An OECD survey explored how 27 education systems across the globe responded during school closures in 2020. This infographic shows how widely nine different measures were used for at least one level of schooling to target students at risk of exclusion from distance education platforms.

Forums held with students in Years 6, 7 and 8 in Australia on the topic of starting high school have shed light on what concerns them the most about the transition process, and what has been helpful to them along the way. Here, we share some comments from the students.

The uncertainty of another pandemic year piled extra pressure on Year 12 students, who were faced with disruptions to their learning and traditional end-of-year celebrations and social events. It’s also taken its toll on teachers of this graduating cohort.

Researchers have held forums with students about their views on moving up to high school and, in a new report, share that students are most concerned about academic expectations, high school systems and social challenges during the transition process.

The Connection is a network of high-performing school leaders working in some of Australia’s most challenged communities. They’ve been reflecting on successful practices in their own schools since the start of the pandemic. Today’s article shares their top five recommendations for learning through COVID.

‘Educators employ a range of strategies to manage student wellbeing, but the impact of COVID-19 on their approach to this is not yet fully understood.’ Dr Bridianne O’Dea – Senior Research Fellow in youth mental health at the Black Dog Institute – shares the findings of a recent investigation into secondary school educators’ approaches to student mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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.

Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University, joins The Research Files this month to talk about the Childhood Nature Play study. We’ll be chatting about the different types of nature play, and the teaching and learning resources that have been co-designed as a result of the research project.

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.

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.