In his final Teacher column of the year Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, shares his key takeaways from this month’s Forum for World Education in Paris.

Students begin each school year at very different stages in their learning and development. Nevertheless, every student should be expected to make excellent progress in their learning regardless of their starting point, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes.

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.

It’s important to keep in mind that there are three central uses of data in school education. Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses.

As a Year 8 Advisor at a secondary school in New South Wales, David Williams works with students on their wellbeing and social and emotional development. He uses Teacher magazine to stay informed about the latest research on student welfare.

In the second of two articles, Kate Coleman and Abbey MacDonald explore some of the resources to eventuate from the creative pressure cooker circumstances of the COVID-19 lockdown, and how they can be used to maximise studio time and learning into the future.

In the first of two articles, teacher educators Kate Coleman and Abbey MacDonald share practical examples of how visual arts teachers and artists transformed the ways they connected and communicated with students, and each other, during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown to ensure a continuity of learning.

How have the COVID-19 school restrictions affected pre-service teachers and their ability to complete their professional placements while students are learning remotely? We speak to Associate Professor Miriam Tanti, from Australian Catholic University, about how pre-service teachers have used it as an opportunity to develop a unique set of skills, knowledge and undestanding so early in their careers.

‘In school communities we are indeed “all in this together” however, that does not mean one context fits all.’ In today’s article, Dr Helen Street discusses the importance of acknowledging students’ different experiences, the need for positive relationships, and providing opportunities for autonomy and agency.

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.