Long reads

In the second part of our Q&A, author-educator Vanessa Hamilton discusses what consent education is (and some of the misconceptions), examples of what it looks like for students in primary and secondary, best practice for schools, and some of the challenges faced by teachers and leaders.

Age-appropriate consent education will be mandatory in all Australian schools from 2023. Kit and Arlo Find a Way: Teaching consent to 8-12 year olds is a fictional chapter book created for use in primary classrooms. In the first instalment of a two-part Q&A with author-educators Ingrid Laguna and Vanessa Hamilton, we find out more about the resource and research about the impact of consent education in schools.

As a primary school teacher, are you aware of how many students in your class are finishing their lunch each day? How many are taking food back home? New Australian research has found that most primary school students have just 10 minutes to eat their lunch during the school day. Find out more in today’s article.

‘The metaverse is upon us. Soon it will be as omnipresent as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook (now Meta).’ So reads the first line of a new Policy Brief exploring the potential of the metaverse to enhance teaching and learning in the future, and why we need to start planning for it now.

Over the last four years, Aquinas College in Perth, Western Australia, has revamped its Student Leadership program, with the aim of increasing participation and strengthening student voice. Mark Weston – Director of Character Education and Leadership – shares details of how the program is structured and the impact it’s having.

‘[The Sacúdete strategy] shows to others what the future of school could look like when we put learners at the centre and make the "extracurricular" the curriculum. That is the lesson that other countries can learn from.’ In his new Teacher column, Andreas Schleicher shares details of a successful program in Colombia that sees educators work as mentors and coaches.

One of the benefits of being a teacher is the ability to cultivate transferable skills that can be applied across different schools and states. In this article, Foxwell State Secondary College teacher Samantha Holt shares her experience of starting a new job interstate.

‘Children with dyscalculia lack basic number sense, which affects every aspect of their ability to process numbers including performing arithmetic operations, understanding fractions and algebra.’ Rachel Parker, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, gives an introduction to the neurological condition dyscalculia, including the signs, diagnostic tools and evidence-based ways to support students.

‘To say that teachers have a significant impact on students’ motivation and engagement is not controversial, nor particularly enlightening. Trucks can be filled with the research papers that show this.’ In this reader submission, Professor Andrew Martin says a more informative exercise is to dig into the ways teachers make a difference to students’ motivation and engagement.

‘Clearly, the decline in Australia’s PISA scores is a complex problem, necessitating complex and varied solutions. What is evident from these data, however, is that the decline in scores cannot be attributed to one particular school sector, but it is shared across the whole system.’ In her latest Teacher column, Sue Thomson examines achievement, school climate and student wellbeing in Australia’s three school sectors.