Pills are not the answer

Medicating children may be treating symptoms of our frenetic lifestyle - Robyn Pearce

Everyone is impacted in some way with the results of a serious medical trend happening throughout the Western world: the ever-growing prescription of drugs to both children and adults for depression and variations of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I join many others in believing that a significant cause of this epidemic is the way many adults view time.

Please be aware that I’m not giving medical advice. I’m not a doctor. And I recognise that for some people medication is a life-saver and a huge help. My concern is for the children. It’s over to us to moderate our children’s experiences of the frenetic world we live in, but NOT with drugs. Read More

VIC Ombudsman: exclusions process riddled with gaps

Tabling an Investigation into Victorian government school expulsions in Parliament, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass said children as young as five and six are being excluded from government schools in a process riddled with gaps that lacks concrete data.
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Aboriginal educator awarded inaugural King's College Fellowship

UniSA Prof Lester-Irabinna Rigney, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship through a new collaboration between the University of South Australia and the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at King’s College London.

He is the inaugural recipient of the Aboriginal and Contemporary Australian Studies Fellowship, which he will take up at King’s College (KCL) in 2018. Rigney will give the inaugural David Unaipon Lecture at The College on 18 September Read More

Positive Parenting program to continue in QLD

Families will continue to have access to an international parenting program developed at The University of Queensland, after renewed investment in state government funding. Triple P – Positive Parenting Program founder and UQ Parenting and Family Support Centre director Prof Matt Sanders, said the program gave Queensland parents a valuable opportunity to improve the wellbeing of their families as well as their children’s life chances. Read More

NSW Premier's Teacher Scholarship winners

Twenty-one of NSW’s best teachers have been rewarded with a 2017 Premier’s Teacher Scholarship, for their commitment to quality education at a reception at the State Library of New South Wales.

The scholarships are open to all NSW teachers from government and non-government schools and preschools, as well as TAFE NSW Institutes, and provide recipients with $10,000-$15,000 in funds for a five-week study tour. Read More

UNSW researchers win NSW Young Tall Poppies 2017 Science Awards

Five young UNSW researchers have won prestigious NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Awards, recognising their commitment to science and their drive to communicate.

The Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS) will honour the up-and-coming scientists at a ceremony at the Museum of Applied Arts and Science, and name one of the nine winners the 2017 NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year. Read More

TAS Gov backflips on lowering school starting age

The Tasmanian Government has backflipped on its proposal to lower the school starting age to 4.5 years and will no longer be lowering the voluntary school starting age. The decision was in response to EMRS polling, which found 76 per cent of the 1000 Tasmanians surveyed opposed the proposal.

Instead, commencing in 2020, it will provide earlier access to play based learning, through the Working Together for three-year-olds targeted pre-school initiative, which will provide the opportunity of an additional year of pre-school to Tasmanian children who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. Read More