Minnis Journals

For Education Leaders

The Art of the Hard Conversation (Without the Drama)

A grounded, humane approach to difficult conversations that protects relationships and accelerates improvement is a fine art. Avoiding the conversation damages trust. Having it, kindly, early, and clearly, strengthens it. People don’t lose respect because you set a boundary. They lose respect when you don’t. The drama doesn’t come from the conversation. It comes from the delay. Read more

Program Beats School Refusal

A revolutionary new Queensland school designed to re-engage young people who can’t attend mainstream schools due to severe anxiety, bullying, neurodivergent diagnosis or burnout will open in July after receiving the formal endorsement of the state’s Education Department.
BlendED is Queensland’s first dedicated program to combat the national trend of student disengagement.
Read more

Big Questions, Little Voices - The Importance of Philosophy in the Early Years

Why start philosophy with children as young as Prep? St Finbarr’s Primary School is bringing this question to life, as students as young as five engage in philosophical questioning, exploring big ideas, sharing their perspectives, and learning to listen to one another.
St Finbarr’s School Principal Catherine Connors said it is usually a subject taught at University level, yet it has proved powerful for students as young as Prep. Read more

A Young Australian in Washington D.C.

Young Australian Georgina Tenny has had a firsthand perspective on what diplomacy and power looks like in practice. When Georgina stepped into Washington, D.C. earlier this year for a congressional internship in the United States House of Representatives, she expected to observe politics in action.
What she did not expect was how quickly the experience would shift the way she understands power itself.
Read more

Australian Students Decline in Digital Literacy

Despite students spending significant time online and on devices Australian students have recorded their worst-ever results for digital literacy, with 37 per cent of year 10 students and 50 per cent of year 6 students assessed as proficient.
Australia has a generation of students who are highly digitally immersed but poorly digitally educated, part of the issue of a lack of formal structure for learning.
Read more

MINDLESS - Book Review

For understandably busy parents who neither have the time nor the mental stamina to pay close attention to what their children are learning at school, Bella d’Abrera’s Mindless: How the Education System is Indoctrinating Children and Destroying Our Civilisation is a sobering wake-up call.
Its message is as clear as it is sharp: if you won’t decide what’s best for your kids, then activists and the government will. Read more