A Sydney high school has had to cancel several HSC trial exams and students will be forced to re-sit the tests after police were called to investigate the theft of three separate exam papers.

The University of Sydney's residential colleges, a number of which have come under fire for repeated sexual misbehaviour, will not be required to share the findings of an 18 month-long cultural review led by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick with the university or students.

Teachers are being told not to sign a confidentiality agreement covering question testing for NAPLAN online which is under way in hundreds of schools this month, in preparation for the move away from the pen and paper exam starting next year.

About 24 primary students are the first in the country to code science experiments that will be launched on a rocket to the International Space Station on Tuesday and completed by astronauts.

A primary school student with autism was restrained by teachers and locked in a time-out room for more than an hour, during which the student wrapped an electrical cord around their neck, a NSW Ombudsman's report reveals.

The former principal of an elite Sydney school is suing the school and two teachers for defamation following her resignation from the school, which came after more than 100 teachers signed a motion of no confidence in her.

Nearly a third of government high schools in Sydney are "neither efficient nor effective", according to a new study that finds poor use of resources by schools is often linked to students' low ATARs.

The Scots College is under pressure to expel two students who broke into the school overnight and stole physics papers before a trial HSC exam on Tuesday morning.

Children as young as five are displaying worrying sexual behaviour at school, prompting concerns that teachers are ill-equipped to differentiate between whether students are victims of sexual abuse or imitating what they see in music videos or internet advertising, new research reveals.

• EXCLUSIVE

Universities would be hit with $1.2 billion in funding cuts under the Turnbull government's higher education changes, with new data showing some institutions are set to lose up to $57 million over the next four years.

When Pokemon Go took over children's screens last year and most teachers were struggling to keep it out of the classroom, a school on the NSW central coast decided to incorporate the popular game into their science lessons.

The Catholic Commission for Employment Relations, which represents Catholic school employers, has applied to prevent teachers from taking industrial action.

The HSC is an "artefact of the past" that has passed its use-by date, according to a leading NSW Catholic educator who also warns that NAPLAN results are routinely misused and misrepresented.

• EXCLUSIVE

Almost 70 per cent of year 9 students will need to sit an extra reading, writing or numeracy test to be eligible for their HSC despite analysis of NAPLAN results revealing NSW achieved some of its best results since the national tests began in 2008.

Nine reports of sexual misbehaviour at the University of NSW has been made in the past week, compared to a total of three sexual assaults being reported between 2011 and 2016.

Explore the data from the Australian Human Rights Commission's investigation into sex abuse at 39 Australian universities.

About 7000 year 11 students will sit a new critical thinking exam this year, which has been developed as universities and employers stress that jobs of the future will require more than the traditional subjects taught in the Higher School Certificate.

A $261 million literacy and numeracy program to help the state's lowest-achieving primary school students had no "measurable impact" on their year 3 NAPLAN results, a new evaluation of the five-year plan reveals.

Schools have been scrambling to explain the changes to confused parents.

''I have learned that you need to think about what you say and filter your words so that you don't hurt others.''

For most of the 11,849 year 4 students who sat the "nerve-racking" opportunity class placement test on Wednesday, the results will be disappointing.

Doctors will spend far fewer hours diagnosing patients, accountants will do less maths, and direct instruction and grading will no longer be a major part of teaching, according to a new report.

• EXCLUSIVE

More than 40 per cent of the 795,000 students in NSW's public schools do not list any religion on their enrolment form, according to new data.

NSW should consider selective primary schools for its most gifted students and give them the same early intervention as students with special needs, according to a leading academic in gifted education.

NSW's highly competitive selective school entry test is under review as the government moves to address concerns that wealthy families are buying their way into selective schools through expensive tutoring services.

A few hours after sunset on Thursday, the jacaranda tree that has been missing for nearly nine months was returned to the University of Sydney's quadrangle.

Since he graduated from high school three years ago, Paul Nguyen has done about 1000 hours of paid work and 6000 hours of volunteer work at youth centres and councils.

Sixty children aged from six months to five years of age at a Newcastle childcare centre were taught how to play with fire, powertools and knives – everything that most modern parents avoid.

Parents are concerned about smokestacks that may be built near their children's schools in North Sydney.