‘Teaching is filled with social and emotional interactions. Supporting teachers to feel more confident in managing these situations appears to be vital for their wellbeing.’ In today’s article Rebecca J. Collie shares her new research that examines teachers’ social-emotional confidence, the role of school leader support in fostering it, and how this confidence is associated with wellbeing later on in the school term.

Welcome to the 2026 school year and fresh content from Teacher. As is tradition, we’re kicking off our 2026 content with an article to help you with your lesson planning. Read more to get across key events for the year to inspire some of your curriculum planning. 

Students learn best in calm, organised and purposeful spaces. Classrooms can sometimes be overwhelmed by good intentions; every wall covered in colour, slogans and displays competing to be seen. In today’s article, Victorian teacher and designer Andressa Bassani shares 4 design principles to help turn classrooms into spaces that not only look good but work for supporting and celebrating student learning.

Do your students count on their fingers for mathematics tasks? Do you encourage them to count on their fingers, or do you focus on supporting them to make calculations mentally? New research from Switzerland suggests finger counting has a positive impact on student outcomes, but only when it’s used at a specific age. 

Findings from an Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) survey commissioned by Alberts and The Tony Foundation of over 700 primary school teachers across 95 schools in New South Wales highlight the different ways music education is being offered. Teachers were asked: ‘In what form(s) is music education provided at your school?’. Find out more in today’s infographic.

Age restrictions preventing under-16s in Australia from creating or keeping accounts on major social media platforms come into force today. The responsibility rests with platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to take ‘reasonable steps’ to comply. We look at how teachers can help students and families navigate the change, what the legislation means for schools, and resources out there to support educators.

What sports options are on offer at your school for 2026? Today’s infographic might serve up some inspiration. It outlines the most popular organised sports participated in outside of school hours, by age group. The data show activities such as gymnastics and swimming lessons are popular at a younger age, and participation in team sports becomes more popular in older age groups. 

What strategies do you have to smooth the transition for children in their first year of formal schooling? Students feeling like they belong at school is a key factor, and new research has uncovered what makes young students feel like they belong at school. 

The IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a global assessment measuring student achievement in years 4 and 8. Teachers from participating schools also complete a questionnaire. Today’s infographic looks at the topics that mathematics teachers reported needing professional development on in the future.

We’ve called on 2 of our expert colleagues here at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) – Dr Tim Friedman and Bethany Davies – to look at what the latest Australian research says about teaching and learning with artificial intelligence, and what you can do in the classroom to address some of the challenges.