Articles

Early childhood investment wasted without quality educators A new paper by Mitchell Institute at Victoria University finds that quality is lagging in key early childhood education and care areas and improving teaching should be a top priority. Highly skilled educators are the most important ingredient but many early childhood educators don’t receive sufficient training or support.

Junior game designers create a reaction at PAX Gaming industry experts have commended winners of the 2017 Australian STEM Video Game Challenge for their remarkable levels of creativity and technical skill. This year's competition required students as young as 10 to design and build a video game addressing the theme 'reaction'.

Noel Pearson's literacy program funding extended Noel Pearson's Good to Great schools program, designed to boost remote students’ literacy and numeracy has been backed with a further $4.1 million from the Turnbull Government, following the release of an independent report highlighting its positive impacts.

Virtual puzzles can teach kids to solve real-world problems Swinburne researchers have shown that children can apply the skills they learn on a tablet to the real world. The research shows that when four to six-year-olds learn how to solve a puzzle using a tablet, they then apply this learning to the same puzzle in the physical world.

Heather Schnagl named Victoria’s best educator Heather Schnagl, Principal at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School has been awarded the Sir James Darling Medal, which recognises a Victorian educator who has made an outstanding contribution to Victorian education.

Digital devices add to exam time stress: Family Zone survey A survey of 1000 teenagers and their parents shows that electronic devices are causing sleep and study problems for teenagers as they come up to end of year exams. The survey, commissioned by cyber safety platform, Family Zone, found teenagers are being robbed of sleep in the lead-up to exams

Notre Dame MA (Writing) to aid NSW teachers with English syllabus A new writing course introduced by The University of Notre Dame will equip NSW teachers to deal with major changes set to shake-up the English HSC syllabus next year. The new Master of Arts (Writing) program will play a key role in answering the professional development needs of English teachers

Confessions of an IT Manager It is clear that our students are moving into a workforce that is both unpredictable and precarious. With constant reminders that computers and automation will replace many jobs, we are being urged to ‘teach differently’. Schools are being challenged to create young minds that are rich in interpersonal skills, minds that are creative, collaborative, and above all, resilient.     What does this mean, and how can we achieve these objectives while addressing the needs of the curriculum

Neil Bramsen and Brett Mckay receive Prime Minister's Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools are awarded for excellence in teaching in any area of science that is part of the teacher’s state or territory science syllabus. The prize is awarded to teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to science education.

2.5m maths activities completed in Mathletics Challenge Over 6000 schools from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa took part in the recently completed 2017 Mathletics Tri-Nations Challenge. 1.5 million students were registered for the event and completed over 2.5m maths activities. Over half of the students on the winners list were Australian.

2018 Australian Ballet education program wins Aqualand support Property development and investment company Aqualand will become a lead partner of The Australian Ballet 2018 education program. The company will support the Ballet's workshops for primary and secondary students in maginalised schools.

$4m nature play space opens at Sydney's Centennial Parklands The highly anticipated Ian Potter Children’s Wild Play Garden has officially opened in Centennial Parklands.The Garden is designed to be an outdoor learning experience for children aged 2-12, of all abilities and backgrounds. It is made up of dry creek beds, an Artesian water play area, bamboo forest, tunnels, turtle mounds