John Hattie interviewed | The failed case for school autonomy

Why Denis Napthine needs to say “YES” to Gonski

v o l u m e 1 9 I i s s u e 3 I j u n e 2 0 1 3

AEU

NEWS

v i c t o r i a n b r a n c h

A E U t : 0 3 9 4 1 7 2 8 2 2 f : 1 3 0 0 6 5 8 0 7 8 w : w w w . a e u v i c . a s n . a u

features

regulars

contactseditorial enquiries Nic Barnard tel (03) 9418 4841 fax (03) 9415 8975 email nic.barnard@aeuvic.asn.au advertising enquiries Lyn Baird tel (03) 9418 4879 fax (03) 9415 8975 email lyn.baird@aeuvic.asn.au

AEU News is produced by the AEU Publications Unit: editor Nic Barnard | designers Lyn Baird, Peter Lambropoulos, Susan Miller journalists Rachel Power, Sian Watkins | editorial assistant Helen PrytherchPrintPost Approved: 349181/00616 ISSN: 1442—1321. Printed in Australia by Total Print on Re Art Matt 100% Recycled Paper. Free to AEU members. Subscription rate: $60 per annum. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the AEU News are those of the authors/members and are not necessarily the official policy of the AEU (Victorian Branch). Contents © AEU Victorian Branch. Contributed articles, photographs and illustrations are © their respective authors. No reproduction without permission.

Contentscover story

AEU Victorian BranchBranch president: Meredith Peace

Branch secretary: Gillian Robertson

AEU VIC head office address 112 Trenerry Crescent, Abbotsford, 3067 postal address PO Box 363, Abbotsford, 3067 tel (03) 9417 2822, 1800 013 379 fax 1300 658 078 web www.aeuvic.asn.au email melbourne@aeuvic.asn.au

country offices Ballarat (03) 5331 1155 | Benalla (03) 5762 2714 Bendigo (03) 5442 2666 | Gippsland (03) 5134 8844 Geelong (03) 5222 6633

AEU

NEWS

3 president’s report 27 safety matters4 letters 28 classifieds23 women’s focus 29 wine talking24 AEU training 30 culture25 on the phones 31 giveaways

Printe

d on R

eArt M

att 10

0% re

cycled

paper

Getting from No to YesWhile schools cry out for better funding, is Denis Napthine more interested in helping his Coalition friends in Canberra?

COVER: I Give a Gonski

Learning HattieJohn Hattie’s influence is increasingly felt in Victoria’s schools but his approach to improvement is not without its critics.

18

22

Get your News onlineCancel your print copy and receive your AEU News online,

email aeunews@aeuvic.asn.au.

Victoria gives a GonskiRallies around the state are putting pressure on the Napthine Government to sign up to the Gonski reforms.

VCEC flunks autonomy testVictoria’s Competition and Efficiency Commission offers no competing view to DEECD policy on autonomy.

16

What Gonski could doHow would five Victorian principals spend the extra money their schools would notionally receive under the Gonski funding reforms?12

15

We’ve simplified the registration

process in 2013 by going online.

Just provide your current email details at

www.vit.vic.edu.au/updatemydetails

to prepare.

In August, you’ll receive an invoice in

the post with the steps you need to

follow to update your registration. In

the meantime, if you have any questions

please visit www.vit.vic.edu.au and look

under the section ‘I need to pay my fees’.

Updating yoUr

registration

jUst got easier.

@

2 aeu news | june 2013

AEU Vic branch president

Join me on Twitter! Follow @meredithpeace

and @aeuvictoria

DEBATE about school funding has been relentless as Gonski discussions continue between the

Federal and Victorian governments. As with our EBA dispute, the State Government has been slow to respond and finds every excuse to say no.

I’ve spoken to many principals in recent weeks who receive National Partnership funds and who have made real progress in student outcomes thanks to the new programs and much-needed staff the funding has brought. They wonder what they will do once the partnerships end if no new funding system is implemented.

Denis Napthine talks about only doing a deal that doesn’t disadvantage any student. What about the tens of thousands he will disadvantage if he does no deal?

This is too important an issue for petty politics. Premier Napthine must listen to his principals, teachers, support staff and parents — not to Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne who want to stymie reform for their own advantage. He must stop being Dr No and sign up to Gonski now.

Gonski and our EBA have understandably dominated in recent months but there are other issues that require our focus.

Early childhood negotiations are underway, with employer groups finally prepared to negotiate together instead of demanding separate

agreements with every employer. Now we must see how willing they are to make a reasonable offer and hopefully get an early outcome.

We celebrated National TAFE Day on June 4. The AEU made its presence felt with a reception at Federal Parliament where we talked to MPs about the damage being wrought on institutes and the importance of a strong public vocational education and training sector.

This has been a long campaign here in Victoria, but one we must continue to the state election next year. It is clear from our rallies that communities around the state are very upset about the loss of training opportunities for young people. The Napthine Government will be held accountable for its actions.

The 18 months until the state election will be crucial for public education. In barely two years, the Coalition Government has done enormous damage. Its cuts of $1.2 billion from TAFE and cuts to schools in successive budgets are evidence.

Its privatisation agenda for TAFE is well known, but its policies in schools are equally worrying. Massive cuts to regional staff and increasing accountability have left schools feeling isolated, without the support and resources they need.

Government rhetoric claims that greater school autonomy would put Victoria in the “top tier” around the world. There is no research evidence to support

this claim, which looks more like a cost savings measure than a school improvement strategy.

We want to be high performing, but this cannot be done on the cheap. Resources matter and our state continues to be the lowest-funded per student in the nation.

The looming prospect of Coalition govern-ments in Canberra and Spring Street make this a testing time for supporters of public education. Privatisation is clearly on the agenda in the guise of that well-known furphy, “choice”.

We know the importance of a strong, well-resourced public education system that accepts and delivers for all students. We are a strong campaigning union and we will stand up for public education as we enter the difficult times ahead. �

Gonski and beyondSecuring funding reform is the first step in protecting public education from Coalition attacks.

Level 3/432 St Kilda Road, Melbourne 3004

Visit us at www.retirevic.com.au

Retirement Victoria is the AEU’s preferred provider of financial and retirement planning services to members.

Retirement Victoria Pty Ltd (ABN 11 132 109 114) is a corporate authorised representative of Millennium3 Financial Services Pty Ltd AFSL 244252.

AEU PREFERRED PROVIDERS

APPOINTMENTS (03) 9820 8088

Level 3/432 St Kilda Road, Melbourne 3004

Visit us at www.retirevic.com.au

AEU PREFERRED PROVIDERS

APPOINTMENTS (03) 9820 8088Retirement Victoria is the AEU’s preferred provider of financial and retirement planning services to members.

Retirement Victoria Pty Ltd (ABN 11 132 109 114) is a corporate authorised representative of Millennium3 Financial Services Pty Ltd AFSL 244252

www.aeuvic.asn.au 3

presid

ent’s rep

ort

Large institutions would like you to believe that preparation for retirement involves no more than finding a cheap super fund, investing your lump sum and leaving the rest to them. Nothing could be further from the truth.A well constructed financial strategy considers your personal income and capital needs over carefully de-fined planning periods. It should also address issues of taxation, social security entitlements and finally investment issues. In some cases it is wise to recognise and incorporate the need for Aged Care planning.Unless the planning is comprehensive you may deny yourself additional benefits and inadvertently add to the underlying cost of retirement.RV is the preferred provider of financial advice for AEU members for sound reasons.Why not book a free, no obligation first appointment to tell us about your objectives and how you intend to enjoy retirement. We can help you get there as we have with some thousands of other AEU members over the last two decades.

Letters from members are welcome. Send to: AEU News, PO Box 363, Abbotsford, 3067,

fax (03) 9415 8975 or email aeunews@aeuvic.asn.au. Letters should be no more than

250 words and must include name, workplace and contact details of the writer. Letters may be

edited for space and clarity. Next deadline: 24 July, 2013.

A decent wage and a job I loveBEING an A-4 teacher I have been working in education for just over six years and at the end of this new agreement I will be on $84,661 a year. When I entered the profession in 2007 I started on $10,000 less than a first year graduate receives currently.

I went on strike in my first few years of teaching because I believed in the union and in campaigning for better conditions. I still believe in the union and the fight we have waged against the Liberal Government. The union executive deserves a round of applause for its massive efforts and I believe this is a very good agreement.

Despite some losses, the wins outweigh them ten-fold. ES staff now have equal benefits, with no more recall and they will be paid if they are called back during holidays. Just this alone has me voting yes for this agreement. I never thought my salary would go up by 30%. Ted

Baillieu put a stop to that. I never thought we would win all our battles, because there must be sacrifices and compromises. I never lost hope that the union would come through, and I am not disappointed. I know that some are, but it seems they would find fault in any agreement and attempt to undermine the union no matter what.

By the end of this agreement I will be on a decent wage in a job I love, happy to be able to campaign again to improve more conditions with an agreement that combines all staff.

— Rebecca BoydenTaylors Lakes SC

Lies, damned lies and statisticsREGARDING “Mythbusters” (AEU News, May 2013):1.The 2.75% should not have been

included in calculations for the VGSA 2013 because we were paid this amount because of a clause in the previous agreement.

2. Teachers in excess have lost the right to be considered in isolation of other candidates. The advertising of all contract jobs is a separate issue. When I started teaching all contract jobs were advertised and in excess had the right to be considered in isolation. These can coexist.

3. All teachers received between 2.32% and 2.92% a year. You know the AEU figures are wrong because they can’t give examples of their calculations.

4. WA received 4.25% this year and the last pay rise for NT was 3%. Why were these figures left out?

5. ES have the option of a seven-year contract; in reality almost all contracts will be one year or less just like teaching.

6. A new clause in the agreement allows the Government to change the performance and development culture without agreement from the AEU. This can be changed so that

less teachers pass their increments.7. I will earn $63,000 less than my

NSW colleague over the life of this agreement and I have friends who will earn $70,000 less. How can this be with a significant pay rise?

8. In 2008 we had improved moni-toring of contracts; it didn’t help.

9. 2.5% over three years is 7.7% compounded (government offer); 2.56% over 4.83 years is 13.0% (what most teachers received).

— Steven Adams Hallam Senior College

Editor’s note: AEU News welcomes letters on the merits or otherwise of the new agreement, and they are normally printed without comment; however Steven Adams’ calculations contain a significant error by including 2012 in the agreement’s timespan but excluding the 2.75% pay rise that covered that year. Readers should also note that he calculates the agreement’s benefit as a percentage of the 2016 salary without agreement, not as a percentage of their current salary. Contrary to point 3, the AEU’s figures have been explained to Mr Adams privately, publicly and in our publications.

4 aeu news | june 2013

lett

ers

Assisting AEU Members for over 30 yearsAdviceline Injury Lawyers can assist you – no win, no charge – with:

• Work injury compensation – physical and psychological injury

• Road and transport accident injury compensation

• Medical negligence

• Asbestos injuries

MelbourneGround Floor, 555 Bourke StreetMelbourne VIC 3000

T +61 (0)3 9321 9988 or 1300 MY INJURY

Springvale 369 Springvale RoadSpringvale VIC 3171

T +61 (0)3 9321 9886

advice@alil.com.auAdviceline Injury Lawyers is a division of Holding Redlichwww.advicelineinjurylawyers.com.au

Contact us directly on 9321 9988 or contact your AEU organiser for a referral.

GONSKI NUMBERS TALKNic Barnard AEU News

DR NO is running out of excuses. The release of federal figures showing how much every school in Victoria would gain from funding reform has ramped up

the pressure on Victorian Premier Denis Napthine to sign up to Gonski.The figures directly contradict state Education Minister Martin Dixon’s claims

that 249 government schools would lose money under the Gonski funding reforms. State schools would gain $3.54 billion over six years.

Campaigning has been intense as the Prime Minister’s June 30 deadline for states and territories to sign up approaches, but the pieces are falling into place.

As AEU News went to press, NSW, ACT and South Australia were on board, putting well over 50% of Australia’s schools under the new funding system, including the entire Catholic and independent school systems, as the majority of their funding is federal.

The Australian Education Bill passed through the lower house on June 5 and now goes before the Senate. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has threatened to repeal the Act if he wins power, but the chorus of voices urging the Gonski reforms in Victoria is swelling.

The past month saw a joint letter to the Premier from nine stakeholder organisations including the AEU, principals associations, school council umbrella groups, Parents Victoria and the Victorian Student Representative Council.

It followed a letter from 15 heavyweight welfare bodies including the Smith Family and Brotherhood of St Laurence calling for needs-based funding reform.

Individual schools have added their voices. Kew High School’s school council is one of 40 to have written to the Premier in support of Gonski. Council president Elizabeth Capp said that although the bulk of Kew High’s students came

from relatively well-off families, the many private schools surrounding it were glaring reminders of the “gross inequities in school funding”.

The letter included a graph illustrating that Kew receiving the least state and federal capital works funding of its neighbours in 2010 — $179,000 compared to $1.8 million for Genazzano College and $856,000 for Camberwell Boys’.

“If the pie of school funding is limited and cannot be expanded, then it should be private schools whose funding is reduced,” the council wrote. “However we urge that the pie be increased and that all increases be directed to government schools according to need.” �

More Gonski: pages 12–17; the Federal Government’s table of what Gonski would mean for Victorian schools is at tinyurl.com/mgamo3v.

EB is go … almostTHE Schools Agreement has been submitted to the Fair Work Commission

for final approval after winning overwhelming support from schools staff. A ballot of schools employees voted four to one in favour of the proposed

Victorian Schools Agreement 2013. The ballot, held in the workplace and conducted jointly by each school’s principal and union rep, saw 81.5% vote yes. The Education Department said 96% of schools reported a result, with 74% of eligible employees casting a vote.

It followed the AEU’s ratification ballot where delegates supported the agreement by 78% to 22%. Approval by the Fair Work Commission is now the final hurdle. The agreement — and most of the new conditions in it — would come into effect seven days after FWC approval. Members should receive their pay rises, back pay to April 4 and the $1000 one-off payment in the following pay packet.

A further salary increase is scheduled in August, meaning members are likely to see two rises in quick succession — or one big payday if approval happens after August 1.

The AEU is preparing an implementation guide to explain how changes in the agreement should be implemented in the workplace. �

EBA

2013ü

schools

WHAT CAN YOU DO?Call the Premier’s office on 03 9651 5000

Ring Education Minister Martin Dixon on 03 9637 3196

Email the Premier from our website: www.igiveagonski.com.au/elobbies/napthine

Write on the Premier’s Facebook wall: www.facebook.com/DenisNapthine

Tweet the Premier — @Vic_Premier — using the #gonski hashtag.

www.aeuvic.asn.au 5

new

s

A VB for the ministerMartin Dixon’s muddled plans for a new qualification are all froth and no body.

THE State Government is a great advocate of transpar-ency for schools and those who work in them.Surprisingly, however, that same zeal is lacking when it

comes to its own activities. A case in point is New Directions for School Leadership

and the Teaching Profession, the discussion document launched with much fanfare a full year ago.

The public was invited to comment on the docu-ment’s proposals by September 1. All of those who made submissions were subsequently asked to sign a permission form for their response to be published on the department website.

The expectation was that, like the feedback to other discussion papers from governments, parliaments and

semi-government authorities, these would appear in a timely fashion.

Nine months later, nothing has appeared. An informed guess is that the level of professional dissent has been deemed too overwhelming to be made public.

Since then, the only sign that the submissions still exist has been the references to anonymous comments (supportive of the Government position) in the recent Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission report on school autonomy.

But then, given that the VCEC seems to be seeking a loyalty bonus for its report, the comments could be just as unreal as they sound. �

— John Graham

John Graham research officer

EDUCATION Minister Martin Dixon has placed a lead foot on the accelerator as he seeks to

introduce a Victorian Baccalaureate by the start of next year.

Details of the VB are still sketchy. The VCAA discussion paper, Strengthening Pathways in Senior Secondary Qualifications, describes it as “a pathway within the VCE for students performing at a high standard across a broad program of study, including languages”.

The idea is that students would be rewarded with what the paper quaintly calls a “testamur” for getting good results in a broader program of studies within the VCE.

The hope seems to be that the VB will encourage more students to take languages and divert others away from the International Baccalaureate. The chances of it doing either are slim.

The IB is deliberately set up as an international qualification in direct contrast to national and sub-national qualifications. It has a certain cachet

and schools in Victoria use it more as a school marketing exercise than a curriculum alternative.

As for languages, the complexity of provision and participation will not be solved by the awarding of a testamur.

The emphasis should be on capacity-building in junior school levels so that more students enter the VCE with a sustained background in languages. Increasing the tertiary entrance value of language study would also help.

To muddy the message that students should take a broader curriculum, the minister also proposes “testamurs” for students who specialise in a single area such as a normal maths/science course or take a vocational program related to a particular industry.

A real concern is that such program rewards, apart from being contradictory in purpose, will be less accessible to some students because of their school’s location (particularly rural and remote), size, staffing mix and resourcing. �

The AEU’s response to Strengthening Pathways in Senior Secondary Qualifications can be found at www.aeuvic.asn.au/policy.

Where are the submissions? SAVE THE DATEPublic Adult Education: Lifelong and Lifewide

AEU conference for TAFE, disability services and AMES membersThursday August 29Victoria University Conference CentreFlinders Street, MelbourneFree to members

Keynote speaker: Kurt FearnleyKurt Fearnley is a world champion wheelchair athlete whose infectious energy and passion for life inspire and motivate audiences across age groups and industries.

6 aeu news | june 2013

new

s

For 6 months.2($500 - $50,000).

Fixed rate of return.4.50% p.a.

Term Deposit0% p.a.

Visa Platinum and Classic Credit Cards*

Interest for 6 months.1Purchases and balance transfers.

All off ers valid until 31 July 2013 and available to new retail customers only (over 18 years). Interest rates are per annum, eff ective 1 April 2013 and are subject to change without notice. To qualify for these off ers promotional code must be quoted at time of customer application and all off ers taken up within 4 weeks of becoming a customer or 31 July 2013, whichever occurs fi rst. � is information does not consider your objectives, fi nancial situation or needs - consider the suitability of this information and refer to Terms and Conditions or Product Disclosure Statements before acquiring a product, available at our branches or call 1300 654 822. *Subject to approval. 1. Once 6 month period is over the Visa Platinum and Classic Credit Cards revert to the standard variable rates, currently 9.99% p.a. and 13.19% p.a. respectively. 2. Subject to Terms and Conditions an interest rate reduction applies to early withdrawals. Interest rates current at time of printing. Victoria Teachers Limited ABN 44 087 651 769, AFSL/Australian Credit Licence Number 240 960.

Quote promotional code JOIN13AEU

Bank with the bestVictoria Teachers Mutual Bank’s recent awards show our customers really do receive the best: Value for money. Award winning service. Customer satisfaction.Switch your banking and receive some great deals on our range.To become a customer or view more great off ers exclusively for AEU members: Visit victeach.com.au/JOIN13AEU. Call 1300 654 822.

Nic Barnard AEU News

IT’S time for AEU members with Koorie heritage to stand up and be counted says Melton teacher

Sharon Sowter.The proud Yorta Yorta woman wants to revitalise

the Victorian branch’s Koorie network to start to address the education and cultural issues facing Koorie students and educators.

Sharon became the first Victorian AEU member in several years to attend the union’s national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education committee meeting, and has also been involved in the Recognise campaign for Australia’s first peoples to be acknowledged in the Constitution.

The AEU has fewer than 200 members who have identified themselves as Koorie on their membership application forms, including 150 working in schools, but there are likely to be many more.

“Get the story out there, start saying there are going to be more of us than the half dozen or so that put their hands up (on the application form), let’s get a database happening,” Sharon said. “Anyone from a Koorie background, get the word

out about our culture so that it doesn’t die. Do what we can do to support our kids because they need help.”

AEU vice president Erin Aulich, who takes the lead on Koorie issues for the union, said it was important that Indigenous members had a voice.

“There are a lot of Indigenous education issues coming up — the planned review of Victoria’s Koorie education strategy, the Indigenous cross-curricular strands of the Australian Curriculum, next year’s ACTU Indigenous conference.

“We work with the department and we meet with VAEAI (the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc) but we need Indigenous members to provide us with feedback and advice.”

Sharon, student wellbeing officer at Melton Primary School and a teacher for 22 years, said it was time for the next generation to step up.

“If we don’t keep the stories going and keep the traditions going then the White Australia policy wins. The elders aren’t going to be around forever and we really need to step up.

Her family traces its history to William Cooper, the Aboriginal activist, unionist and community

leader. But she said some students at her school identified as Koorie but often didn’t know their tribe or their people’s history and Aboriginal studies often focused too much on “people holding spears and boomerangs.

“My great uncle was a black Anzac. He wasn’t allowed to own land or vote but he could die for his country. The kids were gobsmacked by that.” �

If you’re an AEU member of Indigenous heritage, email Erin Aulich at erin.aulich@aeuvic.asn.au.

Raising KOORIE voicesIt’s time for Indigenous AEU members to get active, says Yorta Yorta woman Sharon Sowter.

Sharon SowterPHOTO: RECOGNISE

www.aeuvic.asn.au 7

new

s

Beyond the kinder gateAward recognises advocacy and innovation in early childhood.

Nic Barnard AEU News

A BLOG, a weekly newspaper column and the use of video for parents are just three of the

ways Louise Fitzpatrick Leach communicates with her community about the importance of early childhood education.

Her efforts as the sole teacher at tiny Ouyen Preschool in the Mallee, north-west Victoria, have won her the early childhood teacher of the year at the annual DEECD Victorian Education Excellence Awards last month.

AEU members won seven of the nine individual categories at the awards night at Crown Palladium.

Louise said much of her work was aimed at “going beyond the kinder gate”. “The work that I do in the kindergarten is my first job, but my own gut feeling — that’s been backed up by research — is that what happens in an education setting needs to support and link with the home environment.”

To that end, her occasional column in North West Express and her blog (ouyenkinder.edublogs.org), which has attracted 32,000 hits, are attempts to inform parents about children’s development. “I want to advocate for children and advocate for early childhood.”

Louise has also extended the use of video in the preschool. Originally used to record material for an end-of-year video, it is now used to illustrate to parents facets of their children’s development and to reflect on her own practice.

“We don’t use it all the time, but (the camera is) always charged and ready to go. We’ll use it to update parents on what’s happening socially with the children, but also there have been some wonderful moments of extended play that we’ve got on film and been able to use to show the real richness of what children do at kindergarten.”

With only 17 children, Ouyen has found adapting to universal access (to 15 hours’ preschool a week for all four-year-olds) and other national reforms fairly straightforward, although it has increased Louise’s paperwork. The service breezed through its first formal assessment, scoring “excellent” in all but one category. Louise called it a positive if nerve-racking experience. �

Congratulations to our other winnersChris Barry, Brentwood Secondary College — Lindsay Thompson Fellowship for developing an aviation applied learning program. Chris is a licensed commercial pilot.Charles Branciforte, Keilor Views Primary School — Primary Principal of the Year for overseeing the merger of two schools that has led to significant student improvement.Bronwyn Harcourt, Croydon Community School — Secondary Principal of the Year for leading a merger and reorganisation that have improved students’ opportunities and “given hope to people who had previously lost confidence in schools”.Janet Barnard, Swan Hill PS — Teacher of the Year, Indigenous Education. As principal, Janet tackled Koorie student performance by working with families to improve attendance and establishing a room for homework and cultural classes.Rebecca Spink, Aitken Creek PS — Primary Teacher of the Year for innovative work integrating IT and social media into the classroom, including supporting and mentoring other teachers.Britt Gow, Hawkesdale P-12 — Secondary Teacher of the Year for work including the use of technology to connect students with communities beyond the school and development of sustainable education resources.

8 aeu news | june 2013

new

s

Does your school or workplace AEU Rep deserve special recognition? Email aeunews@aeuvic.asn.au telling us who you’re nominating and why. The Rep of the Month receives a limited edition AEU leather briefcase.Nominate your REP!

Nic Barnard AEU News

VICTORIAN TAFE teachers displayed the damage done to the system on the national stage as new

evidence underlines the impact of cuts on institutes.AEU TAFE members Angela Di Sciascio and Phil

Smith flew to Brisbane to give evidence to a federal parliamentary inquiry into the sector. Federal TAFE secretary Pat Forward also spoke.

Their evidence came as Victoria’s acting auditor-general Peter Frost said that the sector’s financial sustainability was “deteriorating”.

His report on TAFE and tertiary education found that 10 of the state’s 14 stand-alone TAFE institutes were at medium financial risk, compared with seven

out of 17 last year, with surpluses down by 39%.Institutes were unable to cover the cost of

building and equipment upgrades, making them more reliant on government funding for capital works, while also charging more from students.

“Changes to funding mean that TAFEs are now more reliant on student tuition fees for generating a major portion of their operating revenue,” Mr Frost said.

The AEU has continued to raise awareness of the TAFE cuts this term with seven rallies on regional campuses.

The Brisbane inquiry was told of TAFE’s central role in building skills, supporting business and improving access to work in disadvantaged communities, particularly for young people and women.

Ms Forward said that 1.2 million people took TAFE courses each year but the system was now in crisis after more than a decade of cuts. TAFEs now received only 75 cents of every dollar they received in 1999.

“Education is the gift of one generation to

the next. Right now, state government cuts and damaging federal reforms to vocational education have put that educational legacy at risk,” she said, before the hearing.

“The next generation of TAFE students will find it harder to get a place and, in many instances, too expensive to enrol. Depending on where they live, would-be students may find their local TAFE institute closed all together.”

AEU officers also bent the ears of federal MPs in a reception at Parliament House to mark National TAFE Day on June 3.

AEU vice president Greg Barclay said: “There’s genuine despair about what is happening to TAFE across the eastern seaboard.” �

INDUSTRIAL action meant that Alan Noye picked a busy time to become

an AEU rep for the first time. He began by signing up all 12 graduate teachers who joined the school in Term 1.

The Kororoit Creek Primary School member has been nominated as rep of the month by one of those newbies, Year 3 teacher Olivia Migani, who said Alan had gone “above and beyond” for his members.

She wrote: “I believe he deserves

special consideration for all he does. Alan has kept all the staff up-to-date on the deals being made with the Government, the ratification process as well as being available to answer any and all concerns staff have.

“He took it upon himself to regularly call the AEU and seek information to reply to staff members in weekly emails as well as working out the wage increases due under the new agreement. … He’s provided us with all relevant information through

this very long process.”Alan stepped up in December

when his predecessor left on maternity leave. He quickly found himself having to advise colleagues on the strike action and industrial bans. He said he was “enjoying being in the know and being able to help people”.

“It’s interesting having to deal with all the personalities and questions you get and finding the right approach.” �

Alan Noye Kororoit Creek PS

Stark WARNING on TAFE futureVictorian institutes’ sustainability is deteriorating, auditor says.

Free market for some

THE Education Department paid more than $500,000 to a free-market consultant hired

without tender to advise on the TAFE system’s privatisation.

ACIL Tasman and executive director Marianne Lourey, with no previous experience in the voca-tional education and training system, were hired at a cost of $518,000 for just eight months’ work to

lead the DEECD’s TAFE reform taskforce.The cost was confirmed at a hearing of the

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee where department secretary Richard Bolt defended the move, saying he “simply ran out of options” in the search for an executive officer with suitable experience.

AEU VP Greg Barclay said the appointment underlined the Government’s determination to deregulate and dismantle the public VET system. �

Unis shun TAFE

THERE is concern that dual-sector insti-tutes may shift their focus from TAFE courses

towards better-funded university programs following State Government legislation and the TAFE cuts.

Changes introduced last year mean Victoria University, Ballarat, Swinburne and RMIT no longer need to report separately on each sector.

The impact is now being felt with VU, under the guise of a restructure and new organisa-tional plan, seemingly intent on “obliterating any mention of TAFE from its history and its future”, said AEU vice president Greg Barclay.

VU has created new positions with job descriptions and selection criteria that make most TAFE staff ineligible to apply. �

www.aeuvic.asn.au 9

new

s

LOCAL councils have dropped proposals to exclude many

early childhood staff from a new agreement under negotiation with the AEU.

After complex discussions with the AEU, the Municipal Association of Victoria has agreed that any new agreement will have the same scope as the existing 2009 Agreement.

Twenty-four councils will bargain collectively for the agreement that will cover preschool teachers, assistants, field officers and activity group leaders irrespective of the funding status of the programs in which they work.

MAV had sought to exclude teachers and assistants who do not work on government-funded programs — largely programs for four-year-olds.

The issue also held up nego-tiations with the Early Learning Association of Australia, the employers’ body for community-run kindergartens. The existing agreements with the two bodies

are largely identical, and it is hoped that at least some of the negotia-tions for their replacements could be conducted jointly.

The CEO of ELAA, Emma King, recently resigned and will leave ELAA on July 5. The AEU says it has been “assured that the leadership change at ELAA will not lead to further delay in the negotiations”.

AEU vice president Shayne Quinn said it was good that the impasse with MAV had been resolved, but documents tabled by MAV and ELAA showed that there was a “significant gulf” between employers and the AEU.

“We have witnessed the chal-lenges of enterprise bargaining in the school sectors,” she said. “Not only will we need to persuade employers to our view but also for the Government to provide the funding necessary to deliver on it. We need to be prepared.” �

— Nic Barnard AEU News

Councils concede PRESCHOOL COVERAGE

Sian Watkins AEU News

EARLY childhood teachers Deborah Maillard and Jo Rouse both work in Langwarrin, outside

Frankston. Deborah works in a long day-care centre and

Jo works in a parent-run kindergarten. Deborah manages 16 staff and delivers 24 hours a week of a kindergarten program to 34 four-year-olds. But she works under an award that, at the top level, pays $30,000 less a year than top-level teachers working in parent or council-run kindergartens.

Maillard gets four weeks’ holiday a year, two hours a week for planning (but has negotiated six), and no paid time for professional learning, adminis-tration or network meetings. She doesn’t work in the school holidays and therefore doesn’t get paid.

Conversely, much better conditions exist for teachers employed in stand-alone kindergartens. For starters, they are paid more, are paid over the school holidays, get 12.5 hours a week planning time and 14 weeks’ maternity leave on full pay.

Maillard is about to embark on a PhD. Her thesis? Why so few early childhood teachers want to work in long day-care. Why would they, when pay, conditions and status are better elsewhere and many parents seem to believe that childcare centres do not deliver “proper” kindergarten programs.

Deborah says that seven of her three and four-year-olds leave her centre for several hours a week to attend a kindergarten across the road.

From next year, all childcare centres must employ qualified early childhood teachers. Maillard hopes that this requirement, given the existing shortage of teachers, will force wages up and improve conditions, but she isn’t confident.

The AEU’s Play Fair in Childcare campaign seeks the same pay and conditions for early childhood teachers regardless of where they teach.

AEU sector vice president Shayne Quinn says that state and federal funding should increase to cover the extra costs involved in the national changes to early childhood education, which include more time at kindergarten (15 hours a week) and

improved staff qualification requirements.The union believes the State Government could

help improve pay and conditions in long day care by linking its kindergarten funding to a condition that teachers are hired on industrial agreements consistent with the AEU’s agreements for community and council-run preschools.

Quinn said that if the Government did not act to improve salary and conditions, it would “fail to reap the benefit of its investment in workforce strate-gies to date and its capacity to deliver on the early childhood reform agenda would be threatened”. �

NEW EDUCATORS July 4

ARE you a teacher or educator in the early years of your career? The New Educators Network will meet for an informal get-together

on Thursday July 4 from 5.30pm at the Bella Union bar in Trades Hall, Carlton.

This will be a chance to meet other new AEU members, chat about issues of interest to you, and raise issues you think the union should be taking up on behalf of new educators.

Find out about this and future events on our NEN Facebook page — go to www.facebook.com/groups/new.educators. �

NO FAIR in childcareVastly disparate pay and conditions exist in the early childhood sector.

I teach

too!

Play fair in childcare

Quote of the month“(I behaved) as would have any rational and compassionate person in the same situation.”

Brisbane teacher John Howard Amundsen, appealing to Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to be readmitted to the teaching profession after serving three years on terrorism charges for building nail bombs to try to scare his ex-girlfriend’s parents into supporting their relationship. QCAT banned him for five years, the maximum possible.

Do you have a quote of the month from the classroom or meeting room? Email aeunews@aeuvic.asn.au.

10 aeu news | june 2013

new

s

QUEENSLANDTEACHERS are suffering “change fatigue”, Queensland Teachers’ Union has warned education minister John Paul Langroek as the Newman Government continues to introduce changes at breakneck speed.

In just three days the Government announced new measures on student discipline, cuts to “red tape”, new — possibly private — alternative education centres, nine school closures, plans to strip clauses from the teacher EBA and further IR changes.

“All this occurred … without notice and certainly without any prior consultation with the union or other stakeholders,” said general secretary Graham Moloney, and meant extra work and “heightened anxiety and insecurity” for members.

The state’s “Great Teachers = Great Results” report makes 15 further proposals that QTU fears will pit teacher against teacher.

SOUTH AUSTRALIAEARLY childhood reforms have increased the workload of 90% of preschool staff, an AEUSA survey found, with 80% working longer, unpaid hours.

Limited resources, poor imple-mentation and other problems meant members felt “overwhelmed … and in many cases less committed to a continuing career in the sector”, the AEU warned.

NEW SOUTH WALESFASHION teachers are the latest victims of $130 million in cuts to NSW TAFE. A century of training for the textiles, clothing and footwear industry at North Coast TAFE ended with redundancies for its five teachers.

Statewide, 150 jobs will go in the first round of cuts, with 800 jobs to go over four years. TAFE teachers are still awaiting a 2.5% pay rise after rejecting proposals to replace many teachers with lesser qualified and lower paid “tutors”. �

Nic Barnard AEU News

DISABILITY services staff and some preschool members will

get a “disappointing” 2.6% pay rise next month following an annual adjustment to minimum pay rates by the Fair Work Commission.

The increase for disability day services staff follows the first install-ment of the phasing in of higher award rates from last year’s equal pay ruling.

AEU vice president Greg Barclay said any pay rise was good, but members were falling further behind. “The gap between the minimum rate and the average wage continues to expand.

“This increase is only about half of what the ACTU recommended, based on not only what is fair and equitable but also affordable.”

The AEU is running training sessions around the state on the implications of the equal pay ruling for members in disability day services and to help ensure they have been transferred to the right classification and salary on the new pay scale.

Members in day services can expect six-monthly pay rises in coming years, with the annual minimum pay adjust-ments in July augmented by the phasing in of equal pay rates every December.

But members in other disability settings — the supported employment and labour market assistance areas

— are covered by separate awards that will now be adjusted by 2.6%. Agreements are rare in both sectors and most staff are paid the minimum award rates.

The minimum pay ruling also affects assistants (co-educa-tors) and some teachers in early childhood settings that are not covered by an agreement — mostly those in long day care settings.

The ACTU had urged a $30 a week increase, or 4.2%,

and condemned the decision as a “kick in the guts” to Australia’s lowest paid workers that amounted to just $1.80 a day.

FWC, in handing down its decision, said that Australia’s minimum wage was comparatively high in global terms, but that a time would come when the growing gap between minimum rates and average earnings must be redressed.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said he was “stunned that the (Fair Work Commission) has acknowledged that wage inequality is rising in Australia but has done absolutely nothing about it. In fact, after this decision, it will only get worse.

“As a result of this decision, the national minimum wage will continue to fall as a percentage of average weekly earnings, from 50% in 2000, to 43.4% last year, and now to 42.7%.” �

Japanese exchange THE AEU returns to Japan in September for its annual exchange with the Shizuoka Teachers

Union. Members are invited to join the nine-day visit during the Term 3 holiday.Fifteen places are available for members on the September 22–30 trip, which includes

a three-day homestay with an STU teacher’s family and visits to their school. No Japanese language is needed. The visit also includes sightseeing in Kyoto and Nara.

Members in the Bendigo and Castlemaine areas are sought to host our Japanese visitors from August 10–12. This is not a precondition of joining the Shizuoka trip.

The long-established exchange is an opportunity for teachers in Japan and Victoria to exchange ideas and information about education, and experience each other’s culture. The Education Department recognises the program as PD, and tour expenses are tax deductible.

To register or find out more, email lee-anne.poynton@aeuvic.asn.au or go to www.aeuvic.asn.au/japan. �

Pay gap grows for DISABILITY WORKERSThe latest minimum wage increase fails to keep pace with average earnings.

www.aeuvic.asn.au 11

new

s

What Gonski could doHow would Victorian principals spend additional money? Sian Watkins reports.

WE ASKED five Victorian principals what they would do with the additional money the

Federal Government is notionally offering their schools under its new, improved funding model.

We posed the question before the Federal Government released its school-by-school breakdown of its proposed funding model, so our question was based on the Commonwealth’s estimated average increase of $1.9 million over six years. In fact two of our five schools would get well above that by 2019, and all would be receiving more than $1m extra.

We also asked principals what they thought of claims by critics, including Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne, that spending millions more on schools would not improve their perfor-mance (even though this suggests that private schools, engaged in an arms race for capital-works supremacy, are wasting parents’ money).

None of the principals interviewed would build swimming pools or alpine retreats for Year 9s. Most said they would continue the effective teacher and leadership coaching and professional development that federal National Partnerships money has paid for in recent years. �

• Australianschoolstogetanextra$14.9billionincombinedstateandfederalfundingovernextsixyears(2014–19).

• FederalGovernmenttopay65%oftheextramoneyandstatestopayremainder.Statesmustmaintainexistingeducationfundingandensureitincreasesby3%ayear.Federalfundingtobeindexedatminimum4.7%.

• Baseleveloffundingforeachstudent:$9,271forprimarystudentsand$12,193forsecondarystudents(theschoolingresourcestandard).

• Baseratetobetoppedupbyloadingsforsixtypesofdisadvantage—lowsocio-economicbackground,Indigenousbackground,limitedEnglish,ruralorsmallschoolsanddisability.Publicandprivateschoolswillreceivetheseloadings.Loadingstomakeup17%ofnewfunding.

THE Federal Government has released school-by-school data showing what each of Victoria’s 1,522 government schools would receive under the Gonski’s Review’s proposed Schooling Resource

Standard (SRS) in 2014 and 2019 — the first and last years of the model’s proposed phasing-in. It also compares the 2019 figure (the “full Gonski”) with each school’s current (2013) budget. For the schools in our survey, the figures are these:

2013 current funding model

2014 funding under SRS

2019 funding under SRS

2013–19 $ difference

2013–19 % difference

Delacombe PS $2,655,822 $2,888,904 $4,172,256 $1,516,434 38.80%

William Ruvthen $7,436,905 $7,623,232 $9,409,141 $1,972,236 22.90%

Hume Valley $6,643,872 $7,222,207 $10,908,018 $4,264,146 54.50%

Essendon-Keilor $17,916,950 $18,738,225 $24,743,120 $6,826,170 34.20%

Newborough PS $1,618,849 $1,780,014 $2,677,462 $1,058,613 46.20%

The figures come with a caveat, however. The Federal Government's share of this funding would be bundled up and handed to the state government to distribute. “It would be up to the state government to distribute the funding between schools, using a needs-based system,” the Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations says.

About ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage)ICSEA was developed for the My School website to compare schools and identify those serving similar student populations. The average ICSEA score is 1000. Variables include parents’ occupation and education, socio-economic data for the areas where students live, school location (metropolitan, regional or remote) and proportion of students from Indigenous or language other than English backgrounds. �

Growth under Gonski

Gonski school funding plan

12 aeu news | june 2013

cam

pai

gn

Delacombe Primary School

THIS funding model would deliver much more money than the existing model and National Partnership low-SES funding combined. We could do many beneficial things with it, including delivering a broad

curriculum, with additional teachers allowing smaller class sizes, extension/support programs and transition programs from early childhood to primary school and primary to secondary and beyond.

This would include a literacy and numeracy coach, Reading Recovery teachers, and QuickSmart and MultiLit intervention support. We might also be able to run our EMU intervention program, which we trialled last year with great success but could not afford to run this year.

We could provide more targeted support for special needs students. This could include improving student/teacher ratios, employing additional support staff and improving access to teacher professional learning.

Currently it is nearly impossible to get a speech therapist through student support services. We have had to train and pay for our own staff to run a speech therapy support program, which takes away from students requiring one-to-one disability support.

A significant number of our preps are deemed developmentally vulner-able on one or more domains and many on two or more. As students move from Prep to Grade 2 a larger number are identified as at-risk. These children obviously need extra support.

Our school chaplain works two days a week, which barely scratches the surface. There is a very strong need for much stronger welfare support, involving counsellors, psychologists, specialist welfare/learning support teachers and allied support staff, and welfare/behaviour programs. We have a number of students in out-of-home care.

We want all our students to attend camp as we pride ourselves on our inclusivity, but many cannot afford it. We spend enormous amounts of time contacting service provider groups and philanthropic organisations to seek help with camp costs.

Our computer network is unreliable. We have a technician for less than seven hours a week.

A key to improving student outcomes is to improve teaching — you can’t just keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results. National Partnership funding has helped us improve our teaching through targeted professional learning and coaching.

The teacher is the single biggest factor in improving outcomes. PISA results indicate that Australia has a huge variance in teaching quality.

If we can get all teachers skilled in differentiating curriculum, using student data to plan their teaching, familiarisation with AusVELS and consistently moderating against this, knowing children and how children learn, teaching to point of need, then students’ learning will improve. �

Principal: Nadia BettioICSEAvalue:944Students:265Indigenous:6%

Netrecurrentincome:$2.6mIncomeperstudent:$10,442Capitalexpenditure:$24,431NationalPartnershipsfunding:$317,000overthreeyearsIncreaseunderGonskiby2019:$1,516,434(38.8%)

William Ruthven Secondary College

WE WOULD continue the work we started in 2011–13 on:•Coaching•Mentoring•Use of data•WRSC Learning Model (Teachers are coached, mentored, observed

by peers and supported via a learning journal to reflect on their practice)

•Learning walks (classroom observations).Without recurrent funding many of these initiatives will cease or be pared back so much as to be ineffective.

The college was established on January 1, 2010 after a contentious merger. It is a low-SES school with many students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Pre-merger promises of a $17 million rebuild did not eventuate.

By the start of 2011, all staff and students were on one site (the former Merrilands College site) working with a new curriculum and timetable.

National Partnerships (NP) funding ensured learning became the new school’s focus rather than politics and disappointment over unmet expectations. It paid for two new leading teachers, one to lead literacy improvement, the other numeracy. Half their allotment is devoted to coaching and mentoring Year 7–9 staff to achieve consistency of practice based on the WRSC learning model.

The funding also subsidised coaching work for all other leading teachers in school priority areas including learning, curriculum, middle and senior school and engagement.

The funding has helped employ coaches in leadership strategic planning and numeracy and a “critical friend” with expertise in using data for improvement.

The school has subsequently recorded a 23% above expected levels value-add in its NAPLAN results and an improvement in its VCE median study score from 25 in 2010 to 27 last year.

There is still much to do at William Ruthven SC in terms of learning and teaching, and high performance can be maintained only with recurrent funding. There is not enough in existing school budgets to pay for coaching, professional expertise and guidance. Investing in education now will require less spending on welfare and prisons in the future. More importantly, young Australians deserve the opportunity and engagement that education delivers, no matter their postcode, disability or start in life. �

Principal: Karen MoneyICSEAvalue:938Students:454Indigenous:3%LOTEbackground:46%

Netrecincome:$7.2mIncome/student:$15,636Totalcapitalexpenditure:$319,613NationalPartnershipsfunding:About$200,000ayearIncreaseunderGonskiby2019:$1,972,236(22.9%)

www.aeuvic.asn.au 13

campaig

n

Newborough Primary School

MY SCHOOL received $36,000 National Partnerships funding this year that enabled us to send two staff to a five-day mathematics specialist

program and release staff to participate in weekly peer observation. Staff found the maths PD very useful and with Gonski money I would

release them to coach and train all our other staff. I could continue to release staff for peer observations and employ a

literacy and numeracy coach to support the professional learning of teachers — providing ongoing, real-time feedback on their teaching and learning.

Structuring the peer observation into the timetable has had some positive effects — although it is early days. We know from research that the best PD is PD that happens in teams, in situ. I have attended a number of the post-observation feedback sessions and the “observed” teachers are going away with specific advice relating to their practice and the behaviour of the learners in their classrooms.

These kinds of peer observations have been shown to have positive effects (Hattie), but the reality is that you can only ensure that observation occurs in the longer term with funding. I think sometimes schools start it up and then have to phase it out over time.

Gonski funding would also allow me to lock in our school’s Reading Recovery program, which has become more expensive since the State Government removed the regionally based Reading Recovery tutors last year.

My school has a number of students with additional learning needs who are not funded under the program for students with disabilities. Extra federal funding would allow us to provide for more one-to-one support for these children. �

Hume Valley Special School

HUME Valley School would focus on several areas in its work to improve student outcomes. These include:

• Recruiting additional teaching and education support staff• Supporting teachers who wish to undertake a special education

qualification• Additional therapy staff to address the complex needs of our students• Expanding our student wellbeing team to assist staff and enhance their

skills in supporting individual students and their families• Appointing a career transition officer to guide and support students into

appropriate and successful post-school pathways

• Enhancing teacher and leadership capacity• Coaching and mentoring staff to deliver high-quality teaching and

learning• Strengthening our parent and community partnerships.

Investing additional money in government schools in an equitable manner will significantly improve outcomes for students and schools.

An example of how this can work is the formation of the Broadmeadows Schools Network, of which Hume Valley is a member. National Partnership funding to seven primary, secondary, specialist and community language schools in the area enabled the schools to develop a culture of educational excellence and collaboration.

Hume Valley received funding last year under the Empowering Local Schools National Partnership. Money was and is being used to set up the network and to improve student outcomes.

The network has employed facilitators to help us develop the vision and framework for our operations and collaboration work. The network will be launched at a community event so that our families and community members see, understand and celebrate the way that their local schools are working together.

Staff from four of the network schools have also participated in an AITSL professional development program on strengthening parent and community partnerships. �

Essendon-Keilor College

I WILL be able to employ more teachers and ES staff to cover the needs of an increasing number of students with specific learning difficulties.

We have many students on the autism spectrum who are unfunded. We have significant numbers of students well below their expected level in literacy and numeracy who need additional support.

The additional money would mean I could employ three or four addi-tional staff whose expertise would be in these target areas and we would be able to focus more strongly on catering for the individual needs of these students.

The claim that spending more does not lead to improvements in school or student performace is untrue. When we received National Partnership money we saw a significant improvement in student performance in literacy and numeracy. Our Year 7 students were below the government school NAPLAN median in numeracy and literacy but moved above the median by Year 9.

This was a direct result of the additional staff, coordination and profes-sional development that we were able to provide with NP money.

The improvement has continued because of the programs we introduced, but we have had to devote our own dwindling resources in an attempt to keep the programs running and this is not sustainable for much longer. �

Principal: David AdamsonICSEAvalue:971Students:1238Indigenous:1%LOTEbackground:43%

Netrecurrentincome:$18.2mIncomeperstudent:$13,050Capitalexpenditure:$807,587NationalPartnershipsfunding:$70,000in2010IncreaseunderGonskiby2019:$6,826,170(34.2%)

Principal: Diane BassettICSEAvalue:n/aStudents:249Indigenous:6%LOTE:51%

Netrecurrentincome:$6.2mIncomeperstudent:$25,888Totalcapitalexpenditure:$1.7mIncreaseunderGonskiby2019:$4,264,146(54.5%)

Principal: Tim DelanyICSEAvalue:969Students:158Indigenous:3%

Netrecurrentincome:$1.5mIncomeperstudent:$9107Capitalexpenditure:$586,833Gonskiincrease:$1,058,613(46.2%)

14 aeu news | june 2013

cam

pai

gn

While schools cry out for better funding, Denis Napthine seems more interested in helping his Coalition friends in Canberra. Nic Barnard reports.

PARENTS must weep at the political brinksmanship that has characterised the debate over school

funding in recent weeks.For all the figures produced by the Federal

Government, the allocation of billions in Wayne Swan’s May budget, the breakthrough of NSW signing up to the Gonski reforms, Victoria and its Coalition fellow travellers in Queensland and WA have come up with excuse after excuse to say “No … not yet”.

Their arguments have ranged from the specious to the outrageous, and suggest that they are playing out the clock until the federal election and a hoped-for Abbott takeover in Canberra.

The banning of Federal Education Minister Peter Garratt and Prime Minister Julia Gillard from school campuses in Queensland and WA has been the icing on the cake.

Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon has played a particularly shameless game in Parliament, claiming that hundreds of schools will be worse off under Gonski — despite his own cuts to the system over the past three budgets.

Dixon’s claim on June 12 that “249 government schools” including Northern Bay College in Corio and Sunshine College would suffer cuts was an exercise in scaremongering. Northern Bay principal Fred Clarke wants to know how the minister reached his figures. AEU branch president Meredith Peace called them “misleading and damaging” and noted: “He has refused to explain how he has calculated his figures.”

Mr Dixon knows that under the agreement Canberra seeks, the distribution of funding to

individual government schools would remain with the Education Department. This is a crucial political feature of the reforms, intended to forestall the argument that the Commonwealth is taking control of state schools. The state will be expected to distribute money in line with Gonski principles — according to student need — but if Northern Bay and others end up with a smaller slice of a larger pie, the buck will stop firmly in Spring Street.

Dixon’s speech was pure crocodile tears; if there is one thing we know, it is that government schools have already suffered cuts thanks to the Coalition in Victoria and more are planned. May’s state budget slashed $371 million in Victoria’s real-terms recurrent education spending.

We know that schools have lost Education Maintenance Allowance funding, funding for VCAL coordinators, Koorie educators, Ultranet trainers, literacy and numeracy specialists, occupational health and safety, Reading Recovery tutors and more. Principals are also shouldering additional work following the loss of regional network leaders and other “backroom” staff.

So much for no school being disadvantaged.The existing funding system amplifies those cuts;

federal funding of public and private schools is based on the “average government school recurrent costs”(AGSRC) — a share of the amount Victoria and other states spend on their public schools. When the states spend less, the formula dictates that the federal government spends less too (or less than it would otherwise have done).

This is why failure to reach a deal on Gonski

— or its repeal by an incoming Abbott Government — would not only mean that Victorian government schools miss out on the $4 billion in additional funding due under the reforms but incur further

budget cuts.And it is the reason why Gillard’s National Plan

for School Improvement — for all its compromises and deviations from Gonski’s original vision — is so important. It sets a floor under education spending, requiring state governments not only to stop cutting education but to lift it by 3% a year.

And it breaks the AGSRC link between spending on government schools and federal funding that means every dollar invested in tackling disadvantage in state schools is passed on in part to already wealthy non-government schools.

The other argument being trotted out by Gonski opponents is that you can’t fix problems in education by throwing money at them.

It’s hard to disagree with a truism — but money is being thrown at elite independent schools that don’t need it, and at private schools of all types that are funded well above the levels determined by the current, flawed funding system. Fixing the model is a simple matter of probity and rigour in public finances — the kind of values that would otherwise be championed by the right.

As AEU News went to press, the Premier was on ABC 774 still claiming that many schools would be disadvantaged and adding that the “bureaucratic” National Plan conflicted with Victoria’s (somewhat questionable) school autonomy policy.

As the stonewalling continues, private schools are demanding “certainty” in funding next year, although. unaccountably, their ire seems directed at the federal, not state, government. Government school principals will find it hard to sympathise — they rarely know their coming year’s budget until the last week of September. �

Where the money would go Source:DEEWR

$ millions

Govt Catholic Independent Total

2014 137 20 13 $170

2015 289 40 25 $354

2016 462 57 38 $557

2017 655 74 50 $779

2018 873 88 63 $1,024

2019 1,120 100 76 $1,296

2014-19 $3,536m $379m $265m $4,180

WHAT CAN YOU DO?Call the Premier’s office on 03 9651 5000

Ring Education Minister Martin Dixon on 03 9637 3196

Email the Premier from our website: www.igiveagonski.com.au/elobbies/napthine

Write on the Premier’s Facebook wall: www.facebook.com/DenisNapthine

Tweet the Premier — @Vic_Premier — using the #gonski hashtag.

Getting from no to yes

www.aeuvic.asn.au 15

campaig

n

Victoria gives a GonskiRallies around the state are putting pressure on the Napthine Government to sign up to the Gonski reforms.

WITH a June 30 deadline looming, AEU members and their commu-

nities have been out urging the Victorian Government to put students first and sign up to the Gonski reforms.

Several hundred supporters of funding reform gathered for a family fun day at Treasury Gardens and sent up a spontaneous chant of “Sign up now! Sign up now!”

The event was one of several held in capital cities to voice public support for the reforms that would see $14.5 billion injected into the education system over six years, including $4bn in Victoria.

The rally showcased the best of the public school system, getting off

to a swinging start with music from all-girl soul band The Sweethearts of Matthew Flinders College — now the stars of an ABC3 TV show docu-menting their recent European tour.

Speakers included Kambrya principal Michael Muscat, whose school has demonstrated how dedicated funding can lift results and cut truancy, and from school council president Elise Whetter from Ballarat on how cuts to support programs were already affecting her school’s students. AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos drove home the urgency of the campaign.

More music came from talented, young a cappella folk singers The Highway Sisters (Mabel, Bel and Ivy)

and the Thornbury Primary School choir and band before popular children’s writer Andy Griffiths added his plea for Gonski. Comedian Elly Varrenti MC’d the day.

The day foreshadowed after-school rallies in key seats around the state, targeting Liberal decision-makers and marginal seat MPs in the State Government. Several hundreds turned out to rallies outside a community cabinet meeting in Geelong, at Education Minister Martin Dixon’s electoral office in McCrae and MPs’ offices in Ballarat, Blackburn and Rosanna.

The pressure is starting to bear fruit. Premier Denis Napthine turned up unexpectedly at a Gonski

community forum at Warrnambool Primary School in his electorate to speak and take questions.

Among the speakers were the school’s principal, Peter Auchettl, and teacher Alison Withers from Brauer College who spoke about the difficulties they faced every day in supporting kids with a range of capabilities and needs without the necessary resources.

PM Julia Gillard has given states and territories a deadline of June 30 to agree to the proposed funding reforms. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has threatened to rescind any changes if every state and territory does not sign up. �

16 aeu news | june 2013

cam

pai

gn

MORE than 100 students, parents, teachers and principals from

NSW and Victoria met at Hovel Tree park in Albury to demand that Premier Denis Napthine sign on to the Gonski reforms.

The Murray river divides more than Albury and Wodonga: it separates a state that has signed up to Gonski from one that hasn't.

NSW school communities are active in getting other eastern states to follow suit. Their fear is that a federal Coalition government will rip up the deal signed between the Prime Minister and Premier Barry O’Farrell and deal a lethal blow to the new funding model.

In Victoria, school communities want their students be funded under the same guiding principle agreed

to by NSW — a funding model that takes into account the higher cost of educating students who are disadvantaged.

As the rally began, Wodonga public school student Leihana Mason (pictured) sang and played ukulele before campaigners heard from parents, teachers, principals and AEU president Meredith Peace about what better, fairer funding would mean: more targeted assistance, more extensive programs, more teachers and more support staff.

The question remains: why should funding for students north of the river be millions of dollars more than for students south of the river? Premier Napthine has yet to answer. �

—MarinoD’Ortenzio

Across the border

PHOT

OGRA

PHER

: ASI

A UP

WARD

www.aeuvic.asn.au 17

campaig

n

THE Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission’s draft report on school autonomy is a waste of taxpayers’ money.Instead of being an independent review of the issues arising from the

Government’s push for greater school autonomy, it reads as a clunky rehash of the 2012 ministerial workforce paper, New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession.

If you’ve put the paper out once, why ask another publicly-funded body to do it again?

The draft report, Making the Grade: Autonomy and Accountability in Victorian Schools, was released on May 17 — three months late, and after the Treasurer who commissioned it had been replaced.

The report inhabits a twilight zone where EBA settlements have no currency.It shares the faults of the original ministerial paper — it's ideological rather

than evidence-based, its citations partisan and highly filtered, its rhetoric about the “global top tier” not matched by substantiating research. It fails to answer the crucial questions that need answering.

The first key question most people ask about greater school autonomy is: will it improve student achievement? After all, there will be no global top tier finish if it doesn’t.

After equivocating for a while, the report decides the question is basically unanswerable because of “evidential uncertainties”. This is bureaucrat-speak for “we can’t find a valid cause-and-effect relationship.”

The second key question concerns equity: how will it be affected by greater school autonomy? VCEC was asked to consider the potential impact of the policy on disadvantaged students.

The report acknowledges that the weight of evidence indicates that a combi-nation of greater school autonomy and school choice has a negative effect on equity and increases the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

Instead of doing the right (and “independent”) thing and telling the Government to go back to the drawing board, it concludes that any negative effect is simply the result of “policy shortcomings” and can be overcome by

Victoria’s Competition and Efficiency Commission offers no competition to DEECD policy on autonomy. How’s that for efficiency, says John Graham.

VCEC flunks autonomy test

18 aeu news | june 2013

feat

ure

better school leadership and teachers with higher expectations.

The rationale for greater school autonomy then becomes the value to consumers of “having goods and services that are well tailored to their specific requirements”. Tailored service delivery will improve the leadership skills of principals and “focus greater attention on system-wide constraints on the flexible deployment of school workers”.

The report’s way around the student achieve-ment dilemma is to claim that cost efficiency is just as important (and easier to achieve) than student learning improvement. “In the Commission’s view, it is important that this efficiency dimension is not lost in the drive to improve student performance.”

The efficiency dimension comes to the fore when the report discusses class sizes. It wants class sizes to be increased in each school to the average/maximum specified in the current Schools Agreement.

Anyone who knows anything about the complex relationship between demographics, annual enrolments, school staffing, the timetabled curriculum, building and site constraints and the school budget would know that this idea is totally clueless — as well as being educationally wrong.

But the report insists that its proposal would save $308 million a year.

If the Government was really serious about cost efficiency it could, the VCEC opines, save $503m a year by increasing public school class sizes to the maximum allowed in the Catholic Schools Agreement.

The barrier preventing these cost efficiency dreams from being realised is public opinion. Teachers, parents and the public in general believe that smaller class sizes have a positive effect on the educational outcomes of students. The VCEC calls for the department to lead a concerted campaign to overcome this belief.

The report, with unintended irony, sees the key to greater “autonomy” as more onerous line management processes. Principals should be kept in

line through bonuses that will make them “account effectively for their performance”.

In turn a key indicator of principal performance would be the level of compliance with a new mandated teacher performance review process. The VCEC proposes that teachers must meet “specific measurable standards, such as educational gain, and good teaching practice”.

To further “strengthen” the process the report recommends that student improvement data (from testing) be developed for teachers who teach groups and subjects not covered by NAPLAN. It calls for classroom observation to become a core component of all reviews.

At the end of their review teachers would be graded on a performance scale from “outstanding” through to “unsatisfactory”.

The report links these enhanced review proposals to increased powers for principals. For

example, it wants to give the principal new unsatis-factory performance powers including the authority to sack staff.

It also wants to move the sign-off decision about starting salaries and accelerated progression from the department to the principal. In its brave new world, principals would have a greater incentive to use “existing remuneration flexibilities” which it refers to as “performance-related pay”.

There are a number of other workforce changes that it thinks should be introduced to eliminate “inflexibilities” — practices it believes may impede the power of the principal and therefore “have no place in an autonomous system”.

These include mandated priority processes for staff in excess, consultation requirements, limits on the number of days per week a part-time teacher can be timetabled, restrictions on contract employ-ment and class size limits.

The report questions whether a principal exercising all of these new powers needs to be a registered teacher. It argues that all a principal requires is “strong people skills which can be found in a variety of organisations” and gives the impres-sion that a non-teacher may even be more effective in this role because “the workplace culture needs to be changed”.

It calls for the abolition of the requirement that principals in special settings have a qualification in special education.

Many of the VCEC’S workforce proposals breach the new Schools Agreement and deal with matters that the Government has conceded should not be

introduced.Turning to school councils, the

VCEC wants them to become more like “governors on behalf of the system owner” than representa-tives of the school community. It proposes “independent” skills-based multi-school boards with positions “modestly remunerated to attract appropriately skilled people and strengthen board members’ accountability”.

To sum up, the VCEC report is more like a paean to the State Government’s workforce policies

and cost-cutting agenda than an independent review of research. Its recommendations are similar to the employer’s log of claims before the schools EBA was settled.

A recent report in The Age may help to explain the VCEC’s slavish endorsement of State Government policies. Headed “Productivity adviser left without work” (May 17, page 2) it claimed that under the new Treasurer, Michael O’Brien, the VCEC had run out of inquiries and “could be out of work within weeks”.

Now what would you do in those circumstances? �

John Graham is an AEU research officer.

Teachers, parents and the public in general believe that smaller class sizes have a positive effect on the educational outcomes of students. The VCEC calls for the department to lead a concerted campaign to

overcome this belief.

www.aeuvic.asn.au 19

feature

Thinking of joining? Here’s what a few AEU Victoria members have to say about Teachers Health Fund.

Teachers Health Fund – dedicated to the education community and their families.

Why choose us?We’ve been caring for the needs of the education community for almost 60 years. As a member-focused organisation and the largest industry-based health fund, we have made a commitment to provide great value health insurance to our members. Our expenses are below the industry average and we do not have shareholders to pay dividends to, so any surplus generated by Teachers Health Fund is reinvested back in to the Fund for the benefit of members.

Our coversYou can tailor your cover with Teachers Health Fund by selecting what you need from our Hospital and Extras options, or we have a range of covers that combine Hospitals and Extras into one convenient package. We have a range of covers to suit individual insurance needs, offering you peace of mind, whatever stage of life you’re at.

Teaching is a demanding job; mentally, emotionally and physically. Teachers Health Fund understands how vital healthy and active teachers are, both

to schools and the wider community.

So we’re here to help.

For the well-being of teachers & their families.Teachers Federation Health Ltd. ABN 86 097 030 414 trading as Teachers Health Fund. THF-U-2013

Teachers Health Fund understands the education community and is proud to support their needs. So don’t

delay, for more information about joining Teachers Health Fund, visit teachershealth.com.au or call 1300 728 188 (Monday – Friday, 8am – 7.30pm AEST). If you would like a

Teachers Health Fund representative to visit your school, email schoolvisits@teachershealth.com.au

How to joinJoining Teachers Health Fund is easy, simply:

apply online at teachershealth.com.au; OR complete an application form and post,

fax or email it back to us; OR call our contact centre on 1300 728 188

My job requires me to

be flexible and there’s significant travel involved so I need to be healthy to

maintain the workload. For the same cost as an intermediate level of cover with my previous

health fund, I was able to upgrade to Top Hospital with Teachers Health Fund. The rebates are higher on

Extras services and there have been no out-of-pocket expenses for mine and my husband’s hospital stays in recent times. As a mutual fund, Teachers Health Fund

keeps their costs down and passes on those savings to members. I have now been a member for many

years and appreciate that Teachers Health Fund has flexible cover for the different periods in my life,

even if my job changes or when I retire.

Kerry – AEU organiser and long-term Teachers Health Fund member

Teaching requires me to be fit

and alert – I can’t do my job if I’m not firing on all cylinders. After 30

years of being with another health fund, I was dissatisfied with rising premiums and lowering

rebates. I joined Teachers Health Fund and realised I should have switched years ago. The premiums are

affordable – I’m saving $30 a month and receiving higher rebates compared to my old health fund – and Teachers

Health Fund treats me like a person, not a number. I cannot stress that enough. They look after myself and

my wife but also took the time to understand what coverage my adult children needed. I couldn’t

be in safer or more caring hands and would recommend Teachers Health Fund to my

family and colleagues in a heartbeat.

Craig – teacher and new Teachers Health Fund member

My job is wonderfully

rewarding but also demanding and challenging – I need to be as healthy

as possible to cope with the demands and stresses. When I heard that Teachers Health

Fund offered comprehensive cover at an affordable and competitive price I made the call to switch – it

was so easy. I then had a period in my life where I spent a considerable amount of time in a range of hospitals.

Teachers Health Fund covered these stays without any hassles or hidden out-of-pocket expenses. The financial

security that Teachers Health Fund provided gave me peace of mind and meant I could focus on my health

without any additional financial worries. Teachers Health Fund is personal and responsive and I always

promote the Fund to family and colleagues.

Val – principal and long-term Teachers Health Fund member

Who can join?Membership of Teachers Health Fund is open to all AEU Victoria members, who can then share the gift by referring their family, including:

Spouse or partner Former spouse or partner Dependent children Adult children Siblings Parents Grandchildren

Join before

30 June 2013 to receive one month FREE health cover

and 2 & 6 month waiting periods

waived on Extras services*

*Conditions apply. Visit teachershealth.com.au for more information.

20 aeu news | june 2013

Thinking of joining? Here’s what a few AEU Victoria members have to say about Teachers Health Fund.

Teachers Health Fund – dedicated to the education community and their families.

Why choose us?We’ve been caring for the needs of the education community for almost 60 years. As a member-focused organisation and the largest industry-based health fund, we have made a commitment to provide great value health insurance to our members. Our expenses are below the industry average and we do not have shareholders to pay dividends to, so any surplus generated by Teachers Health Fund is reinvested back in to the Fund for the benefit of members.

Our coversYou can tailor your cover with Teachers Health Fund by selecting what you need from our Hospital and Extras options, or we have a range of covers that combine Hospitals and Extras into one convenient package. We have a range of covers to suit individual insurance needs, offering you peace of mind, whatever stage of life you’re at.

Teaching is a demanding job; mentally, emotionally and physically. Teachers Health Fund understands how vital healthy and active teachers are, both

to schools and the wider community.

So we’re here to help.

For the well-being of teachers & their families.Teachers Federation Health Ltd. ABN 86 097 030 414 trading as Teachers Health Fund. THF-U-2013

Teachers Health Fund understands the education community and is proud to support their needs. So don’t

delay, for more information about joining Teachers Health Fund, visit teachershealth.com.au or call 1300 728 188 (Monday – Friday, 8am – 7.30pm AEST). If you would like a

Teachers Health Fund representative to visit your school, email schoolvisits@teachershealth.com.au

How to joinJoining Teachers Health Fund is easy, simply:

apply online at teachershealth.com.au; OR complete an application form and post,

fax or email it back to us; OR call our contact centre on 1300 728 188

My job requires me to

be flexible and there’s significant travel involved so I need to be healthy to

maintain the workload. For the same cost as an intermediate level of cover with my previous

health fund, I was able to upgrade to Top Hospital with Teachers Health Fund. The rebates are higher on

Extras services and there have been no out-of-pocket expenses for mine and my husband’s hospital stays in recent times. As a mutual fund, Teachers Health Fund

keeps their costs down and passes on those savings to members. I have now been a member for many

years and appreciate that Teachers Health Fund has flexible cover for the different periods in my life,

even if my job changes or when I retire.

Kerry – AEU organiser and long-term Teachers Health Fund member

Teaching requires me to be fit

and alert – I can’t do my job if I’m not firing on all cylinders. After 30

years of being with another health fund, I was dissatisfied with rising premiums and lowering

rebates. I joined Teachers Health Fund and realised I should have switched years ago. The premiums are

affordable – I’m saving $30 a month and receiving higher rebates compared to my old health fund – and Teachers

Health Fund treats me like a person, not a number. I cannot stress that enough. They look after myself and

my wife but also took the time to understand what coverage my adult children needed. I couldn’t

be in safer or more caring hands and would recommend Teachers Health Fund to my

family and colleagues in a heartbeat.

Craig – teacher and new Teachers Health Fund member

My job is wonderfully

rewarding but also demanding and challenging – I need to be as healthy

as possible to cope with the demands and stresses. When I heard that Teachers Health

Fund offered comprehensive cover at an affordable and competitive price I made the call to switch – it

was so easy. I then had a period in my life where I spent a considerable amount of time in a range of hospitals.

Teachers Health Fund covered these stays without any hassles or hidden out-of-pocket expenses. The financial

security that Teachers Health Fund provided gave me peace of mind and meant I could focus on my health

without any additional financial worries. Teachers Health Fund is personal and responsive and I always

promote the Fund to family and colleagues.

Val – principal and long-term Teachers Health Fund member

Who can join?Membership of Teachers Health Fund is open to all AEU Victoria members, who can then share the gift by referring their family, including:

Spouse or partner Former spouse or partner Dependent children Adult children Siblings Parents Grandchildren

Join before

30 June 2013 to receive one month FREE health cover

and 2 & 6 month waiting periods

waived on Extras services*

*Conditions apply. Visit teachershealth.com.au for more information.

www.aeuvic.asn.au 21

APPEASING voters and parents is the only expla-nation Professor John Hattie can find to explain

why “sane, sensible, logical” people are adopting “devastatingly destructive” policies to reform education in Australia.

Hattie warns there is more to come: that governments are likely to start “measuring” teacher performance as they do in England and America.

Hattie is the very busy New Zealand academic now working at Melbourne University whose research and Visible Learning books and training courses have made him a pin-up in hundreds of Victorian schools.

Learning early that most education innovations worked to varying degrees, he synthesised more than 900 meta-analyses (more than 50,000 studies) of student learning to rank classroom interventions on a most-to-least-effective scale.

Instructional quality and teacher credibility are in the top five while class size, homework, choice of school and open learning spaces lie well down the scale.

Hattie’s axiom is that, to improve student perfor-mance and retention rates, teachers and schools must “know thy impact”.

Current preoccupations with standards, curriculums, constructivist pedagogy and tests are “massive distractions”. As for measuring teacher performance: “You don’t assess the teacher — you assess their impact on kids.”

Apart from tests and NAPLAN results, how does a teacher know if they are having an impact? They need to be alert: observing, questioning and listening to ensure students are engaged and learning, Hattie says. Regular classroom observers should watch not the teacher but the students.

“I don’t care if you’re direct instruction or a constructivist. I care about impact and if you’re not having an impact … then you need to change what

you’re doing. If the crusty old bloke with his own seat in the staff room who has taught the same way for the last 30 years is effective, leave him alone.”

Much number crunching underpins Hattie’s findings and he is extremely confident about the veracity of his value table, a confidence some of his critics do not share. Hattie says many expen-sively implemented school improvement programs go unevaluated. “We are told they’re effective but there’s nothing to back it up.”

Hattie’s work has also been criticised for not measuring the impact of home life and poverty on students’ learning. “They are critically important but teachers don’t have control over them,” he says, although schools can help by encouraging parents to engage in their children’s learning.

Hattie says that 50 to 60% of teachers consist-ently achieve greater than the average. Is that good enough? “There’s an incredible amount of success out there. My mantra is, How do you build a coalition of success? You don’t fix schools by injecting them with things. You fix them by acknowledging success within them and building on it.”

Hattie left school at 16 to be a decorator before teacher training and a brief stint as a music teacher. He returned to university to do his PhD.

He moved from the University of Auckland to head Melbourne University’s Education Research Institute in 2011. He says that what drives him as an academic is how to make schools inviting places for all students — whether they are future water-polo coaches, barristas or neurosurgeons.

He’s not optimistic about the direction of education trends being trumpeted by politicians, nor Australia’s potential to one day achieve what Finland did: a bipartisan consensus on what its education system should look like. “It’s too late for that now,” says Hattie, ever direct. �

Learning Hattie

John Hattie’s influence is increasingly felt in Victoria’s schools but his approach to improvement is not without its critics. Sian Watkins meets him.

Hattie on …

Public educationIts displacement is “disgraceful” and the negative publicity schools get a tragedy. “The neighbourhood school should be the best school in the neighbourhood. I despair that parents chase schools.”

Reflective practice“Most of it is reflection on what teachers think they say. Graham Nuthall in The Hidden Lives of Learners says that much of what goes on in a classroom a teacher doesn’t see or hear, so why would you reflect? I want teachers to reflect on their impact, not whether or not the class behaved.”

Gonski“I worry the money will be used for programs that take children out of classes, (on) reducing class sizes and teaching assistants, all of which have zero to negative effect (on improved learning).

“We’re trying to build a roadmap of how to get into the top five of student performance and it’s going to be about expertise, expertise, expertise, not about throwing more things at schools.”

Low ATAR entry scores for teaching“High ATAR scores give you the teachers you need. High ATAR is associated with good rela-tionship and communication skills. Low ATAR scores sends the message that you don’t have to be bright to be a teacher.”

Teacher glutThe Government defends demand-driven funding because it helps it to meet its tertiary targets and because it says that even if graduates can’t find a teaching job they will be better people and better parents. The glut also keeps teachers’ salaries low. Doctors’ salaries are high because student intakes are restricted.

Class sizes“I’ve never said that reducing class size has no effect. It does, it has a positive effect. It just turns out to be tiny. … I think it’s because when teachers teach a class of 30 and then teach a class of 15 they teach the same way. Could smaller class sizes make a difference? If teachers taught differently, yes.

“Class size is a proxy issue, an emotional issue. If you converted the cost of (the past 15 years’) reduction in class sizes to teacher pay, teachers would be on $120,000-plus now. But if you ask teachers whether they want a pay increase or reduce class sizes, they choose the latter. I don’t understand that.”

22 aeu news | june 2013

feat

ure

How to change a lifeThe push to recognise domestic violence in industrial agreements impressed the latest participants on the Anna Stewart Project.

Kerry Green and Marge Lang ASMP participants

LIFE-changing is the term often heard by participants on the Anna Stewart Memorial Project. By the end of our fortnight on the program, it felt very

appropriate.The goal of the Victorian Trades Hall project is to increase women’s

engagement in unions. During our fortnight we became familiar with trends in enterprise bargaining, including the push for provisions to support staff in dealing with the consequences of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is at last being recognised as an industrial issue that affects workers and employers. It results in lost productivity, high levels of absenteeism and unnecessary staff turnover. Surveys have revealed that nearly one-third of Australians experience domestic violence or abuse at some stage of their lives.

Already more than one million Australians are covered by industrial agree-ments that provide entitlements to help break the cycle of violence. We heard moving reports from representatives from the Australian Services Union who are negotiating for this important clause in their current EBA. The types of entitlements sought include:

• Dedicated, additional, paid leave• Access to flexible work arrangements• Referral to support services• Protection against adverse action or discrimination following disclosure

of domestic violence• Confidentiality• Workplace safety strategies• Dedicated workplace contact people.

The AEU put the issue into its log of claims but the State Government refused to negotiate on the subject or include it in the agreement.

The AEU will keep pushing for this provision and will pursue discussions with the department to see if there is another way we can secure the leave.

Participants in the Anna Stewart Memorial Project, affectionately known as “Annas”, come from a wide range of unions. For the AEU, the project has been extremely successful in achieving its goal.

Since its inception in 1984, more than 100 AEU women have taken part and many of these Annas now hold important positions in our union, whether as active members, sub-branch reps, council members, organisers, training officers or elected leadership — including our Victorian branch president, Meredith Peace.

So was the program life changing? Yes, for many of the Annas it has been. We also saw how lives can be changed by union activism advocating workplace policies that value the contribution of workers. �

Kerry Green teaches at Burwood Heights Primary School. Marge Lang teaches at Greenvale Primary School.

InspirationalBreaking through the glass ceiling is tough but Anna Bligh says it’s nothing to be frightened of.

ANNA Bligh is inspiring! The 180 women at our women’s conference

agree.The former Queensland premier spoke very openly and honestly about being a woman leader in times of crisis, including the need for 24-hour avail-ability during the floods of 2011.

In her view, “leadership starts when the rule book runs out”. She talked about women valuing their experiences in life. She pointed out that women’s lives are usually different from men’s and that this gives them skills and qualities — often unrecognised — that are crucial for leadership.

She acknowledged the skills that many men learn on the playing field but said these were not the only valid ones.

She also spoke about the importance of women embracing ambition as a powerful motivator and not regarding it as an “unfeminine” quality. Women are often hesitant and worried about how they will be seen — but Anna pointed to Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, who is loud and proud and views a comment like “she’s so ambitious” as a compliment.

Anna praised the AEU and its women for our long and proud history of improving the lives of women (and men). Education was of central importance to people’s life chances, she said, and the Gonski funding reforms were crucial if we were to improve these chances for the majority of Australians.

Her view is that a leader’s time in office is very short (“you don’t want to just visit”) and should be used to focus on only one or two issues and see them through; her choice was to introduce a year of early childhood education to bring her state in line with the rest of Australia.

Virginia Woolf, in a wonderful piece of writing, talked of “killing the Angel in the House” — the angel being the urge within many women to be accom-modating and to soothe other people’s feelings at the expense of their own interests. Anna urged women to “stand your ground and get the right outcome — then you will be leading”.

Working women were re-shaping the world, she said.When asked about the difficulties experienced by women pioneers who

reshape the world, Bligh said that the first ball through the wall gets bloody and that we should not look at the blood but at the hole that is now there for other women.

Anna Bligh was brave and powerful and reminded us about the strength and courage of women in leadership. �

Women’s FOCUSBarb Jennings women’s officer

www.aeuvic.asn.au 23

insid

e the A

EU

Consultation is the key to making the new agreement work in your school. Our live and online workshop will show you how.

HOW will our new Schools Agreement work in your school?

The agreement is only one hurdle away from coming into effect — approval by the Fair Work Commissioner.

So now is the time to evaluate conditions, policies, processes and local agreement in your school. To do that you need to understand the agreement and how it should work in practice.

Join us “live and online” on July 31 at 4.30pm to learn how to implement the agreement in your school. You can attend in person at the AEU office in Abbotsford or join us online as an individual or sub-branch.

You will hear vital information about changes to your conditions and key dates for implementing them at your school. Where do you start and what

do you want to improve?Real consultation has been the

cornerstone of the past few agree-ments and still is. This agreement further clarifies the business of the school consultative committee.

All arrangements (including committee structure, operating proce-dures and arrangements to enable committee members to canvass views in their school) must be discussed by the sub-branch, agreed and reported by the principal to the Education Department by September 1 — as before.

The principal must present the committee with any proposals related to working conditions or long-term planning, including the workforce plan.

For the first time, the principal must advise all staff of any decisions on

these matters by the end of November — in writing. The intention is that everyone leaves for Christmas with a clear knowledge of arrangements for the coming year.

Throw in the need for the principal to show the committee the indicative SRP (school budget) early in October, and the need for anyone on family or maternity leave to confirm their return by October 1 and Term 4 looks pretty busy.

And that’s before you start writing reports.

So let us support you. Join us live or online at our two special VGSA 2013 workshops (see above).

Don’t forget our regular AEU Active one-day workshops designed to improve your understanding and confidence around the agreement, sub-branch structures and, of course, consultation.

If your sub-branch has other PD requirements or you would like us to run a session in your school on consultation then let us know. �

AEU TRAINING & PDRowena Matcott training officer

AEU ACTIVEImplementing the agreementJuly 2 ................................ Mornington July 24.....................................Mildura

Strengthening our sub-branchJuly 25.....................................Mildura August 8 ................................ Ballarat

EDUCATION SUPPORTTwilight conferences 4pm-6pm, dinner 6pm-8pmJuly 23...................................Swan HillJuly 30...................................SunshineAugust 20 ..............................BendigoSeptember 10 ........................ GeelongSeptember 17 ........................Sunbury

NEW EDUCATORSApplying for graduate jobsJuly 23........................AEU AbbotsfordAugust 6 ....................AEU Abbotsford August 13 ............................ WodongaAugust 15 .............................. BallaratAugust 19 ..............................Geelong August 20 ........................... Traralgon

CONFERENCESEarly years conference July 27....................... AEU AbbotsfordBranch conferenceAugust 3.................... AEU AbbotsfordTAFE and adult provision conferenceAugust 29................... VUT Flinders St

WOMEN’S PROGRAMConflict resolution July 22....................... AEU AbbotsfordJuly 23....................... AEU AbbotsfordTargeting Leadership for Women (TLW): Making the decision and preparing yourself July 30....................... AEU AbbotsfordTLW: Application writingAugust 6 ................... AEU Abbotsford

All places can be booked on the online calendar. Go to www.aeuvic.asn.au/calendar to see all training events, select the date of your chosen event and click through.

AEU PRINCIPALSBecoming the principalJuly 19........................AEU Abbotsford Application writing August 7................... AEU AbbotsfordSeptember 9.............. AEU Abbotsford Planning for 2014August 16 ..................AEU Abbotsford

OTHER EVENTSReturning to work July 2.......................... AEU Abbotsford

CRT – ICT in the classroom July 3 ..........................AEU Abbotsford

Job seeking for employees in excessJuly 3 ..........................AEU Abbotsford

Applying and interviewing for leading teacher positionsJuly 24........................AEU Abbotsford

Health & Safety reps forumsJuly 30........................AEU AbbotsfordAugust 1 ............................. GippslandAugust 15 ....................Eastern Metro

Training for health & safety repsAugust 5 ....................AEU Abbotsford

AEU TRAINING CALENDAR TERM 3

New Agreement 101How to Implement the Agreement at your SchoolJuly 31, 4.30pm live and online

Consultation: Making it Work August 15, 4.30pm live and online

Register at www.aeuvic.asn.au/calendar.

VGSA 2013 WORKSHOPS

24 aeu news | june 2013

insi

de

the

AEU

On the PHONESMembership Services Unit — 1800 013 379

Before making a decision about an ESSSuper product, you should consider the appropriateness of the product to your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. It may also be beneficial to seek professional advice from a licensed financial planner or adviser. Issued by the Emergency Services Superannuation Board ABN 28 161 296 741, Trustee of the Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme (ESSSuper) ABN 85 894 637 037. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Benefits in ESSSuper’s Accumulation Plan are not guaranteed or underwritten by the Victorian Government or ESSSuper. New terms commence each month, with rates available from the 16th calendar day or next business day. No withdrawals or investment option changes permitted during the term. Automatically reinvests at the end of the term if no maturity instruction is provided.

Proudly serving our members

ESS3

696_

06/1

3_AE

U

“With term deposits, I can predict the returns on my funds.” That’s more than super.

At ESSSuper, we’re pleased to offer term deposits as one more way of giving our members more choice for their investments. With term deposits, you have peace of mind knowing that your funds will benefit from predictable returns. And you have the choice of competitive rates from two of Australia’s leading banks.

You can invest in a term deposit by opening an ESSSuper Accumulation Plan or Income Stream. You must invest a minimum of $5,000 in any one term deposit, up to a maximum of 80% of your Accumulation Plan or Income Stream balance.

Before you invest in term deposits, find out more by going online at www.esssuper.com.au/termdeposits or calling the Member Service Centre on 1300 655 476.

Fiona, School Teacher, ESSSuper member.

John Kelepouris MSU officer

FOR school teachers in fixed-term employment, their contract must include relevant school

holidays. Contracts that last the duration of Term 1, 2 or 3 include pay for the whole of the following holiday.

But how much of the long summer break should be paid? That depends on when you started:Starting date 2013: Paid until:Day 1, Term 1 (or earlier) January 27, 2014Day 1, Term 2 (or earlier) January 20, 2014Day 1, Term 3 (or earlier) January 9, 2014Day 1, Term 4 (or earlier) December 31, 2013

Having more than one contract during the term or year, even if in different schools, does not affect your entitlement to payment over Christmas as above — provided your employment was continuous.

If you are rehired, we advise the school to check your employment records to determine whether you were employed during that school year to make sure that any holiday pay is honoured.

To split or not to split?The AEU views with concern the practice of splitting classes to avoid hiring a CRT. Schools should allocate a replacement teacher for a class whenever the regular teacher is absent.

This practice respects staff and children by ensuring normal class sizes and adequate space, supplies, facilities and teacher attention for each child to continue their normal school program.

As educators, we do not believe the practice of class-splitting at any primary school to be satisfactory.

Am I covered by the new agreement — and where’s my $1000?The proposed VGSA 2013 covers all teaching service employees (principals, teachers, education support staff and paraprofessionals). School council employees, including CRTs, are not teaching service employees and are not covered by the agreement.

The $1000 payment due at the agreement’s commencement will be paid to all eligible DEECD employees. For part-time employees it will be paid

pro-rata, based on the employee’s time fraction on the date the payment is made.

Any employee on leave without pay at the date of commencement of the proposed agreement will be paid the relevant sum on their return, provided they return during the life of the agreement (which nominally expires in October 2016).

Help! Our preschool teacher is sickWhat to do if the teacher at your funded kinder-garten program is absent? The teacher must be replaced by another early childhood teacher or a primary teacher if the program is to run as usual.

If the service cannot find a replacement it must either cancel the session or engage a diploma-qual-ified educator and post a sign to inform parents that a teacher will not be running the session, and it will not operate as a kindergarten program that day.

The service must also inform its local DEECD regional office that it has cancelled the session or engaged a non-teacher. (See page 32 of The Kindergarten Guide 2013.) �

Contract employment and school holidays

insid

e the A

EU

www.aeuvic.asn.au 25

AEU members get great discounts!Visit our new Health Centre at 52 Bridge Road, Richmond to enjoy great discounts on quality Eyecare and Dental services:

Call 8412 0200 or visit teachershealth.com.au

For the well-being of teachers & their families.

Be an early bird!Pre-book your school holiday appointment.

35% off spectacle frames*

25% off sunglasses frames*

25% off contact lenses^

Plus, we’ll give you a FREE Colgate Dental Travel Pack!**

Offers available for a limited time only until 1 August 2013. *Offer available to AEU members and their families, up to a maximum discount of $250. Spectacle frames must be purchased in conjunction with prescription lenses. ̂ Offer available to AEU members and their families, up to a maximum discount of $250. A minimum of 6 months supply must be purchased. **Offer available to AEU members and their families, upon completion of a dental examination at Teachers Health Centre Richmond. Teachers Federation Health Ltd ABN 86 097 030 414 trading as Teachers Health Centre. THC-VIC-A-AEU-06/13

~

~

Make way for new bloodWelcome aboard to our new graduate organiser, Adam Surmacz.

New Educators NETWORKAndrew Cassidy graduate teacher and universities organiser

AFTER three-and-a-half years as the AEU’s graduate teacher and

universities organiser it is time for me to make a move and for you to welcome Adam Surmacz.

Adam joins us from Berwick Fields Primary School where he teaches environmental education.

He’s been a keen member of the New Educators Network and an AEU councillor as well as an active environmental campaigner, presenting with his school at our green schools conference and organising tree plantings, clean-up days and other community events at his school.

After countless university lectures on issues that affect the work of a

teacher, close to 200 well-attended events and numerous barbecues across the state I’m delighted to hand over the graduate program to Adam.

I’m sure he’ll enjoy working with our graduate and student members as much as I have. This has been an incredible experience for me, one that has allowed me to work with new members right across our great state.

In my last couple of weeks alone I’ve met hundreds of you at our PD in the Pub events and at our barbecue and workshop for students at Deakin University’s PD week.

More than 10,000 pre-service teachers have signed up as members of the AEU since I started in June

2010 and more than 11,000 first-year teachers have become full financial members of the union.

These numbers reflect the excellent graduate program and the hard work of all AEU representa-tives and members out in schools in recruiting new members.

Reflecting on the recent EBA campaign, it was amazing to see the number of new teachers who took part in stopwork action last year and in February. Our future is strong.

With that campaign now drawn to a close I urge you all to get involved with the Gonski school funding campaign, one of the most important of the past 40 years. Visit www.

igiveagonski.com.au to sign up and add your voice.

From next term I shall be a general organiser in the northern region, so I am sure I’ll see many of you again. Thank you for your support and I wish you all the best for a restful break and a fantastic second half of 2013. �

Adam Surmacz

26 aeu news | june 2013

insi

de

the

AEU

CUT

Lift your game, auditor warnsA report on health and safety in public schools paints a worrying picture.

FEW government schools fully comply with OH&S processes and many need considerable improvement, a report by the Victorian Auditor-General’s

Office has found.Collaboration between the Education Department secretary and WorkSafe

has ceased and the department no longer receives quarterly briefings on injury rates and trends, the report, Management of Staff Occupations Health and Safety in Schools 2012–13, says.

VAGO had been asked to examine whether schools are managing risks to their staff, and whether the DEECD provides schools with sufficient guidance, support and oversight.

It found only modest improvements in health and safety in government schools, despite a reduction in new injury claims lodged since 2009.

Staff regularly used the DEECD’s OH&S management system and saw their schools as compliant but an audit revealed few schools had achieved full compliance and many needed considerable improvement. Awareness of the DEECD’s OH&S service providers was low and their services were little used by schools.

A staff survey undertaken as part of the study found the top three risk concerns for the next two to five years were:

1. Workload 2. Students with challenging behaviours3. Working with students with special needs.

The report also examined the impact of WorkSafe on OH&S in schools. Despite undertaking a variety of projects, WorkSafe had not provided comprehensive evaluations to identify improved outcomes or achieve better value for money, it found.

The Victorian WorkCover Authority (operating as WorkSafe) says it supports the recommendations in the report and sees it as a “plan of action” for it and the DEECD to improve safety in government schools.

Not talking anymoreThat could require some work. The report highlights that engagement between WorkSafe and the secretary of the DEECD has ceased in recent years.

Previously WorkSafe provided quarterly reports to the department, in briefings that outlined rates of injuries, snapshots of recent trends and opportunities for improvement; these stopped in October 2011. It appears neither WorkSafe nor the DEECD has attempted to reinstate this or any other engagement.

Whole-of–government engagement has also ceased. A senior public sector forum intended to improve OH&S leadership by sharing trends, comparators and successful strategies has not been replaced.

Data and costings in the report include some interesting facts and provide an informative picture of OH&S in government schools. The DEECD has accepted all recommendations in the report, which can be accessed at www.audit.vic.gov.au. �

Asbestos alarmCONCERN over work on the NBN roll-out has again highlighted the need for

best practice in dealing with asbestos-containing materials, not least in schools, where asbestos in situ is deteriorating and will inevitably need removal.

We need a prioritised removal program of all asbestos in schools. The challenges in maintaining a safe working environment through this process are great and will only grow as buildings age.

Managementof ACMinschoolsrequires:•A trained asbestos coordi-nator•Division5asbestosregisteroraudit•Asbestosmanagementplan•Contractornotificationandinductionsystemforhazardousmaterials•Identification and labelling of asbestos (labelling).

The AEU further recommends greater consultation with the school’s health and safety rep, staff and community, and ongoing induction for all new staff. �

The vanishing umpireThe department’s restructure has dumped a lot of extra work on principals.

WHAT’S a principal supposed to do? Some staff expect the principal to be in the school yard every lunchtime. Some parents expect principals to secure

new buildings and ensure all students are in school uniform. The Education Department and its regional staff have expectations, too, particularly given the Government’s autonomy agenda.

Principals’ huge workload has been compounded by the loss of regional network leaders and the department’s regional restructure. Added to their pile of work are responsibilities once borne by regional staff, such as the manage-ment of student support services officers.

Help for principals in dealing with complex situations and relationships has also disappeared in the restructure. There’s no longer an “umpire” or adviser to call on for help in, for example, adjudicating enrolment issues or preventing conflict between principals and school councils from escalating.

Agreement briefingsSo what is the “right work” for principals? The answer will of course depend on the school. The nature of the work that a principal undertakes at a small school with fewer than 20 students will be quite different, in some ways, to the work of a principal in a school of 2000 students.

But all need to acquire a detailed understanding of the 2013 Schools Agreement to ensure that processes and structures are instituted for its implementation. AEU principals play a pivotal role in helping staff understand changes in the agreement.

The AEU will explain the agreement at upcoming information sessions and principal class meetings. A full-day AEU Active program for principal class members will be held on Friday August 16 and Jeff Walters and I can also visit you to discuss and explain the changes.

Email me at glennis.pitches@aeuvic.asn.au if you wish to book a time. �

www.aeuvic.asn.au 27

Safety MATTERSCarolyn Clancy deputy branch secretary

Point of PRINCIPALGlennis Pitches PCA organiser

insid

e the A

EU

clas

sified

s

TRAVEL INTERNATIONALA TASTE OF CHINA

14 Days – Shanghai, Xitang – water town, Nanjing, Beijing, Xi’an – Terracotta Soldiers, Guilin, Yang Shuo, HongKong. All-inclusive tour includes mainland travel, gourmet food, accommodation and all fees to cultural and historic sites.Savour the cuisine, culture and natural wonders at a leisurely pace.$3580 pp twin share. Enquiries and bookings call 0419 561 659 Rob or Helen. robhey@netspace.net.au *excludes return flight Melb to HK.

driveEUROPEPeugeot Citroen Renault

2013 European specials out NOWOur 39th year of service to the European traveller. Email: gha25440@bigpond.net.au (02) 9437 4900

FRANCE — LANGUEDOCTwo renovated stone houses in tranquil village near Carcassone, sleep four or eight, from $600 a week. See website at www.frenchrentalhouses.bigpondhosting.com; or phone (02) 4757 1019; 0414 968 397; email marjen1946@hotmail.com

FRANCE — PROVENCERestored 17th-century house in mediaeval fortified village of Entrevaux. Spectacular location, close to Côte d’Azur and Italy. Contact owners (03) 5258 2798 or (02) 9948 2980. www.provencehousestay.com.

FRANCE — SOUTH WESTRenov 17thC 2 bdrm apart in elegant Figeac, “centreville”, or cottage in Lauzerte, 12thC hilltop village. Low cost.www.flickr.com/photos/clermont-figeac/ or www.flickr.com/photos/les-chouettes/ Ph teacher owner (03) 9877 7513 or email jimmcdon@tpg.com.au for brochure.

TRAVEL AUSTRALIA

AIREY’S INLET HOLIDAY RENTALHoliday rental, 3 bdrms, 2 living, large decks, 1 acre garden, bbq, woodfire. Phone 0416 234 808, (03) 4208 0668.

AIREY’S INLETSATIS BEACH HOUSE

Stylish and comfortable 3 bdrm house for six on the beach side of Great Ocean Road. Paddle our canoe on the inlet, walk to the lighthouse, cliff walk and beaches. Phone (03) 5380 8228 or email melrose@gjr.net.au. Website: www.satisbeachhouse.com

HOLIDAY HOUSE PHILLIP ISLAND, VENTNOR

Two bedroom sleeps 6, available weekends and holidays. Jane (03) 9387 9397 or 0431 471 611 or Louise (03) 9343 6030 or 0413 040 237.

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATIONRosedale Beach between Batemans Bay/Moruya, South Coast NSW. Beautifully renovated beach cottage. Brand new kitchen with dishwasher. 3 bedrooms. 200m flat walk gorgeous beach. Aircon. Peaceful and quiet, shady verandah. Available school holidays.http://www.stayz.com.au/119878

RAINTREES RESORT MOFFAT BEACH SUNSHINE COAST QLDSelf-contained 2 and 3 bedroom apart-ments with 2 bathrooms. Linen supplied. 2 pools, one heated with a water slide. Direct access to beach and short walk to many restaurants and amenities.Phone: 07 5491 5555www.raintrees.com.au

WILSONS PROMONTORYPromclose Cottage. www.promclose.com 0488 592 725.

NOTICES

CRT GUIDE Detailed and practical book to help primary teachers new to the role as a CRT. See details www.vjsalescom.au $24.95 Free postage.

FUNDRAISING with Little ‘smart’ Artists

Let your kinder or school’s Little ‘smart’ Artists make you money. Kids can now have their artwork put on an Australian made T-shirt and your kinder/school makes a percentage from every T-shirt sold. Requires minimal work on your behalf. Contact sales@littlesmart-artists.com.au or 0431 995 165 (Meri)www.littlesmartartists.com.au

HANDYMAN/MAINTENANCEAll jobs, big & small

+ bathrooms/tiling. 25 yrs exp.Work in Eltham/Diamond Valley area.Phone Simon 0414 294 824.

RETIRING SOON?Volunteers for Isolated Students’ Education recruits retired teachers to assist families with their Distance Education Program. Travel and accom-modation provided in return for six weeks teaching. Register at www.vise.org.au or George Murdoch 0421 790 334 Ken Weeks (03) 9876 2680.

(MPS) MELBOURNE PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

VENDOR ADVOCACY — SELLING YOUR PROPERTY?

Take away the stress and engage an independent advocate and a former teacher and AEU member. There is no cost when using Melbourne Property Solutions, as the agent you select pays (MPS) a set percentage of the fee from their total commission. Mark Thompson, Licensed Estate Agent Melbourne Property Solutions. Buyer and Vendor Advocate Services. Ph 0409 958 720 Email: mark@mpsadvocates.com.au Website: www.mpsadvocates.com.au

RETIREMENT VICTORIAVisit us at www.retirevic.com.au.

VISAS IMMIGRATIONFor the professional advice you need — contact Ray Brown. Phone (03) 5792 4056 or 0409 169 147. Email raybrown888@bigpond.com. Migration Agents Registration No. 0213358

Seeking promotion or a classroom teaching position

ITALY — FLORENCEBeautiful fully furnished apartment in historic centre. Sleeps 2-6, $1,700 pw, telephone 0419 025 996 or www.convivioapartment.com.

ITALY — UMBRIAApartment. Beautiful sunny 2 bdrm. Historic Centre Citta Di Castello €625pw 2p, €675 3-4p.0414 562 659 darylhely@gmail.com

SOUTH OF FRANCE — LANGUEDOCTwo charming newly renovated tradi-tional stone houses with outside terraces. Sleeps 4 or 6. Market town, capital of Minervois, wine growing region, close to lake, Canal Midi, Mediterranean beaches, historic towns. From $460 per week. Visit, Web: www.languedocgites.com Email: info@languedocgites.com.

Big Savings for Union Members

bathrooms, construction & maintenance*bathrooms *en suites *new or old

*complete service*evaporative cooling & all home maintenance.N.E. METRO AREA

Quality work for the right price with over 25 years industry experience

CALL SIMONmobile: 0414 294 824 phone/fax: 9439 9223

Email: simonedgley@optusnet.com.au

28 aeu news | june 2013

NO AMOUNT of free morning teas during

Term 2 can reduce the stress of staff or improve their morale. There is something dark and ominous about this term that has even the most seasoned teacher reaching for the Kleenex and trying to work out an escape plan.

Just when you think the workload can’t increase any more, here comes a VCE expo, a school production, SAC marking, exam marking … suddenly, even the most resilient teacher is strug-gling to speak (Strepsils, anyone?) and not sleeping through the night.

I have always thought that if you are planning to take long service leave, Term 2 would be the best choice. Missing Term 1 or Term 4 would be pure madness and, while Term 3 is a cold and miserable experience, it is not the dreaded Term 2.

“Has anyone else not started reports yet?” asks Marion, a maths teacher who is usually organised to the point of making others feel incompetent.

“No. I keep looking at my pile of exams and SACs and then sitting down to watch MasterChef. I think I have a problem,” sniffs Cameron, a senior teacher and another one who always gives the impression of being super-prepared.

A general chorus in the staff room ensues. Not one teacher is sitting in a good place with their reports, marking or general workload.

“It’s like the more work I have, the more stressed I get and then I avoid doing it, which makes me even more stressed.”

“When I get home, it’s so dark. All I want to do is eat dinner and go to bed.”

“I’m just exhausted.”“Me too.”Schools are best avoided at this time of year.

The teachers are exhausted, the kids are sick and buildings are either over-heated or freezing. You cannot dress appropriately: you either boil or freeze.

During many a recent lesson I have found

myself sweating at the whiteboard, not because I am writing with such speed and intensity, but because the classroom has the climate of a tropical island while outside it is 12 degrees and hailing.

Once I’ve adapted to this heat, I inevitably find myself unlocking the door to a room with the temperature of a tomb. A heater may stand invit-ingly in the corner but it is always in these rooms that the heater cannot be stirred into action, despite the attention of at least five students and a generous time allowance.

“Miss! It’s freezing.”“I’m so cold. I can’t work.”“Are there tissues in here?”“Pardon the interruption teachers, but this is a

reminder that there will be a morning tea provided for staff today.”

No matter how good those muffins are, I’m still going to have a massive pile of work to do. But I might be able to take a pile of them back to my desk … and that will make me feel better about things. �

Melbourne comic-slash-teacher Christina Adams wants to know why “heater repair” isn’t part of the core curriculum.

WINE TALKINGPaddy Kendler

Shock of the newINTRODUCING new grape varieties has been

a constant practice since the Australian wine renaissance of the 1970s. Among the “new” varieties planted in that decade was chardonnay — although there had been a few chardy vines in the Hunter Valley and Mudgee — followed by merlot and pinot noir.

Into the ’80s, Tim Knappstein and Taltarni began promising experiments with sauvignon blanc, while sparkling makers planted pinot meuniere to add body to their Champagne styles.

Among the more recent newcomers is pinot gris/grigio. The Italian grigio style is generally light and flimsy while the gris, modelled on the original Alsatian style, is usually more viscous and flavoursome. Either way, it’s the same grape in the vineyard.

Now the Spanish red tempranillo, long a staple of the Rioja region, is appearing all over the country. Where it will eventually find a few homes is anyone’s guess but, so far, most have been disappointing.

One exception is Yalumba’s Running With Bulls Tempranillo 2012 ($23). It’s a charming wine in perfect balance made from grapes grown in Wrattonbully just north of Coonawarra. Find out more from tfisher@yalumba.com.

Now check out these current releases:DE BORTOLI 8 YEAR OLD TAWNY ($25): The “8 year” is presumably an average age as there seems to be older material in the blend. Regular port drinkers will find this a most enjoyable partner now that our nights have cooled.HEWITSON MISS HARRY 2011 ($23): Dean Hewitson’s work with Barossa shiraz, grenache and mourvèdre represents a delicious Aussie spin on a traditional Rhone formula. Both sweet and savoury characters in smooth and silky harmony. www.hewitson.com.auCOLES LIQUORLAND CLEANSKIN CHARDONNAY 192 ($6): Surprisingly good quality at such a cheap price featuring typical peach, melon and citrus flavours with just enough balancing acidity.GRANT BURGE THORN RIESLING 2012 ($23): A truly delightful Eden Valley riesling, full of grapey flavours and ready to relish now. natalie@grantburgewines.com.au �

Bury me in Term 2

www.aeuvic.asn.au 29

cultu

re

What do children’s rights look like?

AUSTRALIA’S first Children’s Commissioner is asking students to send her pictures, poems, stories and letters about how she can help make

a difference to their lives.Megan Mitchell this month began an Australia-wide listening tour, The

Big Banter, to hear from children about their lives and help her to set her agenda.

Ms Mitchell took up the position, part of the Australian Human Rights Commission, in March.

She said: “I believe that children and young people are experts in their own lives and so, before I can work out what needs to be done, I need to ask the experts.

“I will be looking carefully at all responses and will report to Parliament as well as to children and young people,” she said.

Contributions can be uploaded at somethingincommon.gov.au/ thebigbanter. Children (ages 0–8) and young people (ages 8–17) can also take a short survey at the same address. �

Cynthia Karena AEU News

AUTHOR and former English teacher Barry Dickins fondly remembers the Chinese twins in his Year 2

class at Keon Park Primary School in Reservoir who had a knack for writing wonderful sonnets.

“They would say, ‘Why not have that word next to this word — it’s prettier that way.’ It was adorable. There was no end to what they were interested in. Their eagerness and excitement affected the whole class. I had a wonderful rapport with them.”

For Dickins, 64, teaching was all about rapport not discipline. He failed classroom management in his Dip Ed at the Melbourne State College in Carlton in 1972. “How do you discipline a class when you are laid-back yourself? We weren’t shown how to teach and how to enjoy teaching.”

Dickins’ latest book, Lessons in Humility: 40 Years of Teaching, took two years to write. He wanted to write a memoir of his teaching experiences at different schools, from the violent to the privileged.

“The book is satirical; it’s real and unreal. It’s a mix of exaggerations and truths to entertain the reader. The exaggerations make it funnier and truer, and make the story resonate.

“Writing is no different to teaching. You have to feel good inside. Feeling fantastic is a great help. You can’t write comedy and entertain if you’re depressed.”

Max Gillies, one of his drama tutors at college, encouraged Dickins to write plays while he was teaching. “I had two passions, education and the theatre.” Dickins taught by day and acted by night. He was part of the Pram Factory theatre group from 1969 to 1980.

He was the ink monitor at Keon Park Primary School himself in the 1950s. “I loved that school, I ran to school every day. We had a really good principal. There was discipline, but also affection.”

He had the reverse experience when he was in “bubs” at Reservoir State School in 1950. “Miss Hollowhead (her real name) put me into the piano and played a hymn with me inside to teach me a lesson. I didn’t know what was happening. I must have been naughty. I was slightly traumatised by that.”

Then there was his traumatic time at Sydney Road Community College teaching poetry to kids with knives, and sometimes a handgun. “They were chaotic and out-of-control.” Or when Year 5 students challenged Dickins to a fight when he asked them to write sonnets. He still remembers the chants of “fight, fight, fight”.

But it was his beloved old Keon Park Primary School where he had some of his favourite teaching experiences. “I was offered a residency in the same classroom where I was educated. The children looked the same as the multicultural kids I went to school with in the ’50s.” �

RESERVOIR of experienceA lifetime in the classroom informs Barry Dickins’ new book.

SATELLITE BOY

Dir: Catriona McKenzieHopscotch FilmsRating PG, 90 mins

PETE (Cameron Wallaby) is a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy with

big dreams. Living with his grandfa-ther Old Jagamarra (David Gulpilil) beneath the tattered screen of his outback town’s derelict drive-in cinema, he is holding tight to his absent mother’s dream of opening a restaurant on the land.

But in a town marked by poverty and tedium, a brief stay in the lock-up after mucking about with mates is an intimation of a more likely future.

When a mining company arrives to claim his home, Pete and his best mate Kalmain (Joseph Pedley) take off on a perilous trek across the Kimberley to confront the company’s city headquarters.

A moving film that gently poses big questions about traditional versus new ways, Satellite Boy also offers enough action to make this the perfect alternative holiday pic for kids aged 10 and up. � — RP

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIODir: Peter StricklandMadman DVDRated M, 92 mins

THIS odd and slightly creepy feature didn’t get much of a run

in the cinema, but is worth a look, especially for fans of the Italian Giallo genre of the 1970s. Toby Jones plays a documentary sound engineer hired by an Italian film studio to sound-edit a low-budget horror, from dubbed-in dialogue and screams to closely mic’d sound-effects.

Set mostly in the sound studio located in a large and seemingly empty building, the tone is set by studio hands smashing watermelons with hatchets to create the audio for … well, that’s left to the imagination, but rarely have melons seemed so disturbing. Jones’s engineer, who speaks no Italian, looks increasingly uncomfortable as a sinister mood takes hold.

The film loses some narrative energy but remains atmospheric throughout. The really brave should listen on headphones. � — NB

REVI

EWS:

RAC

HEL

POWE

R AN

D NI

C BA

RNAR

D

30 aeu news | june 2013

culture

WIN teaching resourcesSUBSCRIBE TO THE AEU

E-NEWSLETTER AT www.aeuvic.asn.au FOR THE CHANCE TO

WIN MORE GIVEAWAYS!AEU NEWS is giving members the opportunity to win a variety of Australian resources for their school libraries from our good friends at HarperCollins, Ford Street Publishing and Pan Macmillan Australia.To enter, email us at giveaways@aeuvic.asn.au by 10am Tuesday July 2, 2013.Include your name and school or workplace. Write “Win Teaching Resources” in the subject line.Prizes will be sent to the winner’s school or workplace with an inscription recognising the winner. Good luck!

Congratulations to our winners from AEU News issue 2: There is a monster under my bed who farts — Tiffany Borg, Rowen Street Kindergarten; Red Dirt Diary 3 — Barbara Bonnici-Bourke, Mornington Secondary College; I, Wolf — Paul McMullen, Wodonga Senior Secondary College.

DINOSAURS LOVE CHEESEA BEAUTIFUL picture book from award-winning author Jackie French and talented artist Nina Rycroft.

A world of hidden animals that only a child can see. Lion cubs lap up cream, Goats think carrots are supreme, Elephants feel fruit is fun, Camels love a sticky bun... But Dinosaurs LOVE Cheese!

RRP $24.99, HarperCollins Publishers Australia

GAMERS’ REBELLIONBy George Ivanoff

TARK and Zyra finally make it out into the real world... but things are not what they expected. When Zyra is captured by the Designers, Tark finds

himself amongst a group of teenage rebels. Will Tark and Zyra be able to save the characters

within the game from the people who created them? Will they ever be able to stay in the real world?

Or will the Designers’ plans for world domination win out?

RRP $16.95 Ford Street Publishing

WILDLIFEBy Fiona Wood

BOARDING for a term in the wilderness, sixteen-year-old Sibylla expects a gruesome outdoor education program — but friendship complications, and

love that goes wrong? They’re extra-curricula.Enter Lou from Fiona Wood’s first novel, Six

Impossible Things. Lou becomes intrigued by the unfolding drama between her housemates Sibylla and Holly, and has to decide whether to end her self-imposed detachment and join the fray.

A story about first love, friendship and not fitting in.

RRP $16.99, Pan Macmillan Australia

A better deal on your home loan.

mecu Limited ABN 21 087 651 607 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence Number 238431 trading as bankmecu. 1The Comparison Rate is based on a secured loan of $150,000 for 25 years. Warning: This comparison rate is true only for the examples given, and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate. Terms, conditions, fees and charges apply and are available upon request. Loans subject to normal lending criteria and approval. Interest rates expressed as annual percentage rates. Variable rates correct as at 10/05/2013, however are subject to change at any time.

5.34%Comparison rate

per annum1

5.29%Low variable rate

per annum

We’re a 100% customer owned bank, so you get a better rate on our Basic Home Loan.

Visit bankmecu.com.au/basic for more information or call 132 888

www.aeuvic.asn.au 31

givea

ways

For the well-being of teachers & their families.

Our members enjoy high benefits on Extras services, including general dental, optical, remedial massage, psychology and speech therapy.

Switching is easy so join Teachers Health Fund today to access:

a mutual, for-member health fund

competitively priced health insurance

a range of quality products and services

generous benefits for the services we know are important to you

fast, efficient claiming options – on-the-spot and online claiming

To join visit teachershealth.com.au or call 1300 728 188 (Monday – Friday, 8am – 7.30pm AEST)

Teachers Health Fund is dedicated to teachers & their families.

Teachers Federation Health Ltd. ABN 86 097 030 414 trading as Teachers Health Fund. THF-U-2013

*Conditions apply. Visit teachershealth.com.au for more information.

Join before

30 June 2013 to receive one month

FREE health cover and 2 & 6 month waiting periods waived on

Extras services*