The Learning Specialist role in Victorian schools is aimed at building excellence in learning and teaching. At this high school, the Learning Specialist Team looks through a leader and teacher lens to utilise the strengths of staff, and meet individual professional learning needs.

When you think about student agency, do you picture classroom tasks and surroundings? What about ‘free play’ areas, such as the playground or oval? Here, Rachael Jamieson-Newton and Benjamin Newton share details of a review into primary students’ play at St Paul's Grammar in Sydney, New South Wales.

‘Schools are increasingly being asked to support the mental health and wellbeing of our children and this has created an opportunity to reframe the teaching the learning environment.’ Ben Sacco discusses three elements – safety, relational trust, and shared language – that can directly support schools to improve teaching, learning and wellbeing.

In this episode of School Improvement, we’re taking you to a school in rural New South Wales where students in Years 5 to 9 are reading 12 books each year. Head of Middle School and English teacher Alex Wharton joins us to share how this has been achieved.

‘[Virtual Reality] cannot be an outcome in itself but needs to be a tool that creates meaningful, authentic and integrated learning opportunities when fully embedded with the curriculum.’ Dr Susan O’Donnell and Adrian Rayner share the five pillars of a successful VR program in education.

In education research, an ‘effect size’ has traditionally been used to sell the promise of improved outcomes, for both teachers and students, in the lucrative professional development market. However, critiquing the quality of research is more important than relying on a single measure, writes Dr Drew Miller.

Australian schools and teachers will be better equipped to help young people navigate the online world safely with the launch of a new national online safety education framework from eSafety.

Is school a safe place for gender and sexuality diverse students to be themselves? In today’s Q&A, Western Sydney University researcher Dr Jacqueline Ullman shares findings from her report Free2Be…Yet?, a follow-up to 2015’s Free2Be?. It details the findings from a second nationwide survey of gender and sexuality diverse Australian secondary school students.

‘What can we learn from one school that is showing the way in supporting sustainable education using a whole-school approach throughout its entire systems and operations?’ Julie Bosevska and Dr Jeana Kriewaldt, from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, share four ‘lighthouse practices’ to help schools strengthen their approach to sustainability.

Researchers from the School of Law at Western Sydney University have looked at the regulation of teacher behaviour on social media in Australia. In this episode of The Research Files, we’re joined by the researchers to find out more about social media policies in schools and the ramifications for teachers.