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For Education Leaders

Techy Primary produces 10-year-olds with industry level skills

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Wooranna Park Primary School is a stand out example of what happens when you put the children at the centre of a school; it looks techy, it’s fun and the students tend to show up. The primary employs an Educational Technologist to help ambitious ideas become real. Read more

Is preventing teacher burnout the answer to addressing better outcomes for students?

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Principals are currently reporting a significant increase in requests for reduced work hours and days, sick leave, long service leave, referrals to employee assistance programs, unexplained absences and mental health and wellbeing adjustments for staff members.
   For the profession to rise above the current crisis, there must be a robust conversation that includes all stakeholders as part of the solution. 

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Temp teachers pressured to do more, can be exploited

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NSW public school teachers on short fixed-term contracts report feeling forced to compete with colleagues to stay employed and experience poorer job quality and feel they must jump through hoops to maintain employment.
   Some temps experience permanent teachers “prey[ing]” on them by “shift[ing] work” to them and having to “take whatever is handed to you" as "workload rules go out the window". Read more

What a new national assessment system looks like

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One of the prominent critics of NAPLAN, and there are a few, is the Gonski Institute. For them and Pasi Sahlberg the whole program needs to be scrapped and replaced with a lower stakes, less intrusive and less potentially harmful model.
   The new system should be based less on high-stakes census-based tests and more on sample-based and teacher-led assessments.
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National Education Summit returns to Brisbane

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The National Education Summit will hold its second Brisbane event in 2021, bringing an extensive professional development program to local educators over two days Friday 4 – Saturday 5 June at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
   The 2019 Brisbane event attracted strong attendance, particularly across the Capacity Building School Libraries and Additional Needs Symposium themes.
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Wakakirri Arts Festival wins National Excellence in Education Award

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Wakakirri was recognised by the Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association (APATA) for their contribution to performing arts education in schools at a special presentation at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney on Monday, 17th May, 2021.
   The ‘Excellence in Performing Arts Education Award’ recognises an outstanding organisation working in performing arts education. Read more

How school IT help desks can start unclogging the backlog

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The past few months have seen the help desk become a crucible for many school IT pros. The rise of online learning – and the present nerve-wracking return to physical classes – can flood tech support with a deluge of tickets. Even federal agencies are struggling, so does the lone IT professional stand a chance? Definitely, but much more easily by including a few proven education IT technologies and best practices.
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