We’ve reached the penultimate episode of Series 3 of our podcast series School Assembly. Teacher editor Jo Earp talks to Notre Dame P-12 College Principal Dan McShea about distributed leadership and developing a leadership pipeline in a new school. Dan also shares his biggest challenge, key learning and proudest achievement since last month’s episode. 

Every day, across classrooms, school halls, and virtual learning spaces, educators are quietly performing extraordinary feats – finding new ways to connect with students, leading their colleagues through change, and putting everything they have into helping young people thrive. Yet, all too often, their efforts go unrecognised. The 2025 National Education Summit Teacher Awards aim to change that.

‘Our recent and ongoing partnership … has been a really fulfilling journey.’ In this Q&A, Renee Ladner from the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) discusses educators engaging with associations for professional development, and 2 examples of how she’s partnered with schools on maths PD. 

In this edition of Researching education: Five further readings, we’re sharing resources on mathematics education in primary and secondary, including on teaching finance, mathematics anxiety and more. 

'In embracing EdChat, we chose responsiveness over rigidity, learning over waiting, and trust over control.’ In his latest column, Professor Martin Westwell – Chief Executive of the South Australian Department for Education – shares the thinking behind a generative AI chatbot that has been custom-built for teaching and learning, and its initial impact.

Alongside the exciting opportunities for AI to support teaching and learning, there are challenges and risks. In this special podcast Teacher editor Jo Earp talks to Dr Katie Richardson, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research.

‘Students are uniquely placed to bring to conversations something which only they can, their lived experience of what it means to be a learner in their school.’ In today’s article, John Cleary asks if ‘student voice’ is enough, and discusses how educators can instead partner with students to ensure their voices (and views) are heard and acted upon.

In our latest reader submission Rebecca J Collie, Andrew J Martin and Dragan Gasevic share an update from their work into teachers’ use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. They discuss the findings of a new Australian study, and the implications for schools.

We know the global teacher shortage is impacting many different school contexts, and that encouraging young people to consider a career in teaching is an important part of the long-term picture. Dr Tracy Woodroffe joins us to discuss her 12-month research project that gathered perspectives from Aboriginal students and teachers. These perspectives informed recommendations to encourage more Aboriginal young people in the Northern Territory to consider teaching.  

This episode of our School Assembly podcast is all about policies and processes. Which documents are the responsibility of the Foundation Principal? Is there a template that schools work from? Our Series 3 Notre Dame P-12 Principal Dan McShea joins us from Queensland to share some of the planning that goes on behind the scenes at a new school.