A quarter of Australians aged 15 years and over participated in unpaid voluntary work through an organisation in 2020, whilst almost half provided unpaid work or support to others outside their households. In today’s article we speak to Dr Darja Kragt from the University of Western Australia about why people are motivated to volunteer their time, and how it boosts their overall sense of wellbeing.

As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase and schools here in Australia and around the world return to on-site learning, teachers and students will need to reestablish face-to-face relationships and routines, take time to reflect on their home learning experiences and think about where to from here. Dr Gail Brown and Dr Carl Leonard offer some advice and questions for reflection in today’s reader submission.

‘I love to help others and feel genuine satisfaction when I can do something for someone else.’ Principal of St Agatha’s Primary School in Clayfield, Queensland, Anne-Marie Maw shares why she enjoys volunteering her time to help others, and how it has become part of her own wellbeing strategy.

Australian students report greater levels of respect for people from other cultures and more positive attitudes towards immigrants than the OECD average, according to a new report from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Find out more in today’s article.

A blob trying to break into the Underworld, a scientist jumping through size-altering portals, and a man who wakes up dazed and confused in a scrapyard – these are some of the protagonists from winning games in this year’s Australian STEM Video Game Challenge.

What is excellence in Indigenous education? And, how is it conceptualised in practice? In this article, researchers from the University of Queensland, Dr Marnee Shay, Dr Jodie Miller and Dr Suraiya Abdul Hameed, share details of their pilot study in Queensland schools that explored these questions.

Our annual reader survey has just wrapped up for another year. It’s an opportunity for you to tell us what content you’d like to hear from us, and this year you told us you’d like more information and support on inclusive education. Inclusive education is something we’ve covered this month at Teacher, so it’s a good opportunity to put it in the spotlight in this episode.

Today’s article, written by Professor Fiona White from the University of Sydney, explores the research pilot she led as a consultant for the new television series airing in Australia on the ABC, The School That Tried to End Racism. The pilot involved 20 students in Year 6 completing a range of activities to challenge their racial biases.

Teachers, Students and the Law, written by barrister and educator Vivien Millane, is a plain language guide to the main areas of law relevant to the teacher-student relationship in Australian schools. This exclusive extract offers advice on duty of care requirements and the welfare and safety of students during periods of remote learning, and their return to classrooms.

‘Every student should be on the same (inclusive) path of learning, [and] every student should make excellent ongoing progress and eventually achieve the same high standards,’ Professor Geoff Masters AO writes in his latest Teacher column, adding that the challenge is in creating the conditions to enable this to happen.