Our first podcast episode of 2024 focuses on effective leadership communication. We catch up with Jacinda Euler Welsh, Principal of Brisbane Girls Grammar School, to talk about different tools to engage with different members of the school community, the importance of consistency and honesty, and nurturing a 2-way communication process.

We’re right at the beginning of a new school year here in Australia. That means most of you are busy setting up your classrooms, meeting new students and establishing relationships with them and their families. In today’s podcast special, we’ve spoken with several winners from last year’s Teacher Awards to ask them their most valuable tips, strategies and priorities for starting the school year off right.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect public perceptions of teachers and the teaching profession, and how were their views and beliefs influenced by media coverage? Researchers in the UK have been exploring these questions, and their findings offer some interesting insights into how society values the profession, and the impact this has on teacher mental health and wellbeing.

Artificial Intelligence is now a hot topic in teaching and learning. For the last 3 years, Digital Technologies teacher Jo Rea has been developing an AI ethical inquiry unit for year 5 students to help them build their ethical understanding of different AI tools and technologies. Here she shares the phases, classroom activities and student responses.

In this expert Q&A, Lisa De Bortoli – ACER Senior Research Fellow and National Project Manager for Australia for PISA – explains what the latest test results tell us about students’ skills and knowledge, and how schools can use the data to inform teaching and learning. She also shares early findings from PISA’s student and principal questionnaires.

The PISA 2022 international results have just been announced. In this special episode we’re joined by Professor Geoff Masters, CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research, to talk about Australia’s performance, what we could learn from top performer Singapore, and some of the education reforms taking place in other parts of the world.

Our annual reader survey just concluded for another year. This year, many of you let us know you’d like more content on the topic of AI and teacher workload. In this episode, we highlight a range of stories we’ve published recently that you might find useful.

The Future-focused Mentoring initiative has been working with teachers in 2 Australian states. In this project update, the research team share findings from analysis of conversations between teacher mentor and early career teachers, implications for practice, and what schools can do to support genuine and authentic learning partnerships.

While some schools are shying away from using artificial intelligence (AI) altogether, Wesley College in Melbourne is embracing it in a significant way. This year, they introduced an AI learning coach called Wesmigo, powered by ChatGPT, that focuses on brainstorming and provocation, rather than content creation.

School Assembly is the podcast that explores what it takes to build a new school from the ground up. With Bemin Secondary College due to open its doors for the first day of the 2024 school year, things are getting to the pointy end. In this episode, we talk to Principal Jo Camozzato about putting together the school mission, vision and values.