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.

‘Do you want to be a teacher?’ Is this a question you’ve asked your own students? A new Australian study aimed at boosting the number of First Nations teachers has found that Aboriginal students would like someone to speak to them about teaching as a possible career.

For the last 6 months, Series 3 of our School Assembly podcast has been following Dan McShea, Foundation Principal of Notre Dame P-12 College on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The big day finally arrived, and in this episode Teacher Editor Jo Earp checks in with Dan on how that first day of the new school went.

New research published in the Australian Journal for Education examines the coping strategies teachers use to deal with stress and trauma. The study explores how this can impact a teacher’s ‘compassion satisfaction’, where they experience pleasure and fulfilment from helping others, or ‘compassion fatigue’.

The winner of the 2025 Global Teacher Prize has been announced. Mansour Al Mansour from Saudi Arabia has walked away with the US $1 million prize. One Australian teacher was a top 10 finalist this year – Brett Dascombe, a Senior Geography Teacher from Wavell State High School in Brisbane. In this special podcast episode, Brett shares how he exposes his students to real-world, project-based learning by embedding geospatial technologies like GIS, drones and remote sensing data into the geography curriculum.

What are the essential skills we need for learning and life, and how can teachers help students to develop them? The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been working with more than 30 countries to identify 5 essential skills and design a suite of free educator resources. Dr Claire Scoular shares more details in this expert Q&A.

It’s the opening day of Research Conference 2025! The Teacher team are busy meeting with classroom teachers and school leaders; and attending international keynote presentations, panel sessions and more, all addressing the overarching theme of transforming learning systems. 

Some of our 2024 Teacher Awards winners join us in this special podcast episode, where they share their top tips for starting the new year. From reading recommendations to leadership tips for welcoming and supporting staff for the new year, there’s something in this episode for everyone. 

The annual Ethics Index by the Governance Institute of Australia measures the population’s overall view of how ethical the behaviour of major sectors is. The education sector continues to be perceived as the most ethical sector. Here, we see 2024 results for all 8 sectors, specific occupations within education, and how public perceptions have changed from 2023.

In Teacher’s first reader submission of 2025, Brisbane-based senior educator Jessica J Griffin reflects on her own leadership practice and philosophy, and how this has changed over the course of her career – moving beyond authority to collaboration, empathy and resilience.