Last year, staff at Skillset Senior College investigated the impact of school-based interventions on student mental health. The research findings have recently been published. In this article, we speak to Dr Martin Hughes about the interventions and the positive impact of the action research project on students and staff.

‘One class was a notable illustration of everything we know about quality in play-based learning.’ In this article, ACER Senior Research Fellow Rachel Parker shares the details of a playful STEM class she witnessed in the United States, where students were engaged in a crime scene investigation activity.

Since 2014, ACER’s STEM Video Game Challenge has invited students to design and build their own video game. In this article, we share the winning games of the 2022 challenge, and former challenge winners share the impact their experience has had on their post-school journey.

Last year, we heard about an action research project which was occurring at Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney to build a culture of reading for pleasure across the school. The research project has concluded, and in this article, we get an update on the project’s impact on student outcomes and wellbeing.

In her latest Teacher column, Dr Sue Thomson looks ahead to the release of the PIRLS results, including the aims of this international assessment of Year 4 students’ reading skills, and how data for the 2021 cycle were collected during the pandemic.

Brisbane’s Brigidine College, Indooroopilly has changed the way it supports pre-service and early career teachers. In the second part of our Q&A with Allison Johansen (Assistant to the Principal, Professional Teaching and Learning) we find out more about the Pre-Service Teacher Fellowship Program and its positive impact.

Attending a professional learning event is a great way to reflect on what’s happening in your own school and improve practice. For leaders at this Brisbane college, it prompted a new approach to supporting and retaining pre-service and early career teachers. Find out more in today’s Q&A.

When you think about the last time you travelled on an airplane, did you wonder whether there could be a more efficient way of getting passengers on and off the aircraft? It is this question that was considered by participants in the 2022 International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM²C).

‘Underpinning PAT is recognition that every student is at some point in their long-term progress and is capable of further progress given learning opportunities at an appropriate level of stretch challenge.’ In his latest Teacher column, Professor Geoff Masters AO explores what makes ACER’s progressive achievement (PAT) resources special.

As a teacher, how can you best manage when a student in your classroom makes an inappropriate comment in the middle of a lesson, catching you off-guard and disrupting other students? What about when this happens in the playground? What if the comment is offensive? We unpack these questions in-depth with researchers Dr Erin Leif and Russell Fox.