The NSW education minister, Rob Stokes, will dump the Safe Schools program and replace it with a new anti-bullying strategy when federal funding for the program runs out later this year.

Girls who finished year 12 at a private school are most likely to go to university, as the gap between independent, Catholic and government school students who go on to higher education widens to its highest level in recent years.

A new report, using the results from the largest ever high school survey of its kind, found there was a gender gap between boys and girls on most measures of student engagement and wellbeing.

At one school, parents says there are 60 girls to a toilet and children access the playground in shifts.

Students from both Canberra universities earned a wage above the national median starting salary of $56,000.

More than 100 teachers at the elite Sydney girls' school, Kambala, signed a motion of no confidence in the former principal, Debra Kelliher.

The phonics check will be based on the UK model of a 5-7 minute test in which students are asked to read aloud 40 real and made-up words.

The government has rejected the recommendations of an independent report into scripture teaching in the state's schools which would have forced providers to track student enrolment numbers and let students who opt out get on with their regular class work during scripture class time.

The principal of Kambala School has resigned after parents and teachers mounted a campaign to have her removed.

As Alison Boston begins the hunt for a school for her four-year-old daughter Sadie, she knows one thing: she won't choose one that forces girls to wear skirts or dresses.

Year 12 students who fail to meet the state government's new literacy and numeracy standard and do not receive their HSC will still be able to get an ATAR and go to university, the body responsible for admissions has confirmed.

Mass brawls each week and teachers refusing to set foot in parts of the playground were common at Bass Hill Public School.

He was simply told he would be made a principal at another school, according to court documents.

• EXCLUSIVE

Sydney's Catholic schools will have selective entrance tests for the first time this year, with high schools across the diocese to offer places in selective streams for gifted and talented students.

Former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli has been appointed an honorary professor in the University of NSW's School of Education.

The former principal of Punchbowl Boys High was suddenly removed from his position last month.

• EXCLUSIVE

Australian Human Rights Commission accused of "betraying" thousands of university students through "unconscionable research" that never received full ethics approval.

It started with a simple offer to use their business contacts to help kickstart some fundraising for their kids' school fete. But for a group of dads, planning the fair quickly became a much bigger proposition.

Australia is failing to produce enough home-grown engineers and has an unbalanced workforce in the sector which carries potential future risk, according to an industry report.

Students will once again have to study a novel for their HSC after the state's exam board amended the new English syllabuses.

Students have a "dire" lack of interest in pursing a career in maths, with just out 8 out of 6,492 students expressing a desire to work in maths when they finish school.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes has backed recommendations calling for an overhaul of university teaching courses to improve 'digital literacy'.

Principals from leading private schools have warned the new online literacy and numeracy test students must pass to qualify for their HSC will divide students.

What STEM-savvy students conceive of and make can have real-world uses.

The impact of class size on education quality is a highly contested issue in Australia. Smaller class sizes tend to be popular with teachers, education unions and parents.

Venom, a little red robot, is a competition winner and crowd pleaser.

From inventive new ways to round up stray students to a rescue robot to a novel clothes line creation, technology students think big.

Education minister Rob Stokes did not know about any problems at Punchbowl Boys' School and his office had not received any complaints from teachers or parents before education department officials briefed him that they had sent an investigation team to the school.

More than half the students at Evans High School speak a language other than English in a picture that is increasingly becoming the norm - at least in some parts of Sydney.