SUMMIT BLOG

If you’ve worked inside a primary or elementary school lately, you’ll know: the classroom is changing. Children today are navigating a world more complex, connected, and emotionally demanding than ever before. Academic skills still matter, of course – but they’re no longer enough. More and more, educators are asking: What can I do to help my students thrive?

With upskilling posing a challenge, hybrid work debates still unsettled, and a new generation of education professionals entering the field, here’s what you need to know for 2025.

The question stopped being “ask the librarian” and became “ask Google.” Discovery services made full-text content available, not just citations. That was transformative. AI now adds yet another layer—people aren’t necessarily searching for the original content anymore. They’re asking a model to synthesise or generate a specific answer. Now it’s “ask ChatGPT.”

Eight schools from Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) involved in a pilot Writer's Toolbox programme have achieved NAPLAN growth rates eight times higher than state counterparts. The schools, a diverse mix across the Brisbane Diocese, used Writer's Toolbox to lift student writing results, as well as develop student thinking skills and confidence.

A Personal Reflection on Literacy, Teacher Training, and the Urgent Need for Change

As I reflect on my journey as both an educator and a mother, one phrase continues to echo in my mind: I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

There’s a lot of information out there about super, but how do you know what applies to you? What information is relevant? Super can be complex, but we believe it doesn’t need to be. Improving your knowledge and understanding of super is always going to be one of the best ways to effectively manage your savings and maximise your retirement savings.

What if we stopped designing school culture around what staff can endure and instead built it around what helps them flourish? We talk a lot about student wellbeing, and rightly so. But here’s the truth: when the adults in the building are not flourishing, the whole school feels it.

Library interventions are big, powerful marketing campaigns designed to create a lasting impact on patron behaviour and mindset. In school libraries, they can be used to promote library engagement, increase use of a service or product and help students forge a positive self-identity as a reader.

In a world where seconds matter, access to advanced medical care should not be a luxury—it should be the standard. As educators, parents, and health professionals, we all share one unshakable commitment: to protect our children and provide them with a safe environment to learn, grow, and thrive.

It’s time to make coffee. Take a breath. Maybe take a walk on the beach. And reflect. Some leaders burn out not because they’re doing too much—but because they’re not protecting their energy.

Did you know that you can teach in a foreign country, in your area of expertise, without having to learn a language? To experience new cuisines and cultures and meet people from diverse backgrounds. A chance to explore the local environment, and venture to other international destinations….to get out of your comfort zone and have an adventure!

Dyslexia affects an estimated 10% of the population, yet misconceptions about it persist in classrooms across the world. For educators, understanding dyslexia is not just about helping a few students—it’s about ensuring that every child has access to instruction that meets their needs.

Schools are ecosystems of change. Throughout my career as a school leader, I was immersed in it all—curriculum reform, project-based learning, blended models, student coaching, PB4L. I loved it. I thrived on it. But one line from Ecclesiastes always stayed with me: “There is a time for everything.”

Let’s reimagine what creativity can look like in our schools. Why do we spend 90% of class time typing on devices and writing on paper? What if we wrote poetry on school walls with spray paint, explored science through ceramic glazes, or calculated math through clay shrinkage rates in pottery?

It’s 5:00 pm on a Friday. The school is quiet. Students are gone. Staff are wrapping up a long week. You’re finally about to shut your laptop, breathe out, and head into the weekend. Then it arrives. An email. Not a thank-you. Not a check-in. It’s a task, a problem, or a pointed question.

The use of complex texts for learning is a well-established pedagogical practice and therefore the selection of appropriate texts is an integral part of teaching and learning.  Traditionally, textbooks and single origin resources have been a staple in classrooms, but the use of a singular resource can be problematic in an environment that has significant variation in literacy levels and background knowledge

If you’re a teacher attending the National Education Summit this year, you already know the toll burnout is taking on our profession. You may even be one of those standing at the edge of exhaustion. And if you’re not here in this room—perhaps you’re one of the many too overwhelmed to attend, too depleted to even name it.

In 2025, bringing Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the classroom isn’t just an idea, it’s happening every day. Teachers around Australia and the world are discovering practical ways to use AI to help their students learn better. But with so many options, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. The key question isn’t "Should I use AI?" but "How do I use AI effectively and simply?"

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already changing education. It’s no longer a futuristic idea reserved for tech companies or high-level research; it's now actively enhancing classrooms and benefiting teachers and students every day. But what does AI in the classroom really mean for educators, and how can it practically help both teachers and learners?

In education, performance is often tied to academic outcomes, compliance, and efficiency. But in reality, high performance in schools isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters, together.

The middle years, from around age ten to fifteen, span the years from childhood to adolescence. Young adolescents during this time experience a range of significant physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral changes.

In education, we admire the people who just keep going. The ones who power through, hold it all together, and never seem to miss a beat. But what if resilience—and “keeping going”—isn’t just about surviving the pressure? What if it’s really about creating the conditions to flourish?

It’s a dangerous, although entirely understandable, habit to look to the past for answers when it comes to improving matters of student behaviour in the classroom and the plummeting levels of engagement or respect experienced by Australia’s teachers.

A day-long sequence of workshops introduced at National Education Summit in Melbourne will unpack research-informed practices and approaches to school improvement and what this implies about effective leadership.

In the current educational landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominates the conversation. While AI undoubtedly holds potential, another powerful technology is quietly revolutionising student learning: Virtual Reality (VR).

In just a few short months, generative AI has burst onto the scene and promised to upend education as we know it. Headlines declared that teachers were relics of the past—AI could now teach our students, finally realising the long-elusive dream of personalised learning for all

By making small but strategic shifts in how your team works, you can reduce burnout, improve productivity, and create a school culture where people feel valued and energised. When staff feel supported, they are not only more engaged, but they also bring their best selves to work, leading to stronger teams and better outcomes for students.

When I first got access to ChatGPT I lost my mind with excitement. I couldn’t believe what I witnessing. It felt like the calculator moment for text. Like all labour saving devices though, we didn’t use all the time it saved us frolicking in the fields playing guitar to each other, but doing even more work, being even more productive.

In today’s fast-paced educational environment, students need flexible, engaging, and effective ways to learn. While traditional revision methods such as quizzes, notes, and past exams remain valuable, they no longer suffice on their own.

Did you know that reading is a skill our brains weren’t naturally wired to perform? Unlike spoken language, which humans have developed naturally over thousands of years, reading is a relatively recent invention in human history.