Dr John Halsey joins Teacher for this episode of The Research Files. His final report on the Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education here in Australia explores the key issues, challenges and barriers affecting student learning outcomes and suggests four priority areas for action.

In this program, a group of experienced primary school teachers have become practitioner researchers, focusing on strengthening their practice and improving outcomes for students. Program facilitators Dr Hilary Emery and Dr Neil Saunders share their experience of working with these teachers.

Staff at a school in a bushfire-sensitive area have teamed up with their local fire service to deliver a project encouraging students to find new ways to prepare for a natural disaster. Here, we speak to the Assistant Principal about the success of the program.

Students who have parents deployed to a war zone are more vulnerable to a range of psychological, emotional and social issues. A new report published in the Australian Journal of Education looks at the processes employed by schools to support these children.

The importance of families having fun with one another has been highlighted in a new report which shows that family cohesion is a vital ingredient for early adolescents having a good life. Lead author Dr Petra Lietz joins Teacher to discuss the impact this has on student learning.

On the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, 300 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, sits Wodonga Senior Secondary College – home to 900 Year 10-12 students, 100 staff and a community hub for the sharing of STEM expertise.

Maintaining strong links between families and schools is important to staff at Westgarth Primary School in Melbourne, which is why they work collaboratively with parents and carers to share the latest evidenced-based approaches to teaching and learning.

In this episode we visit Western Port Secondary College – one of 21 government schools involved in the Australian initiative The Paradigm Shifters: Entrepreneurial learning in schools – to talk to assistant principal Hannah Lewis and student Harry Hainsworth.

A key initiative of the Science of Learning Research Centre (SLRC) in 2017 has been the establishment of the SLRC Partner Schools project, involving six schools in south-east Queensland, grouped in two networked clusters.

In today’s podcast special we speak with Neil Bramsen and Brett McKay who were named winners of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching – one for primary and one for secondary.