Friday 27 October, 2023 is World Teachers’ Day in Australia. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) launched its annual World Teachers’ Day campaign — “Hats off to Teachers”. Teachers have the greatest in-school impact on the learning lives of our students. They should be...
Visually striking science experiments at school can be fun, inspiring and safe – banning is not the answer, writes Nathan Kilah and Peter Rutledge To a young mind, science can be magical. Perhaps you remember a visually striking or seemingly inexplicable scientific demonstration from your own...
Why is this a problem? Teresa Swist, Fiona Suwana, Kalervo Gulson and Terry Flew look at 10 questions parents should ask. A Sydney high school recently introduced fingerprint technology to "help narrow down" students who were vandalising school toilets. Under the plan, students needed to scan their...
Personalised learning is billed as the ‘future’ of schooling, writes Maya Gunawardena: what is it, and could it work? It is not uncommon for kids to complain about school, but studies show significant numbers of Australian students are actually disengaged with their education. A 2017 Grattan Institute...
Researcher Rebecca English looks at why more and more parents are homeschooling and why governments need to be vigilant. Bullying can be a major factor in deciding to homeschool. An increasing number of Australian families are educating their children at home, either through homeschooling or distance education. My...
Breaking bones in childhood more than doubles the odds of it happening again as an adult, researcher Kim Meredith-Jones finds. Breaking a bone in childhood is not just a rite of passage. It could be a warning sign of future fracture risk and osteoporosis. A history of...
Kelly-Ann Allen looks at the special place schools have in the process of belonging. Every March, in every corner of Australia, schools, workplaces and communities gather in various ways to celebrate Harmony Week*, and whether it’s through shared food, music, songs or stories, this is a...
Educators Graham Parr, Fleur Diamond, Anne Keary and Kylie Bradfield look for some answers The recent report by the Australian Educational Research Organisation (AERO), Writing development: What does a decade of NAPLAN data reveal? , has caused quite a stir in Australian news...
Here’s why that won’t necessarily work, writes Mischa Bongers It’s commonly understood that having a baby can be a primary cause of later pelvic floor problems, such as bladder leakage. While giving birth can be a very special and joyful time, it can sometimes be difficult...
Women are often told their fertility ‘falls off a cliff’ at 35, but is that right? Asks Karin Hammarberg It’s a fact women’s fertility declines as they age. But the common description of fertility decline after age 35 as a “cliff” is more anxiety-provoking than factual. If...
