An Open Letter to Ray Hadley of Radio 2GB

Dear Mr Hadley, Today I came across a recording of a conversation you had with Cheryl, a primary school teacher who called in to defend NSW teachers’ decision to strike for better pay and conditions. I’m not a huge fan of industrial action myself, but the point of this letter is not to argue the merits […]

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The Kids Are Alright – In the National Times

Fed up with the constant media attacks on our youth, I sat down at the laptop and wrote this. And the National Times decided to publish it… Another day, another media attack on the youth of Australia. This time it’s the turn of Channel Nine’s A Current Affair, to have a report, “All parents should […]

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Talking Youth Depression on Channel 10

In case you missed my appearance on Channel 10 discussing youth depression and wellbeing, you can watch the interview here. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIUJt1zgK7A] Please share it with your staff at your school, friends or family. We need to keep on talking about it… Sign up for email updates here, share with your friends or connect on Facebook […]

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Catch Dr Suzy Green and Me on Channel 10 – Monday 6.30pm

JUST BEEN INFORMED THIS WILL NOW SHOW ON TUESDAY NIGHT Just a quick note to let you know that last week I recorded an interview for the 6.30 Report with George Negus. It is due to be aired on Monday 15th September at (guess when?) 6.30pm on Channel 10 in Australia. The subject of the story […]

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What is it with Rs in Education… This week: Root Rating?!?!

The (anti) social media habits of schoolkids have taken up a lot of newspaper and online column space this week in Australia. The latest craze to take hold of our teens (doesn’t it seem like only last month it was planking?) is to “rate roots” via ingeniously titled “Root Rater” pages on Facebook. For the […]

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Testing Times for NAPLAN

For the benefit of my overseas readers, all Australian school students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. These are known as NAPLAN tests. They are the equivalent to the SATs in the UK or the NEAPs in the […]

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