Long reads

Absent students miss more than just lesson content; they miss the opportunities to build the habits and skills to succeed at school and in life. New OECD research shows ‘school attendance problems are no longer a marginal issue; they have become a challenge affecting classrooms in nearly every country’.

In her latest Teacher column, Associate Principal Rachael Lehr shares how insights from mindset coach and author Ben Crowe about the ‘dreaded “E” word’ have prompted her to reflect on what it means to hold high expectations in ways that give purpose and build aspiration for students and staff, rather than add pressure or burden.

A collaborative study involving Aboriginal Elders, families, educators and children across 3 urban schools in Perth, Western Australia, is working to deepen Aboriginal children’s understanding of, and pride in, who they are by strengthening their connections to culture, Country and kin. Professor Cheryl Kickett-Tucker from Curtin University tells us all about the Moombaki Cultural Learnings Project and the impact it is having on Aboriginal students.

More than a competition, Trop Jr is a rich learning experience that supports curriculum outcomes while strengthening creative confidence and student agency. Find out more about Trop Jr, the benefits, and free classroom resources for Years 5 to 10, including a Teacher Guide to support planning, assessment and curriculum alignment, in this article.

In his latest Teacher column, Professor Martin Westwell – Chief Executive of the South Australian Department for Education – discusses the book Students, Students, Students! by Dr Iwan Syahril, who has been at the centre of one of the most ambitious education reforms in the world.

Buy-now pay-later services, pocket money apps, online scams, gambling advertising and cryptocurrency are part of some students’ everyday lives. In today’s article, 2 mathematics teachers from Marryatville High School in South Australia share how they’ve applied some of their learning from a professional development partnership into their financial literacy electives for year 9 and 10. 

The results from the second cycle of the OECD’s Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS 2025) have just been released. Here we share more about the focus and innovative assessment design of IELS, and an overview of the findings on how children are faring at the very start of their learning journeys.

‘Learning does not happen when the machine does the thinking for you.’ With generative AI reshaping the educational landscape, Teacher columnist and OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher discusses the importance of guardrails, data protection and human judgement to ensure GenAI becomes a scaffold for learning, not a crutch.

Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy (MAIL) has been announced as the innovative domain for PISA 2029. The OECD has already released the first draft framework, offering an early understanding of how media literacy and AI literacy intersect and link to other curriculum areas, the key concepts and big ideas, and how to nurture the related competences.

Although often associated with a new school year, transitions occur throughout the school day and across each term. Anna Brady – principal at autism-specific school Aspect Vern Barnett School – shares how each term begins with a deliberate re‑establishment of routines, expectations and supports, and the positive impact on students.