April

Principals will have the option of advertising permanent classroom teacher positions when they become vacant under proposed improvements to school staffing arrangements. Find out more.

Michael Coutts-Trotter, Director-General of the Department of Education and Training discusses Aboriginal education in NSW. Read more.

Parents will soon be able to read, hear, watch and download information relevant to raising school-aged children and managing school life in a new monthly e-zine. More information.

Students from Strathfield South High School have launched their half-hour film, We are all Australian, which examines multiculturalism, stereotyping and racism. Find out more.

Students in NSW will stay at school until at least the age of 16 under legislation proposed by the State Government. More information.

Many girls dream of becoming a princess or a famous actress and young Japonica M is well on her way to clinching both titles. Read on.

When her daughter started at Taverners Hill Infants School in Sydney’s inner west, Nicki Davies quickly noticed that good food featured heavily in the school culture. Read on.

Schools can now register for Murder under the Microscope 2008, an environmental awareness game where students in Years 5 to 10 solve a fictitious eco-crime. Find out how.

Finding enough volunteers to keep the canteen running is a challenge for schools of all sizes. Find out how Killarney Heights Public School has helped solve this problem.

When fire destroyed Kelso High on August 19, 2005, students, staff and the Bathurst community grieved the loss of the 30-year-old school. But when the school year started this year, the community was overjoyed to see a $23 million campus rise from the ashes, built three months ahead of schedule. Find out more.

Mungindi Central School students are on their first excursion in a decade. It’s not a treat – they have earnt every moment of their trip and have the stripes to prove it. Read on.

Out of 9,283 students who submitted artworks as part of the 2007 HSC visual arts examination, seven students from Wyndham College, in Sydney’s west, were selected for Artexpress 2008, making it the school with the highest number of students chosen to exhibit for the prestigious event. Read on.

Statistician Lucy Snowball is working her way through lots of squiggly lines on a whiteboard, explaining to students how to analyse crime figures and how the data is used by government and community organisations. Read more.

Students at Kingsgrove North High School are getting a taste of scientific careers through two programs that match teenagers with working scientists. Find out more.

The Parents’ Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabuses published last month by the Board of Studies to help parents understand their child’s progress at school. The guide explains the stages of learning and how much time should be spent teaching each subject. Find out more.

While the world’s top professional surfers ride winning waves off Newcastle’s Merewether Beach later this month, high school students from Callaghan College’s Jesmond senior campus will be catching their own career breaks. Find out how.

The countdown is on for 348,000 NSW students who will sit the new national assessment tests in literacy and numeracy from May 13 to 16. Find out more.

When filmmaker Rebecca Barry asked friends and contacts for names of inspiring teachers for her SBS Television series, she didn’t realise how difficult it would be to pick just four from the hundreds nominated across the state. Find out more.

While most children are clambering into their uniforms, getting ready to catch the bus or walk to their local school, there is a group of students who have a vastly different routine. Some are barefoot or wearing thongs as their classroom floats past yet another island in the Whitsundays. Others are doing their lessons in a caravan with the Bungle Bungles in the Kimberleys as their backdrop, or from a remote village in China or Zambia. Read on.

Ky Lindsay enjoys being healthy. The Year 3 student likes to play basketball and handball, and really enjoys cooking – which he does during periodic cooking sessions at his school’s after-hours homework centre. Find out more.

Lesley Walker remembers a time when male Aboriginal students at her school would walk past her in the playground without casting so much as a sideways glance. But now the same boys, who were nervous and shy upon entering Year 7, are outgoing ambassadors for their school – and seasoned performers – as part of the highly sought after Gorokan High Didgeridoo Group. More.

Starting school for Aboriginal children across the south western Sydney region is being made easier with a literacy and numeracy kit packaged in a cool new backpack. Read more.