Marie Bashir Public School opens its gates
AMY MCNEILAGE Today is the beginning of more than just another school year for a small primary school in Strathfield.
Latest education news
Maturity vital for school starters
COSIMA MARRINER A child's ability to make friends, follow instructions and take care of themselves is a better indication they are ready to start school than knowing their letters and numbers, education experts say.
Experts say five is too young for school
AMY MCNEILAGE Children in Australia start school younger than almost anywhere else in the developed world, up to two years ahead of students in top-performing countries such as Finland and Korea.
School uniform lists reach 18 pages
AMY MCNEILAGE Even a public school's humble polo-shirt-and-short combo can prove costly with multiple children to clothe. And then come the other seasonal necessities - hats and headbands, lunch boxes and library bags and, of course, the dreaded leather school shoes.
Minister wants tougher teacher selection
AMY MCNEILAGE Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says NSW needs to enforce stricter benchmarks for its teacher training courses, despite already having the toughest entry requirements in the country.
EXCLUSIVE
Selective schools reap most in fees
Josephine Tovey, Inga Ting Parents with children in NSW selective schools pay voluntary fees on average five times higher than those with children in other public schools.
Unis lose students to Oxford and Harvard
AMY MCNEILAGE The number of Australians heading to the world's most prestigious universities such as Harvard and Oxford for their undergraduate degree is swelling, as students are lured by reputation and rich scholarly traditions.
Curriculum chief doubts review timeframe
JOSEPHINE TOVEY The head of the school curriculum body in NSW has cast serious doubt over whether the Abbott government's review of the national curriculum will have any effect on what is taught in schools next year.
HSC top performer chooses art over law
AMY MCNEILAGE Nechama Basserabie has copped the odd ''funny look'' when she has told people she is going to study art theory at university.
ATARs drop for teaching degrees
Amy McNeilage, Josephine Tovey The minimum ATAR required to do many teaching degrees fell this year, sliding by 20 points at one university.
Uni offers: search for students you know
Use our interactive tool to discover what students were offered and the latest course ATAR cut-offs. Search by student name, institution name, course name or number.
Check finds HSC marking error
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Feeling wronged by a worse-than-expected mark in your HSC is a common experience. But what if it's justified?
Sydney Uni admissions error
AMY MCNEILAGE The University of Sydney has accidentally told students they've been accepted to study, 12 hours before main-round offers are released.
Computer reforms to test teachers' skills
AMY MCNEILAGE Schoolchildren will begin learning the principles of computer programming from kindergarten under the new national curriculum.
University distances itself from men' studies
AMY MCNEILAGE Uni of South Australia has distanced itself from a proposal for a series of male studies courses, some of which were to be taught by hardline anti-feminist advocates.
Educators criticise Pyne's curriculum review
JOSEPHINE TOVEY The Abbott government's decision to hold a quick review of the national curriculum is poorly timed, a group of more than 150 prominent educators has warned.
Donnelly linked to tobacco giant
BIANCA HALL One of the two men appointed by the government to review the national curriculum was employed by Philip Morris to design a program teaching children about peer pressure and decision-making.
Curriculum review dubbed a political stunt
Josephine Tovey, Judith Ireland Education Minister Christopher Pyne's decision to review the national education curriculum is an attempt to score ''cheap political points'', one of the curriculum's lead writers says.
HSC vs IB: how they stack up
AMY MCNEILAGE Eight International Baccalaureate students at one Sydney private school scored the top ATAR of 99.95 compared to six HSC students at James Ruse Agricultural High School.
Top HSC marks can't guarantee medicine spot
AMY MCNEILAGE Only 48 of the more than 65,000 school leavers in NSW achieved the 99.95 ATAR needed to gain entry into medicine at the University of Sydney.
Final preferences loom for new uni students
Alexia Attwood Thousands of hopeful students are scrambling to make last-minute tweaks to their university preferences, as the midnight deadline for Main Round applications looms.
Less maths makes HSC physics 'dumb'
AMY MCNEILAGE The Board of Studies will review the HSC Physics syllabus this year to assess whether a move away from mathematical content had weakened the subject.
University applicants consider their verdict
AMY MCNEILAGE In the 24 hours after 55,000 students received their HSC results last week, almost 9000 went on to change their university preferences.
HSC: Indigenous student numbers on rise
JOSEPHINE TOVEY The number of indigenous students doing the HSC appears to have almost tripled in a decade, a shift the minister says is ''fantastic'' but still needs to be matched by a lift in performance.
Triumphant year for Kim Ho
JOSEPHINE TOVEY He made a groundbreaking short film that went viral around the world, received praise from celebrities for his work, and all the while conquering the gruelling HSC.
Teachers' work helped HSC students excel
Allison Jeffares The state's top performers in English say they could never have done it without the dedication of their teachers.
HSC harks back to gender stereotypes of '50s
AMY MCNEILAGE Looking at trends in this year's HSC results, one could be forgiven for thinking the results were from the 1950s.
ATAR results: D-Day for two years of study
AMY MCNEILAGE Almost 55,000 of the state's school leavers will find out their ATAR on Thursday. But it is doubtful many, if any, will truly understand the intricacies of how it was calculated.
The school that pulled back from the brink
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Jasmine Tamer was so excited about getting her HSC results she stayed up most of the night before they were released.
Top students urge others not to play safe
AMY MCNEILAGE The state's most talented maths and science students have urged more high school students to tackle the challenging HSC subjects instead of sticking to ''safe'' options.
From marks to sparks: ATARs set the stage
Charmaine Wong They have passed the stress test. Now former students weigh up their next role.
Students crash ATAR calculator websites
AMY MCNEILAGE Thousands of HSC students, desperate to find out if they will get into university, have caused the top ATAR calculator websites to crash.
Lecturers say maths is a must for engineering
AMY MCNEILAGE A university lecturer's suggestion that HSC maths is not essential to study engineering has annoyed his colleagues, who say they have worked hard to counter that perception.
Top HSC marks despite bushfire disruption
JOSEPHINE TOVEY A student who spent several nights fighting fires during his HSC exams still got the highest marks in the state in one of his subjects.
From Afghanistan to HSC success
AMY MCNEILAGE Students who could not speak English just a few years ago, including one refugee from Afghanistan, are expecting to be among the state's HSC high achievers this week.
Turnbull recalls receiving HSC results
JOSEPHINE TOVEY When more than 70, 000 students across NSW receive their HSC results this week, they will be hoping it goes more smoothly than it did for a young Malcolm Turnbull.
Lecturers struggle with unprepared students
AMY MCNEILAGE University lecturers are frustrated that students are enrolling in high-level mathematics, science and engineering degrees significantly unprepared because they have not studied maths or science for their HSC.
Indigenous education group loses funding
JOSEPHINE TOVEY The Abbott government has taken funding from a key indigenous education advisory group, citing the "tight fiscal environment" and the need to cut red tape.
Non-English background students thrive
JOSEPHINE TOVEY NSW year 7 students from non-English speaking backgrounds did better across all subjects in latest NAPLAN tests.
Educators acknowledge HSC flaws
Amy McNeilage HSC students are picking easier subjects and arriving at university ill-prepared partly because universities have decided not to mandate required knowledge for entry into certain degrees, education leaders acknowledge.
Malek Fahd Islamic School wins reprieve
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Fears that one of New South Wales' largest private schools would be forced to close this summer have not materialised, with a reprieve granted by the Board of Studies.
Students told not to take easy road
AMY MCNEILAGE High school students are increasingly studying subjects they consider safe options rather than challenging themselves, the head of one of Sydney's most privileged private schools says.
Teachers help students look the part
Josephine Tovey, Charmaine Wong School formals are a rite of passage for teenagers at the end of the school year. But for some, the cost is too much to bear.
Report card: need for urgent education reform
ANNA PATTY An increasing number of top students are funnelled into state selective and independent high schools, yet the academic performance of Australia's brightest 15-year-olds has continued its downward slide.
Australia's classrooms among world's noisiest
Rachel Browne, Amy McNeilage Australia has some of the noisiest classrooms in the world and is wasting teaching time but experts agree a quiet class is not always a good thing.
Shanghai students hit fast lane for success
Philip Wen If money is really key to buying a good education, then it is easy to see why Shanghai produces some of the brightest children in the world.
Maths tutoring adds up for students
AMY MCNEILAGE Many of the world's most mathematically gifted teenagers come from countries with the most lucrative tutoring industries.
Lessons from top-performing school systems
AMY MCNEILAGE Improving teacher quality, granting schools greater autonomy and resourcing education equitably have been highlighted as some of the unifying traits of the world's top-performing school systems.
Classroom noise linked to poor results
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Australian students report high levels of noise and disruption in their classroom and at rates worse than the US or Britain, a factor education experts say is linked to low levels of literacy and numeracy.
OECD report finds Australians falling behind
Josephine Tovey, Anna Patty Achievement in maths and reading has slumped, while huge gaps persist based on wealth, gender and whether students are indigenous.
Teachers win higher salaries in wage deal
AMY MCNEILAGE The state's most talented classroom teachers will be rewarded with a six-figure salary and new teachers will move up the pay scale faster, under a new wage deal reached on Tuesday.
Public schools targeted for Gonski cuts
AMY MCNEILAGE The federal government has signalled that any cuts to funding for the states that signed on to Gonski would only be borne by public schools, according to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli.
$2b body blow for NSW education
Amy McNeilage, Anna Patty NSW schools face losing more than $2 billion over the next six years as a result of the Abbott government's plans to abandon the last two years of Gonski money.
Public school bans girls from wearing shorts
AMY MCNEILAGE A NSW primary school has banned girls from wearing shorts and made the wearing of dresses mandatory against the wishes of a number of students and their parents.
NSW at risk of huge school funding bill
ANNA PATTY The NSW government may be forced to almost double its assistance to independent and Catholic schools after the federal government walks away from Gonski reforms.
$230m to states that didn't sign on to Gonski
Judith Ireland, Jonathan Swan The federal government has gone into damage control over school funding reforms, promising extra cash and blaming the media for not understanding the issue.
Children's learning in country trails city
Daniella Miletic Country schoolchildren have poorer cognitive abilities and are less likely to do well at school than children from major cities, according to a new Australian study.
States furious over double backflip on Gonski
Mark Kenny, Anna Patty The debate over the Gonski school reforms has caused a serious rift between governments after Premier Barry O'Farrell blasted his federal colleagues for abandoning the funding agreement he struck with the former Labor government.
Gonski drama met with dread and agreement
Rachel Browne, Amy McNeilage The NSW Secondary Principals Council president and Merrylands High School principal, Lila Mularczyk, described the threat of a Gonski backflip as a blow to fairness in education funding.
Parents like NAPLAN more than teachers
AMY MCNEILAGE Many parents are noticing their children are stressed and anxious as a result of NAPLAN testing, with symptoms such as sleeplessness, sickness and crying. But despite this, they still like the tests more than teachers.
Law students told get over exam woes
JACQUELINE MALEY Since the Sydney University corporations law exam was disrupted by a fire alarm a fortnight ago, the law faculty has been pitched against elements within the law student body.
Piccoli vows to hold Pyne to Gonski
Josephine Tovey, Dan Harrison The NSW government has warned the Commonwealth it will not support any dismantling of the Gonski school funding model.
Year 10 teachers' end of year battle
AMY MCNEILAGE Teachers of year 10 classes across the state face a conundrum at this time of year: while there is almost a month left before the Christmas break, most have exhausted the curriculum.
Funding changes hit ESL support
ANNA PATTY Specialist support for teachers of English as a second language is being abolished in a move that academics and community groups say will disadvantage vulnerable refugee and migrant children.
Downgrades threaten some rural principals
AMY MCNEILAGE Principals of small primary schools are worried a state government proposal to overhaul their positions will damage links with their communities, and even lead to closures.
Greenwich's gay student bill on hold
Josephine Tovey A bill to overturn controversial laws that allow private schools to expel students for being gay or transgender has been shelved indefinitely after the NSW Coalition indicated it was unlikely to support the change.
Piccoli calls for cap on teaching degrees
Amy McNeilage Minister calls for a cap on the number of students allowed to enrol in teaching degrees to curb the state's oversupply of primary school teachers.
Girls top at school but women lag in pay stakes
JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is the "baffling contrast" in gender equality in Australia: girls generally outperform boys at school, and are more likely to hold a bachelor degree, but men continue to earn more than women in the workplace.
Teaching: 40,000 looking for permanent jobs
AMY MCNEILAGE The oversupply of primary teachers is likely to last until the end of the decade even if resignations or retirements double.
Byron Bay opens its arms to schoolies
JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is not just excited school leavers packing bags and making plans to travel to Byron Bay for schoolies in the coming weeks.
Log on to a learning revolution
AMY MCNEILAGE Varun Pant recently passed Stanford University courses in cryptography and logic without dropping a single mark. But he's never been to the prestigious American institution.
Sydney University senate takes to the media
JOSEPHINE TOVEY In an apparent media takeover of the University of Sydney's governing body, four of the five graduate positions in the Senate election have been won by journalists, columnists and editors.
Shortfall of Asian language teachers
ANNA PATTY NSW is short of more than 2500 teachers to provide students with a continuous course in Asian languages from kindergarten to year 12.
Fears of uni fee rise after Kemp review
DANIEL HURST An Abbott government review of the university funding system will be headed by former Liberal education minister David Kemp and one of his old advisers, fuelling fears student fees could increase.
P&C federation referred to ICAC
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has referred the state's main body representing public school parents to the corruption watchdog, amid continuing internal divisionwithin the organisation.
Parenting advice: just relax, say academics
COSIMA MARRINER Time-poor parents are lavishing more attention on their children, at a cost of stressing out their families, new research suggests.
Warning about overseas students group
Josephine Tovey The O'Farrell government , NSW Police and universities have issued a warning about an organisation claiming to represent international students which has been asking for personal information.
$80m package to help remote schools
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Teachers will be offered trial programs in remote schools, increased possibility of a permanent placement in a push to attract and retain more teachers in the bush.
After 117 exams, the HSC is finally over
Kim Arlington After sweating over 14 million pages of questions during 117 exams, the HSC is finally over for more than 75,000 students. The collective sigh of relief could be heard around the state.
HSC students dump more complex maths
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Students are abandoning the more complex 2-unit HSC maths course in favour of the simpler ''general'' course in an attempt to maximise their ATAR, but then find themselves ill-equipped to cope at university.
Poll supports change to gay student law
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Two-thirds of NSW people are opposed to laws allowing private schools to discriminate against or expel students on the basis of their sexuality, a phone poll has revealed.
Design courses under threat
AMY MCNEILAGE TAFE students fear that impending changes to fees will mean they are priced out of their courses.
Music sharpens young minds, says report
Kim Arlington Music education can help academic achievement, sharpen attentiveness and creativity and enhance memory and fine motor skills, says a new report.
UNSW law graduate books a place at Oxford
Kim Arlington For Kunal Sharma, being named as the new Rhodes Scholar for NSW was something akin to going to the Oscars.
Absenteeism adds up to poor maths results
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Young children who frequently take days off school have poorer results in maths, new research shows, but the same level of absenteeism appears to have less of an effect on literacy.
More finish year 12, but then hit the wall
DANIEL HURST The number of students finishing year 12 has grown over the past five years but the result is soured by a drop in school leavers moving on to full time work or study.
Labor backs gay student bill
JOSEPHINE TOVEY NSW Labor will throw its support behind a push to abolish controversial laws that allow private schools to expel or discriminate against gay or transgender students.
Cuts were 'worse without Gonski funds'
KIRSTY NEEDHAM The funding cuts to disadvantaged NSW schools would have been worse if the Gillard government had not tipped in $100 million in Gonski cash, a top education bureaucrat says.
School bans phones to rekindle social skills
AMY MCNEILAGE Clusters of teenagers glued to their smartphones have become a largely unremarkable scene in most social settings.
200 schools worse off in new scheme
JOSEPHINE TOVEY More than 200 public schools in NSW, many in low socio-economic areas, will receive less funding next year under the new Gonski-inspired model, despite a $100 million boost to the sector.
Teachers little help to brightest students
Benjamin Preiss New study reveals that teachers are adding little ''value'' for students who are highly proficient in reading and maths
Numbers align for girls who put in hard yards
RACHEL BROWNE For some it was tough but fair, for others it didn't add up. That was the verdict as thousands of NSW students tackled their first HSC maths exams on Tuesday.
Degree of difference pays off at preschools
COSIMA MARRINER Children who attended preschool score higher in NAPLAN tests than their peers who did not - but only if their preschool teacher was highly qualified.
Bushfires: HSC students evacuated mid-exam
Josephine Tovey, Amy McNeilage The fires which tore through NSW on Thursday broke out as many HSC students held pens in hand, studying for or sitting the exams they have worked towards for years.
Stress to success: riding the wave of the HSC
Some of the country's greatest achievers look back on their school days and tell Josephine Tovey and Kim Arlington how they survived their exams.
Rich themes of cultural diversity in 'belonging' HSC question
JOSEPHINE TOVEY In Australia's diverse classrooms, following the adage to ''write what you know'' produces a rich range of material, if yesterday's HSC examination is anything to go by.
State P&C; 'racked by bullying, disharmony'
JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is supposed to be the peak body representing the interests of thousands of parents who send their children to public schools.
Bonus points plan to raise low levels of language study
JOSEPHINE TOVEY Students who study a language for their HSC could be given bonus Australian Tertiary Admission Rank points and all primary school children would undertake some form of language education under proposals to address the low levels of foreign language study in NSW.
Students stop taking Asian languages in senior years
Amy McNeilage, Josephine Tovey Senior high school students in NSW are giving up on Asian languages at an astonishing rate, despite growth among younger students.
Teachers offer lessons in dedication for keen HSC students
JOSEPHINE TOVEY With HSC exams approaching fast, it's not just students who are feeling nervous and working hard.
Geography loses as HSC students map their futures
AMY MCNEILAGE HSC students are increasingly choosing subjects such as legal studies and construction with their eye on a future job, at the expense of languages and complex maths and science subjects.
Insight
Better teachers not just a university responsibility
The NSW government has made it clear that we need the very best teachers. As a parent, it is impossible to disagree.
Politics have no place in curriculum review
All those interested in Australia having a quality education system should welcome the review of the national curriculum.
Pyne's review a diversion from Gonski
The purpose of the curriculum review is to allow Christopher Pyne to divert attention away from the inequality of opportunity which is the real cause of decline in educational achievement in Australia.
Critics of review too quick to perceive a threat
The appointed reviewers have come under heavy criticism even before getting down to their task, writes Kenneth Wiltshire.
Curriculum review based on sound reasons
It is important to evaluate whether Australia's national curriculum is balanced and objective.
Maths not the only way for engineering
Prospective engineering students should take the highest level of maths in high school. But we shouldn't turn them away if they haven't.
Great expectations for Indigenous education
The state government's Connected Communities strategy, designed to lift outcomes at schools with mostly Aboriginal students, begins to take shape.
HSC hard road is the higher road
We need, as a society, to encourage high levels of intellectual rigour.
Students lose in unfair school funding models
Pitting public schools against private ones has increased inequality.
Too many losers in divided education system
Australia's ranking in international education league tables only tells you so much, because in truth there are many Australias.
Why the old funding model was broken
The federal government's decision to dismantle the Gonski funding model ignores the evidence that the former SES model was broken.
Education grenade tests O'Farrell's patience
''What the hell is going on?'' NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell thundered on Tuesday.
Government's double Gonski backflip
Christopher Pyne is too busy ripping down the education funding architecture to spend a bit of extra time studying it.
Laptops in schools not so smart
Technology in classrooms is distracting students, not helping them learn.
Liberals pick a fight over history wars again
Political meddling with the history curriculum is vandalism that undermines democracy.
Fighting homophobia in high schools
A new study shows school is the most common place Australian teenagers will experience anti-gay taunts.
HSC Mathematics exam too hard
The number of students sitting Higher School Certificate 2-unit maths is shrinking significantly.
Gonski scheme off to unhappy start for some
It was perverse that the long-awaited Gonksi funding boost to public schools in NSW was announced with a sting in the tail.
Unknowns make HECS a risky investment
Abbott government is highly unlikely to sell its $20 billion-plus HECS student loan portfolio.
Ja'mie is only too real in our schools
The judgmental antics of Chris Lilley's private school girl character are not confined to satire. And in the real world they can be damaging.
HSC papers take us on a walk through history
Comparing HSC papers from over the years gives an insight into how times and values have changed.
Reading gives kids an edge, study says
Children who read for fun may do better in the classroom - even in maths - than peers who rarely read.
HSC has reached its use-by date
Now the HSC exams are here, students across the state will be undergoing one of the most stressful experiences of their educational life.
Doing your HSC behind razor wire
For some inmates, attending school on the inside has unlocked abilities they didn't know they had.
HSC English: how to smash Monday's exam
There is no ultimate secret for how I came first in the state in English. It was about being as prepared as possible for whatever questions could be asked in the exam, and knowing all the texts inside out.
Say after the minister: old is new again
The Minister for Education has his own ideas on how and what school children should be taught.
Why I study Latin
I think it's important to know things just for the point of knowing them, not because I'll need them to make money.
Social profiles are not CVs
Teachers shouldn't participate in the fear campaign against teenagers about their online image.
A reminder: there is life beyond the HSC
I am an HSC sufferer, survivor and perpetrator, writes the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Sydney.
The kids are All Right, Vegemite
The tradition of children's play has survived despite increased use of television and video games.
Forget social media, it's a letter in the Herald I prize
I am 15 years old and I care passionately about Australia's moral obligations towards genuine refugees.
Comment: Private schools should not be allowed to discriminate
Gay and lesbian students still suffer discrimination in many of our schools.
Gone are the days of the old school yard
Parents in NSW are increasingly choosing private over public schooling.
Teaching award winner
Dace Elletson has been awarded one of the highest prizes for teaching.
Who'd be a principal?
Stress, threats of violence and ever-increasing workloads are all in a day's work.
Uni bosses earn 10 times more than staff
The most generous remuneration package for a chief executive of an Australian university last year reached almost $1.2 million.
Home schooling up 65% in four years
The number of children being taught at home in NSW has ballooned by 65 per cent in four years.
The future of school
Say goodbye to textbooks, paper exams, and maybe even the classroom.
When teachers are tormented
Abuse is part of the job for school principals.