Education
Students from WA react to their 2024 ATAR
Students across the state opened their results on Saturday afternoon, and have posted their reactions to TikTok.
Latest
You met these kindy twins 13 years ago. Now, they reveal the best (and worst) parts of their schooling
As they await their HSC results on Wednesday, these students reflect on their schooling.
- by Christopher Harris
How Hayley took control of her personal safety
Like many women, Hayley Jiang takes precautions to ensure her safety but she feels safer on campus.
- by Joanne Brookfield
Exclusive
It was called a ‘cheat bot’. Now, this uni is paying for students to use it
The deal with the US-based technology company would give access to students and academics to a special version of ChatGPT.
- by Daniella White
Exclusive
‘Absolute insanity’: Parents, students vow to fight changes at top Sydney school
The NSW government will turn a northern beaches senior high school into a year 7 to 12 campus under a plan to expand access to co-education.
- by Lucy Carroll
Explainer
Frisbee, Twister, sticks and dolls: Why great toys never get old
Some toys tank with time while others remain classics. Here’s what the experts put in their kids’ toy boxes and why.
- by Jackson Graham
Opinion
The best bits of Fitz. My best chats of 2024
This year, I published 46 interviews in this space. These are the exchanges that most resonated with you, or most moved me, or turned out to be particularly prescient.
- by Peter FitzSimons
They topped the HSC over the past 40 years. Where are they now?
More than 76,000 HSC students – the largest-ever cohort – will receive their marks on Wednesday. These are the lessons graduates from the past four decades have for them.
- by Daniel Lo Surdo
Opinion
Dickens may be out, but I’d be thrilled to teach these HSC texts
This HSC English syllabus overhaul is a micro-history of why it is so important to keep fighting over books.
- by Sophie Gee
Dickens, Orwell and Plath dumped from HSC English lists
Female authors, poets and directors will make up 49 per cent of creative works on the prescribed text list, but some teachers have criticised the changes.
- by Christopher Harris
Exclusive
Broke and desperate for cash, North Sydney Council asks top private schools to pay voluntary rates
The cash-strapped council is also considering selling a street to SCEGGS Redlands.
- by Lucy Carroll and Megan Gorrey
These Sydney mega-schools have 2000 students. Now they’re getting something more
Built a decade ago to cater for the growing number of children in Sydney’s north-west, The Ponds High and its neighbour, Riverbank Public, are two of the city’s super-sized public schools.
- by Christopher Harris
The public school asking parents to pay $80,000 for an extra teacher
An eastern suburbs public school has asked its parents and citizens’ association to help cover teaching costs next year.
- by Lucy Carroll
The private schools paying senior staff more than $300,000
Some of Sydney’s top private schools posted surpluses of millions of dollars last year before imposing sharp fee hikes on parents.
- by Christopher Harris
Co-ed principal recruited to lead one of Sydney’s oldest boys’ schools
Shore’s former headmaster, Tim Petterson, was dismissed following a culture review by the school’s government board.
- by Lucy Carroll
Opinion
Sydney Uni’s ‘enforced civility’ is an assault on free speech – and likely unlawful
It could become one of the most restrictive campuses in the country for peaceful protest, intellectual freedom and critical debate.
- by Sarah Schwartz
Students were unfazed at a $40,000 HECS debt. Years on, reality has sunk in
Students flocked to arts degrees during the pandemic. But almost four years on, alarm bells are ringing.
- by Daniella White
Revealed: The state’s top primary and high school performers in NAPLAN 2024
Public schools St Ives North and Oakhill Drive achieved similar overall score results to high-fee private girls schools Kambala and Ravenswood.
- by Lucy Carroll and Nigel Gladstone
Maths gap between Australian boys and girls among worst in world
Boys now eclipse girls at both primary and high school in the latest international maths and science tests. See how Australia ranks.
- by Lucy Carroll and Christopher Harris
The state’s high-achieving NAPLAN schools for 2024 revealed
The national curriculum authority has identified NSW schools achieving above-average results compared with students of similar backgrounds.
- by Christopher Harris and Lucy Carroll
Exclusive
‘Australians don’t want to do the work’: Top restaurants slam migration crackdown
Judy McMahon, owner of Rose Bay harbourside restaurant Catalina, said more than half of her employees were on visas.
- by Daniella White
Exclusive
The abortion speech, the student walkout – and the Catholic civil war
A row over an anti-abortion graduation speech prompted high-ranking church officials and conservative lawyers to accuse the Australian Catholic University of failing to uphold the faith.
- by Jordan Baker
Dodgy science in crosshairs as fraud audit censures Australia’s top research agency
The National Health and Medical Research Council has been criticised over its lax approach to scientific misconduct in an audit that lays the groundwork for changes in the way bad science is policed.
- by Liam Mannix
Exclusive
Voters back Labor’s proposed HECS changes. They are even keener for an overhaul of uni fees
But the key adviser who helped devise the HECS regime, Bruce Chapman, has warned against the “fantasy” of free education.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos and David Crowe
Colleges shut, thousands of students lose qualifications in fake diploma crackdown
About 17,000 students across the country have been told their qualifications will be torn up.
- by Daniella White
Editorial
HSC disability provisions scheme warrants review
The HSC disability provisions scheme seems to be an area where attempts to create more fairness have instead achieved the opposite.
- The Herald's View
Exclusive
‘You’ll never get in front of it’: Hackers target schools daily
Holding families’ sensitive, personal information has become the top insurance risk for private schools in Australia, as hackers become increasingly sophisticated in their approaches.
- by Bridie Smith
Exclusive
‘We need to reassess’: One in seven HSC students claim exam help
The NSW Education Standards Authority has ordered an independent review of the disability provision program as nearly 12,000 students seek assistance.
- by Lucy Carroll
Sydney Uni boss declares his job is safe as campus free speech debate rages
The vice chancellor’s comments come as the university faces a backlash for its proposed “civility rule”, which critics fear will hamper political expression.
- by Daniella White
Private school commissioned a warts-and-all history. But now, it’s been canned
A victim of child abuse at St Andrew’s Cathedral School wanted to tell his tale in the school’s history. But now the school has gone cold on the project.
- by Jordan Baker
Exclusive
NSW education department axes achievement targets for first time in 20 years
The department has removed specific goals for lifting academic results, attendance and the number of public school students finishing year 12.
- by Lucy Carroll
Opinion
Cheating is now so rampant that uni degrees have become worthless
The university as we know it is dead. COVID-19 nearly killed it, and AI has dealt the final blow.
- by Mindy MacLeod
Top-performing Sydney schools are limiting screens in class. Here’s why
Several high schools that regularly rank among the state’s top schools keep screen and device use to a minimum in classrooms.
- by Lucy Carroll
Exclusive
Sydney Uni students allowed to use AI in radical reversal of cheating policy
The plan, to be phased in next year, will mean students won’t be banned from using AI on homework or assignments.
- by Daniella White
Opinion
I taught for 40 years. Inspiring kids comes back to one three-letter word
Many of my students were poor; some of their stories would break your heart. They achieved successes that can’t be measured with data or NAPLAN results.
- by Dianne Kupsch
Student’s formal ban sparks rally at Sydney high school
The decision by the Department of Education to ban the student from wearing a keffiyeh-patterned scarf sparked a firestorm of anger from the local community.
- by Christopher Harris
Updated
Albanese vows to leave ‘nothing on the field’ in bid to defeat Coalition
The PM’s promise comes as Labor is set to gain Senate approval for laws to ease student loans for three million Australians by scaling back the indexation of their debts.
- by David Crowe and Mike Foley
Exclusive
Shuyin can’t afford to eat some weeks. Neither can many of her Sydney classmates
University students are facing higher levels of financial hardship, new data shows.
- by Daniel Lo Surdo
‘Please, I beg you’: Celebrities fight bureaucrats to save these HSC exams
HSC drama reforms, which would have enabled completion of the course without a performance being externally assessed, will be scrapped.
- by Christopher Harris
How to budget for uni in a cost-of-living crisis
Juggling the costs of university life can be daunting but there are some surprisingly easy ways to save money.
- by Owen Thomson
Exclusive
Uni boss’ bold plan to slash university fees and end $50,000 arts degrees
The plan would cost the government $1.7 billion a year and result in the cost of an arts degree falling from $50,000 to $28,000.
- by Daniella White
Exclusive
Sydney student banned from year 12 formal for wearing Palestinian scarf
A Sydney teenager has filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission over the punishment he received for wearing a keffiyeh-patterned scarf to his graduation ceremony.
- by Kate Aubusson
Editorial
Sydney’s eastern suburbs needs another public school
Not all parents living in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs can afford or not want to send their children to private schools.
- The Herald's View
The eastern suburbs parent trap: Leave, or pay thousands for private school
New plans to build a public high school, floated by eastern suburbs MPs, have been unveiled in a bid to keep parents in the area.
- by Christopher Harris
‘One of the best investments’: why going to uni is still worth it
For students looking to future-proof their career, university qualifications still stack up financially and professionally.
- by Iain Gillespie
Leif was homesick and crying until her new classmate stepped in
A loaned violin was shining proof of the new connections Leif Taylor made by enrolling in a regional university.
- by Peter Lenaghan
‘Passion and positivity’: how to navigate the journey of learning
What and where to study seems like huge decisions but there are simple ways for students to steer in the right direction.
- by Peter Lenaghan
Exclusive
Senior Liberal headlines event for student visa agents before tanking migration bill
Coalition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson headlined an event for migration agents and private colleges in the weeks before tanking Labor’s high-profile student caps bill.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos and Paul Sakkal
Private school students’ personal data proves prime target for hackers
Cybercriminals see private schools as increasingly attractive extortion targets and are threatening to publish sensitive data on the dark web.
- by Matthew Knott
Exclusive
Three Sydney private schools draft more than $400 million in new building plans
Proposals are in the pipeline for science centres, performing arts spaces and new sports complexes.
- by Lucy Carroll