IN BRIEF

National ICT Careers Week 2010 will be held in all states and territories from 26 July to 1 August as an initiative of the ICT Industry Leadership Group, co-hosted by the Australian Computer Society and the Australian Information Industry Association.Glen Boreham, MD of IBM Australia, has been appointed Ambassador of the National ICT Careers Week for 2010. From the dedicated website school-leavers can see the limitless opportunities available.

Google's First International Teaching Academy
Google's first international teaching academy will take place on 29 July 2010 at their offices in London. Google are looking for parrticipants worldwide, so if you would like to take part, polish up your writing and video skills and get your entry in. More>>

Sharing of Principals
South Australian schools may be forced to share principals to address the looming shortage. The ageing workforce of teachers and issues over attraction and retention of principals will lead to a shortfall of school management staff in four to five years, they predict. The South Australian Secondary Principals Association has suggested "executive principals" - leaders of two or more campuses - may be one solution. More>>

Australian National Curriculum
ACARA is welcoming and encouraging the involvement of all stakeholders in the consultation process. Whether you are a teacher, parent or student, there are opportunities to provide feedback on the draft senior secondary Australian Curriculum. You can rate and comment on each draft course online, complete an online survey for each course and provide more detailed written feedback via email: consultation@acara.edu.au

Move to Learn Seminar in Adelaide
Teachers, parents and caregivers learn how to use the easy sequence of Move to Learn movements with your class or your child at home to assist their learnign development, maturation and mastery. Thursday 5 August 2010 9am - 3:30pm at Our Lady Sacredt Heart Parish Hall, Henley Beach. Contact Veronica Steer for details.

Teachers say best work not being rewarded
Ninety percent of Australian teachers say the best do not get the recognition they deserve. A report by an independent public policy institute comparing how teachers are evaluated across 23 countries shows Australia's system is well below others. The report by the Grattan Institute used data from the OECD survey on teaching and learning. More>>
Also read

FYA's Tell Us
The website Tell Us, www.tellus.org.au is the most recent contribution from the Foundation for Young People (FYA) where they are seeking to amplify the views of 50,000 young secondary students and include them in the debate about education and reform, providing them with a platform of what success at school means to them. The FYA is part of the Schools First program working with the National Australia Bank.

A major research report released by Education Foundation, a division of The Foundation for Young Australians, argues for systemic reform to school funding in Australia.

The report, titled Resourcing schools in Australia: A proposal for the restructure of public funding, recommends that all registered schools in Australia be funded under a single framework. This would help to overcome problems with Australia’s current parallel funding systems and make school resourcing fairer and more transparent, the report argues.

Resourcing schools in Australia can be viewed or downloaded at www.fya.org.au

Oral exams would be fairer to left-handers who fall behind in English & History
It's reported in England that pupils should be given spoken as well as written exams to prevent left-handed children falling behind, a leading headmaster has suggested. Anthony Clark said left-handers may benefit from oral exams in subjects such as English and history because they find writing awkward, reducing their chances of achieving good grades. Spoken exams would give left-handed pupils a chance to shine because they hone their verbal skills to compensate for difficulties with writing. Read More>> Do you agree? Let us know?
 

Wear a mouthguard at play, to keep the dentist away
Every year, thousands of people, including young children, are treated for dental injuries that could have been avoided or minimised by wearing a protective custom-fitted mouthguard. The Australian Dental Association recommend that properly custom fitted mouthguards are best as they won't restrict breathing, are tight fitting and provide maximum resistance against being dislodged and that the boil and bite mouthguards do not offer enough protection.

Private Schools to test applicants
Private schools across Australia are considering pre-entry testing of children as young as five in literacy and numeracy, raising concerns it is designed to weed out and exclude potentially poor-performing students. While South Australian private schools denied the "assessments" would be used to screen student enrolments, experts have branded the plan "suspicious" and "anti-education". More>>

IN BRIEF

CSI Capri - Scientists Solving Crime
Forensic Science – The REAL deal! Students and public are invited to meet real forensic scientists. The spotlight focuses on the crime scene, a clandestine drug laboratory, the analytical laboratories at FSSA and the mortuary. From dead bodies to DNA, forensic scientists will showhow modern scientific techniques are applied to DNA, drugs, glass fragments, material fibres, handwriting, autopsy and pathology. Professor Adrian Linacre from Flinders University will also present advice on career options in forensic science. For more info ph: 08 8226 7700 email: forensic_scienceweek@sa.gov.au

760 Students Receive Defence Scholarships
Alan Griffin, Minister for Veterans' Affairs & Minister for Defence Personnel, today announced that 760 students from across Australia have been awarded Defence Technical Scholarships. Mr Griffin said five students from Gisborne Secondary College in Victoria are examples of the scholarship recipients across Australia receiving this highly competitive and prestigious award. More>>
 

The Amazing Bodies Exhibition is on show in Melbourne until 30 August 2010.
For the first time in Australia students have the opportunity to take an eye-opening journey through the inner workings of the human and animal body, revealing the intricacies of the skeletal, muscular, nervous, cardiovascular, digestive and respiratory systems.“The Amazing Bodies” is a spectacular artistic and scientific journey of the human and animal body and features more than 200 authentic specimens, including 30 whole bodies displayed in life like poses, individual organs and transparent slices that have beenpreserved through a technique known as “plastination”. For more information go to amazingbodies.com.au

Remote school's student have opportunity to participate in film making workshop
KWN is a short video competition for primary and secondary school student’s which aims to inspire creativity and encourage teamwork in the classroom. St Michael's Primary School in Coolamon were treated to a private filmaking session when KWN visited the school. Principal Brendan Flanagan said, "“Each year the KWN program hosts film making tutorials in Sydney however due to the remoteness of our school we have never been able to attend a session, however this year the experts have come to us." This year 63 schools from across Australia will take part in the program which sees student’s write, direct, shoot and star in their very own short video. The 2010 KWN New Vision Awards will be held at The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney in October.    

Volunteer to be a part of the 2010 MS Readathon Great Reading Adventure
The MS Readathon is looking for volunteers across Australia to help inspire children to read and raise funds for multiple sclerosis (MS).The MS Readathon is Australia’s premier reading-based fundraiser which encourages Australians to read books, learn about multiple sclerosis (MS) and raise funds to help people living with MS. Children and adults of all ages take part in the MS Readathon. Last year, the MS Readathon raised over $2,400,000 nationally with 51,000 participants reading over 1 million books during June, July and August. The highest fundraiser in Australia was 10 year old Cameron Cox from the ACT who raised an amazing $30,025. Visit their website for more information.

Helicopter Parents not doing enough to let children fail
The belief that regular praise will improve the self-esteem of students has backfired, with educators urging over-anxious parents to let their children fail so they can learn from their mistakes. Parents were also doing too much for their children who were becoming less resilient and unable to cope with failure. Some were even too scared to put up their hand in class and risk giving the wrong answer.

As new research shows that members of Generation Y are entering the workforce with an inflated sense of their abilities, principals are warning ''helicopter parents'' against putting too much pressure on children to be successful, which could discourage them from risking failure. More>>

Music, Count Us In
Last year thousands of students, parents and families learned, rehearsed and performed the same song. The music and singing rang out in Australian primary and secondary schools, from the Kimberleys to Campbelltown! Why? To create a nationwide celebration of the value of music education for ALL students. With support from The Australian Government plans for Music: Count Us In 2010 are in full swing. Sign up and take part More >>

Triumph for A School's Healthy Eating policy
Healthy' school wins battle against local takeaway A school with a "healthy eating" policy has won its High Court battle to prevent a fast food takeaway being set up nearby. A judge declared that Tower Hamlets council in east London had ''acted unlawfully'' when it gave the go-ahead for ''Fried & Fabulous'' to open for business close to Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in Shadwell. More>>

EDUCATION WRITERS AUSTRALIA & UK

Schooldays magazine requires suitably qualified education journalists - one in Australia and one in the UK to write features and news items. Both roles are freelance and knowledge of the school education systems in each country is preferred.
Contact us by email.

Top Teacher and Students Over the Moon
On Friday 11 June, Ms Bree Harvey was presented the NEiTA 2010 ASG International Space Camp Award in recognition of her outstanding teaching excellence. Bree is formerly from Callaghan College, Wallsend Campus in New South Wales and is now teaching at Hunter School of Performing Arts, Broadmeadow, NSW. More>>

Talking about a service revolution
More than 200 young leaders from each state and territory in Australia will converge on Sydney to start a service revolution at the 8th Australian National Leadership Camp (NLC). Young people, chosen by teachers and community representatives for their leadership potential, will spend four days developing their leadership skills and hearing from renowned Australian leaders about their success. The students will also work on ways to solve important youth issues like cyber bullying, school yard violence and ways to build positive school cultures. “The students are taught much needed skills in communication, creativity and team building, which will help them to be culture changers back at their schools, empower them to resolve conflict effectively in their peer groups and to lead by building positive relationships” Rising Generations CEO Bec Heinrich said. For more info go to Rising Generations

The makings of a Stella career, (Foundation for Young Australians - FYA)
In 2007, Stella Merson was in Year 4 at Mornington Primary School when her teacher helped her apply for an Education Foundation Opportunity Scholarship. Stella had a passion for writing and dreamed of becoming an author. "I like to record my experiences in life," said the 10 year-old in her original application. "I keep a journal and write about people I have met, places I have been and my thoughts about things real or not. I can write in different genres and know how to construct a good story." More>>

Game on, as parents beat ban on 'competitive' school sports
A children's sports competition that was cancelled to protect young players from becoming upset if they lost has been reinstated after parents campaigned against the decision. The tournament, which has taken place in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders for 40 years, was threatened because sports development officers at the local council believed that primary schoolchildren on losing teams would suffer from "low self-esteem". More>>

ARTEXPRESS 2010
Now in its 27th year, ARTEXPRESS is a series of visual arts showcases exhibiting across the state annually. It provides young people with the experience of having their artistic endeavours displayed in a professional context, and viewed by the general public in substantial numbers. More>>

Elearning Textbook
The release of Active Textbook elearning application was recently announced in California at the Learning Impact 2010 conference by IMS Global Impact by Evident Point. IMS is an organisation dedicated to the development and adoption of innovative technologies to improve and transform education worldwide.
Active Textbook lets educators, authors and publishers create electronic textbooks that offer learning experiences enhanced with multimedia and interactivity.
Features of the application were demoed live at the conference including the ability to:Automatically convert to Active Textbook from a textbook XPS or PDF

• Inclusion of High-res media, video and animations
• Bookmarks, notes, scribbles and support for interactive quizzes
• Easy navigation with chapter list, media list
• Free Web-based Silverlight interactive viewer
• Keeps all author intent on content and layout
• Vector representation supports unlimited zoom
• Attachment: Office documents, HTML pages

"The Active Textbook solution empowers the strategy of distributing electronic books in a format which provides both students, publishers and educators with new benefits and possibilities." comments Luis Fernando del Signo from Tralcom http://www.tralcom.com/
Evident Point, established in 1995, is a leading provider of e-Book and
e-Learning software and firmware worldwide.

Fish oil helps schoolchildren to concentrate
Children can learn better at school by taking omega-3 fish oil supplements which boost their concentration, scientists say. Boys aged eight to 11 who were given doses once or twice a day of docosahexaenoic acid, an essential fatty acid known as DHA, showed big improvements in their performance during tasks involving attention. Dr Robert McNamara, of the University of Cincinnati, who led the team of American researchers, said their findings could help pupils to study more effectively and potentially help to tackle both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression.

FIFA World Cup 2010 project
This project allows students to celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010 whilst also learning about some of the global issues facing South Africa and participating nations. The project provides a series of links to great World Cup resources from around the world. Look for links for teachers and students. Go to FIFA Project World Cup 2010 Online

FIFA World Cup 2010 photo: FIFA Project World Cup 2010 online

Stronger Smarter NAIDOC poster competition 2010
The Stronger Smarter NAIDOC Poster competition is a chance for all Primary and Secondary students across Australia to showcase their creative skills and share with us who their Unsung Heroes are! Students from throughout Australia are invited to submit artworks for the Stronger Smarter NAIDOC Poster Competition. The winning artwork from the Primary and Secondary school categories will each receive a digital camera valued at $200 and be displayed on the Stronger Smarter Institute website. More details>>

The UK Nursery School that teaches it's pupils bodly go
The question parents most often ask of their children, "What did you do at school today?", usually elicits the somewhat grumpy response: "Not much." Not so, though, if the children have been attending the Nottingham Nursery School, where the answer is likely to be: snail racing, followed by making mud pies, then playing on the hanging tyres before lighting a fire. >>More

Winning Banned in 2/3 of schools as teachers reward ALL students
Two out of three schools are rewarding all pupils on sports days to ensure that nobody feels left out, according to a survey. Teachers want to be 'inclusive' and give prizes to both winners and losers to stop anyone's feelings being hurt. Read more >>