Articles

NSW DEC challenges construction and design community to develop model to reduce demountables The construction and design community is being challenged to develop a new high-quality, classroom model that can reduce the number of demountable classrooms used in NSW government schools.

Empowering leadership through proactive strategies We all see how schools, as with other organisations, are becoming busier with reduced resourcing and funding. We are left with a need to contemplate how we find the energy and techniques to better engage our staff, develop professional practice and achieve improved student learning outcomes? A leader’s role is to ensure smooth facilitation of school requirements, be it regulatory needs, staff management or responding to student issues.

Arts:Live adds Sustainable Songs to online lessons Sustainable Songs is a new music resource developed by Arts:Live in partnership with The a2 Milk Company. The project takes children through a process of making and playing fruit and veggie instruments and then recycling the scraps to make a delicious Musical Soup.

8–11 year-old children who exercise have more gray matter than obese peers Spanish researchers have found that youngsters who take part in exercise for at least three nights a week had more grey matter in areas of the brain linked to reading and verbal communication than obese children that didn't.

Vic government spends up on school upgrades The Victorian Government has committed heavily to upgrading schools around the state, investing $2.5 billion over three years.

Leading change and innovative practice: Building teacher capacity There is a rumour that when joints get brittle, skin crisps and wrinkles from constant exposure to the elements, and the muscles relax, and relax, and relax, PE teachers have no other option than to seek school headships. What do you think? Regardless of what their pedigree is, what we can agree on is that the role of principals is becoming more and more complex.

Better-off parents are turning away from private schools Parents are choosing a public school instead of an independent, reversing the drift to private that has worried commentators. Analysis by the ABS for Fairfax Newspapers shows enrollments have increased proportionately by almost 7 per cent since 2006.

BPAY offers new schools $1000 rebate on set-up costs The first 50 schools to become BPAY Billers before 30 March 2018 will receive a $1000 rebate towards their BPAY set-up costs and will automatically go into a draw to win a $10,000 grant.

2018 named ‘Year of Women in School Leadership’ A developmental undertaking to improve the occupational opportunities of women working in Australia’s schools has been announced. The ‘Year of Women in Leadership’ will run throughout 2018 

NSW universities to make early offers to IB students International Baccalaureate students will get early offers from a number of Sydney universities based on their predicted results, up to three weeks ahead of the new December 21 round of offers for HSC students.

Independents counter Catholic Education funding arguments The ISCA has rejected claims by some Catholic school systems  that the new Federal funding arrangements create distortions in terms of how parents' capacity to pay fees is assessed.

Student entrepreneurs solving problems to fix education Research by the Mitchell Institute reveals how 21 schools across NSW and Victoria are ‘shifting the education paradigm’ by enhancing capabilities and promoting entrepreneurial thinking. Increased confidence, greater resilience, stronger collaboration skills and improved empathy are benefits