Getting to know parents – Dennis Sleigh

A friend who was employed in a large retail store for almost 20 years told me that the first lesson she learned from her manager when she started was “A lot of customers are sometimes right.” She said this realisation made her able to deal effectively with the difficult customers, the impatient customers, the angry customers – as well as with the lovely ones.

She said that anyone who believes that every customer is always right will soon find themselves looking for a new job. The manager cautioned the new employee: “It is fine to have high ideals and great expectations, but the trouble with these is that there is always a gap between dreams and reality.” I think that the manager’s wisdom should be passed on to educators as it will help them deal more effectively with students and their families. Read More

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.

Good to Great Schools Australia has been managing the pilot program which is currently operating in primary schools Read More

Principals lose hiring freedom in WA Independent Public Schools

Since 2010, IPS principals have had complete autonomy over staff selection, but under a change of direction ordered by Education Minister Sue Ellery, they will have to consider education department "redeployees" before hiring any teachers, support staff and school administrators. If IPS principals choose not to hire from the department's pool of available staff, they will have to provide a written explanation justifying their decision.
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‘Equity’ trends in school yard conversation

Oxford University Press has announced the 2017 Australian Children’s Word of the Year and it's... equity.

Primary school children were invited by OUP to take part in the inaugural competition. Participants nominated their ‘Word of the Year’ through a piece of free writing up to 500 words based on their chosen word. The shortlist and Australian Children’s Word of the Year were chosen from over 700 entries completed in September 2017. Read More

Islamic School of Canberra loses federal funds

Following an internal review by the DET, the Islamic School of Canberra will lose its Commonwealth Funding effective 16 December. The decision, announced by Minister Simon Birmingham on Friday 27 October, upheld the original decision to revoke the authority’s approval under the Australian Education Act 2013. Read More

Junior game designers create a reaction at PAX

Gaming industry experts have commended the winners of the 2017 Australian STEM Video Game Challenge, which this year required students as young as 10 years old to design and build a video game addressing the theme 'reaction'.

Academy of Interactive Entertainment CEO John De Margheriti said he hoped participants in this year's Challenge would be among the next generation Read More

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 (ECEC) 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.

Mitchell Institute Policy Program Director, Dr Charlene Smith said early childhood educators need better training and professional learning to support the important work they do. Read More

New suite of STEM experiences at Vic Scienceworks

Museums Victoria has announced two new permanent exhibitions and a suite of parallel programs at Scienceworks to prepare the next generation for a world of science, technology, engineering and maths. Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen will open in April 2018.

Scienceworks will use a $6 million funding boost to open the exhibitions which will include a huge space that will allow teenagers to bend the fabric of spacetime. Read More

Study investigates age when children start to regulate their learning

Led by UQ School of Psychology PhD student Melissa Brinums, the study, published in Child Development investigated the age at which children start to regulate their own learning to achieve their long-term goals.

“As adults, we learn skills and information for the future on a regular basis, but we know very little about how children develop this capacity,” Brinums said. Read More

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 the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute’s (AMSI) 2017 Discipline Profile of the Mathematical Sciences.

Figures in the Institute’s latest report card on the health of the mathematical sciences pipeline show at least 17.4 per cent of indigenous Year 9 students are below minimum maths standards by Year 9 compared to 2.1 per cent of their non-indigenous peers. This figure jumps to over 50 per cent in remote areas. Read More

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 is the world’s largest STEM competition, involving over nine million students.

In teams of five, students use industry-standard software and equipment to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test and race miniature F1 cars capable of reaching 80 kph. Read More