Reader submission

‘[Our school] vision is to develop young people who are active, resilient, lifelong learners. One of the priorities in our strategic plan relates to promoting student voice and agency…’ Richmond High School Principal Dr Lars Andersson shares how staff are working to ensure students are active participants in their learning.

‘A teacher can be effective, efficient, inclusive, and strategic. Still, unless they are professionally kind along with these things, the learners suffer.’ In today’s reader submission, Professor Nan Bahr argues kindness is an essential general trait for all people, but it is also applied expertise for the teacher and should be a professional standard.

‘There can be no more important time to reflect on teachers, their performance and their wellbeing than following the pandemic’s disruption to normal schooling.’ In today’s reader submission, Professor Jenny Gore says in addition to helping students, there must also be a focus on helping teachers recover.

How do schools successfully engage and retain students alongside promoting academic achievement? In today’s reader submission Margaret Gurney, Assistant Director-General, State Schools Operations at the Queensland Department of Education, shares research findings on practices common in high performing schools.

What would happen if you listened to your staff and students about what their reality is like, and then wrote a school-wide wellbeing framework and curriculum that responded specifically to their needs? At Indie School Elizabeth in South Australia, a targeted approach to addressing the complex wellbeing needs of students led to a brave reimagining of staff wellbeing strategies and processes.

The Knox School has been working with academics to research what teachers learned from the lockdown experience. In this final article of a three-part series, middle leader Melodie Matheson shares how teacher wellbeing became a transformative influence on her leadership.

The Knox School has worked with Monash University to research what teachers would like to take forward (and leave behind) from the remote learning experience. Three key areas of change were identified. This second article in a series focuses on school community collaboration.

The Knox School has worked with Monash University to research what teachers would like to take forward (and leave behind) from the remote learning experience. This three-part reader submission looks at key areas of change, starting with teacher agency.

In yesterday’s reader submission, Michelle Lucas looked at some of the misconceptions around gifted and high-achieving students. In this follow-up article she shares four interventions to address underachievement and meet the needs of gifted students.

‘The underachievement of gifted and high-achieving students is, in part, propagated by the dangerous myth that they will succeed regardless.’ In this reader submission, Gifted and Talented Coordinator Michelle Lucas looks at some of the misconceptions.