The introduction of the Learning Specialist role, as part of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2017, has allowed experienced teachers to support colleagues to improve their practice, while still being able to remain in the classroom. In today’s reader submission, Nicole Kelly, a Learning Specialist at Ararat Primary School in Victoria, shares her experience.

Students can play an important part in co-decision making within a school that can impact not only their learning, but that of other learners also. In the Northern Territory, students have been leading change projects in their schools for the past four years.

This week, Teacher has been sharing reader stories on their school’s response to the pandemic. This final instalment is written by Michael Rosenbrock, Assistant Principal at Wodonga Senior Secondary College, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

‘While schools will be gradually re-opening in China by mid-April, they’re closing around much of the rest of the world. How well are we prepared? OECD’s TALIS survey offers some insights,’ Andreas Schleicher, the organisation’s Director for Education and Skills, writes in his latest Teacher column.

Improving educational opportunities has a far greater reach than just the benefits for that individual child. ‘This is particularly the case for educating girls and young women,’ Julia Gillard writes in her latest Teacher column.

ACER researchers Dr Amy Berry, Kellie Picker and Rachel Parker discuss some of the characteristics of playful learning at school, share examples of classroom practice, and explain how Australian teachers can contribute to our understanding of learning through play in the classroom.

Melanie Macmillan, Principal of Warwick Farm Public School, shares how her experience in The Principals’ Centre in Australia: Leadership for School Excellence program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education strengthened her professionally as a school leader, but it also helped her to understand how she could better support the needs of families at her school.

If we are to scale and sustain good practices to benefit more students, then we want to know whether these practices work so schools and systems can use the results to inform decisions to improve, further expand, or cut the program.

A school in Australia’s Northern Territory has partnered with a local refugee centre to support young people from a refugee background transition to school and life in Australia. Here, we speak to St John’s Catholic College’s Principal Cameron Hughes about the partnership.

A new report that analyses the Australian results of the latest Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) has been released today. Here, we explore some of the main findings.