Substantial government investment has propelled Brazil’s universities to the top of the first QS University Rankings: Latin America.

AUSTRALIA: A new report has revealed Australia is spending a smaller percentage of government funding on public schools than almost any other major nation in the world.

The OECD’s Education at a Glance Report shows only 71.3 per cent of funds are going to public schools – well below the OECD average of 86.1 per cent.

UK – Twenty-four free schools have been set up in record time to meet the urgent demand of UK parents for a different type of education to benefit local children.

Seventeen primary schools, five secondary schools and two all-age free schools will open throughout this month – just 10 to 15 months after submitting initial plans to the Department for Education.

AUCKLAND – The new funding announced by John Key and Julia Gillard during the Pacific Forum will help build vocational skills and employment opportunities throughout the Pacific.

Key said, “We’re setting a target of getting over 500,000 more children in the  Pacific in education by 2021, ensuring that 75 per cent of  children in the region can read by the age of 10.”

AUSTRALIA – A secondary college in Victoria is the state’s first government school to offer flying lessons as part of the curriculum, the Australian Department for Education reports.

Thanks to the support of a local anonymous benefactor who approached the school last year with an offer to cover the cost of flying classes, the Year 10 students at Brentwood Secondary College have taken to the skies for their weekly flying lessons.

SWEDEN –  A preschool in Stockholm eliminated gendered pronouns with staff avoiding the use of words such as “him” or “her”, instead addressing the children as friends rather than girls and boys, The Age reports.

The preschool planned every detail to make sure children do not fall into gender stereotypes – from the colour and placement of toys to the choice of books.

AUSTRALIA – A school in Victoria has adapted a new uniform policy that allows students to wear blankets in class, as an inadequate power supply leads students shivering, The Age reports.

The school´s council voted to amend their uniform policy temporarily and allow students to bring blankets to school because of occupational health and safety concerns.

UK – The first round of applications for Free Schools in the UK has been approved last week, the Department for Education reports.

Of the 323 proposals received, 41 were approved to move to business case and plan stage or beyond.

AUSTRALIA – An initiative, which boosts Australia’s education system with $16.2 billion over four years, is well underway across the Tasman.

The Building the Education Revolution (BER) initiative is a critical component of the Commonwealth Government’s economic stimulus package.

A high school in Sydney has embraced social entrepreneurship to boost the self-esteem and expectations for success of disengaged young people, the NSW Department of Education reports.

The school is bringing students together with successful business people as mentors, under the auspices of the Beacon Foundation and with financial support from United Way.

UK – A new electronic weapon in the war against exam cheats was unveiled in the UK last week, The TES reports.

From this summer, pupils and schools who try to con their way through GCSEs and A-levels will face detection by software developed by Cambridge Assessment.

UK – Schools in the UK will find it easier to employ overseas teachers from New Zealand, Australia, USA, and Canada under plans set out last month, the UK Department for Education reports.

Despite having undertaken training to achieve equivalent teacher training qualifications, qualified teachers from the four countries still have to undertake further training and assessment before they are deemed ready to teach in schools in this country.

U.S. - A kindergarten in the state of Maine, US, is supplementing crayons, finger paints and flashcards with iPads - a development that excites supporters, but worries detractors as it is wasted on pupils too young to appreciate the expense.

Later this year, nearly 300 kindy pupils will get iPad2 touchpad tablets to learn the basics about ABCs, 1-2-3s, drawing and even music.

AU – A controversial plan to reward Australia’s best teachers with cash bonuses sparked debate between the Government and education providers.

The $425 million National Rewards for Great Teachers program headlines the Government’s education package - despite warnings by unions and principals associations that it will divide the teaching workforce.

U.K. – Thousands of pupils who fail to achieve a good General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in English and maths will be made to study the subjects for another two years or take high-quality alternative qualifications until they leave school at 18, The Guardian reports.

AUSTRALIA - Dads are making a difference to literacy outcomes at a New South Wales school by taking time out to read to their young children, the NSW Department for Education reports.

To encouraging fathers and other male role models to become actively involved in their child’s education is the aim of the Mudgee Dads Take Home reading project.

Teachers and students around the world now have an easy way to find each other for shared projects and learning through a new online platform provided by Skype.

Skype in the classroom is a free global community created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype to help their students learn.

U.K. – The Government announced a new $277 million NZD bursary scheme to help the most vulnerable 16-19 years-olds continue in full-time education, the U.K. Department for Education reports.

The scheme is made up of two parts – a guaranteed payment to a small group of the most vulnerable, and a discretionary fund for schools and colleges to distribute.

UK – Ministers are considering giving state schools the freedom to bypass the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and fast-track bright pupils straight to A-levels, The TES reports.

New performance measures are also proposed, including an “advanced Bac” GCSE benchmark - building on the controversial English Baccalaureate (EBac) - and an“accelerated Bac” to reward schools that skip GCSEs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Vice President Joe Biden wants to boost college graduation rates and help the nation meet President Obama’s goal to have the best-educated workforce and the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, the U.S. Department of Education reports.

Speaking at the first annual Building a Grad Nation Summit, Biden called on each Governor to host a state college completion summit.

Ask people to name the capital of Tanzania and most would either scratch their head or reply “Dar es Salaam”. Dodoma, the current capital, is a town unfamiliar to many and it certainly doesn’t live up to what would be expected of any capital of today’s modern world. Roads are relatively free of traffic and it has a very tangible small town feel. Dodoma became the official administrative capital of Tanzania in 1996, but established in the town some forty years prior to this was the end result of an ambition of the Reverend Canon Andrea Mwaka. In 1949 a school was established that today is still thriving and is centred around a Christian ethos that he envisaged before it was ever built. 

UK - Reading standards among children are in sharp decline as pupils increasingly opt for easy books in school and at home, The Telegraph reports. 

Research found that by the end of primary school, students begin to shun relatively difficult texts in favour of more straightforward alternatives suitable for younger children.

UK – Teenagers will be expected to stay at school for nine hours a day in order to master basic English, maths and train for a trade or craft, The Telegraph reports.

Tens of thousands of pupils will be sent to colleges and a new breed of technical schools from the age of 14, where they will work “business hours” and attend classes for an extra two weeks a year. 

AUSTRALIA – A National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence took place in schools throughout Australia on March 18th.

Schools held activities to raise awareness of anti-bullying initiatives in their school communities. 

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) says the huge resources gap between public and private schools exposed on the My School website highlighted the need for an overhaul of federal funding arrangements.

The My School website provides parents and students with information on each school and enables schools to compare their students’ performances in literacy and numeracy with those of students in other schools. 

AUSTRALIA – Media interest in the floods may have receded, but staff and students of Lightning Ridge Central School in the northern part of New South Wales are far from high and dry.

In scenes reminiscent of movies, staff have been commandeering all sorts of vehicles to get themselves to class.

UK – Former members of the armed forces will become mentors to young people in schools across England following a $3.24 million NZD grant to the charity SkillForce, Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announced today.

Ministers of education from more than 65 countries gathered at the global education summit in London three weeks ago.

Anne Tolley, Minister of Education, was welcomed to the forum by the William Hague, First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, as well as Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education and David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science. 

ATLANTA — U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, renewed his call for more African American men to pick up the chalk and teach, the U.S. Department of Education reports.

Joined by filmmaker Spike Lee, Duncan issued the invitation during a town hall meeting and panel discussion hosted by Morehouse College. 

UK – The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has announced that £82.5m (the equivalent to NZ$173m) will be given to music services across England next year.

Gove has responded to Darren Henley’s review into music in schools with a pledge to end the ‘musical divide’ between wealthier children with access to great musical education and children in disadvantaged areas.

UK - Schools are facing a near half a billion pound “stealth cut” following a reduction in capital funding by the Government, The TES wrote.

In a letter to schools, education secretary Michael Gove said there would be an 80 per cent cut in devolved capital funding, used for maintenance and to buy ICT equipment.

AUSTRALIA - A pilot program designed to tackle homophobia in schools will start this year in 12 public schools across Sydney, the Hunter and the Central Coast.

The $250,000 Proud Schools program aims to build a culture of understanding and respect in NSW public schools through the professional development of school staff, student and parent workshops and the development of resources to assist schools build their capacity to support same-sex and gender questioning young people.

UK - Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has recently announced that eight proposals to set up Free Schools have now progressed from business case and plan stage to the final stage before opening.

Gove made the announcement when addressing the first ever national Free Schools conference, where he was joined by US education experts and teachers.

AUCKLAND - Give them a dollar or make them president and what would they do? Most children across the world say their first order of business would be to improve education by building schools, providing school supplies and increasing access to education for all children.

Their next priority would be providing food and water. Almost half said they would spend their dollar on food or water, ahead of clothes, toys and sports.

U.S.A. – AT&T, a communications holding company, recently announced a contribution of NZ$13,000 to help Duffy Books in Homes USA support disadvantaged school students in the US by providing them with free books.

AUSTRALIA – A new resource kit is now available in Victoria to help student representative councils have a stronger voice in schools.

The kit will encourage students to become stronger leaders and energetic decision makers at schools throughout the state.

WASHINGTON, DC – Overwhelmingly on 2nd November, 2010, voters in 30 states elected state leaders who demonstrate true support for education reforms – such as charter schools, school choice and performance pay for teachers – according to an analysis by The Center for Education Reform.

These governors will set and drive the education agendas for their states over the next four years and, in many cases, for the generation to come.

UK – Last week, the UK’s Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announced a pioneering new partnership with China to train 1000 more Mandarin teachers for secondary schools in England.

During a visit to China, which intended to build stronger educational partnerships with the country, Mr Gove launched the joint programme between the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and Hanban (the Confucius Institute Headquarters).

 AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) recently launched a new national campaign calling for a greater federal investment in public schools to help them meet the needs of every child.

The ‘Public Schools For Our Future’ campaign, which will include extensive television and newspaper advertising, coincides with the Federal Government’s review of the funding of schools.

 UK – A college in Wellington, Berkshire, has recently started running “happiness classes” for parents of its pupils. 

Since 2006, the tutorials involving wellbeing and positive psychology have been privy to the students who attend the $18,900NZD-a-term-school.

DOHA – Germany has announced plans to work with Qatar to improve the country’s education system.

LONDON - A generation of “free schools” in office blocks, churches and libraries could open as early as September 2011 due to the UK Government’s education reform last month.

AUSTRALIA - A senior high school in Warwick, Western Australia, is one of the first schools to work with iPods during classes.

A NZ-designed course in study skills is now being offered to secondary school children in seminars at UK universities.

Dr Spencer Kagan, U.S. education consultant and speaker at the Australian Primary Principals Association Conference in Perth last month, said modern teaching methods should concentrate on being more ‘brain friendly’ to reflect the way a child’s brain processes information.

Dr Kagan said traditional instructional methods – where teachers did most of the talking and chose only a select few students to answer questions in class – were ineffective.

A north London primary school has become the first school to follow a controversial private sector trend by outsourcing maths teaching to India.

The school is running a pilot project with y-6 pupils, providing them with one-to-one tuition by using Indian teachers based more than 4,000 miles away.

Australia - This free eBook will help researchers, policy-makers and service delivery organisations turn existing research and evidence into practical benefits for children and young people.

World-renowned open-source software GeoGebra and the global number one in online maths education, Mathletics, have announced their global collaboration.

“The dollar is strong, the pound is low and there are jobs aplenty” – that’s the word from one of the major UK recruitment agencies, Robert Walters. With that in mind, not only are the famous Big OE Evenings on again this year, they are bigger than before and they now include even more international destinations.

The Department of Early Education and Child Development (DEECD) has made a decision to standardise on Cisco® wired and wireless networking as the foundation for 21st-century teaching and learning in up to 1,000 primary and secondary schools across Victoria. This education-grade network will support future demand from one-to-one computing, mobility for flexible learning spaces, high-definition video, digital content and the Ultranet.

New South Wales: Schools across Australia and The Weather Channel smashed the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest interactive weather report as part of National Science Week during August, 2010.

SYDNEY: The Australian Education Union (AEU) hs expressed bitter disappointment at Labor’s decision to break its promise to introduce a new school funding system before the 2013 election.
AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said it was clear Labor had caved in to pressure from private schools and put their interests before those of the two thirds of students who attend public schools.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) said the Coalition was clearly blinded by ideology in education and had chosen the wrong approach in its new policy on students with a disability.
AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said that instead of a long-term strategy to provide adequate teaching resources and programs for students with a disability Mr Abbott would hand out individual vouchers to a tiny proportion of students.

AUSTRALIA: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s decision to make school fees tax deductible and to slash spending on public schools showed he is determined to privatise education, the Australian Education Union (AEU) said.
AEU federal President Angelo Gavrielatos said that it was a regressive move to take money away from the public provision of education for all students and return some of it to parents who could afford to pay private school fees.

BAHRAIN:  A trio of education experts from Australia and NZ are among an elite list set to address a global summit in Bahrain this October.

Australia: The Australian Education Union (AEU) has welcomed the release of the final terms of reference for the Review of Funding for Schooling, initiated by the Federal Government.

EF Englishtown, the online English language school with over 15 million users around the world, has received a Comenius–EduMedia–Award recognizing excellence in educational multimedia services. The awards are given out by Germany’s Society of Pedagogy and Information and recognized throughout Europe for spotlighting outstanding products in the field of high tech educational media.

European higher education staff and students’ unions have expressed agreement that higher education should move further towards the needs of the student.

ENGLAND – For the first time all schools will be able to apply to become Academies and get greater freedoms.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Vernon Coaker has recently announced a new programme to spread educational knowledge and best practice across the country through primary and secondary school-to-school visits.

ENGLAND – The government has set out a new commitment with the ‘Teachers’ Guarantee’ to help support teachers to do what they do best – teach.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – During June VSA will host an International Education Conference for educators, programme administrators, researchers, arts organisations, and policy makers from around the world.

AUSTRALIA – The Federal Executive of the Australian Education Union (AEU) has resolved to lift the moratorium on the administration of the NAPLAN tests.

Education International (EI) is deeply troubled to hear reports that Iranian teacher trade unionist ­Farzad Kamangar was among five people who were summarily executed in secret on 9th May.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has said that teachers would continue with a national moratorium on the 2010 ­NAPLAN tests.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has questioned why education minister Julia Gillard refuses to meet with the union to discuss a proposal which would improve the My School website and stop schools being ranked in damaging league tables.

Sir Paul Grant suspended 300 troublemakers in his first week to send the message that the ‘anything goes’ culture had to change. It worked.

ENGLAND – Parents will be targeted in a newly launched campaign, to help raise awareness of the range of activities, services and advice available through schools, as latest data shows that more than 90 per cent of schools are now offering extended services.

ENGLAND – New measures to tackle underage drinking across the country, including a national football tournament, best practice guide and money to enforce new police powers, has been launched.

As of 1st February, 2010, customers applying for a new British passport will benefit from an innovative new service.

BRUSSELS – Education International (EI) stands with UNESCO in its urgent call to action for the international community to invest in sustained aid to provide quality education for the most marginalised and poorest learners worldwide.

AUSTRALIA: Recent Revelations that the Federal Government is handing more than AU$70 million (NZ$83.5 million)to the Exclusive Brethren cult for its schools shows the flaws in the current federal schools funding system, the Australian Education Union (AEU) has said.

ENGLAND – More powers to parents and pupils; more freedoms for schools; and clearer and smarter accountability for all are key proposals put forward by Children, Schools and Families secretary Ed Balls and Schools minister Vernon Coaker recently as they published the Children, Schools and Families Bill.

AUSTRALIA – Parents, teachers and principals have united in a call for the Federal Government to take action to prevent the creation and publication of misleading and damaging school league tables.

ENGLAND – Grandparents and their representative organisations have attended a cross-government summit to explore the changing role of grandparents in society and talked to ministers about how the government can support them.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Diana Johnson has launched a consultation on new guidance for schools to ensure that teachers, parents and the government are working together to send out a clear message that drug, alcohol and tobacco misuse among young people is unacceptable and could damage their futures.

ENGLAND – Teachers and others will now find it easier to take young people out and about as schools minister Diana Johnson has launched a consultation on simple and straightforward guidance to cut red tape.

AUSTRALIA – After a drawn-out pay dispute which involved strike action the Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) has a done a 12.5 per cent deal for three years. This was a far cry from the initial claim of 18.5 per cent.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has called for a national approach to tackling teacher shortages after a new survey found almost 60 per cent of schools had trouble getting the teachers they needed.

GHANA – Representatives of Educational International (EI) member organisations meeting in Accra recently called upon their governments to invest in early childhood education. This call was made at a seminar organised by EI in Accra, Ghana.

The British Government has announced that the next British High Commissioner to NZ will be Vicki Treadell. She will arrive in May next year.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Vernon Coaker has welcomed a substantial rise in maintained school pupils getting five A*-C GCSE grades, including English and maths.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Diana Johnson has announced better access to qualifications and more support for home educated children with special educational needs (SEN), signalling the start of a new relationship between local authorities and families who choose to educate at home.

ENGLAND – Children and vulnerable adults are now to be better protected with the start of the new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS).

BRUSSELS – “Do not sacrifice education, teachers and young people on the altar of the crisis!”

IRAN – Education International (EI) deplores the detention of 11 members of the Tehran teacher association on 6th October for “celebrating World Teachers’ Day”.

BRUSSELS – A study released at the end of September by Education International (EI) highlights the atrocious scale of human rights violations against Colombian teacher trade unionists.

BRUSSELLS, BELGIUM – Public investment in education must be significantly increased to meet growing enrolment demands and to confront the worldwide economic crisis, according to Education International (EI), the global union federation representing 30 million teachers and education workers in 172 countries.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has said tougher standards must be introduced for organisations who deliver training to international students to improve the quality of education and to get rid of shonky private operators.

ENGLAND – School’s minister Iain Wright hailed a new generation of mathematicians and scientists with top-grade A levels as being the key to building a strong economy and highly skilled workforce.

ENGLAND – Children’s minister Delyth Morgan has launched a new facility on myguide, a free and easy-to-use tool to help parents and carers catch up with their children when it comes to the internet.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has welcomed the findings of a new report on rewarding quality teaching that found no support for a cash for grades model.

AUSTRALIA – Canberra school students have been planting trees, measuring greenhouse gases and learning about solar power as part of a CSIRO programme to help them reduce the carbon footprint of their schools.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has said the Barnett Government of Western Australia’s plans for so-called independent public schools would not improve education and were an attempt to avoid its obligations to properly resource and staff public schools.

AUSTRALIA – Australians had the opportunity to send text-like messages to potential intelligent life beyond Earth thanks to a recently launched initiative to mark National Science Week.

A new annual event designed to improve the quality of education across the world, from pre-school to higher education, will launch this October in Bahrain.

ENGLAND – The Department for Children, Schools and Families has published several reports highlighting the increased value parents and carers place on the childcare and financial support provided by the government.

ENGLAND – Children’s Minister Delyth Morgan has recently launched a consultation on guidance on serious case reviews (SCR) in order to improve their quality, consistency and impact.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has welcomed the Federal Government’s commitment to create 50,000 new green job and training places.

ENGLAND – Children’s minister Dawn Primarolo has announced the regional breakdown of £167m (NZ$419.1) to boost out of hours services offered in schools across the country.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) have called on the Liberal/National Party Coalition to rule out the introduction of a policy that would cut public school funding and replace it with vouchers for individuals.

ENGLAND – With the 2012 Olympic sailing events going to Dorset, The Isle of Portland is to get a world class Academy which will provide education for children from the early years, right through secondary, sixth form and possibly even university – Schools secretary Ed Balls has announced.

What are kids doing on the other side of the world to help save the planet?

AUSTRALIA – A Greens amendment passed by the NSW Upper House recently will prohibit the publication of league tables comparing the performance of individual schools in NSW newspapers.

AUSTRALIA – Australian researchers will continue to have access to key offshore research infrastructure, such as international physics and astronomy facilities, thanks to a further $880,000 (NZ$1,146,000) in Australian Government funding.

The United Kingdom government has announced that there will be a new medal, the Elizabeth Cross for British armed service personnel who died as a result of Terrorism.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has called for a transparent review of the implementation of the Building the Education Revolution (BER) programme to examine issues that have arisen with the first rounds of implementation.
 

ENGLAND – Earlier this year Graham Badman – former director of Children’s Services in Kent – was asked to carry out a review of elective home education in England.

ENGLAND – The government has published a landmark child poverty bill that enshrines in law a duty to eradicate child poverty by 2020 – so that all children have the best start in life and have the opportunities to flourish.

Education International (EI) is working hard to persuade governments around the world of the need to invest in education as a positive response to the global economic crisis.

AUSTRALIA – Vocational education and training (VET) will be pivotal to Australia’s economic renewal, according to a new report commissioned by the Australian Education Union (AEU).

LONDON – Schools secretary Ed Balls has announced £45 million (NZ$120 million) funding for National Challenge Schools from September to continue the support schools are getting to continue raising standards in the next academic year.

ENGLAND – Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Minister for children, schools and families has announced the results of the first ever national survey of parents’ views of services for disabled children.
 

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) said the Federal Government’s Budget has failed to allocate adequate targeted funding measures for COAG’s­ Compact with Young Australians and National Youth Participation Requirement, announced on 30th April, 2009.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Jim Knight has highlighted new figures showing the overall school workforce continuing to grow as evidence of the increasing popularity of working in schools in these challenging economic times.

DOHA – The second Education City Senior Convocation took place on 5th May, 2009, in a ceremony that signals once more Qatar’s emergence as a hub for world-class education.

AUSTRALIA – Adrian Collette, chief executive of Opera Australia and Graeme Wood, founder of Australasia’s leading accommodation website Wotif.com, have announced that nine new schools, four in Western Sydney and five in Rockhampton Queensland, will participate in Opera Australia’s newest education programme, WotOpera.
 

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has welcomed the thrust of the COAG agreement to provide every Australian under the age of 25 with a guaranteed education or training place.

ENGLAND – Every young person who wants to study or to take up training will have their place guaranteed by the government, thanks to a £655 million (NZ$1.8 billion) funding announcement in the recent Budget.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry has praised the hard work of pupils and teachers across the country as the Department for Children, Schools and Families published the Primary School Achievement and Attainment Tables.

ENGLAND – Young people will get extra encouragement to unlock their talents as part of a £10m (NZ$27.5 million) Inspiring Communities initiative, communities secretary Hazel Blears announced.

ENGLAND – Record numbers of young people are achieving qualifications which will help them excel in the world of work and further study, figures released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families reveal.

ENGLAND – Children’s minister Delyth Morgan has announced the membership for four groups of professionals tasked with taking forward the work of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS).
 

Charge your glasses, ladies and gentlemen. The cost of many of the basics of Life in London, from pub meals to hotel rooms is falling for the NZ traveller.
 

ENGLAND – A new system would drive the progress of the most gifted and most disadvantaged as well as the aver-age pupil in every school.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Government of Papua New Guinea in partnership with UNICEF has hosted for the first time sub-regional consultation focused on juvenile justice amid the alleged rise in the number of children committing criminal offences across the Asia-Pacific region.
 

ENGLAND – Schools minister Jim Knight has announced new steps to build on successful teacher recruitment schemes, to attract more outstanding people into teaching as a new career, and to support the best teachers to become school leaders more quickly.

AUSTRALIA – A new report shows that significantly less is being spent on public school buildings and facilities in Australia than in other major nations.

QATAR – The official opening of Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) took place on 16th March, 2009, marking a new dawn of scientific innovation in the Middle East.

AUSTRALIA – A survey has revealed one in five new teachers feel under-prepared for the reality of teaching when they enter the profession.

ENGLAND – An extra £20.5 (NZ$61) million will help young people get better access to contraception and support for teenagers and raise the awareness of the risks of unprotected sex, public health minister Dawn Primarolo and young people’s minister Beverley Hughes have announced.

ENGLAND – Families across England will be given advice and access to vital safety equipment, such as safety gates and fireguards, to help protect their children from accidents at home children’s minister Delyth Morgan has announced.

ENGLAND – Secretary of State for children, schools and families Ed Balls, and schools minister Jim Knight, gave the go-ahead late last month to develop detailed plans for six new academies in Bournemouth, Sandwell, two in Croydon and two in Wolverhampton.
 

ENGLAND – The children’s secretary Ed Balls has signalled the end of the red tape culture that can surround school visits as he announced the first 65 organisations to be awarded a Quality Badge for the provision of learning outside the classroom experiences.

ENGLAND – Secretary of State for children, schools and families, Ed Balls has announced that 75 sports colleges will share over £21 million ($NZ61.4 million) to improve their facilities.

ENGLAND – Young people will be encouraged to become leaders as the new National Body of Youth Leadership (NBYL) gets under way.
 

ENGLAND – New legislation to help deal with the country’s long-term economic and social needs, was published recently by skills secretary John Denham and children’s secretary Ed Balls.

AUSTRALIA – Public school teachers have demanded Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull name the four out of five schools that would miss out under his inadequate response to the government’s stimulus package.

LONDON – Children’s secretary Ed Balls has announced the next steps in getting children cooking – with measures to get them preparing meals at home and pave the way for compulsory practical classes in secondary schools from 2011.

From the 20th February the British High Commission in Wellington will no longer handle new Visa applications for entry to Britain. Visa applications on this side of the Tasman will then be dealt with in Canberra.

LONDON – Children’s secretary Ed Balls has confirmed £9m (NZ$27 million) of funding for training to develop high quality phonics in early years settings and primary schools, as part of the government’s drive to ensure every child learns to read.
 

ENGLAND – The 50th school built or refurbished under the flagship Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was opened in January by schools minister Jim Knight – the latest milestone passed in the unprecedented project to modernise the entire secondary school estate in England.
 

ENGLAND – The first steps to activate the government’s on-line directory of children’s services – ContactPoint – began in late January.

ENGLAND – Communities all over England will have the chance to design their own children’s play areas as part of £235m (NZ$657 million) funding for play announced in the Children’s Plan.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) has announced an eight point plan to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students in response to what it deemed an inadequate and misguided approach by the Federal Government in its first term.

AUSTRALIA – A new report launched at the Australian Education Union (AEU) Federal Conference reveals Commonwealth funding for public schools has increased under the Rudd Government.
 

When a London school was asked by its NZ counterpart what it would like to see most from their Kiwi friends in an on-line video link; the answer was simple, a Haka.

AUSTRALIA – New results on Australian student performance in maths and science highlight the need to increase overall school funding, said the Australian Education Union (AEU).
 

ENGLAND – Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, and Schools Minister, Jim Knight have welcomed the results from a major international study showing that England’s 10 and 14-year-olds are the highest-achieving overall in maths and science among the European countries in the study.

AMERICA – The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has announced its agreement with the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC), an initiative of the Georgia Board of Regents and the University of Georgia, to develop and launch the AccessText Network, a comprehensive, national on-line system that will make it easier and quicker for students with print-related disabilities, such as blindness, to obtain the textbooks they need for their college courses.

New Zealand has played a key role in the development of a world-class polytechnic in Bahrain, designed to enhance the Middle Eastern nation’s economic growth and transform the economy.

ENGLAND – Hundreds of school modernisation projects are to start next year after the government announced it was accelerating up to £800 million (NZ$2.29 billion) capital investment by 12 months.

Students graduating from AUT University’s School of Communication Studies have devised a way to help improve the quality of visa applications from NZers planning to travel to the UK.

ENGLAND – Teams of young people will be supported by a third sector organisation to scrutinise local activities and youth services in a new £4.5 million (NZ$13.2 million) pilot scheme announced by children and young people’s minister Beverley Hughes.

ENGLAND – Children’s secretary, Ed Balls has announced the government will introduce new legislation to ensure that multi-agency Children’s Trust Boards are operating in every local authority area.

ENGLAND – Children’s minister Beverley Hughes has announced a ‘Think Fathers’ campaign to dispel the myth that dads are the ‘invisible parent’.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) is calling on the Federal Government to abandon changes to TAFE funding that would undermine quality and push the burden of cost onto students.

NEW YORK – Over 1000 students in under-resourced and under-served backgrounds on five continents joined together to celebrate their interests in studying medicine, science & technology, math, engineering, and social sciences in the “5th Annual Global Harlem Science Street Fairs & Festivals,” organised by Harlem Children Society International (HCS) in  September.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) welcomes comments by federal Labor MP Julia Irwin in Parliament recently calling for a massive funding investment for public education.

ENGLAND – Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has announced a package of measures to empower parents with children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) have launched a new national campaign calling for parents and teachers to work together to get more Federal Government funding for public schools.

ENGLAND – Some of the biggest names from industry and charities have joined forces with the government, parents and young people to help keep children safe on-line, children’s secretary Ed Balls and home secretary Jacqui Smith announced recently.

The UK’s immigration system is changing throughout 2008 and 2009. Most of the existing 80+ routes into the UK are being replaced by a streamlined, five-tier points-based migration system.

AUSTRALIA – More than 40 per cent of Australian primary and secondary school students have poor social and emotional skills, according to a study of 11,000 participants.

AUSTRALIA – The majority of Indigenous students who attend public schools will continue to miss out on adequate funding to guarantee a high standard of education under new federal funding schools legislation introduced recently.

ENGLAND – More children and young people will be able to go on educational school trips thanks to new measures slashing red tape and giving teachers more support, children’s secretary Ed Balls and children’s minister Kevin Brennan have announced.

BRUSSELS – The expansion of quality education can be sustained only as a public service and as a responsibility of governments, says Education International (EI) in reaction to the OECD’s report, released earlier this month, Education at a Glance 2008.

AUSTRALIA – Public schools need significant additional funding from the Federal Government to address areas of need identified by the results of national testing of years three, five, seven and nine students, released recently.

UNITED KINGDOM – The Natural Environment Research Council – the UK’s leading organisation that funds research into the environmental sciences – is launching an on-line version of its award-winning magazine, Planet Earth, on 29th September, 2008.

AUSTRALIA – A new report finds that without urgent action Federal Government public school funding will be cut in real terms within three years based on current budget projections.

AUSTRALIA – A new paper, commissioned by the Australian Education Union (AEU), on the relationship between welfare payments and school attendance in Northern Territory Indigenous communities, raises serious concerns about the viability of policy based on punitive measures.

AUSTRALIA – Brisbane North Institute of TAFE (BNIT) will be the first education provider in Queensland to offer international students seeking permanent residency in Australia a bridging course to gain the necessary skills to establish a career in technology in Australia.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Jim Knight has said that he wants every school to offer their students the opportunity to take an extended project to help prepare them for work or university.

ENGLAND – Schools minister Jim Knight has announced nearly £28m (NZ$80) new capital funding for Hull, East Riding, Worcestershire and Merton – to rebuild new primary schools and prevent future damage after last year’s unprecedented flooding.

LONDON – A group of youngsters will compete to fulfil their dreams of joining a rock band on a European tour as part of a new government advertising campaign to encourage young people to carry on studying foreign languages.

MELBOURNE – “To tackle the teacher shortage and attract and retain quality teachers we need to offer rewarding salary and career structures,” said Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Angelo Gavrielatos.

ENGLAND – Schools will be funded to train their Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) – the key teaching leader responsible for the learning and support of all children with special educational needs – under plans announced by schools minister Andrew Adonis.

Schools minister Andrew Adonis has announced a package of support to encourage disadvantaged ‘gifted and talented’ pupils to apply for some of the country’s top universities.

UNITED KINGDOM – New measures to ensure all apprenticeships are of a uniform high quality and have the confidence of both apprentices and employers were announced recently by David Lammy, skills minister, and Jim Knight, minister for schools and learners, as the government published its draft Apprenticeships Bill.

ENGLAND – The Department for Children, Schools and Families is improving in all areas and is in a strong position to deliver on the new challenges set out in the Children’s Plan according to the DCSF Capability Review, published recently by the Cabinet Office.

UNITED KINGDOM – Ten areas around the country are to pilot the government’s £25 million (NZ$54.8 million) Find Your Talent programme to give young people the chance to encounter a range of high-quality cultural experiences for five hours a week both in and outside of school.

ENGLAND – The Government’s Zero Carbon Task Force for schools has recently launched a major call for evidence consultation.

AUSTRALIA – The Australian Education Union (AEU) is calling on the Rudd Government to establish a new standard for buildings and facilities in public schools after an independent report found a AU$2 billion  (NZ$2.5 billion) annual shortfall in capital investment.

ENGLAND – New measures making the admissions system easier for parents to navigate have been published for consultation by Schools Minister Jim Knight.

Thousands of students in Scotland were told they couldn't make Father's Day cards at school this year for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers or lesbians.

LONDON – A new study commissioned by Education International reveals that a growing trend towards privatisation of public education is often camouflaged by the language of “educational reform,” or introduced stealthily as “modernisation.”