vietnam respectively. The garden has a lone pine tree now 40 years old commemorating the Vietnam veteran and a 15 year rose garden which commemorates the Gulf War soldier who died.
There has been a belated protest from the state RSL which has made last night’s television news. Some of the more recent immigrants are strongly in favour of the new project because it will allow a de facto separation of boys and girls during the school breaks. One of the parents on the School Board has already made a statement to that effect and others also see it as a matter of principle.

You are the School Board and you are about to meet to make a decision and issue a statement to the parent-school community and to the waiting press who see a good front page story.

How will you handle the issue and possible future issues like it?
How will the process that you follow relate to the nine Values for Australian Schooling ?

Action
Play the role of the Board, prepare the agreed statement and report.
Appoint a minute secretary to the Board who records the discussion and the agreed final statement.

Top

National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools

This framework identified nine Values for Australian Schooling, namely:
• Care and Compassion
• Doing Your Best
• Fair Go
• Freedom
• Honesty and Trustworthiness
• Integrity
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion

AN INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE

Share your good practice in Values Education with us. Send us a paragraph or two about how you as a principal, teacher or parent, develop values in your school. What values are important and how do you go about promoting them? Adding a photograph or two would add extra interest. We will publish your good news story on the ACSSO website. Contact projects@acsso.org.au

To read what schools have sent in already, click here.

Photograph courtesy Augusta Park PS, SA.

Top