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Schools

This Month

The King’s School has taken the mantle of Australia’s most expensive school.

Private school fees to rise at almost triple the rate of inflation

Prestigious schools have been gradually contacting parents over the past few weeks announcing new fee schedules for 2025. 

  • Julie Hare

November

How this music tech start-up attracted Sony as anchor investor

An online portal of ready-made music lessons that any primary school teacher can use has won a major investor.

  • Alexandra Cain

September

The cost of sending your child to a private school – in seven charts

Just one year of tuition at a top-range private school will set you back at least $40,000, but demand keeps growing.

  • Julie Hare
Students sit an exam at Sydney’s Northern Beaches Secondary College.

The suburbs where nearly every child goes to a private school

In some suburbs, parents don’t ask whether to go public or private; it’s more a question of which private school to send their kids to.

  • Julie Hare

August

University of Newcastle’s Drew Miller: Improving teaching standards and student outcomes.

Winning strategy: Remarkable results lifting HSC scores by 50pc

Comment provided by the winner of the Community Engagement category, the University of Newcastle.

  • Drew Miller
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A 50pc improvement: Unis turn the tide on disadvantage

The winner of the community engagement category is reversing the fortunes of disadvantaged children in a partnership that has lifted HSC results.

  • Agnes King

Winning strategy: Giving students the best chance of success

Comment provided by the winner of the equity and access award, University of Newcastle.

  • Anna Bennett

‘They do it tough’: Universities welcome disadvantaged Australians

Bridging courses pave the way to university for students without high-school qualifications, and the Equity winner has been doing it for decades.

  • Sian Powell

This school has joined the education revolution. What about your kids?

Australian schools are finally catching up with teaching that works after a multibillion-dollar boost to student funding failed to lift learning outcomes.

  • Julie Hare
In the results for 2024 this week, one in three students failed to meet the basic benchmarks for literacy and numeracy.

NAPLAN puts schools in remedial class

The hopes that the $319b Gonski funding revolution would turn around the worst-performing students are turning into one of the great public policy debacles.

  • The AFR View
Girls outperform boys in every NAPLAN domain except numeracy.

Boys’ results plummet early in high school

After 10 years of compulsory schooling, about two in five boys are struggling to read and write at a high level. This is a big problem for the nation.

  • Updated
  • Julie Hare
Education Minister Jason Clare on Tuesday.

Minister on a mission needs a break from the states

The latest NAPLAN results are bad news for too many school students. Jason Clare is determined to change that, but will he succeed where so many others failed?

  • Jennifer Hewett
This year’s NAPLAN results make dismal reading as one in three students fail to reach national achievement benchmarks.

One in three pupils fails to meet baseline literacy, numeracy

The latest NAPLAN results also reveal a stubborn gap between test results of rich and poor children, highlighting the failure of schools to overcome disadvantage.

  • Julie Hare
Alec Rawling, a carpenter and builder from North Epping.

How Alec’s life turned from hopeless to full of hope

Pervasive feelings of isolation and sadness are drowning the hopes of young adults, but one program has been shown to turn that around.

  • Julie Hare

July

  • Exclusive
  • AI
The use of AI in education has become controversial, with the need to prepare students to use the tools, balanced against the possibilities for cheating.

Teachers to get AI training under NSW proposals

Specific training about the use of artificial intelligence and greater protections for copyrighted works are among recommendations from a state inquiry.

  • Paul Smith
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Businessman David Gonski advised federal governments on education policy.

On school funding, all governments get a fail

Letters from readers on the Gonski funding challenge; Telstra’s price increases; the NSW review of road tolls; action on climate change; and the health of the River Seine.

Selective schools may not offer the long-term advantages they appear to offer.

Sending kids to selective schools doesn’t pay off: study

Demand for selective public high schools far outweighs places, but a new study casts doubt on whether they live up to their promise.

  • Julie Hare

June

Former Cranbrook headmaster Nicholas Sampson (right) says he has been vindicated following a confidential settlement with the school.

Cranbrook settles with former headmaster, but ABC in line of fire

Nicholas Sampson says he has been “vindicated”, but he still has an axe to grind with the national broadcaster over its “Four Corners” program.

  • Julie Hare and Kylar Loussikian

May

Hampton Primary council president Mark Alexander says any funding delays will limit what upgrades the school can achieve as it waits on an election promise made by Labor in October 2022.

Schools sweat on election funding promises as Victorian debt rises

Melbourne’s Hampton Primary School fears the Victorian government won’t follow through on a promise made on eve of the 2022 election.

  • Gus McCubbing
Evidence now emerging suggests that smartphone use in children is linked with poor mental health outcomes.

Inside the fight for smartphone-free childhoods

A rising number of parents around the world, who have become addicted to handheld devices themselves, want to ban under-16s from having them.

  • Pippa Bailey

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/schools-1lzt