Teachers and school leaders face a high level of stress, exhaustion, and burnout. This is not in debate. While these emotions and responses are normal, they can become a problem if they become chronic, when they might pose serious challenges for individuals and the whole workforce. 

Every day, every term, every year, teachers, and school leaders walk a fine line between ‘being ok’ and ‘being close to burnout’. Burnout is a difficult issue at the best of times, and it isn’t going away. 

Wouldn’t it be great if a simple recipe or set of steps could fix burnout? Sadly, it’s not that simple. But there are things we can do that make a difference, and ways to implement personalised action plans that be effective for each of us. 

Put on your own oxygen mask first and then attend to others. This rule is useful when it comes to preventing burnout. It can help us understand the work involved in first taking care of ourselves and then using this to role-model effective strategies and behaviours, and to support others to do the same. 

A great curriculum clearly details what knowledge to teach and the sequence in which it should be taught. But achieving this is easier said than done. This video provides three practical methods for writing and improving the clarity of your curriculum.

Which knowledge to include in a knowledge-rich curriculum? We take an example from History with a question we have been asked numerous times: which revolution to teach in History?

Why does Ireland finish on the top tier of countries in work rankings? Their foundations for success are the same as nearly every high-performing system in the world.

Our analysis shows that the most obvious difference between high-performing systems lies in the detail of policies: the extent to which they identify what is and is not working well in schools and classrooms, and the specific improvements needed in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practice.

The latest results in the OECD PISA on the performance of our nation’s students is good and bad news for Australia.

Article published in The Australian newspaper 9 December 2023

A narrow, shallow curriculum has damaging effects on both learning and equity. Are we comfortable with Australian students not learning significant amounts of the science content that is provided without question to students in other countries?

The Australian Curriculum includes about half as much science content as the average of these seven other curriculums. Instead of offering breadth and depth of learning, the Australian science curriculum is narrow and shallow.

Learning First and the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) produced a series of practice guides to help school leaders develop and apply effective strategic plans.

How can we compare depth and breadth in a curriculum?

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 29th July 2023

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 15 October 2022 

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 3 September 2022 

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 12 August 2022 

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 1st May 2021

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 6 June 2020

Article published in The Australian newspaper, 6 December 2017