‘Our vision for PLTs? To build a healthy, collaborative professional learning culture of inquiry that positively impacts student learning through teacher learning,’ Sarah Gunn, Head of Teaching and Learning of Middle School at St Laurence’s College in Brisbane shares in today’s reader submission.

As a school leader, planning strategically for recruitment can be a complex issue, and the pandemic may have escalated problems with staffing needs in your school even further. Here, former school leader and educational consultant Gail Smith shares her tips for successful recruitment.

Our guest for this episode of School Improvement is Judith Weir, Principal of Our Lady of Mercy College (OLMC) Heidelberg. We caught up with her at the start of the school year here in Australia, to talk about leadership, strategic planning, how to balance competing priorities, the impact of COVID on student wellbeing and the importance of professional mentoring.

How do you relax and unwind when you have spare time outside of work? Do you like to listen to music, read novels, sew, paint, or perhaps watch a movie? These are just a few examples of engaging in the arts, and research shows this engagement has a positive impact on our mental wellbeing.

Effective classroom management can be bolstered by an informed understanding of student behaviour, and a reliable toolkit of tips and strategies. In this article, we outline five further readings that examine effective approaches to classroom management.

We know that participating in sport and physical activity benefits health and wellbeing. New research has found it also has a small positive effect on students’ academic performance, particularly in mathematics and science.

‘I am still an advocate of moving for wellbeing, but the way that I do that movement has been adjusted. My biggest take away, so far, has been that changing how you move is okay, just as long as you do move.’ Teacher Aimee Blazek shares how she adjusted her exercise regime while pregnant so she could still move her body.

As a teacher, how can you best manage when a student in your classroom makes an inappropriate comment in the middle of a lesson, catching you off-guard and disrupting other students? What about when this happens in the playground? What if the comment is offensive? We unpack these questions in-depth with researchers Dr Erin Leif and Russell Fox.

It’s safe to say we’ve all been grappling with uncertainties around how our work and personal lives will be affected by the unpredictable nature of the pandemic for longer than we thought. Here, Mary Spillane, Clinical Psychologist and Headspace App Mental Health Expert for Australia, joins Wellbeing by Teacher to share some strategies for coping with uncertainty and change in life.

‘In my experience, gratitude is not just something that will happen. Sometimes it requires a genuine effort on our behalf, particularly when life presents inevitable challenges.’ Liam Casson, Director of The Wynne Centre for Boys’ Health and Wellbeing at Christ Church Grammar School reflects on having gratitude.