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.

The winner of the 2025 Global Teacher Prize has been announced. Mansour Al Mansour from Saudi Arabia has walked away with the US $1 million prize. One Australian teacher was a top 10 finalist this year – Brett Dascombe, a Senior Geography Teacher from Wavell State High School in Brisbane. In this special podcast episode, Brett shares how he exposes his students to real-world, project-based learning by embedding geospatial technologies like GIS, drones and remote sensing data into the geography curriculum.

The winner of the 2025 Global Teacher Prize has just been announced. Mansour Al Mansour from Prince Saud bin Jalawi School in Saudi Arabia has walked away with the US $1 million prize. Mansour was recognised for his strategic vision and unwavering belief in his students' potential, and for building an inclusive and innovative learning environment.

In today’s Q&A, Teacher speaks with the National Excellence in Teaching Awards 2024 winner of the Founders’ Principal for Leadership Award, Angela Phillips from Westminster School in South Australia. She chats about her work to establish engaging professional learning opportunities, increase the number of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers, and her latest initiative – a Micro Rewards scheme for staff.

It’s the opening day of Research Conference 2025! The Teacher team are busy meeting with classroom teachers and school leaders; and attending international keynote presentations, panel sessions and more, all addressing the overarching theme of transforming learning systems. 

The Science Teachers’ Association of New South Wales (STANSW) is offering a range of professional development events, networking and advocacy this year, supporting NSW teachers to excel in science education. 

‘Schools and educators are increasingly finding themselves operating beyond capacity. Like a web browser with way too many tabs open – we are overloaded. Simply adding more “good things” won't fix this.’ Our latest reader submission shares how ‘pruning’ programs and activities can help schools create space for what matters most.

We’re joined by Professor David Hopkins ahead of his keynote at ACER’s Research Conference 2025, titled ‘Unleashing Greatness – A Strategy for School Improvement’. Our conversation zeros in on one of the 8 steps of his strategy, instructional leadership, and includes practical pointers and plenty to reflect on in relation to your own context and practice.

To make your taxes a little less taxing this year, we spoke to Mark Chapman, Director of Tax Communications at H&R Block, to discuss everything teachers in Australia should know about tax time 2024 – from what you could be claiming for, to some common mistakes you might be making

What were you doing a decade ago? In May 2014 I welcomed readers to a new chapter in the life of Teacher magazine. Today, I’m excited to be celebrating a magnificent milestone for Teacher online as it reaches its 10th birthday.