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.

Indigenous students failing to make the maths grade Indigenous students are eight times more likely to fall behind in maths by Year 9 than non-indigenous students, dampening regional innovation according to AMSI's 2017 Discipline Profile of the Mathematical Sciences.

MLC girls win in VIC Formula 1 STEM Challenge Three student teams from Melbourne's MLC have placed 1st, 3rd and 4th in the VIC regional competition. F1 in Schools in the world’s largest STEM competition, involving over nine million students who design, build, test and race miniature F1 cars.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

$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