Teaching assistants (TAs) and other specialist support staff are important resources in a school. In this edition of Researching education: 5 further readings, we share 5 resources on this topic, including guidance reports designed specifically for leaders and a report on the role of Aboriginal Education Workers.

Joy Russell, a teacher at Scotch Oakburn College in Tasmania, organised a professional learning event all about financial literacy earlier this year. In today’s Q&A, she explains how it helped participants to build a strong support network, share practical ideas through connections with local business leaders, and take valuable lessons back to their own classrooms.

‘While intergenerational trauma remains a reality, we are also seeing powerful examples of intergenerational success.’ Dr Jennet Hansen from Sevenoaks Senior College in Western Australia tells us about the Follow the Dream program, how she encourages students’ connections to their culture and Country, and the impact it has had on their learning, achievement and post-school pathways. 

The Australian Council for Educational Research’s (ACER’s) Pru Mitchell was named winner of the inaugural Victorian Library and Information Award (VLIA). Teacher editor Jo Earp sat down with her to talk about teaching and teacher librarianship, sharing knowledge and expertise, and the role of AI, technology and digital literacy in the classroom.

Maths anxiety and negative attitudes towards the subject impact student engagement, learning and achievement. St Raphael’s School in Adelaide has just hosted a week-long celebration designed to tackle maths anxiety and bust myths. In our latest leadership Q&A, Principal Emma Fowler shares more.

For teachers introducing students to the periodic table for the first time, Dr Gregory Watson and Dr Jolanta Watson from the University of the Sunshine Coast recommend you begin with a series of 3 pre-periodic tables. In today’s article, they explain what the introductory non-chemistry tables are, and how they can be used at a primary, secondary and even tertiary level.

In a 3-part series for Teacher, the leadership team at Warriapendi Primary School in Perth are sharing how they have built staff instructional capacity to improve student outcomes in literacy. In their final article, they present the impact their work is having on student outcomes so far. 

Our latest edition of Teacher’s Bookshelf features the open-access resource Teaching Reading Comprehension in a Digital World: Evidence-Based Contributions Using PIRLS and Digital Texts – a collaboration between the IEA and researchers from the Dutch Centre for Language Education. This extract is from the chapter on good practices for teaching and shares an example from Talbot Senior National School, Ireland.

R U OK? Day is a national day of action that reminds Australians to check in with others and ask ‘are you OK?’ In this special episode, Teacher editor Jo Earp is joined by Dr Hannah Brown to talk about some of the signs that it might be time to have the conversation, how to prepare and the 4 simple steps of ask, listen, encourage action and check in. They also discuss some of the support services and resources available.

In a 3-part series for Teacher, the leadership team at Warriapendi Primary School in Perth are sharing how they have built staff instructional capacity to improve student outcomes in literacy. In this second article, they discuss what they’ve implemented so far to support instructional capacity, and how they keep momentum.