Apparently the technology has been around for several years to monitor school attendance and library books.

Seems like a good idea to me. According to this (pdf) explanation:

“Finger scanning in schools allows for accurate tracking and monitoring of attendance in and out of school gates as well as study periods. The primary focus is fulfilling the schools duty of care and enhancing student safety by increasing the accuracy of attendance data.”

According to Wikipedia:

“The most common misconception about fingerprint systems is that they are thought to store a fingerprint image or other biometric information, which calls into question legal and data protection concerns. However these systems actually work by running key features of the fingerprint through a complicated encryption algorithm. This produces a result which cannot be ‘Reverse Engineered’ to produce any biometric or image information.

“This means the data kept on file can only be used to verify an identity against another scan through the same system; the information would be effectively useless to police and third parties.”

For my son’s school, parents who elected to opt out of the system were told their children would be issued with scan cards.

I would like to see the biometric system introduced at my workplace. I have four different cards there for the three offices I have to work from and the carpark.

Cards can be stolen, but my finger is going nowhere I don’t want it to go.

The My School website has been developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

The website provides detailed information about all the schools in Australia. It uses a new index of student and school characteristics, developed specifically for the purpose of identifying schools serving similar student populations.

ACARA chairman Barry McGaw says this enables schools’ results on national tests to be understood in a fair and meaningful way, and enables schools seeking to improve their performance to learn from other schools with statistically similar populations.

“By providing extensive information on Australian schools, the My School website introduces a new level of transparency and accountability to the Australian school system,” he said.

The Australian Education Union has opposed the introduction of what it calls “league tables”, which it fears could become a tool to “humiliate and shame” under-performing schools.

Principals also have reservations, suggesting financial data should be included to put the comparisons into proper context.

I fully support information being accessible in the public arena.

The national testing data always has been available. Parents receive information for their children and schools receive comparative data, which they normally share within their school community.

The website brings it all together on a national basis and enables comparisons to be more easily made.

This makes principals accountable, which they say they support. And why shouldn’t they?

The inclusion of a socio-educational index means that schools can be compared with similar schools.

I don’t know how the index was compiled, but I understand it takes into account the economic and academic background of parents.

If the government is serious about improving educational outcomes it will use the data to identify those schools that need extra investment.

As a parent, I can accept Jim and Maggie’s school having lower-than-average results because a remarkable 81 percent of the children come from a low socio-educational background. That’s the highest number for any school in Mount Gambier.

The proportion of indigenous students is also the highest in Mount Gambier at 8 percent.

What the figures don’t reveal, is that Gambier North also has a significant number of children from Burmese refugee families. I suspect that explains the poor result for Year 5 (see the table above).

I was relatively happy with the other results given the issue of disadvantage.

As a parent, I don’t expect the school to necessarily excel in all areas. I do want to know the staff are enthusiastic and dedicated. And I do want to see that the needs of individual children are being met.

Our impression so far is that’s occurring at Gambier North.

I will seek clarification though of the explanation for the Year 5 results.

Unfortunately, state school principals were muzzled today from talking to the media and all enquiries were referred to the Education Department district office. That was ridiculous.

Out of interest, I looked at the results for Hannans Primary in Kalgoorlie, where our children previously attended.

That school has a higher indigenous population (14 percent), but only 25 percent overall in the bottom quarter for socio-economic advantage.

All the Year 7 results were lower in the national testing for Hannans than they were at North Gambier.

Even so, as a parent I would want to hear the explanation before leaping to conclusions. During our time there, staff shortages and turnover were problems across Kalgoorlie. The raw data doesn’t tell you that.

The union is being alarmist in its opposition and should accept that disclosure and accountability are positive attributes.

Parents are smarter than they appear to be taking us for. Most of us will ask the right questions and be fair in our judgments.

The data should be seen as a tool to invest and improve.

We’re not unhappy with their current school (Suttontown), just with a decision of the principal regarding their class for next year.

South Australia is unique, in our experience, for allowing children to start school during the year.

In Victoria and Western Australia, children start prep at the beginning of the year if they are old enough at a cut-off point, which I think is around April.

The twins were born in December, which means they qualified for a full year of prep (called reception in South Australia) in any state.

In South Australia, children who turn five during the year start school at the beginning of a term, right up to the final term of the year.

As a consequence, there are new children coming into a class all the time.

Juliet was a “reading mum” at Suttontown this year; the only one in fact. She listened to children read their designated books.

She observed that having new children enter the class throughout the year was quite disruptive to the teachers and the other students who were more advanced.

Perhaps because of its unique system, South Australia combines classes across year groups. At Suttontown, that means there is a Reception/Year One class, a Year 1/2 class and so on.

Having completed a whole year in R/1, we assumed that Jim and Maggie would progress to the Year 1/2 level, however that was not to be.

The principal decided to keep them in R/1 next year.

Juliet received the information earlier this month and handled the discussions, so I’m reporting second hand, but the reasons didn’t make sense to us.

The principal said the twins were not being “kept down” and they would have “leadership roles” in the class next year. Leadership at age six!

What bothered us was that James is very advanced for his age, especially with reading. His class teacher said he is two and a half years above his age for reading, which means he’s at the level of an eight year old.

We were concerned that keeping him in a class with five-year-olds, who are just starting school (and progressively starting throughout the year) would be detrimental to his development.

There was a danger, in our view, that he could become bored at school and suffer behavioral problems.

As for Maggie, she cried when she heard the news. All her friends were going up to the next year level and she was devastated to hear (from the teacher, not us) that she would be staying in R/1.

The principal made it clear to Juliet that his decision was not negotiable.

In the 20 years that I’ve known her I’ve never seen Juliet so upset or angry.

I looked at it dispassionately and decided immediately that we would switch them to another school.

I originally considered the Catholic primary school, but the fees were just too expensive for two children, about $1600 a year each.

Given that public education isn’t free in South Australia, we could not afford the private school fees while the older children are costing us a substantial amount to have them enrolled at the state high school.

So I suggested to Juliet that we enrol Jim and Maggie at Mount Gambier North Primary, which is actually the school we are zoned to.

We are on the border between Gambier North and Suttontown, but chose the latter last year when we arrived because we thought the small-school environment would be better after our positive experience at Porepunkah in Victoria.

Suttontown has under 100 students, while Gambier North has about 250.

Juliet went to Gambier North and asked for an appointment to see the principal, who agreed to meet her straight away. Juliet phoned me at work and I went there immediately for the meeting.

We didn’t criticise Suttontown to the principal, but asked her opinion of how she would manage a child who is advanced for his age at reading.

She said peer stimulation was the best strategy; that it’s important to group gifted children together so they challenge each other.

This confirmed our view it would have been detrimental to James to keep him in a junior class with predominantly beginner students.

We completed the enrolment paperwork that night and actually feel relieved now we made the decision.

We think the new school will be better for Jim and Maggie for a range of reasons: peer stimulation, closer to home, more students, greater sporting and music options, and after-school hours care if needed.

Everyone we’ve spoken to about this agrees we have done the right thing.

We weren’t sure how the twins would react, but we told them this morning and walked with them to the new school.

James was initially reticent, but by the time he saw the school he was hooked. Maggie embraced the idea immediately.

One of their current classmates is also switching schools for different reasons, so they will start the year knowing at least two other children.

It was interesting talking to the Gambier North principal about twins. She thinks it’s a good idea to separate them at some stage, but agreed to keep them together in 2010 because they are starting at a new school.

We’re all looking forward to it.

Responding to a question in Australia about the death of a young man while on an unsupervised bush walk, the prince said the award is popular with youth because it has a “risk element … a sense that you could die doing this”.

The British press dumped on him, claiming it was a “blunder down under”.

Surprisingly, the Australian press was more sympathetic. The Australian reported a number of teachers, young people and politicians who endorsed the prince’s comments.

Prince Edward is chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

I did “Duke of Ed” or “D of E” as we knew it for nearly two years when I was a student at St Paul’s College, Traralgon, and obtained a bronze award.

I can remember the bush walks and the volunteer service. They are two elements of the award scheme; the others are a skill and sport (details here).

Our hike in Year 9 was to Lake Tali Karng in the Gippsland Alps.

According to Parks Victoria: “Tali Karng is a hidden jewel nestled deep in the mountains of Gippsland, fed by snowmelt waters of the Wellington Plains. The lake is believed to have been formed about 1500 years ago when a massive rock slide collapsed into the valley damming the waters of Nigothoruk Creek and what is now known as the Wellington River. The water runs underground from the lake to emerge as the infant Wellington River 150m below in the Valley of Destruction.”

Wikipedia says: “Tali Karng is difficult to access, with the quickest route a hard five hour walk, from MacFarlane’s Saddle via the Wellington Plains track. This involves an 800m descent, either via the Gillios Track or the Riggall’s Spur track.”

I can confirm it was bloody steep.

On the way in, one member of our party became ill. We carried radios to communicate with “base”. That’s when I learnt radio call signs.

We agreed to leave our packs on the track and return the sick boy to the starting point, carrying his pack for him. We then ran most of the way back to our packs to make up lost time.

I was fit then.

I don’t remember much about the lake, except it was a relief to see it after a long day and the water was freezing.

We came out along the Wellington River, described thus on Wikipedia: “This involves 15 river crossings, and can be quite dangerous, particularly under high river conditions.”

It rained all day, as I recall, so the river crossings didn’t trouble us much, except for hiking in wet boots.

The “adventure” component with D of E was great. I think I recorded squash and clarinet for my sport and skill respectively.

They were existing activities for me, which is probably why I don’t remember much detail (from 1981)!

For volunteering I went to Dalkeith, an aged care facility near where we used to live in Traralgon.

I watered the garden, chatted to residents and played cards with them.

All up, the Duke of Edinburgh award is a worthwhile pursuit for young people and Prince Edward was right to identify the appeal of a risk element.

As Tim Hawkes, headmaster of Kings School in Sydney noted: “We are in grave risk of adding to an already bubble-wrapped generation if we deny children, and boys in particular, some adventure in their life.”

Parents don’t like letters from schools. Normally it’s a bill, or there’s a prospect someone may be complaining about something your child has done or not done.

This one was personally addressed, with three hand-written signatures from the deputy principal, a teacher and a faculty co-ordinator.

Oh, oh!

It was actually a good letter, headlined: “Letter of recommendation for Italian from Year 8 to Year 9″.

“Dear Mr & Mrs Gorey, Michael performed very well in Year 8 Italian. He has demonstrated the capability to study a second language. The faculty would like to recommend Michael for Year 9 Italian.”

It’s that time of year, of course, when high school students have to make subject choices.

The choices are fairly limited for Year 9, but they are still significant. Michael asked me to sign off on his subjects earlier this week and I initially refused.

That was because he didn’t include Italian.

I knew it was one of his best subjects. Also, I’ve always appreciated the value of a second language academically and personally, not that I achieved the results I should have myself in that regard.

For Michael it was a direct choice between Italian and music. He has never studied music seriously, but has an ambition to learn the guitar.

I tried persuading him it will help when he’s playing soccer for AC Milan to speak Italian, but he was adamant about music, and I relented.

The letter has given us something to think about.

Today I offered him private guitar lessons if he studies Italian.

Many people are aware of the controversy that followed changes in the Federal Budget to Youth Allowance and the consequences for young people from the country.

The Senate referred concerns about the changes to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee for inquiry and report by October 29.

The terms of reference are much broader than just investigating Youth Allowance.

The committee is examining the adequacy of government measures to provide equitable access to secondary and post-secondary education opportunities to students from rural and regional communities attending metropolitan institutions.

The committee will investigate:

• The financial impact on rural and regional students who are attending metropolitan secondary schools, universities or TAFE;
• The education alternatives for rural and regional students wanting to study in regional areas;
• The implications of current and proposed government measures on prospective students living in rural and regional areas;
• The short- and long-term impact of current and proposed government policies on regional university and TAFE college enrolments;
• The adequacy of government measures to provide for students who are required to leave home for secondary or post-secondary study;
• The educational needs of rural and regional students;
• The impact of government measures and proposals on rural and regional communities.

Local councils, parents and students are among those who have made submissions.

The inquiry is a good example of how important it is to have a properly functioning Upper House to review legislation and government policies.

We’re faced with paying $680 to send Kathleen and Michael to high school and a lesser amount for Jim and Maggie to attend primary school.

All up it will cost about $1000 plus more for stationery and excursions.

Juliet organised with the high school for us to pay by instalments, but they still sent us a statement this week threatening legal action if we don’t pay the balance of $540 within 14 days.

We’ll pay the invoice, but I think it’s disappointing the principle of free education for all has been abandoned.

I noted in The Border Watch last November the total amount owed to state schools through unpaid materials and services fees had reached $4.47m and was expected to grow.

At one level, charging parents for public education encourages them to more seriously consider the option of sending their children to private schools.

At another level, struggling parents face additional financial strain.

Principals are in a no-win position. It’s difficult for them to send debt collectors to families whose children they have a duty to teach.

But if they don’t recover the money their budgeted revenue falls short of expectations.

The fairest system would be for all tuition and services to be free, except excursions and replacement stationery.

Implementing this would require additional government investment in education.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s promise that every student should have a computer might be better adjusted to commit that every child in Australia should have a free education.

Such a “revolutionary” idea seems to have escaped governments who insist on charging Australian families to teach their children.

The required skills were good English, an awareness of current affairs, curiosity and effective communication.

I asked each of them 11 interview questions. They all performed okay during this stage, and it gave me an idea of their personalities.

Then I gave them a spelling test of 20 words and a general knowledge quiz with 20 questions.

The results were remarkable.

I won’t divulge more for privacy reasons, but there was a real cross-section of scores and I found it a really effective exercise.

Applicants who present well are not necessarily the ones with the best general knowledge and writing skills.

I’ll let the dust settle and write a more detailed review in the future.

It’s been a good kindergarten with flexible hours, which helped Juliet get work. It’s not as close as we had in Kalgoorlie, where we just had to walk a short distance down the road, but the twins have been happy there.