‘A teacher can be effective, efficient, inclusive, and strategic. Still, unless they are professionally kind along with these things, the learners suffer.’ In today’s reader submission, Professor Nan Bahr argues kindness is an essential general trait for all people, but it is also applied expertise for the teacher and should be a professional standard.

Teachers play an important role in the mitigation of bullying, particularly in the early years, where children are more likely to rely on their teachers to help them fix their problems. So, as an early years educator, how do you approach assessing behaviour to decide whether it is bullying?

In their new book In Teachers We Trust: The Finnish Way to World-Class Schools, Pasi Sahlberg and Timothy D Walker suggest seven key principles for building a culture of trust in schools. This exclusive extract discussing the ‘three levels of trust’ is taken from a chapter on cultivating responsible learners.

Reducing the disparities in the schooling experiences of students was one of the issues identified by Teacher columnist Professor Geoff Masters AO in his influential series on the ‘big five’ education challenges facing Australian schools. What does the latest evidence say, and where do we go to from here?

How do schools successfully engage and retain students alongside promoting academic achievement? In today’s reader submission Margaret Gurney, Assistant Director-General, State Schools Operations at the Queensland Department of Education, shares research findings on practices common in high performing schools.

How can teachers go about identifying the underlying causes of a student’s behaviour, and then approach responding to this behaviour in a respectful and effective way? To dissect these questions, we’re joined by Dr Erin Leif and Russell Fox from Monash University.

In yesterday’s reader submission, Michelle Lucas looked at some of the misconceptions around gifted and high-achieving students. In this follow-up article she shares four interventions to address underachievement and meet the needs of gifted students.

‘The underachievement of gifted and high-achieving students is, in part, propagated by the dangerous myth that they will succeed regardless.’ In this reader submission, Gifted and Talented Coordinator Michelle Lucas looks at some of the misconceptions.

Dr Pauline Ho and Dr Katherine Dix share the findings of a systematic review investigating the impact of wellbeing-related interventions on student academic and wellbeing outcomes, including four ingredients for effective implementation and three recommended actions for schools.

Since 2018, a Tasmanian primary school has been on a journey of school improvement which as seen significant progress in student engagement and achievement, as well as staff retention and teacher welfare. The Principal and Assistant Principal join us in this podcast to discuss how this was achieved.