‘I have been ground down’: about 50% of Australian principals and other school leaders are thinking of quitting. Paul Kidson, Herb Marsh and Theresa Dicke investigate the problem. Australia’s school principals collectively manage nearly 3 million students and staff. But who is responsible for them? Since 2011,...
No more BMI, diets or ‘bad’ foods. Vivienne Lewis looks at what is changing. How many of us recall having to calculate our body-mass index (BMI) as children at school, prompting comparisons of our weight with that of our peers? Or perhaps we remember references to...
Researchers Jenny Gore and Drew Miller look at ways to improve teaching by boosting teachers’ morale and lifting student outcomes at the same time. Australian schools are facing unsustainable pressures. There are almost daily reports of too many students falling behind and not enough teachers to...
Sexism, misogyny and gendered violence are now part of Australia’s national conversation, writes Dr Catherine Smith This article contains references to offensive language Recently, several male students from the elite Yarra Valley Grammar in Melbourne’s east were expelled after they put together a spreadsheet rating the attractiveness...
Fearing a tsunami of hospitalisations for RSV-related pneumonia and bronchiolitis, experts are calling for a Nationwide infant RSV immunisation program. What is RSV? Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a common virus that can cause severe lung infections like pneumonia and bronchiolitis, particularly in young children and the...
Taking her children to the hairdresser is no longer a hair-raising experience for children's author Katrina Germein My sister-in-law recently told me a story about taking her three-year-old daughter to the hairdresser. Her daughter was perched on the stool, ready for a haircut, while she fussed...
Australia will trial ‘age assurance’ tech to bar children from online porn. What is it, and will it work? asks Paul Haskell-Dowland Responding to a resurgence in gender-based violence and deaths in Australia, the National Cabinet has committed almost A$1 billion to a range of strategies. Tackling “online...
Samantha Schulz reports how her survey reveals a disturbing picture of the way some boys treat their teachers Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests recently show there is enormous community anger over the number of women...
Research by Anabela Malpique, Deborah Pino Pasternak and Susan Ledger, shows children produce better pieces of writing by hand. But they need keyboard skills too Children today are growing up surrounded by technology. So it’s easy to assume they will be able to write effectively using a...
Kim Hemsley, Nicholas Smith and Siti Mubarokah look at how new research could help. “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 Australian children and young people live with currently untreatable childhood dementia. Broadly speaking, childhood dementia...
