Sorting through papers I’d collected in 2010, I came across one headed ‘Are autonomous schools the answer’. On it I had pencilled ‘To what?’ The article had clearly left me feeling I was being asked to contemplate not only ‘an’ ...

School leadership is recognised as a vital factor in improving school effectiveness and student achievement. All teachers exercise leadership although as teachers become more experienced and adept it is likely that their leadership involvement and influence will increase beyond the ...

Don’t look now, but there’s a giant elephant in the room. Private tuition, or the ‘shadow education system’, is estimated to be a $1 billion industry in Australia. The industry’s self regulatory body, the Australian Tutoring Association (ATA), suggests there ...

The Board of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) met on Tuesday 26 October and reviewed progress in finalising the curriculum up to year 10 in English, mathematics, science and history. Development began in 2008 with the preparation ...

Several weeks ago, I joined a gathering of family and friends to say a last farewell to Michael. His adult working life was spent teaching high school history. Parents attended with their grown-up children, both generations having been taught by ...

Educators are awash in a sea of data, and it is sometimes hard to pick where our focus should be, how the data should be used, or what the purpose of the data is. There are far too many people ...

We also asked the hard questions: how is AITSL making its mark, how AITSL can make a difference and how AITSL’s governance arrangements and approach to consultation can support a truly national approach to promoting excellence in teaching and school ...

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) will be implementing a national flagship professional learning program next year in support of the Australian Curriculum. The program will provide high-quality, innovative professional learning to enable lead teachers and, where ...

This paper describes what we want young people to have the opportunity to learn and experience in the Arts. The draft ‘Shape Paper: The Arts’ builds on an extensive consultation process. In May this year 180 arts experts and stakeholders ...

Students in Australian classrooms have multiple, diverse and changing needs that are shaped by individual learning histories and abilities. Students with special education needs represent an extremely diverse subsection of the school population. The majority of students with special education ...