McCrindle – ‘Future of Work’ report, 2022
The social researching firm, McCrindle, recently published its ‘Future of Work’ report for 2022. As usual, their enormous survey of students, teachers and parents garnered some interesting results, which schools like ours would be wise to consider. Across Australia, we see a fair degree of parental choice across three major school sectors, with roughly 16.6% […]
Why is there a shortage of teachers … and how can we help?
We live in a world where criticism comes more easily to many than praise, and a world where media reports frame the way we think. Many of us who have been in the education space for a long time would know that we rarely hear students today saying “I want to be a teacher.” In […]
The Changing University Sector – The Rise of Early Entry
As Year 12 complete their Trial examinations this week, the ‘new norm’ of university entry is picking up pace. While the ATAR is still the main method of selection used by most universities, many institutions are now offering early entry schemes for school leavers and many students are taking advantage of these opportunities. A quick […]
Internet Gaming – A Problem for Young People, Families and Schools?
The online journal, School Governance, recently published an article by Elita Bird discussing the implications for schools of online gaming addictions which may lead to the development in adolescents of Internet Gaming Disorder or IGD (Bird, 2022). This article followed on from another recent article by Jordan Baker in The Age, titled “Problem gaming leading to […]
Subject Selection and the Search for Band Six
The Sydney Morning Herald’s (SMH) Education Editor wrote that HSC students appear to be ‘ditching’ difficult subjects in pursuit of a Band Six mark – meaning a mark above 90%. There is a great deal of irony in the SMH publishing an alarming article about this, given that it is the same Herald which publishes the […]
Why the HSC Matters
David Cross, CEO of Blueprint Institute, recently published a thought-provoking opinion piece in the SMH* on the HSC titled – Stop saying the HSC doesn’t matter. It does. The article delves into the impact of the plethora of voices who proclaim that “the HSC does not matter.” This sentiment is expressed frequently at this time of the […]
Curriculum Planning in Schools
In October 2022, the well-respected Grattan Institute published a report which argued that students are suffering because teachers are not well-supported in their curriculum planning roles. They claimed that only 15% of the teachers they surveyed are able to access a “common bank of high-quality curriculum materials for all their classes.” The Grattan Report authors described […]
Grammar is back: Sweeping overhaul of English syllabus for Years 3-10
SMH – 5 December 7 DEC 2022 In December 2022, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reports that the new NSW English Syllabus for Years 3-10, which will be launched next week, will focus much more on “grammar, punctuation and sentence structure.” We were also told that this is in response to a “…decade-long decline in writing standards”, which “…has left […]
Artificial Intelligence – pivoting to prepare our students well for their future
Full disclosure, the first iteration of this blog was generated by artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. The final draft is entirely different! In 2022, AI usage in student work was placed on the agenda of the Leaders of Learning meeting. At the time, many of us had no idea what AI was, and we certainly had […]
