Guard of honour greets Roz Ward's return to work

Henrietta Cook, Education Editor   Her fist clenched in a salute, Safe Schools founder Roz Ward was flanked by flag-waving supporters as she returned to work at La Trobe University on Monday.

Latest education news

St Catherine's deputy principal sues

The deputy principal of St Catherine's is suing her school for violating workplace laws. Picture Michael Clayton-Jones.

Henrietta Cook, Nick Toscano   Students were stranded by a cyclone, hospitalised with gastro and caught an aggressive strain of conjunctivitis during a school camp.

Schools battling to balance books

Almost one in four Victorian state schools are in deficit.

Henrietta Cook   Victorian principals are struggling to make ends meet, with almost one in four state schools in deficit.

Journalism academic suspended

Deakin University associate professor Martin Hirst

Henrietta Cook   He tweeted that Sky News viewers were "masturbating chimps" and asked a commerce student whether he was happy to fail. Now he wants his job back.

Roz Ward get her job back

Safe School co-founder Roz Ward has been reinstated at La Trobe University.

Henrietta Cook   La Trobe University has withdrawn all allegations of misconduct against controversial academic Roz Ward and reinstated the Safe Schools founder.

The school the kids designed

Golden Square Primary students learn among the tree tops with principal Barry Goode.

Henrietta Cook   They had grand visions of water fountains that spluttered cola and slides that carried students from the second floor to the playground.

Opposition vows to dump Safe Schools program

The state opposition will axe the Safe Schools program if it wins the next election.

Josh Gordon, Henrietta Cook   Victoria's controversial Safe Schools program will be axed if the Coalition wins the 2018 state election.

Suspension of Safe Schools co-founder condemned

Safe Schools founder Roz Ward

Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks   Lawyers say La Trobe University may have broken the law by suspending Roz Ward.

The formula for the perfect principal

Mill Park Secondary College principal Trish Horner with  year 8 student Keaton.

Henrietta Cook and Craig Butt   but it's so complex principals, and many parents, can't understand it

Five hacks to fix Victoria's schools

Overcrowded, overextended: we need to find fixes for Victorian schools.

Henrietta Cook   Victoria might be called "The Education State", but its schools are far from perfect. Here are five ways to help fix it.

Uni suspends Safe Schools' Roz Ward

Safe Schools founder Roz Ward

Henrietta Cook   La Trobe Uni suspends the co-founder of Safe Schools Coalition after she said the Australian flag was racist in a Facebook post.

Comments 62

Calls for better sex ed for international students due to spate of abortions

Nair*, president of  president of the Monash University International Student Service, is calling for better sex ed for ...

Timna Jacks, Henrietta Cook   Poor sex education and unwanted sex has led to a spate of abortions among international students, according to insurers and health experts.

Parents enter alliance with private school

Ripponlea Primary School students enjoy a 30 per cent discount at Shelford Girls Grammar.

Timna Jacks   There's a little-known trick to scoring a sizeable discount at one elite private school in the south-east.

Single-sex schools in transition as transgender students gain acceptance

"I felt so much more comfortable": Jeremy Beach became the only boy in his Catholic girls' school.

Henrietta Cook   The peak body for girls schools, the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia, is urging its members to support transgender students.

VCE text test sparks censorship concerns

The SMH, Spectrum. Christos Tsiolkas author.Pic Simon Schluter 4 October 2013.

Timna Jacks   VCE texts could soon have to meet a new test to ensure they don't offend different cultures in a move that has triggered concerns of "censorship".

Melbourne school talks to astronaut in space

Essex Heights Primary School student Jake Sharrock, 10, asks a question of astronaut Jeff Williams on the International ...

John Elder   "My name is Jake. What different jobs do you do on the space station. Over?"  Long-distance education can be a revelation when a primary school can talk to someone in outer space.

Convicted cocaine trafficker allowed to teach 

Kim Salter has won the right to teach after being convicted of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to nine years in a ...

Henrietta Cook   A woman convicted of trafficking cocaine and sentenced to nine years in a Spanish jail has been given the green light to teach in Victorian schools.

Lessons from a year in the life of a school

Maths teacher Sarah Hewat and some of her Kambrya College students in the documentary series <i>Revolution School</i>.

Karl Quinn   This ob-doc follows one school's efforts to go from bottom of the educational pile to somewhere near the top.

Grade one student shocking sex acts cover up 

<p>

Henrietta Cook   Students at a Victorian state school have been left traumatised after a 7-year-old student sexually abused at least four younger classmates in the playground.

A brutal initiation into campus life

Emma Hunt is still dealing with the trauma of an on-campus sexual assault.

Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks   Emma Hunt's first taste of university life was cruel - she says she was raped at an O-week camp.

Melodie Potts Rosevear: the woman behind Teach for Australia

Melodie Potts Rosevear, chief executive of Teach for Australia, brings passion to this radical shift in teacher training.

Kathy Evans   A belief in the transformative power of education and a passion for bringing the brightest of the bright into Australia's most underprivileged schools motivates this high-powered American who has made her home here.

Education news in brief

Student activists: Victoria's Model United Nations Conferences allows senior students to represent a country and argue ...

A rise in family violence incidents has prompted a United Nations conference at a Victorian school; making Shakespeare relevant 400 years after his death; a new app to help nurses working in palliative care and more transparency for students thinking about higher education.

Opinion, Analysis

'White flight' parents are missing the big picture

It isn't racism – middle-class families are deserting schools based on class prejudice.

Middle-class life: when expectations are both high and narrow

Last week, The Age Education pages focused on the tragedy of parents hostile to education. But in middle-class families, the either/or choice of doctor or lawyer can be similarly soul-destroying.

The returns from better education are hard to beat

Don't look now, but this election is being fought on actual policy grounds.

'I make no apology for the success of my school'

The principal of Melbourne Girl's College tackles accusations of elitism and the notion of middle-class "white flight" from more disadvantaged schools

Learning true value of teachers

Good teaching and well-resourced education underpin the fabric of our society, writes Michael Short.

Australia's cultural heritage: parents who despise education

For every tiger mother pushing for high achievement, Australia has a pool of families that are anti-education and they condemn their children to a life of struggle.

Why parents must unplug their kids to improve their literacy

When teenagers switch on their phones and ipods, reading goes out the window and the evidence of this is in declining NAPLAN results between years 5 and 9.

A tale of two brains is more fiction than fact

Myths about left brain and right brain functioning stereotype children's capabilities and limit what parents and teachers expect of them.

No more classes, no more books ... and no permanent teachers either

Modern tertiary education has become a detached affair with online classes and e-books and that's just for the students. For teachers, the experience is mostly a casualised, isolated affair.

Turnbull's bias revealed in school funding plan

The government proposes turning its back on the schools where most Australian children get their education.

The school reform options we should be debating

Schools funding from 2018 onwards has been kicked down the road until early next year – after the election. Voters deserve to know what the Turnbull government is planning.

New curriculum is almost impossible to assess

Changes to the curriculum mean new challenges such as how success can be measured in ethics, social competence and creative thinking.

Cost shifting by Victorian government has short changed schools

Successive state governments have used increased federal government education spending as a way of reducing their own contribution.

New report: early development delays go on to mar educational achievement

Children who enter their first year of school behind in any of the five key areas of development are, without intervention, likely to remain behind throughout their education.

Culture shock awaits disadvantaged students who make it to uni

Enrolling at university is a huge achievement for disadvantaged students but once on campus they discover cultural and financial barriers remain.

University born of a dream of opportunity for all

Footscray Tech was begun in 1916 by a former Antarctic explorer with a dream of creating opportunities for young men from the western suburbs.Today that school is Victoria University.

What if passion is the highest qualification you need?

Worry less about ATAR and choosing the perfect course - the future demands flexibility and adaptability so passion will be the quality to carry young people further.

A 30-year teacher looks back with gratitude

The average tenure of a teacher today is three years; a three-decade veteran reflects on what he loved about the profession, what inspired him and why it is time to go.

Schools crisis comes with massive waste of tax dollars

Fishermans Bend provides a stark lesson in how not to plan a new community.

The private school myth that doesn't add up

Our grossly inequitable education system is propped up by a lie that even kids would find hard to swallow.

VET sector: a get-rich scheme for shonks and shysters

Competition policy is all very well, but beware the pitfalls of privatisation that led to the great unwinding of vocational education.