Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations of New South Wales

What does your P&C Fund?

A survey by the Federation of Parents and Citizens groups across New South Wales has found that Parents are paying for essential educational resources, including teaching positions, in many Public schools.

Please visit the link below to view the survey results, President Dianne Giblin’s interview with the ABC and  our Publicity officer Helen Walton’s  Audio interview with the ABC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/16/2772922.htm

Please click below to see the full survey results
 ABC questionnaire with compiled answers 

This year’s fantastic show  featured a large orchestra, a big band, great singers, and lots of dancers. Telecast of the Schools Spectacular will  be on ABC TV please find the details below:

ABC1 Sunday 13 December 7:30pm – Edited Program
ABC2 Sunday 20 December 7:00pm – Full Program

Justice Michael Kirby's comments in SMH in support of Public Education stating that public school communities do not lobby as well as their private counterparts - not something we weren't aware of.

The Age  is running a blog regarding his whole speech - please take the time read his speech and to make comments regarding Public Education.

Blog on Public and Private Education and Justice Kirby's Article

The NSW Minister for Education and Training Verity Firth today announced the first round of schools to become Centres for Excellence to develop high quality teaching and improve teacher training. NSW is locating Centres for Excellence in 13 primary and secondary schools around the state, from next year. By 2011, 50 Centres for Excellence will be located in every region, Ms Firth said. Each Centre will form the ‘hub’ for a cluster of schools which will extend the benefits to a further 200 schools across the state through Connected Classroom technology.
  School centres for excellence announced

There has been much in the media in regard transparency over school reporting and league tables.

Under the legislation, passed through state parliament last week, common test results including NAPLAN and the HSC will be available on Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard’s website. In NSW this data and much more information has been available for many years on each school’s website as part of their annual report and will continue to be.

The Greens, with support of the opposition and some independents, were successful in moving an amendment which prevents the compilation and publishing of simplistic league tables from this data. 

You can view the amendment:  Amendment 

The P&C Federation applauds this amendment.  Simplistic league tables that compare schools based on test results mislead parents, undermine quality education and stigmatise schools that serve disadvantaged communities. Parents need open, frank and continual communication with schools on a regular basis to provide them with a clearer picture than a table produced out of one day of testing.  To know what’s happening in education and to be in touch with your child’s progress and school performance you need to be in partnership with your school.

How do I claim the Education Tax Refund?

• In your tax return.
• If you don't lodge a tax return, claim on a separate form or over the phone.
• If you use a tax agent, make sure you ask them to claim for you.

The Education Tax Refund lets you claim up to 50% of eligible education expenses for school children. If you are eligible, you can get back up to $375 for each primary student and up to $750 for each secondary student.

You can claim things like text books, stationery and even internet costs.

If you receive Family Tax Benefit Part A for a child at primary or secondary school, you will be eligible. Some other people are eligible too, to find out more about this and other information such as what you can and can't claim go to australia.gov.au/educationtaxrefund or call the Tax Office on 13 28 61. 
   Remember, you need to keep all receipts for expenses you claim.

In addition, the Tax Office has prepared, specifically for schools, some frequently asked questions and answers. These questions and answers can be found on the Tax Office website by following the link below.

 Australian Tax office FAQs

Changes to the management of swine influenza

We’ve started to see a small number of people in public schools diagnosed with swine flu. In response, NSW Health conducted contact tracing in some schools which led to some people being placed into quarantine.

I’d like to thank everyone who has cooperated with this process and acknowledge the effort involved in responding to a difficult health issue.

There are currently around 2,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in Australia and over 300 confirmed cases in NSW.  Despite everyone’s best efforts we now have instances of community transmission in NSW and this will continue to increase.

Australia will enter a new phase of the swine flu response, called ‘Protect’. Transition to this stage will begin immediately. 

The approach is changing because the virus strain is currently not as virulent as anticipated.  Generally the virus produces a mild disease in most people, a severe disease in some, and a moderate effect overall.

This year it is likely many more people will come down with flu-like-illnesses than in recent winter flu seasons because fewer people will have effective immunity to the swine flu virus.  

The aims of the ‘Protect’ phase are to ensure that people at an increased risk of complications from flu are treated early to try to prevent severe illness from developing, and to help control institutional outbreaks in settings such as boarding schools or schools catering mainly for children with special needs.

This new phase means we need to change the way we manage our response to swine flu. 

On the advice of NSW Health, we no longer need to exclude staff or students who are well, and who have been to an area where there is known community or school transmission of the virus.

This means any staff member or student who has been excluded from school because of travel and is well can return to school immediately.

As the number of cases of swine flu increases in the community, school exclusions and closures are unlikely to help in limiting the spread of disease as many more children will catch swine flu outside school rather than in school.

In the transition period, staff or students who have been placed in quarantine by public health authorities should still maintain their quarantine.

This winter swine flu will be circulating with the seasonal flu viruses. It is especially important to protect our staff and students from the spread of flu this winter.

We will now be asking any person with flu symptoms to stay at home until they are well.

Symptoms of flu include fever with a sore throat or cough, muscle aches and pains or unusual tiredness. 

Where possible, you should make sure students who present with these symptoms are distanced from classmates and staff - preferably in a sick-bay - and the parent or carer called and asked to take them home.  Please advise them that they shouldn’t return to school until they are well.

We need to continue to promote good hygiene practices at school and plan for higher than usual levels of absenteeism due to the flu season this winter.

New guidelines to help schools in managing this new phase can be located at;
https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/hsi/index.htm

It is important that information about these changes goes out to your school community.  Please make arrangements for the attached information sheet to go out to staff, parents and carers as soon as possible.

For further advice on how to manage a situation at your school, please contact the Occupational Health and Safety Directorate on 9266 8958 or email influenza@det.nsw.edu.au.

Thanks again for your cooperation. I’ll continue to keep you up to date with relevant information.

 With my best regards,

Michael Coutts-Trotter

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TAFE NSW

18 June 2009

 Swine flu information sheet 18 6 09

Some NSW primary schools will soon offer students a bilingual education, with subjects taught in Asian languages.
The NSW government is funding the four-year $2.25 million program in tomorrow's state budget, with the first four schools to start offering the stream next year. Schools will have to apply to be part of the program, which will be taught by specialist teachers and run alongside the standard English curriculum. NSW Education Minister Verity Firth said that with Asia on the doorstep, the program was vital to the state's future economic and social prosperity.
"We are preparing the future workforce to be fluent in key Asian languages including Mandarin, Korean, Japanese and Indonesian," she said. Ms Firth said research showed the best way to master a language was to start early. She said students would devote 90 minutes each day to language lessons starting in kindergarten, and the language would then be integrated into other subjects.
"For example, students will learn the grammatical components of Mandarin and will also be taught other subjects such as creative arts, health and technology in that language," she said. 

http://www.smh.com.au/national/schools-to-offer-bilingual-education-20090615-c81k.html

Dear Colleagues,

Update on Human Swine Influenza as at 4 June 2009

Thank you for your prompt action in implementing the changes announced in my message last night.

We’ve had further discussion today with NSW Health to clarify how to best implement the exclusion of staff and students who’ve been in greater metropolitan Melbourne, Mexico, Panama, USA, Canada and Japan.

As previously advised, children who have travelled to these locations will be required to stay away from school for seven days after their return to NSW.  It is important that we take this advice seriously and make sure we follow it in all our schools.

If there are other members of the family who DID NOT travel with the child to the locations I’ve mentioned they can continue to go to school. 

These arrangements also apply to the Department’s preschools.

NSW Health advises that anyone returning from one of these locations who develops flu-like symptoms should seek medical advice in accordance with the guidelines published on our influenza website at;

https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/hsi/index.htm

.

NSW Health has this afternoon advised that school staff returning from travel to greater metropolitan Melbourne, Mexico, Panama, USA, Canada and Japan should be treated a little differently.

If a staff member has been to one of these locations and has been mixing with local school children (in a group of 10 or more) then they should be excluded from school.  Principals should make every effort to enable these staff to perform some work from home during their exclusion.

If the staff member has not mixed with a group of 10 or more school children then they may return to school, but be excluded if they develop any influenza-like symptoms.

This updated advice from NSW Health is based on an assessment of the current risk of transmission.

If a member of staff at your school is currently excluded from school because they have travelled to one of the infected locations, but have not mixed with a group of 10 or more local school children, they may now return to school as long as they are not displaying any flu-like symptoms.

If they have been directed into quarantine by NSW Health (for example because they were on a cruise ship where human swine flu cases have been recorded) they must complete the quarantine period.

If a member of staff is sick with any influenza-like-illness, regardless of where they have been, they should use sick leave and not attend school until their symptoms have fully resolved.

The Mitigation and Management Guidelines are being updated to reflect this advice and will be available on the website as soon as possible. These can be located at; https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/hsi/index.htm

For advice on how to manage a situation at your school, please contact the Occupational Health and Safety Directorate on 9266 8958 or email influenza@det.nsw.edu.au.

Please make arrangements for this updated information to be provided to all staff, parents and carers as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your continuing cooperation.

With my best regards,

Michael Coutts-Trotter

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TAFE NSW

4 June 2009

Dear Colleagues,

Update on Human Swine Influenza

Thank you for your continuing work to implement steps recommended by NSW Health to contain human swine influenza.

We’ve now had confirmation from NSW Health that a small number of NSW government school students have tested positive to human swine influenza.

These children haven’t attended school during any period where they would have been infectious.

Parents of students at each affected school have been advised.

The actions to contain the spread of the virus in NSW, including targeted exclusion from school, have been effective to date.

According to NSW Health there are 70 confirmed cases of human influenza in NSW, and still no confirmed cases of community transmission.

This is not the case in Victoria.   Despite the best efforts of all involved, there is widespread community transmission of the virus in Melbourne with the number of confirmed cases increasing rapidly.

It is due to the changing situation in Victoria that NSW Health late today announced that from tomorrow, children and school staff who have travelled to greater metropolitan Melbourne will be required to stay away from school for seven days after their return to NSW. 

This is the same policy that we have had in place for overseas travellers returning from countries affected by human swine influenza.

I know that some of our school staff and students are attending tonight’s State of Origin rugby league match in Melbourne.  Based on the advice from NSW Health, those school staff and students should not return to school until after the seven day exclusion period.

If any of your staff and students coming to school tomorrow, Thursday 4 June, were in Melbourne the previous day or overnight, you will need to advise them they need to be in home quarantine. This will need to take effect immediately and parents will have to be contacted to collect their child. These students should be kept separate from the general school population.

This exclusion from school will allow time for any illness related to that travel to develop, and for prompt assessment and treatment to commence. If the person remains well after seven days they can return to school.

It is important that principals keep forwarding the Influenza Situation Reports to the Occupational Health and Safety Directorate.  The form is available on the intranet.

We will update the Mitigation and Management Guidelines to help principals through this situation. These can be located at; https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/hsi/index.htm

NSW Health has advised that a number of principals have contacted public health units to obtain information about test results for students who may have been tested. 

Please don’t do this. The information is private and can’t be provided to you. If there is information you should have to manage the safety of your staff and students, I’m assured that public health staff will make contact with you.

I’d also like to remind everyone that you should refer any media enquires about the human swine influenza to the media unit for action. 

For more information about human swine influenza, please refer to the department’s intranet site:

https://detwww.det.nsw.edu.au/adminandmanage/ohands/hsi/index.htm

For advice on how to manage a situation at your school, please contact the Occupational Health and Safety Directorate on 9266 8958 or email influenza@det.nsw.edu.au.

Please make arrangements for this updated information to be provided to all staff, parents and carers as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your cooperation. I will keep you up to date with relevant information.

Could you please also contact your School Education Director by 9am on Thursday 4 June 2009, to confirm that you have received this email.

With my best regards,

Michael Coutts-Trotter

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TAFE NSW

3 June 2009

Hundreds of high schools will miss out on a $1 billion federal government program to upgrade science laboratories after the Government refused to widen guidelines for eligible schools.

Under the program, schools needing new science buildings are favoured over those asking for improvements to existing facilities.

NSW had proposed the Government spread the funding among more schools.

A working group of parents, teachers and principals in conjunction with the NSW Government argue a more cost-effective way to spend the money is to refurbish existing laboratories rather than construct new buildings from scratch.

But federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has rejected NSW's push to revisit the guidelines. A spokesowman for Ms Gillard said it was always intended the program would focus on the construction of new or "substantially refurbished" science labs "to support the maximum number of jobs possible" at 500 of the nation's neediest schools.

In a letter to Ms Gillard last month, the NSW group of parents and teachers urged the Government to revisit the funding arrangements "to enable more schools and a greater number of students to benefit".

"Given the first objective of the BER (Building Education Revolution) is to provide economic stimulus and generate employment opportunities across all communities, it would be consistent for the program to be implemented in a way that maximises the benefits in as many schools as possible," the letter says.

The letter is signed by Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW president Dianne Giblin, NSW Secondary Principals Council president Jim McAlpine, NSW Teachers Federation president Bob Lipscombe and NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group president Cindy Berwick.