If you’re a secondary teacher or leader, what is the average year 12 completion rate for students in your school? Do you know the reasoning behind why some students decide to leave early? How could you best support these students? A new report offers answers to these questions.

Teacher editor Jo Earp talks to Western Sydney University academic and researcher Dr Sharon Wagner about engaging parents from refugee backgrounds in their children’s education. The episode explores the differing perspectives of parents and teachers on topics such as parent-teacher interviews, system expectations and language barriers.

In Australia, 12% of girls will have their first period between the ages of 8 and 11 years, but formal education on menstruation is not included in the curriculum until age 10 at the earliest. A new study has interviewed school staff to explore how teachers are supporting younger students experiencing menstruation, and ways to overcome any barriers.

In this Q&A, we speak to Rob Walker, Deputy President of the New South Wales Primary Principal’s Association, about how its statewide initiative is responding to the needs of school leaders by helping staff and parents to recognise and respond to anxiety in children.

School absence has an impact on student outcomes, so being aware of attendance rates for your class, year group, or whole school, and understanding the reasons behind the absence is important. With this information to hand, what will make a difference? That’s the topic of Dr Kirsten Hancock’s research.

As a school leader, a key consideration when implementing a new approach, or evaluating existing practices, is the effective use of data. A new support resource outlines 7 steps to guide school leaders in using data for monitoring and evaluation. Find out more in today’s article.

In today’s article, we speak with the winner of the Teacher Awards’ Leadership Award for Driving School Improvement, Melissa Shepherd from Laura State School in far-north Queensland, about how she is committed to improving outcomes for all students.

In this episode from our Global Education podcast series, we’re venturing to New Zealand’s South Island, to find out about the Central Otago Youth Employment Program, which is keeping Year 11 program in high school while setting them up for job success.

In our latest submission, researchers from Macquarie University and the University of Wollongong share findings from a study that identified 4 different types of teacher-student relationships, and how these relationships are associated with high school students’ science motivation.

In this episode, we’re taking you to Yipirinya School in Alice Springs. Year 3 and 4 students at the school were recently participants in a trial of Charles Darwin University’s Children’s University – a program which offers students the opportunity to undertake learning experiences by visiting local businesses and organisations.