Student welfare

Sometimes students make a behaviour choice thinking it will help them fit in with their peers. A new report from ACER and Life Ed explores tobacco and vaping use among secondary students and finds their beliefs about ‘the norm’ don’t reflect reality.

‘… 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.

Excursions, camps and incursions are a great way for teachers to tap into external expertise and learning experiences to support needs and complement what you’re doing in the classroom. Just like your regular lesson activities, you’ll need to plan well to get the most out of them.

Purposeful school design can support student learning and wellbeing. Aspect Hills Shire School is a new autism-specific primary school that opened its doors to students last month. In this photo story, Principal Shane Morris takes Teacher readers on a tour of the new school and its design features.

The latest annual Youth Survey by national charity Mission Australia received responses from 17,480 young people (aged 15-19) around the country on issues important to them in 2024. Here, we look at the top personal challenges they are facing.

After observing a noticeable increase in mental health concerns among their students, Sydney’s Waverley College decided to take a bold and proactive step. In this article, Head of Wellbeing James Horrocks shares how they trained every staff member – from teachers and administrators to support staff – as a Youth Mental Health First Aider.

In the first edition of Researching education: 5 further readings for 2025, we share 5 further readings that focus on post-pandemic learning – including a report on the impact of small-group tutoring, a case study into migrant parents’ experiences during emergency home-schooling, and more.

The Butterfly Foundation’s BodyKind Online Education program will be available to schools in early 2025. In today’s article, Head of Prevention at Butterfly Danni Rowlands discusses what the program is exactly, some of the results of the pilot evaluation of the program, and discusses how it supports a safer online experience for young people in Australia. 

In his first Teacher column Professor Martin Westwell, Chief Executive of the South Australian Department for Education, discusses a worrying trend in education and PISA 2022 evidence that ‘our greatest strength in education is the professional judgement of our teachers’.

One of the topics in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) student questionnaire is the quality of student-teacher relationships. This infographic looks at the responses of Australian students in the 2022 test cycle, by state and territory.