Minnis Journals

ET News Digest

Your Weekly Education Newsletter

The negative effect of violence on test scores
Children who attend school with a lot of kids from violent neighborhoods can earn significantly lower test scores than peers with classmates from safer areas. Depression, attention problems, and discipline issues are also very common.
Students in schools where more kids have a high exposure to violence score as much as 10% lower on annual standardised maths and reading tests and urban violence and school choice programs can work together to spread collateral damage. Read More

Go Girl Go For IT aims to close the IT gender gap for Victorian students
2000 girls from 73 Victorian schools will attend Go Girl, Go For IT on 16 August at Deakin University Burwood Campus – hosted by the Victorian ICT for Women network which aims to inspire female students to consider a career in IT.
Studies show that only 3% of school girls are considering an IT career and only one in four Australian IT graduates are female. And despite a 70% growth of ICT jobs since 1996, women account for only 16% of ICT roles in Australia. With the demand for digital skills on the rise, it's more important than ever to encourage more females into STEM careers. Read More

Risk management in schools
Risk management is the kind of thing that can be put on the back burner but it is a great way to avoid problems, and having some processes in place if or when things do go wrong is a great advantage.
Doing it well does requires expertise and risk assessor Aon is engaged in an ongoing risk excellence program with independent schools, gathering data and insight in regard to best practice surrounding risks associated with safety, property, work health and safety, resilience and effective risk management frameworks. Read More

Sounds like a phonics debate
Phonics has been controversial for years and leading educators will meet in Sydney next week to further the debate.
They will present and argue the case for particular methods as well as the limitations of approaches. It is timely as the NSW State Government plans to support a mandatory Year 1 phonics check.
The event, presented by the Australian College of Educators and the Centre for Independent Studies will see experts on both sides of the argument debate the benefits and pitfalls of teaching synthetic phonics (where children practise sounding out letters and sounds out of context) in Australian primary schools. Read More

SACE grows in SE Asia
They must be doing something right in South Australian education as seven more schools in Asia will begin teaching the world-class South Australian Certificate of Education for the first time from 2019.
The certificate’s focus on how students can become better learners and independent thinkers and creative problem solvers has won over schools all over South East Asia.
Students are awarded the SA Certificate by the SACE Board of SA.
Read More

Site brings military history to life
RSL Queensland’s website RSL Education provides student activities, teaching notes and engaging multimedia content tailored to suit students of all ages, from Prep to Year 12, covering Australia’s role in the wars and peacekeeping operations of the past century.
The launch of the resource precedes the upcoming commemorations for the Centenary of Armistice. Read More

Musica Viva 2019 season launch
Musica Viva’s shows for the coming year have been announced and the program will continue its work taking live music and educational resources to children all over Australia.
Touring in New South Wales and South Australia, Timmy and the Breakfast Band explores how music influences our actions, thoughts and emotions in an energetic pairing of music-making and circus.
Read More

littleBIGidea winners will fly to the NASA Kennedy Space Centre
The search for Australia’s brightest young inventors is officially underway, as Origin’s littleBIGidea competition launches for its fifth year, with engineer, inventor and futurist, Dr Jordan Nugyen returning as head judge and ambassador.
The littleBIGidea competition invites students between grades three to eight to show off their creativity and inventive spirit Read More