Grit In The Mix Makes A Top Chef - The Australian

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THE

AUSTRALIAN — Tuesday

The Nation

March 1 2005

Trainee teachers ‘not ready for reality’ Jennifer Buckingham Education editor

TEACHING graduates should be tested on the subjects they plan to teach, to better prepare them for the classroom. A committee investigating teacher training in Victoria made the recommendation two weeks after a federal inquiry was announced into national teaching standards. The parliamentary committee says many teaching graduates are ill-prepared for the realities of the profession. The Victorian Education and Training Committee tabled a report yesterday recommending ‘‘radical reform’’, including a greater focus on practical teaching in the classroom, rather than educational theory. The report made 44 recommendations, including tests for graduates of teacher training on subject knowledge and competence in information and communication technology, as well as teaching emotional resilience, communication skills and conflict resolution. Other recommendations are to ‘‘fast-track’’ teacher training by developing intensive course work options, and to make use of the full calendar year and weekends, rather than restrict courses to the traditional academic timetable. Teacher education is currently either a four-year fulltime undergraduate degree or a one-year full-time postgraduate diploma. The oneyear course is believed to prevent diversity among teaching candidates, especially career-change professionals and those in rural and regional areas. ‘‘If we are to attract this important cohort, universities need to provide pathways which either fast-track their teacher education or allow them to continue work while completing their teaching

course,’’ said committee chairman Steve Herbert, the member for Eltham. Terry Lovat, president of the Australian Council of Deans of Education, said he was not opposed to fasttracking ‘‘in principle, where people have the appropriate life skills and knowledge’’. ‘‘But we have to be conscious that every bit of evidence is telling us that it is quality of pedagogy that is important in education — not just what is in the teacher’s head, but their capacity to impart it,’’ Professor Lovat said. The committee also recommended broad changes to the practical component — the ‘‘practicum’’ — of pre-service teacher training courses, including the development of common standards by the Victorian Institute of Teaching. And it recommended increasing the minimum practicum time from 80 to 130 days in undergraduate courses and from 45 to 80 days in postgraduate courses. ‘‘We found that teaching practicum is at the heart of pre-service teacher education,’’ Mr Herbert said. ‘‘Education faculties and schools need to develop strong, positive partnerships, through which opportunities for teaching practicum can be increased.’’ Australian Education Union federal president Pat Byrne said she supported an extended and properly resourced practicum. ‘‘That’s common sense,’’ Ms Byrne said. She was less supportive of the idea of fast-tracking. ‘‘On the one hand, we’re told teachers are supposed to be experts on a whole range of matters, and on the other, there is a suggestion that teacher education could be shortened. I don’t know how they sit together.’’

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Grit in the mix makes a top young chef

Payout in G-G sex cover-up scandal Greg Roberts

Bowl ’em over: Celebrity chef Luke Mangan, right, with young chefs at Sydney’s Flying Fish restaurant for the award launch yesterday

Jane Lyons WHEN Jordan McLeod was five he would get home from kindergarten and cook himself pancakes. Eleven years later, Jordan is in his first year of a chef’s apprenticeship. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Having come straight out of school, he suddenly found himself working 55 hours a week. ‘‘I was on my feet the whole time, racing around with so much pressure,’’ the

16-year-old said yesterday. But he stuck it out, encouraged by employer Peter Kuruvita, the owner of Sydney’s Flying Fish restaurant. Kuruvita is one of the top Australian chefs, including Neil Perry, Guy Grossi, Lyndey Milan and Cath Claringbold, who last night launched the national Lexus Young Chef of the Year Award. The finalists will submit a menu and hold a cook-off before a panel of chefs on June 26. The apprentice named as

Young Chef of the Year on July 25 will spend a week working in London’s Capitol Hotel, a week working with British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, tour France’s Champagne region and also receive $5000 cash. Kuruvita said the award would encourage and inspire young chefs such as Jordan to continue their careers, despite the long hours and often little recognition. ‘‘The age group is an important one because a lot of the

senior chefs get recognised, but the guys who are in the engine room, in the middle of it all, are the ones who really miss out,’’ Kuruvita said. ‘‘I think the incentives to keep going after your apprenticeship, other than sheer grit and determination, are few.’’ Restaurateur Luke Mangan has also thrown his weight behind the awards, saying nurturing the creativity of young chefs is paramount to the future quality of Australian cuisine. ‘‘It’s im-

Picture: Chris Pavlich

portant to keep the industry growing and these young chefs are the future of cooking,’’ said Mangan, head chef at Sydney’s Salt restaurant. ‘‘Hopefully these younger generations are going to come through and be the next superstars in the food world.’’ For his part, McLeod is set on working as a head chef for some of the world’s leading establishments. ‘‘The more you do, the easier it becomes. I’m not so tired any more. I take my vitamins,’’ he said.

THE woman whose claims of child sex abuse led to the downfall of former governorgeneral Peter Hollingworth is set to be offered a six-figure compensation payment by the Anglican Church. Beth Heinrich, 65, identified herself for the first time last night when she appeared on the ABC’s Australian Story. Mrs Heinrich claimed anonymously in 2002 that Dr Hollingworth, as archbishop of Brisbane, ignored her claims that bishop Donald Shearman sexually abused her at a church boarding school in the central-western NSW town of Forbes in the mid-1950s. The then governorgeneral’s suggestion on the same program that she initiated sexual contact as a 14-year-old led to the widespread condemnation of Dr Hollingworth, who resigned a year later. Last August, Mrs Heinrich attended an historic hearing in Brisbane’s St John’s Cathedral that saw Mr Shearman stripped of his holy orders. Adrian Scarra, the bishop’s registrar in the Bathurst diocese, where the alleged abuse took place, said negotiations with Mrs Heinrich over compensation were well advanced. Mrs Heinrich last night repeated her claim that Mr Shearman sexually interfered with her at the St John’s Hostel, where he was an assistant priest, after telling her ‘‘that was what God wanted’’. She claims sexual contact began when she was 14 and progressed to intercourse when she was 15. Two years later, Mr Shearman expelled her, telling her parents she had been promiscuous with other students. Twenty-one years later, after she had had five children in a failed marriage, the then bishop Shearman rekindled the relationship, only to break it off.

No charges for Knights A 19-YEAR-OLD woman who alleged she was indecently assaulted by a Newcastle Knights rugby league player at her university dormitory has refused to press charges. The woman had told police in the NSW town of Bathurst she was assaulted during a drunken rampage by Knights players at Charles

Sturt University. But she gave a statement ‘‘requesting no further action be taken by police on her behalf’’, NSW police said last night. Player Dane Tilse has been sacked for ‘‘bringing the game into disrepute’’ during the February 20 incident. A total of 12 players were fined.

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Airfare pair not questioned Spate of Sean Parnell TWO Aboriginal leaders were not required to give evidence to a Queensland corruption inquiry despite being central to the state’s ‘‘airfare affair’’. The corruption watchdog finished its investigation into the taxpayer-funded flight for Murrandoo Yanner and fellow Aboriginal leader Brad Foster without interviewing them, because it had received enough evidence. A powerful parliamentary committee last week demanded the Crime and Misconduct Commission explain its decision. Mr Yanner and Mr Foster alleged a staff member of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Minister Liddy Clark asked them to lie about taxpayer-funded flights they received after an Aboriginal death in custody on Palm Island. But Ms Clark insisted the flights were provided on the

Yanner

Foster

understanding the men would reimburse the state Government, something Mr Yanner and Mr Foster have vehemently denied. Ms Clark has now admitted to the CMC that public statements she made about the affair were untrue. The CMC told the committee it did not expect Mr Yanner and Mr Foster to cooperate, particularly as they would not even verify the accuracy of media reports that investigating officers had to rely on. CMC chairman Robert Needham then personally contacted the committee to reassure its government and

non-government members the final report would show why it was not necessary to interview the men. Mr Foster yesterday confirmed he had not spoken to the CMC. Mr Yanner could not be contacted. Premier Peter Beattie would neither condemn nor defend Ms Clark yesterday, saying he would wait for the CMC to deliver its report. ‘‘If the CMC report finds some inappropriate behaviour on the part of the minister, or any other minister, I will act,’’ Mr Beattie said. The Premier — who indicated a minister caught lying to the public would have to resign or be sacked — said he would not speak to Ms Clark before the CMC had concluded its investigation. Ms Clark and several government staff will be able to respond to any adverse findings in the CMC’s draft report before a final report is prepared and released.

Top cop ‘descended into crime’ James Madden THE life of Victoria’s most experienced drug detective, Wayne Strawhorn, is a tale of meteoric success and an equally rapid fall. A decorated detective senior sergeant in the state’s disgraced and disbanded drug squad, the 49-year-old yesterday sat silently in the dock as the jury was told of his alleged abuse of power and trust. ‘‘This is a trial about one man’s fall from grace. A fall from the pinnacle of his career . . . to a criminal who manipulated and misused the system for his own personal gain,’’ Crown prosecutor Jeremy Rapke QC said in his opening address at Sergeant Strawhorn’s drugs trial. Sergeant Strawhorn is facing six charges — five of trafficking pseudoephedrine between October 1999 and May 2000, including one count of trafficking a commercial quantity of the drug, and one charge of threatening to kill a fellow policeman. The court heard that at the

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time of the offences, Sergeant Strawhorn was in charge of one of the drug squad’s three divisions. His role was to oversee authoStrawhorn rised drug deals — or ‘‘controlled chemical deliveries’’ — with known criminals, including the Bandido bikie gang and Melbourne’s notorious Moran family. The policy was to sell pseudoephedrine — the main chemical in drugs such as speed and ice — to criminals, and then track their movements to uncover their clandestine amphetamine laboratories. But it is alleged Sergeant Strawhorn made several unauthorised ‘‘purchases’’ of pseudoephedrine, then secretly sold it without logging the transactions with the drug squad. The court heard the drug could be sold for a profit of 6000 per cent on the black market. Over the seven-month period, it is alleged Sergeant

Strawhorn and another man, who cannot be named, illegally trafficked 5.5kg of pseudoephedrine, including a 2kg deal with Melbourne underworld figure Mark Moran a month before he was killed. Soon after, officers from the Victoria Police Ethical Standards Department began investigating Sergeant Strawhorn. The court heard that an investigation of Sergeant Strawhorn’s bank accounts and of his expenditure revealed unexplained wealth. Two days before his arrest in March 2003, Sergeant Strawhorn allegedly made a threat to kill one of the force’s senior corruption investigators, Peter De Santo, who he blamed for ruining his career. ‘‘I will not rest until De Santo is dead,’’ Sergeant Strawhorn is alleged to have said while being secretly taped. When asked if he intended to kill De Santo himself, Sergeant Strawhorn allegedly said: ‘‘Yeah, it’s the only way to get satisfaction.’’ He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

needle in juries THREE people have been pricked by syringes on Melbourne’s beaches since record storms three weeks ago carried debris to the St Kilda foreshore from all over the city. The latest victim, a sevenyear-old schoolboy, is awaiting the results of an HIV test after stepping on a needle during a Surf Life Saving water safety program at St Kilda beach on Friday. City of Port Phillip Mayor Darren Ray said two other people had also been pricked by needles in the past three weeks, at nearby Elwood and Port Melbourne beaches. He said this was already more than the average number of annual needle-stick injuries in the council area. ‘‘Thirty-one stormwater drains drain through the City of Port Phillip into the bay,’’ he said. ‘‘That syringe could have come from Rowville (in Melbourne’s east), for all we know.’’ Mr Ray added that the council had never had a single case of a serious transmissible disease being caught from a syringe. In 2000, two people, one of whom was ironman competitor Jonathan Crowe, were pricked by needles on Melbourne bayside beaches in the same week. In both cases, tests for diseases including HIV and hepatitis were negative. A Surf Life Saving Victoria spokesman said the boy, from Our Lady of the Way Catholic school, was sitting on a rock wall and digging his feet into the sand when he was pricked. The spokesman said Surf Life Saving staff had scanned the area for dangerous items, including syringes, before the program began, but not where the boy was sitting.

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