As a school, fostering strong relationships with the wider community has wide-ranging benefits to student outcomes. In this edition of Researching education: Five further readings, we’re sharing five readings on the topic of school-community relationships.

‘I’ve emptied my cup completely several times. It always creeps up slowly, but surely, in the background under the guise of contributing to the greater good.’ Aimee Blazek from Mount St Patrick College in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, shares a range of wellbeing strategies she employs to fill her cup.

For students who are unable to attend normal classes in school, a telepresence robot represents a very real solution to a very difficult situation and has the potential to transform their lives. Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner explain more, and share comments from teachers and students who’ve been using the technology.

Back in 2018, we brought you the story of a new intervention program for disengaged male students at Cherrybrook Technology High School in New South Wales. Nearly four years later, in today’s article, we hear how the program has evolved over the years and the impact it’s had on student learning and wellbeing.

In a three-part series, we are delving into the Civics and Citizenship learning area of the Australian Curriculum, and some aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History to explore students’ misconceptions, and to share some lesson activities to help your planning for 2022. This final article focuses on ‘Australian history’ and ‘Civics and citizenship and history skills’.

In her final Teacher column of the year, Dr Sue Thomson explores data from a new large-scale survey of young people’s social and emotional skills that reveals significant differences between students from advantaged and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.

Barbara Gillis, an educator working to develop curriculum materials for a peace education program to be piloted in South Australia, shares her review of Prem Rawat’s book ‘Hear Yourself – How to find Peace in a Noisy World’.

A secondary school English teacher in Maryland, United States, who is passionate about supporting low-income students to access tertiary education has just been named the 2021 winner of the US $1 million Global Teacher Prize. In this article, we share the impact she’s having in her community.

A report released by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment, addresses the unique challenges faced by school leaders in regional, rural and remote schools and outlines four key qualities of school leaders achieving high impact in these settings.

In a three-part series, we are delving into the Civics and Citizenship learning area of the Australian Curriculum, and some aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History to explore students’ misconceptions, and to share some lesson activities to help your planning for 2022. This second article focuses on the themes of ‘Laws and citizens’ and ‘Citizenship, diversity and identity’.