A writer of the controversial Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why has penned a defence of his work in response to criticisms from mental health organisations that it glamorises suicide. Nic Sheff, who wrote episode six of the series, is a ...
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Bush kindy’s therapeutic, Japanese roots
Tree-time with kids may be good for all kinds of development, including physical stamina, gross motor skills and risk-management skills. But it also has lesser-known benefits for children and adults alike. These are captured in what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, ...
More »Headspace flags dangerous content for students in 13 Reasons Why
Youth mental health advocate headspace (self-styled with a lower case initial) has warned teachers to look out for the hit Netflix drama, 13 Reasons Why, and its impact on students because of its narrative and graphic depiction of suicide in ...
More »Teaching becoming an out-of-field workforce, experts warn
Thousands of teachers worldwide educate students in areas outside of their expertise – and this isn’t just limited to subject knowledge. As the Australian Catholic University’s Dr Anna Du Plessis outlines in her book, Out-of-Field Teaching Practices: What Educational Leaders Need ...
More »Tasmania ditches Safe Schools
Tasmania will cut the Safe Schools program after federal funding expires, being the second state to do so in a week, following the lead of New South Wales. Federal funding for the anti-bullying and education initiative expires at the end of ...
More »States struggling to compute NAPLAN digitisation
The national digitisation of NAPLAN isn’t being processed smoothly by the states and territories. Queensland is the latest state to pull out of the NAPLAN online testing trial. The sunshine state education minister Kate Jones made this announcement on 7 ...
More »UK schools standards minister pushes phonics agenda
The UK minister of state for school standards has advised a federal phonics panel, which is looking at introducing a mandatory, nationwide Year 1 phonics check. While the details of what Nick Gibb told the panel are unknown, he did ...
More »The beat of young people’s lives shown through SBS Youth Week
Mfaume Kakozi, 18, lives life to the beat of his own drum. Born in central Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo, he fled his homeland at a young age due of war. He made his way to a refugee camp in ...
More »Study finds obesity shaped by burgers for boys, single parents for girls
Excessive sausage rolls and hot chips unsurprisingly contribute to boys’ obesity. But unexpectedly, not so much to girls’, a new study has found. Researchers from Queensland’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute also ascertained that, oddly, girls from single parent families ...
More »Parenting expert warns: we’re ‘killing our kids’
Psychologist Steve Biddulph thinks girls have it tougher than they used to. His latest tome, 10 Things Girls Need Most, teases out what he considers to be the crux of girls’ issues: parental anxiety. Biddulph calls it an "Anglo-Saxon disease” ...
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