We know our audience are always keen to hear from experts in the education field. In this episode of Teacher Staffroom, we bring you our latest updates from Teacher columnists, important research updates, and more. 

For many people, foster care is something they see from a distance. They may think about doing it one day, but assume they are too busy, not qualified, or not in the right stage of life. For one Melbourne teacher, those doubts were familiar too. Yet 5 years later, foster care has become one of the most meaningful parts of her life.

In this podcast special, Dominique Beech sits down with Dr Dan Edwards, Acting Head of ACER's Student Learning and Progress Division, to talk about the future of assessment. He shares his insights on how assessment can support students at key transition points across K-12, the impact of AI, and more. 

The winner of the inaugural Global Schools Prize – an international US $500,000 prize presented to a school to scale their impact – has been announced as The Alsama Project from Lebanon. Find out more about the winner, and an Australian school that also made it all the way to the top 50, in today’s article.

National Reconciliation Week kicks off next week – a time for all Australians to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. In this edition of 5 further readings, we share 5 resources on the topic of First Nations education.

‘In classrooms, silence is often interpreted as lack of ability or confidence. But in many cases, it reflects a lack of safe, structured opportunities to participate.’ In today’s reader submission, senior secondary teacher Manisha Pundir explores 5 structured classroom routines that she’s used to help build student confidence to participate in classroom discussions. 

In his latest Teacher column, Professor Martin Westwell – Chief Executive of the South Australian Department for Education – discusses the book Students, Students, Students! by Dr Iwan Syahril, who has been at the centre of one of the most ambitious education reforms in the world.

More than a competition, Trop Jr is a rich learning experience that supports curriculum outcomes while strengthening creative confidence and student agency. Find out more about Trop Jr, the benefits, and free classroom resources for Years 5 to 10, including a Teacher Guide to support planning, assessment and curriculum alignment, in this article.

A 2025 survey of 400 school students across Australia in years 7-12 focused on the topic of wellbeing. This infographic shares some of the results related to students’ biggest worries and the top 10 areas where they believe that schools could help them.

Buy-now pay-later services, pocket money apps, online scams, gambling advertising and cryptocurrency are part of some students’ everyday lives. In today’s article, 2 mathematics teachers from Marryatville High School in South Australia share how they’ve applied some of their learning from a professional development partnership into their financial literacy electives for year 9 and 10.