2017–18 Activity Statement—Education

Access to quality education and training at all stages of life is fundamental to the future success and wellbeing of Queenslanders. The Queensland Government believes that giving our children a great start is vital to ensure the next generation of Queenslanders are healthy, resilient, and ready to be productive members of society. Queenslanders also need to have access to appropriate education and training to upskill and diversify to meet the needs of the future economy. To ensure that future opportunities can benefit all Queenslanders, education and training needs to be inclusive and integrated into the community, and schools and educators need to be well supported and respected to deliver outcomes for students. In 2017–18, the Queensland Government:

Early years

• embedded Early Childhood Development Coordinators in eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Wellbeing Services to better support vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families across the State
• expanded the Remote Area Teacher Education Program to include Early Childhood Education and Care courses to eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in partnership with TAFE Queensland and James Cook University
• provided targeted funding to support and improve children’s transition to school through the Step up into education initiative
• implemented Early Start—a comprehensive suite of online literacy and numeracy materials for teachers to monitor and track student progress from Prep to Year 2
• delivered targeted professional development and a comprehensive suite of support materials ($1.2 million in 2017–18) and resources to state schools in Queensland to assist with the implementation of Early Start
• established new integrated Early Years Services in Redlands and Tara
• developed an online one-stop shop for early childhood health and development training and resources
• engaged early years coaches in regions to work with school teams to implement a range of age-appropriate teaching and learning practices in the early years of school and enhance continuity of learning across kindergarten to Year 2
• improved access and participation by refugee and asylum seeker families to early childhood education programs, and supporting the early childhood education and care sector to provide more inclusive and supportive services
• continued to deliver Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Action Plan 2016–2019 initiatives supporting continued growth of a professional, qualified and valued early childhood education and care workforce
• supported vulnerable families by establishing the new child-focused family support initiative Pathways for Early Learning Development in 12 priority communities across Queensland
• delivered the Remote Kindergarten Pilot in up to 38 prescribed state schools, providing kindergarten in a composite classroom with primary school children
• enhanced the capability of women’s domestic violence refuges to deliver supported playgroups and child centred services through the Support for Children’s Play and Learning in Women’s Refuges project
• announced an annual commitment of $5 million to continue the First 5 Forever family literacy initiative, supporting families to help children develop language and literacy skills through public libraries
• implemented the first phase of the Partners in Learning trial—supporting home tutors of students attending Schools of Distance Education to support reading development ($1.475 million — 2017–2021)

Higher education and training

• opened the 2018 round of the Queensland – Chinese Academy of Sciences Collaborative Science Fund to enable Queensland researchers to access international opportunities to develop their skills and find new markets
• implemented formal domestic and family violence postgraduate training for 31 police prosecutors with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) through the Graduate Certificate in Domestic and Family Violence
• released the 2017–18 Annual VET Investment Plan, detailing the Queensland Government’s planned $768.9 million investment in vocational education and training (VET)
• provided regular advice, developed by Jobs Queensland, to the Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development, including:
• advice on Queensland’s annual VET Investment Plan
• advice on the design of the Emerging and Innovative Industries Fund
• approved 352 community-driven projects, worth $64.54 million, to provide nationally-recognised training, jobs and skills to more than 12,000 disadvantaged Queenslanders under the Skilling Queenslanders for Work (SQW) initiative
• allocated $4.25 million to 61 local councils, including 11 Indigenous Councils and one statutory authority, to employ 340 additional trainees under the First Start Program
• allocated $1.76 million to 30 community-based organisations to employ 88 additional trainees under the First Start Program
• provided $1.88 million to private sector employers for employing 188 former SQW participants as trainees and apprentices
• increased the core training requirement on all major Queensland Government and government-owned corporation building and or civil construction projects with a contract sum of over $100 million (including GST) from 10 per cent to 15% of the total labour hours to be undertaken by apprentices and or trainees and other workforce training
• continued to support the Agribusiness Gateway to Industry Schools program, which promotes agribusiness career options and training to high school students

Inclusive participation

• delivered 1045 scholarships totaling $1.892 million through the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students entering Years 11 and 12 in 2018
• conducted 147 school visits during the second half of 2017, delivering targeted information about the Youth Employment Program to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, to support successful transitions into employment, training, or higher education following Year 12
• supported Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by:
• expanding the number of Clontarf Foundation Academies across 20 schools in Queensland to enhance attendance, retention and Year 12 attainment of up to 1750 male students
• supported 80 Cape York students in Year 6 transition to boarding school in Year 7 at the beginning of 2018
• provided ongoing support to approximately 300 students in boarding school from remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• awarded 20 Glencore Central Queensland Scholarships to support high achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Years 6 to8 from the Central Queensland Region to continue a high level of academic achievement and transition successfully from primary to secondary schooling
• awarded 10 Indigenous Academic Excellence Initiative Scholarships to support high performing Year 7 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the metropolitan region to continue high levels of academic achievement through to Year 12
• awarded contracts through the Advance Queensland Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for the development of interactive visual education solutions which support the delivery of indirect therapy and learning support for students with disability in rural and remote locations
• commenced a comprehensive review of the suite of behaviour management policies and guidance to respond to recommendations from the 2017 Disability Review
• increased the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Year 12 state school students achieving a Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) or Queensland Certificate of Individual Attainment (QCIA) to 97.2%
• continued Braking the Cycle, a program delivered at 24 Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) sites statewide, which supports young drivers in getting the pre-requisite hours to attain their licence
• to date, 500 volunteers have assisted 680 drivers get their licence through over 38,000 driving hours, delivering a 70% employment and training outcomes success rate
• engaged young people in, or at risk of involvement in, Youth Justice in education, training and employment opportunities through the Transition 2 Success program
• continued Project Booyah in nine sites across Queensland, a structured 17-week community inclusive program incorporating resilience, social and skills development, adventure based activities, police mentoring, and vocational scholarships, to support identified disconnected young people to regain a sense of their own self-worth, build resilience and obtain skills to enter the workforce

Engagement and partnerships

• revitalised the Advancing Partnerships – Parent and Community Engagement Framework for Queensland state schools to reaffirm the importance of parents, families and the community engaging in a student’s education and the benefits for learning outcomes and wellbeing
• established the Ministerial Student Advisory Council enabling Queensland school students to share their views on important education matters directly with the Minister for Education
• delivered key actions under the Youth Engagement Plan to maximise educational engagement from early childhood through to post-Year 12, including the establishment of seven Regional Youth Engagement Hubs and the Youth Engagement Alliance
• implemented the Young Tourism Leaders program, with 17 inspirational leaders appointed during 2017-18 to actively promote and encourage students and young people to pursue a career in tourism
• established and supported a network of regional coaches and advisors to foster a collaborative and local approach to Year 12 certification (achievement of a QCE, or a QCIA)
• as a result of focused efforts, in 2017, 98.1 per cent of Year 12 state school students awarded a QCE or QCIA (exceeding the department’s 2017–2018 Service Delivery Statement 98 per cent target for Year 12 Certification)
• delivered the Artists in Residence Fund, providing funding of $100,000 matched by a $100,000 investment from the Department of Education (DoE) for kindergartens and schools to increase engagement with arts and culture, particularly for students in communities experiencing disadvantage
• delivered the Flying Scientists program in partnership with The Wonder of Science from The University of Queensland (UQ) which took seven scientists to schools and communities across regional and remote Queensland—Charleville, Mt Isa, Weipa, Calen, Gladstone, Chinchilla and Taroom
• attracted more than 200,000 participants to the third World Science Festival Brisbane in 2018, promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) literacy to a broad range of audiences through events at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane and regional programs in Gladstone, Toowoomba, Chinchilla, Ipswich and Townsville
• delivered signature event for National Science Week in August 2017 to 360 students in South East Queensland (SEQ)
• delivered Meet a scientist in schools program
• continued to support the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts, providing accredited training in dance, music and theatre and showcasing the next generation of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers
• established the Allison Baden-Clay Senior Program Scholarship to support a final-year student in Queensland Ballet Academy’s Senior Program
• delivered the Road Attitudes and Action Planning program in high schools, to enable young drivers (predominantly in Year 11) to make informed decisions and follow safe driving habits, ensuring their own safety and the safety of the extended community when using roads

Supporting teachers and schools

• supporting regions and schools to use the School Improvement Model as a change strategy for accelerating student achievement
• completed the final phase of the Supporting Students initiative in which 45 additional guidance officers (or equivalent) were provided from 2016 to 2018 to support secondary students
• partnered with headspace School Support to assist schools to develop Suicide Intervention and Response Plans to ensure school leadership teams use a best practice approach to manage suicide risk in their school community
• partnered with Our Watch to implement the Creating a violence free future: Respectful Relationships Education in Primary Schools pilot to trial a whole school approach promoting respect and equality
• supported school leaders and teachers to transition to the new QCE system by providing professional development and resources, and developing targeted communications, including the New QCE Statement of Expectations to support a successful transition to the new system
• offered the Getting kids writing: one sentence at a time intervention for primary and secondary schools to support increased and improved writing outcomes for students
• continued to deliver Curriculum into the Classroom, a comprehensive suite of curriculum resources, to support implementation of the Foundation (Prep) – 10 Australian Curriculum in Queensland schools
• supported schools to monitor literacy learning using the P-10 Literacy continuum and OneSchool
• developed a website for Queensland state schools to provide a platform for strategies and policy related to the teaching of reading
• implemented Global schools through languages: A plan for supporting successful global citizens in Queensland state schools to enable students to communicate across languages, cultures and access increased opportunities
• allocated more than 1000 extra teacher full-time equivalents in 2018 to meet growth across Queensland state schools
• awarded 12 scholarships valued up to $14,600 per scholarship to assist current Queensland state school principals to undertake a Master of Education (Inclusive Education) at the QUT
• commenced the development of the Teaching Queensland’s Future Strategy
• appointed four experienced state school teachers as Teaching Queensland Ambassadors to attract high quality candidates to teach in Queensland state schools
• continued six Teacher Education Centres of Excellence, developing classroom-ready teachers for state schools through mentoring and high-quality professional development
• awarded 79 scholarships in 2018 to aspiring and pre-service teachers including a commitment to employment in state schools
• launched the Remote Area Incentive Scheme trial to teachers and school leaders living in rural, remote and regional communities
• commenced a pilot to improve wellbeing support for beginning and early career teachers and those undergoing career transition
• extended the Mentoring Beginning Teachers Program which matches beginning teachers with experienced teachers (mentors) to build capability and resilience
• piloted voluntary national teacher certification in two regions and established two new classifications, Highly Accomplished Teacher and Lead Teacher, with an associated pay structure, for which eligible Queensland state school teachers will be able to apply for recognition in 2019
• improved regulatory practices through the Regulating for Quality initiative, ensuring regulatory efforts are targeted effectively on areas that present the greatest risk to the health, safety and wellbeing of children
• opened the 2018 round of the Queensland-Cooper Hewitt Fellowships to enable a Queensland school teacher to visit the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York to gain experience in classroom, community and online strategies for delivering quality design education
• continued to deliver a range of programs through School Based Police Officers working in 58 state school campuses across the State and over 950 Adopt a Cops in over 1000 Queensland schools
• key partners include the Australian Federal Police (Think U Know cyber safety) and the Daniel Morcombe Foundation (Keeping Kids Safe)
• implemented Schools of the future: a strategy for STEM in Queensland state schools to build teacher capability to:
• transform STEM learning
• engage more students in STEM learning
• support students’ performance and achievement in STEM
• established programs to build teacher capability and make STEM learning more active and engaging, including the:
• four-year $81.3m Advancing STEM in Queensland state primary schools initiative
• Robotics for the future lending library and virtual studio
• final 100 grants payments across 116 state schools totalling $0.330 million in 2017–18 for the Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow program.