In her first column of the year, Julia Gillard discusses a new national mental health initiative from Beyond Blue. The program spans mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention and also provides a critical incident response service in the event of a suicide.

A new series of research papers related to integrating science learning in the early years aims to help educators of children in preschool to Year 2 to incorporate the latest research into their teaching. In this podcast, we speak to the paper’s co-author Gayl O’Connor.

A new research-based series encourages early years educators to take advantage of everyday teaching and learning opportunities to improve young children’s scientific understanding, and shares four step-by-step activities for the classroom or learning at home.

Teacher content draws on the wealth of knowledge and expertise that exists within the education community. This month, we’ve had the opportunity to speak with several experts in education on a range of different topics, and in today’s podcast, we take you through some of the highlights.

ACER researchers Dr Amy Berry, Kellie Picker and Rachel Parker discuss some of the characteristics of playful learning at school, share examples of classroom practice, and explain how Australian teachers can contribute to our understanding of learning through play in the classroom.

This month’s edition of Researching Education: Five further readings explores early childhood education. We’ve gathered five further readings available on this topic, including open access research papers from various online databases, and Teacher archive content you might not have come across yet.

A recent study tracked the reading trajectories of children in Grades 1, 2 and 3. Alongside this, the concerns teachers held in relation to their reading, as well as the support they provided, were analysed. Here, the study’s authors discuss the implications of their findings for educators.

What is epilepsy? How does the condition impact on a student’s learning? And what do school leaders, teachers and anyone with a duty of care in K-12 settings need to know? In this Q&A, Teacher speaks to Wendy Groot, President of Epilepsy Australia, to find out more.

Professor Pasi Salhberg from the Gonski Institute at UNSW Sydney joins Teacher to discuss the findings from Phase 1 of the Growing Up Digital Australia study. It’s an ongoing research project that explores how the widespread use of media and digital technologies is impacting the wellbeing, health and learning of Australian children.

‘For some, this transition will be filled with as much anxiety as the first day of school or the school year.’ In this reader submission, Dr Carl Leonard and Dr Gail Brown provide tips and suggestions for teachers and leaders to help manage the transition for all students, and particularly those with additional needs.