The sad state of play in Australian schools
Marylou Verberne Staggered play times, banned games and smaller playgrounds; Australian schoolchildren are missing out on essential experience.
FEATURES & NEWS
Funding for 15 hours of preschool four-year-old to continue, says Sussan Ley
JEWEL TOPSFIELD The federal government will continue to subsidize 15 hours of kindergarten for four-year-olds for another year, Assistant Education Minister Sussan ley has announced.
The genes of genius: the hunt begins
Andrew Masterson Families readily identify talents and traits in their children "inherited" from distant relatives but scientists know the genetic influence on intelligence and learning is more complex.
Apps tap into students' aptitude for learning
Cynthia Karena The combination of mobile devices and apps is shaping the nature of education, shifting more control to students.
Tony Abbott to keep secular workers out of school chaplaincy program
Matthew Knott, James Massola The Abbott government is poised to announce a revamped school chaplaincy program following two High Court rulings that the program is constitutionally invalid.
Top marks for hard work
Maxine McKew If a school's success can be defined by how students and faculty feel about each other, and about their joint mission, then St Albans Secondary College well and truly deserves the attention it is now attracting.
Lighthouse schools a beacon in a sea of exclusion
Kathy Evans If you went to enrol your child at a school and the principal made it clear they didn't want girls, indigenous children, Catholics or Jews, there would rightly be an outcry. It happens every day to families that have a child with a disability.
Victorian teachers must learn to set quality homework, report says
BENJAMIN PREISS Teachers, you have a new assignment – learning to set better homework.
Passion flies in the classroom
Kate Nancarrow An Ultimate Frisbee champion is one of several teachers at an inner-city school bringing their outside interests into their classes to enhance student engagement.
Persuasive writing stumps many students in NAPLAN
Benjamin Preiss and Craig Butt Challenging authority might be a youthful rite of passage but explaining which rules were most annoying had many school students perplexed.
Private schooling no better than public in jobs market
Alexandra Smith, Amy McNeilage Paying private school fees will not guarantee a better job after university, new research reveals.
Experience preferred but, perhaps, not essential
Josh Jennings The state government is investigating hiring principals from outside the education system, focusing more on general management skills than in-school experience.
Few of Victoria's top education bureaucrats have worked in schools
Geoff Maslen A quiet revolution has seen almost all department heads recruited from outside the school system.
Career decisions made one week at a time
Rebecca Butterworth Year 10 work-experience programs are now a voyage of self discovery and students are working with everyone from politicians to police and animators.
Teachers' efforts remembered long after school days are past, research shows
Kate Nancarrow Interviews with students from the 1930s to the 1970s are part of an oral history project from the University of Melbourne which may help inform future learning about how schools shape students lives into adulthood.
Inner-city Generation-X families demand alternative to private school fees
Kate Nancarrow Middle-class Generation X families are demanding better state secondary schools in the inner and middle-ring suburbs, as they choose big mortgages in well-serviced areas over private school fees.
Families saddle up for a debt-laden future
Chris Tolhurst Generation X's children will be saddled with larger university fee debts, which will make it harder for them to enter the housing market. Their parents are now struggling with how to help.
School closures and land sales: will we ever learn?
Geoff Maslen Victoria's population is heading for 8 million, with the school-age population estimated to be 1.4 million by 2031, but the government is still closing schools and selling land.
30 per cent of university graduates to be out of work after finishing degree
Matthew Knott, Heath Gilmore Up to 65,000 university students - 30 per cent of graduates - will be jobless four months after finishing their studies, and those finding employment will be earning less, the federal government has forecast.
OPINION
Going local will win in mega-Melbourne
Improving state secondary schools could help anchor children to communities when Melbourne hits 8 million people.
Navigating NAPLAN: Testing times for parents
The NAPLAN tests have been taken, now parents have to try to understand what the results mean.
Retiring teachers leave knowledge gulf
Within the next 10 years, half of Australia's teachers will reach retirement age but this loss is not being addressed.
ALP must program for success in schools
The major parties are competing over school building funding but Victorian spending on classroom programs is still way below the national average.
The debate is over: money matters in education
One study has shown more funding does not improve educational outcomes; more than 60 studies show it does.
A good education comes at an ethical cost
A son of the manse explains that the main lesson he learned at private school was that resources were not something to be shared outside the circle.
My say
Veteran of the chalkface reviews boys of today
A 35-year veteran of teaching, who has taught at the same school all that time, reflects on the difference between boys then and now.
