Teacher Magazine (ACER)

Welcome to Series 2 of the School Assembly podcast from Teacher magazine. We're just about to set off for Truganina, which is just outside Melbourne, to meet with Jo Camozzato for the first time. She’s the principal of Bemin Secondary College, which is a new build school. It’s actually on 2 campuses – they’ve got a year 7-9 campus and a 10-12, so that will be an interesting episode when we find out a little bit more about the different transitions that go along with that structure. But in this first episode, we’ll be chatting about Jo’s experience as an educator, what led her to school leadership and also what’s happened so far in terms of the new secondary school.

Host: Jo Earp

Guest: Jo Camozzato

Sponsor: MacKillop Seasons

At the end of last month we brought you news of the release of UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, Technology in Education: A tool on whose terms? This major international report draws on analysis of over 200 education systems, highlighting the benefits, opportunities and the challenges of technology in education. In this episode we're joined by GEM Report Director Manos Antoninis to discuss the 6 key messages delivered by the team, including what governments, systems and schools should be thinking about when planning to bring technology into the classroom.

Host: Jo Earp

Guest: Manos Antoninis

Sponsor: MacKillop Seasons

Welcome to Episode 85 of The Research Files. We're delighted to say that our guest today is Professor Anne Castles, Australian Research Council Laureate Professor at the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy at the Australian Catholic University. She’s a Keynote speaker at ACER’s Research Conference next month in Sydney. The conference theme is ‘Becoming lifelong learners’ and presenters will be examining research around how to improve continuity of learning in the first 12 years of a child’s life. The title of Professor Castles’ keynote is ‘Ensuring a safety net: Supporting low achievers in school contexts’. In our podcast chat we’ll be finding out more about her work, discussing some of the research on learning to read, and getting a taster of what delegates can expect from that Research Conference Keynote.

Host: Jo Earp

Guest: Professor Anne Castles

Sponsor: MacKillop Seasons

Augmented Reality, or AR, is an immersive tool that allows students to engage in learning in new and exciting ways. But what are the specific educational benefits of this technology, and what is the teacher’s role? This month on Teacher, we shared a few stories on the topic of Augmented Reality and technology in education, which I’m going to share with you in this episode.

And, like all episodes of Teacher Staffroom, I’ll be sharing some other highlights from content we’ve published during the month, and I’ll also be posing some questions throughout the podcast, so feel free to pause the audio as you go, gather some colleagues, and discuss together how these stories might be relevant to your school context.

Host: Dominique Russell

Sponsor: Bank First

We know that e-cigarette use among adolescents in Australia has quickly become a pressing issue for schools. In fact, data released last year showed that teachers are specifically worried about vaping addiction and the unknown effects of chemicals in e-cigarettes.

But what do students themselves think about vaping, and what kind of support would they value and respond to? How can educators empower them to say no to vaping, and work towards the prevention of e-cigarette use among young people? In this episode of The Research Files we’re going to hear from the PERU team (which stands for Prevention Education and Research Unit). They sit within the Western Sydney Local Health District’s Research Education Network and have been looking into the issue of vaping through their ongoing research project, the Unpacking Vaping in Schools Project.

Joining us today is Professor Smita Shah OAM, the Director of PERU; Kym Rizzo Liu, the Project Manager of PERU; and Catriona Lockett, Research Officer at PERU.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guests: Smita Shah, Kym Rizzo Liu, Catriona Lockett

In this episode of The Research Files, we're joined by Jen Star and Emeline Gillingham from the Asia Education Foundation. The Foundation’s recently released report, School Partnerships in a Digital Age, outlines what works in digital school partnerships by delving into how schools involved in their Australia-China BRIDGE program were supported to adapt from a more traditional face-to-face partnership – which relied heavily on international travel to and from each school – to a virtual partnership during the pandemic, known as the Digital BRIDGE Program.

As you’ll hear in the episode, the BRIDGE program, (where BRIDGE stands for Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement) has been in place for many years and in many countries. The report also looks at case studies from Digital BRIDGE Program partnerships, and the overall benefits of these partnerships for students, teachers and school communities, which we’ll unpack in greater detail during our conversation.

Host: Dominique Russell

Guests: Jen Star, Emeline Gillingham

School Assembly is the podcast that explores what it takes to build a new school from the ground up. In Series 1 we’re following Principal Dr Ray Boyd and Associate Principal Rachael Lehr as they navigate the exciting and challenging journey. Each month, we touch base for updates and reflections on their progress in the newly developing suburb of Dayton, located in the eastern metropolitan city of Swan in Perth, Western Australia. Well, we’ve reached our series final. In this episode Ray and Rachael reflect on the events of the last 18 months – including achievements, anxieties and imposter syndrome – and look to the future for Team Dayton.

Host: Jo Earp

Guests: Dr Ray Boyd, Rachael Lehr

Sponsor: QT Academy

What does it mean to be a Totally Inclusive School? The latest instalment of Teacher’s Bookshelf includes an extract from the book Becoming a Totally Inclusive School: A Guide for Teachers and School Leaders, written by Angeline Aow, Sadie Hollins and Stephen Whitehead. According to the authors, ‘a Totally Inclusive, equitable and just institution is where all learners have access to the curriculum in learning spaces that continually strive to eliminate oppression’. In today’s episode, we're going to be talking a bit more about this Teacher’s Bookshelf article, as well as a School Improvement podcast episode featuring Angeline and Sadie, which explores this topic of diversity, equity and inclusion in greater detail. Later on in the episode, we’ll also be sharing some of the outstanding contributions we’ve published this month, from both Teacher readers and academics working in education.

Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Sponsor: The Victorian Government

In a Teacher’s Bookshelf article last month, we shared an exclusive extract from Becoming a Totally Inclusive School: A Guide for Teachers and School Leaders, written by Angeline Aow, Sadie Hollins and Stephen Whitehead. In this episode of School Improvement, we're joined by 2 of the authors, Angeline and Sadie, who are based in Germany and the UK. We’ll be talking about what we mean by Total Inclusivity, and taking a closer look at the Continuum on Becoming a Totally Inclusive School – that’s a framework to help schools and educators move from theory to practice. There are 6 stages of the continuum and we’ll be going through each, thinking about what that might look like in a school and what the next steps could be the move to the next stage.

Host: Jo Earp

Guests: Angeline Aow, Sadie Hollins

Sponsor: Planet Ark

Any kind of change can be exciting and sometimes daunting, and moving from primary to secondary school is no different. So, what are the worries and challenges for students, and what would help to make the process easier? Guide to Thrive is a new evidence-based transition program from Life Ed that brings together teacher professional development mapped to the AITSL standards, practical classroom activities and supporting resources for parents and carers.

In this episode of School Improvement, we’re joined by Murray Baker, a teacher of 20 years who’s now a Program Development Co-ordinator at Life Ed, and Dr Shani Sniedze, a Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research who’s been involved in the program. We’ll be discussing some of the findings from the research literature and student feedback forums, and how this student voice has informed the program and activities.

Host: Jo Earp

Guests: Murray Baker, Dr Shani Sniedze

Sponsor: Teacher Awards