We’ve reached the penultimate episode of Series 3 of our podcast series School Assembly. Teacher editor Jo Earp talks to Notre Dame P-12 College Principal Dan McShea about distributed leadership and developing a leadership pipeline in a new school. Dan also shares his biggest challenge, key learning and proudest achievement since last month’s episode. 

In today’s article, Rachael Lehr, Associate Principal at Dayton Primary School in Western Australia shares her advice on how to set the tone for a new school term to get the best out of your students and staff. From creating positive relationships, to setting high expectations and revisiting routines, Rachael shares what has worked in her school setting.

To celebrate our 100th episode of The Research Files podcast series, the team at Teacher have delved into the archives to choose clips from our favourite episodes. In this very special episode, you hear from your regular hosts Jo Earp, Rebecca Vukovic and Dominique Russell, as well as and a whole lot of guests including researchers, teachers and school leaders. 

Every day, across classrooms, school halls, and virtual learning spaces, educators are quietly performing extraordinary feats – finding new ways to connect with students, leading their colleagues through change, and putting everything they have into helping young people thrive. Yet, all too often, their efforts go unrecognised. The 2025 National Education Summit Teacher Awards aim to change that.

‘… Ukraine’s efforts to reimagine the professional learning journey of its extraordinary teachers is a reminder to us all: the strength of an education system depends on the strength of its teaching profession.’ OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher shares news from an ambitious stakeholder conference in Kyiv.

The 2025 Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) National Conference, taking place from 26 to 29 August in Brisbane, is shaping up to be one of the most significant and inspiring events on this year’s professional learning calendar for primary school leaders across Australia. 

How can teachers meaningfully integrate Indigenous perspectives? In this expert Q&A, Indigenous curriculum specialist Melissa Serrurier discusses culturally responsive teaching, making the shift from tokenism, using authentic resources, and the ways schools can respectfully build and sustain genuine partnerships with local communities.

In this episode of The Research Files podcast, Teacher editor Jo Earp chats to Jenni Ingram, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, about the OECD’s Unlocking High-Quality Teaching report. Alongside insights from 150 schools in 50 countries, it explores 20 practices that teachers draw on to achieve 5 key teaching goals.

‘Our recent and ongoing partnership … has been a really fulfilling journey.’ In this Q&A, Renee Ladner from the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) discusses educators engaging with associations for professional development, and 2 examples of how she’s partnered with schools on maths PD. 

This episode of our School Assembly podcast is all about professional learning. Our Series 3 Principal Dan McShea joins us from Queensland’s Notre Dame P-12 College to share how it links back to strategic planning and key teaching and learning documents. We’ll also find out about his biggest challenge, key learning and proudest achievement since we caught up last.