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.

At ACER’s Research Conference 2025, poster presenter Peter Axford – a Senior Teacher at Malanda State High School and PhD candidate at James Cook University – showcased his research exploring an agency approach to student engagement with the curriculum. Here he shares the impetus for this research and how the findings influenced his own classroom practice.

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. 

Tax time is quickly approaching here in Australia, and your return can vary greatly depending on your occupation. In this Q&A, Director of Tax Communications at H&R Block, Mark Chapman, shares his tips specifically for teachers in 2025. 

‘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.

In the latest Teacher reader survey, you let us know you’d like more content on the topic of curriculum implementation. At the ACER Research Conference 2025, poster presenter Dr Liana Luyt showcased her research into effective incorporation of the General Capabilities of the Australian Curriculum. Here, she shares the details and an implementation guideline resource for school leaders. 

Last term, the 2024 recipients of the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching were announced. In this episode, Alice Leung and Daniel Edwards join us to share some of their favourite learning activities to run in the classroom, discuss why STEM is for everyone, and share how they use social media to connect with experts.

It’s our first episode of Teacher Staffroom for 2025, and there’s plenty to take you through today to catch you up on content that’s kicked off our publication schedule for term one here at Teacher.