This educational page is targeted towards students attending secondary schools.

It provides links and information relevant to the NSW Parliament, NSW Government and other organisations which support and promote our democratic ideals, institutions and culture. There will also occasionally be news releases and information relating to school students.

News

September 19 - Minister announces young workers’ safety posters

Winners of the WorkCover Young Workers’ Poster Competition were announced today. There were over 300 entries from across NSW - the object being to design posters targeting workers aged between 15 and 25 y/o. The winner was Christopher, a 16 year old student from Epping Boys High School, and he received $2,000 for his poster in the secondary institutions section, while 17 year old St George TAFE student won $3,000 in the tertiary and other educational institutions section. The full list of winners and runners-up and their entries can be found at www.youngworkers.com.au

30 August - New laws to protect young NSW workers from unfair Federal Work Choices legislation

NSW Premier Morris Iemma today announced new legislation to protect the working conditions of young people from John Howard’s Work Choices laws. "In NSW there are more than 150,000 young people under the age of 18 who are in formal employment. At present, Work Choices allows employers to set their pay and conditions below minimum state and federal awards," Premier Morris Iemma said. Mr Iemma said that under the new laws regardless of whether a young person is employed under a federal or state award:

• Wages and conditions will have to be at least at the level provided by NSW awards and legislation
• Young workers will not have to bargain individually to maintain their existing penalties, allowances, training pay and leave

4 August - $1 million in engineering scholarships for rural and regional students

Twenty students in regional and rural NSW will have the chance of winning a scholarship fully funded by the RTA to study engineering next year at the University of Technology, Sydney. The 20 scholarships, worth $50,000 each, will cover the full cost of a Bachelor of Engineering and Diploma in Engineering Practice at UTS. For further information or an application form contact UTS Engineering on (02) 9514 2666 or visit www.eng.uts.edu.au

19 July - New Student Report cards explained

NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt today released a brochure explaining new student report cards that will be issued by public schools at the end of this year. The new report cards will:

• be written in plain language
• provide parents with a snapshot of their child’s achievements with an A to E grade that’s easy to understand
• provide information about the student’s social development and commitment to learning
• provide information about the student’s learning in each subject
• include teacher comments that identify areas of strength and areas for further development in each subject

Additional information is available on the Education Department’s website at www.det.nsw.edu.au

15th June - New Annual School reports - the implementation of new school reports from 2007 fulfills a commitment given by the NSW Government before the last election. The reports will be the most comprehensive ever produced and contain more detail than in any other State or Territory. The new Annual School reports will present information in a consistent way, comparing a school’s performance in statewide tests to the statewide average and ’similar’ schools as well as over the past the four years. The information that will be included:

• student attendance
• teacher qualifications
• expenditure and teacher participation in professional learning
• types of extracurricular activities on offer
• improvement targets
• measures to instil the values of Respect and Responsibility among students
• proportion of Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students meeting national benchmark standards in reading, writing and numeracy
• average standardised assessment results for Year 9 and 10 students
• senior secondary outcomes
• proportion of Year 9 students retained to year 12 (or equivalent); and
• Parent, student and teacher satisfaction

Samples of the new Annual School reports can be downloaded by clicking here  

New direction for tackling skills shortages - NSW Premier Morris Iemma has announced a new $18 million plan to create 10 new dedicated trade schools with school based apprenticeships and traineeships for HSC students as part of the 2006-07 Budget. Each trade school will specialise in an area that reflects the needs of the local labour market. The first trade school will be located at Colyton Western Sydney and will focus on partnerships with industry - specialising in construction and located near a major housing development. The location of the remaining nine (9) schools will be announced over the coming months.

How will the trade schools work? Of the 10 schools, 5 will be based in existing high schools and be provided with upgraded industry standard facilities, and 5 will consist of school-TAFE partnerships, using existing TAFE facilities. Students have the option of undertaking a school-based traineeship or other vocational course while completing their HSC. School-based apprentices and school-based trainees will be on the job for approximately one day a week. They’ll get recognition for all the work they complete, for example, undertaking part-time training in years 11 and 12 will allow apprentices and trainees to get their qualifications a year earlier.

Apprentices suffer as John Howard closes DETNAC - from 30 June, the Federal Government will drop the Department of Education’s New Apprenticeships Centre contract. It will hurt young people’s chances of gaining apprentices, as well as the skill development of NSW and Australia. In NSW DETNAC currently helps 100,000 apprentices and trainees and more than 37,000 employers’ recruitment needs. The NSW Government is asking John Howard to review this short-sighted decision.

Soft drinks to be banned from Schools as Child Obesity rises - the Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPANS) involved 93 schools statewide and almost 5,500 students aged between 5 and 16 years, and was the most comprehensive survey of exercise and eating habits ever conducted in Australia. The report found that children were more active today than they were in 1997, but the incidence of overweight and obese children was rising by 1% every year. Children were getting bigger because of a combination of too much high calorie food with no nutritional value, and not enough exercise to burn off those calories. One glass of soft drink contains almost 10 teaspoons of sugar, and the survey showed almost 6 in 10 boys, and 4 in 10 girls drink more than one glass of soft drink a day. The ban on soft drinks will come into effect from term one 2007. Some of the more disturbing findings include:

• children as young as 15 years showing signs of diabetes, liver damage and heart disease - chronic disease not usually seen until people are in their 40s
• almost 25% of children in NSW are overweight or obese, with the rate as high as 33% in boys and girls aged 9-12
• up to 30% of older students eat junk food at least 4 times a week
• up to 40% of high school students don’t eat breakfast, and almost 15% of all children don’t eat dinner

On-line Homework Helper - parents and students can now access a new ‘one stop shop’ website with more than 20,000 safe and approved homework and education research links. The NSW Minister for Education Carmel Tebbutt launched the Teaching and Learning Exchange (TaLe). Go to www.tale.edu.au 

Links

Your rights at work - how the IR changes affect you

UnionTeach - Resources for teaching about unions in school

Latest from Workers Online - Keep up to date with the latest industrial news

LabourStart - Find out about international industrial news

NSW Parliament for Schools - organise a tour, get Civics resources, Parliamentary publications and notes on the Parliament’s history, and the system of Government in NSW

ACTU for Schools - info, activities, assignment hints, hip hop

The "Westie-minster" system - Ian’s take on our system of Government

Unions NSW - find out for yourself what Unions in NSW do

ACTU - a short history of Australian Unions

NSW Government - find out about NSW Government services