Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Teacher Staffroom from Teacher magazine, the resource for K-12 educators published by ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research. I’m Dominique Beech.
If you listened to Episode 76 of Teacher Staffroom, you might recall that I brought you some recent content we published where we spoke with experts in the education field and brought you important research updates. I mentioned in that episode that we love to speak with school staff about the incredible work they’re doing in their school settings to improve student outcomes. That’s because a key focus of Teacher is providing a platform for educators to share with and learn from each other. So, in this episode of Teacher Staffroom I’m going to share some wonderful recent school examples we’ve published. And don’t forget, like all of our other episodes of Teacher Staffroom, I’ll be posing some questions for you throughout this podcast, so you can feel free to pause the audio as you go, gather some colleagues, and discuss together how these stories might be relevant to your school context. Let's jump in.
A recent highlight from me this month was speaking with Monique Smith, Principal at Mosman Park School for Deaf Children in Western Australia, about their brand new uniform design. Based on the colours of the Deaf Flag, the uniform was designed to promote pride, visibility and connection for the school community.
We know from existing research that a sense of belonging is an important schooling outcome in its own right. A sense of belonging can be fostered in many ways, and of course a combination of different strategies will work for different school contexts. So, it was wonderful to hear from Monique about how their uniform is supporting students to feel a sense of belonging. In the article she shares more about the inspiration behind the design, the details of the design process, and initial feedback from the school community. Here’s a quote from Monique:
Deaf children often experience significant isolation simply because there are very few people in their daily lives who can communicate with them in their natural language. This can make it difficult for them to develop a strong sense of identity and belonging. We wanted our students to wear the colours of the Deaf Flag with confidence and for the community to see that Deaf kids are everywhere – participating, achieving and making valuable contributions in all aspects of life.
With that in mind, here’s a question for you to reflect on. What strategies are you using to successfully foster a sense of belonging and pride in your own school?
A key event in July is NAIDOC Week – the annual week across Australia that honours the cultures, histories and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The 2026 theme ‘50 Years of Deadly’ celebrated 5 decades of strength, pride and achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and, to give teachers the tools to bring the theme into Australian classrooms, ABC Education and the NAIDOC Committee published NAIDOC Week Education Resources. In an article on Teacher published during NAIDOC Week, Teacher Deputy Editor Rebecca Vukovic unpacked the resources, and she also spoke with 3 schools across the country about how they were marking the week in their settings.
One school in Queensland – Currumbin State School – prepared for NAIDOC Week by inviting Indigenous student leaders to take part in the organisation and leadership of activities alongside cultural visitors. Throughout the week, all students participated in a wide variety of cultural activities to gain a deeper understanding of connection to Country. For example, students learned traditional songs and dances, participated in Aboriginal painting through symbols and storylines, painted boomerangs, made crafts and more. Here’s what Principal John Cattoni shared with us about the importance of the week:
The week of celebrations are embraced by our school community. Our NAIDOC assembly is our first full-school assembly for the calendar year. These celebrations form an essential component of our school identity.
Another key event to conclude recently was the International Mathematical Modeling Challenge. If you’re unfamiliar, this annual challenge invites high school students from around the world to gather in teams across a 5-day period to solve a real-world problem using mathematical modelling.
It’s a pretty impressive feat – this year, students were tasked with developing a modelling-based approach to inform protection planning for a large and complex wildlife reserve. Specifically, they were required to address major conservation challenges faced by the park, develop a mathematical model to allocate protection resources, and much more.
We got in touch with some of the schools that were just announced as national finalists for the 2026 challenge in a recent article. Head of Mathematics at Brisbane Grammar School, Maude Pearce, shared why it was such a positive experience for students. Here’s what she said:
The students thrived because the competition mirrored the way they learn every day in our classrooms. Beyond developing their mathematical thinking, it strengthened their communication, collaboration, and resilience under pressure, all qualities that will benefit them throughout their lives. The recognition reinforces something we strongly believe as a department, that students achieve their best when learning is collaborative, challenging, and centred on deep thinking rather than simply finding the right answer. Seeing that approach recognised on a national stage is something we're all very proud of.
So, that quote there brings me to a question for you to think about. What opportunities do students in your school currently have to apply mathematical concepts to authentic, real-world challenges? Do they require students to demonstrate collaboration and written communication skills?
Staying in the area of mathematics for now, and I’d love to bring your attention to an article written for us by Lanella Sweet, Enrichment Educator at Wesley College in Victoria. In the piece she shares a tiered unit of work built around real-world measurement tasks. As a member of our Teacher audience, you’ll hopefully already know that we welcome article submissions from all educators, whatever your role, school sector or location. To find out more, you can scroll down to the very bottom of our website and click on the Submissions and feedback link.
In Lanella’s article, she shared a differentiated measurement unit designed for middle primary students and running over 12 lessons. The unit was built around a cluster of gifted students in a co-educational primary school setting, and it seeks to address the practical challenge of designing units that genuinely extend gifted learners within a mixed-ability classroom, without simply adding more of the same work. You can find the full article at our website, teachermagazine.com.
So, I’ve taken you on a bit of a tour of the country so far – we’ve heard from schools in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland. I’d like to bring you now to a story from the Northern Territory. In a recent podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Larrakeyah Primary school principal Fathma Mauger all about a custom-built AI writing platform they developed that provides students with curriculum-aligned and scaffolded feedback for literacy. We spoke in depth about the development and implementation process of the AI platform and the positive impact it’s had on student outcomes. Now though, I’d like to share with you the advice she shared for other school leaders looking to embark on a similar journey with AI. Here’s a short snippet from what she told us:
Yeah, there's lots of advice, this has been a huge project! But I guess my main advice would be that there always seems to be some negativity or fear around AI. So, my advice would be to really, before you venture into this space, to have a very clear policy around technology and AI. Because, while approaches to AI might be different in each school, clarity around policy is really essential for there to be trust and confidence amongst students, staff and the community. And I think that unless there is a clear policy, schools – or rather principals – will open themselves up to risk.
That point there brings me to a question for you to think about. Does your school have an AI policy? Is it still fit-for-purpose? How often is it reviewed? Are staff consulting the policy before they experiment with AI?
The final piece I’d like to share with you in this episode is on this same topic. Earlier this week we shared an article written by Kara Baxter, Deputy Principal, Learning and Teaching at Strathcona Girls Grammar in Victoria, where she shared the thinking and process behind the school’s AI policy. In the piece, she says there was a need for clear expectations around ethical use, academic integrity, privacy, cognitive engagement and teacher professional judgement. She also shares that their belief is that the success of AI implementation depends less on the technology itself and more on the people using it. Here’s a quote from Kara:
When teachers understand both the possibilities and limitations of AI, they are better able to design learning experiences that harness its strengths while preserving the cognitive challenge necessary for deep learning. This is why staff professional learning has remained central to our approach. Building confidence, capability and shared understanding across the teaching profession will ultimately have a greater impact than any individual technology.
So, that leaves me with one final question for you to reflect on for this episode to continue your thinking around AI policies. If your school has an existing AI policy, does it provide clarity for staff, students and families, or are there areas that require further guidance?
That’s all for this episode. Thanks for listening. I’ll leave the links to the full articles and podcast episodes I mentioned today in the transcript of this podcast, which you can find under the podcast tab at our website, teachermagazine.com. We’ll be back with a new episode very soon.
Teacher magazine is published by the Australian Council for Educational Research.
