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Victoria goes into sixth lockdown, remote learning to resume

05 Aug, 2021

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has announced a seven-day lockdown after 8 additional cases of the Delta strain were detected. The decision means that students across the state will learn from home until 12 August. “There is no alternative but for us to listen to our public health experts and take their advice, and that advice is to lockdown for seven days from 8pm tonight,” Premier Andrews said. “Only three of...

Urgent meeting of principals, teachers called over Premier’s HSC decision

03 Aug, 2021

An urgent meeting of all principals and NSW Teachers Federation representatives at high schools in the greater Sydney area has been called for tomorrow after Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Year 12 students would return to school on 16 August, despite the state’s escalating COVID-19 situation . This morning, NSW Health confirmed there were 262 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night and five deaths, marking the...

How to build a culture of wellbeing…from the ground up

02 Aug, 2021

In June, a sector-first research paper found that a “COVID hangover” continues to affect student and staff motivation, anxiety and engagement . According to the paper, the majority of the 74 independent school leaders and teachers who took part in the COVID-19 survey between March and April 2021, “felt that the remote learning period had a neutral or negative impact on students” with student wellbeing and...

How to make the most of whole-class reading

23 Jul, 2021

By Mark Richards, After going out of fashion for a while at the expense of guided reading, whole-class reading seems to be back in favour again. Research points to a variety of benefits of whole-class reading. So, how do you make the most of whole-class reading sessions? Whole-class reading enables you to focus on more challenging texts. It also allows for better opportunities to engage pupils in class discussion....

Revealed: Parents’ view of home-schooling

23 Jul, 2021

By Mark Richards, As it looks like we are tentatively moving out of lockdown restrictions for good, many have begun to reflect on the effectiveness (or not) of some of the things that became ‘the new normal’ during the three main lockdown periods. For many, that included home-working. For many more, it included home-schooling. Now, a survey by Ipsos MORI has shown that around two-thirds of parents believe...

Lack of support for longer school days and shorter holidays

21 Jul, 2021

By Mark Richards, Although few would argue that many students need extra support and catch-up programmes to make up for the education lost during to the pandemic, there seems to be little support from parents for some of the ideas that have been floated about as possible solutions. These include extended school days and reduced holidays. A poll, conducted by Ipsos Mori, shows that only one in five parents would prefer to...

8 tips to help exhausted teachers move to online teaching

20 Jul, 2021

With Sydney schools moving to home learning once again, and COVID-19’s highly contagious Delta strain making the possibility of other states following in the coming weeks, jaded teachers must adapt their lessons for online delivery. For many teachers, this means juggling classrooms with educating their own children at home. From my experience working on both sides of the distance education (DE) fence – as a DE teacher at ...

Here’s what we know about the benefits of staggered school start (and finish) times

19 Jul, 2021

New South Wales recently announced it would trial different start and finish times for various year levels in primary schools. The reported aims include reducing traffic congestion and providing more flexibility to certain families, including shift workers. In Queensland, principals already have the option to stagger the start of their school days. It could be as simple as starting some classes at 9:30am and...

How to job search effectively as a teacher

16 Jul, 2021

So, you’ve made the decision to find a new role. It can be a daunting experience, but if you’ve covered all your bases before you click that search button, it’ll make life a lot easier. After a pretty difficult year, teachers are back on the move – looking for the next step in their career now the path out of lockdown and restrictions is in sight. We’ve got some advice for job seekers out there, from preparing...

What was COVID-19's impact on teaching and learning in 2020?

02 Jul, 2021

Article by The Educator Australia Last year, a team of nine educators from Australian, New Zealand, the US and Singapore lead by Associate Professor Louise Phillips from James Cook University conducted an international qualitative study of 635 teachers. The survey, which opened in May, asked teachers how COVID-19 affected them and their students . Interestingly, of the 179 Australian respondents, 65% had over 21...

How are you future-proofing your school from future disruption?

01 Jul, 2021

Article by The Educator Australia As schools gear up for Term 1, many are looking to the learnings from 2020 to chart a path forward that ensures their students and staff are not only ready for school year, but prepared to navigate the kinds of disruptions that brought the education sector to a standstill during the early half of last year. In May 2020, a survey by researchers from James Cook...

60-second wellbeing check-in flags student wellbeing issues

30 Jun, 2021

Article by The Educator Australia According to reports, Australia risks losing more than 4,000 additional lives to suicide in the next five years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 7,000 extra lives lost seen as a worst-case scenario. Last year, youth mental health service Headspace said it experienced a 50% rise in referrals for young people who were admitted to a hospital emergency department...

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