Sport is a cornerstone of Australian culture but children with disabilities often miss out. A Deakin University program is hoping to change this with the help of the AFL, the National Disability Insurance Agency and Moose Toys. AllPlay, led by ...
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Opinion: students who are intellectually gifted can also have learning difficulties
Mention the terms ‘intellectual giftedness’ and ‘learning disability’ and there is a general understanding of what each term means. However, most people are unaware that in many circumstances the two can go hand-in-hand. Current US research suggests that 14 per ...
More »Independent schools ‘extremely concerned’ over flagged changes to funding
The Independent Schools Council of Australia has expressed extreme concern over possible changes in government school funding arrangements. Colette Colman, the lobby group’s chief executive, has written a letter to all federal MPs. In the letter, Colman wrote that “sudden ...
More »‘Get everybody in regions engaged in education’: RAI
The educational gap between city and regional is growing, a new report has shown, prompting a call for people in the country to enrol in some form of education. The Regional Australia Institute (RAI)’s Human Capital Index, released Tuesday 28 ...
More »Mitchell Institute calls for ‘capabilities’ focus in schooling
A new report from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute has argued that schools must focus more on students’ character, or in the paper's term, students' “capabilities”. Professor Bill Lucas – the Mitchell Institute’s international adviser and director of the Centre for ...
More »Julia, Sesame Street’s Muppet with autism, hits the small screen
Alongside Kermit, Oscar the Grouch and Elmo, this month, tiny fans of Sesame Street will meet Julia. Like her Muppet friends, she’s furry and has a cartoonish face. But four-year-old Julia differs on the inside: she has autism. The show ...
More »Surge in kids turning to child protection services
One in 33 children received child protection services in 2015–16 to shield them from abuse, new statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) have shown. During this time, 162,000 children accessed child protection services. This represented a ...
More »Opinion: Australia’s trends in PISA and TIMMS are not new nor shocking
The new reports on TIMSS and PISA results are a more detailed examination of last year’s ‘first look’ reports. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are different, but complementary international ...
More »Jargon hurting efforts to get teens back to school
Unclear and indirect jargon could be hurting the chances of getting troubled teens with language disorders back into school, a University of Melbourne speech pathologist has warned. Nathaniel Swain said that language disorders, namely conditions that inhibit the deciphering of ...
More »Vaccination-autism myth lingers: poll
With disease-free sandpits now on the national agenda, all parents might have to support child vaccination. But this doesn’t mean many aren’t worried about it. The latest Australian Child Health Poll, Vaccination: Perspectives of Australian parents, bears this out. Conducted by researchers ...
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