Articles

Deep-seated discrimination for disabled in Victorian schools   Schools in Victoria have been given the right to assess their own progress around inclusiveness for disabled children and they have dropped the ball as the disabled continue to experience exclusion and disadvantage.

Training and standards boosted for pre-service teachers A close eye on the quality of pre-service teachers’ training and standards will help to develop teaching graduates who are up to scratch and work ready. AITSL will play a key role.

Marshmallow test indicates SES not future success In the entire history of pop science, the marshmallow test has yielded some of the cutest results. We've all seen the vision of kids presented with the option of eating marshmallow now or waiting 15 minutes and getting two.

The NSW DOE books casual teachers with ClassCover ClassCover and the NSW Department of Education have partnered to provide NSW public schools access to the ClassCover booking app, automating the booking and managing of their casual teachers.

Victorians roll out Minecraft to state schools Victorian schools are deploying Microsoft Office 365 and a statewide rollout of Minecraft: Education Edition, which will be made available to more than 600,000 students attending Victoria’s 1,500 state schools.

Music helps language skills Researchers at Cognitive Brain Research Unit in the University of Helsinki studied in a community setting whether a low-cost, weekly music playschool provided to 5-6-year-old children affects their linguistic abilities.

Five new Directors on AITSL Board  The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership has appointed five new Directors to its Board to support the organisation’s focus on supporting and promoting high quality teaching and school leadership.

School holiday activities mean busy kids There’s loads on for Sydney kids these school holidays; they can create their own short movies, learn how to make jewellery or join in various sports and recreation programs as part of the City of Sydney’s winter school holidays program.

Independent schools say caution needed in SES review The jury is still out on the the use of parents' personal income tax receipts to determine the amount of funding given to Independent and Catholic schools and the Independent Schools Council says caution should be exercised.

Student smartphone use should be monitored not banned Bandwagons are a great thing and the latest is the anti-smartphones in schools one, but smartphones are an essential part of modern life and children should know how to use them appropriately.

Facebook’s Workplace for Good is free Facebook is a great way to goof off but when tweaked for the workplace it can be used as a very powerful communications and collaboration tool and the familiar layout and functions mean there’s very little training involved to get it running.

GitHub Education, a free program for schools Coders’ resource and collaboration site GitHub is offering schools its tools for free in a new GitHub Education bundle which includes developer tools, workflows for teachers and training.