Sydney, by most measures, is going through a planning boom, and students are taking notice.

• EXCLUSIVE

Barnaby Joyce's electorate is among the biggest beneficiaries of additional "Gonski" funding and among the likely biggest losers under the Coalition's school funding plan, a Herald analysis can reveal. 

Interactive: Find out how much Gonski money has gone to your school.

Belinda Wall knows how to turn around a struggling school. When she became principal of Woonona High School in 2011, just 15 per cent of the HSC students went on to study at university.

University entrance standards have continued to slide as 44,000 students received offers to study at a NSW university on Wednesday.

• Live

See the courses that have risen and fallen as university offers are delivered to thousands of NSW students.

Interactive: Find out the minimum advertised entry marks for every degree in NSW.

The figures come as spiralling taxpayer-funded student loans look set to blow out to $11.1 billion a year by 2026.

Born eight weeks premature, Kirilly Lam was a fighter from the start. Eighteen years on, she's first person in her family to do the HSC and will soon start a nursing degree at Western Sydney University.

Sydney is the most expensive city for a private education in Australia, according to research released on Monday, with fees at some of the state's top schools rising at twice the rate of inflation.

It's a frustration commonly voiced by teachers and educators: the media dedicate far more coverage to issues that are in reality the least important when it comes to effective teaching and learning.

It has been billed as a fun-filled working holiday program that would put an end to Australia's oversupply of teachers, but those who have travelled to the UK to make up for a chronic shortage of teachers have described it as anything but, with underpayment and over-work rife across the industry.

NSW education leaders are concerned an "incoherent" HSC mathematics syllabus "riddled with mistakes" has been rushed through by the Board of Studies before its transition to the NSW Education Standards Authority.

Distressed former students at a Sydney college owned by a prominent NSW political donor have claimed they were signed up to diplomas costing thousands of dollars just weeks before the beauty college collapsed.

Australia's peak Islamic body has refused to relinquish land being used by one of the state's largest schools despite the potential for such a move to save the school from being shut down.

• COMMENT

Our slipping education results could be a turning point, if we allow it.

• EXCLUSIVE

International students have given Sydney the thumbs up as a place to study, despite concerns about discrimination and the cost of living.

One of Sydney's largest private schools looks set to close after a tribunal upheld a federal government decision to revoke its funding over concerns it was operating for profit. 

A way of thinking

Not every NSW student who finished year 12 late last year did the HSC.

More than a decade on, Tom Tehan wants to tell his story. It's a story about the car crash that can follow school bullying - and how one man emerged from the wreckage to rebuild his life.

At just 23 years old, Matthew Childs can claim what most his age cannot: he is the CEO and founder of his own successful business.

Early diagnosis and intervention is vital for students with dyslexia. But not all teachers are equipped with the training to recognise the red flags, leaving parents to go it alone.

A Sydney beauty college run by a prominent political donor has gone into administration, with up to 80 staff rocked by dismissal letters the day before Christmas Eve.

A man who was feted by former prime minister Julia Gillard is taking the University of Sydney to the anti-discrimination board.

Analysis of HSC results demonstrates the continuing impact of postcodes on academic success, despite record levels of funding aimed at stemming chronic educational inequality.

Five schools have leapt more than 10 places compared to their overall HSC ranking to be among the state's top schools for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

It is the school that is barely past its 16th birthday, has its origins in a for-profit multi-national schooling chain and on Thursday became one of the top schools in the state.

An innovative centre that has helped teachers learn how to use technology in the classroom as well as run student bootcamps in robotics and coding is being closed by the Department of Education.