You are not behind. You are just figuring it out. And so is pretty much everyone else, even if they do not look like it. Start Where You Are is not a book full of perfect advice from people who have life sorted. It is an honest, practical companion for the moments that actually happen. When you are waiting to feel ready before you start. When you are comparing your life to everyone else's highlight reel. When something goes wrong and you are not sure what to do next. When you have no idea what path you are supposed to be on. Written by Ash Manuel, founder of Growing With Gratitude and former teacher whose own teenage years included three attempts at Year 12 and a football dream that did not work out, this book is built around real stories, short ideas and small actions you can actually try. Twelve chapters you can dip into whenever you need them, each one a reminder that the messy middle of life is where most of the learning happens. Because small actions repeated over time quietly change everything. Your path will not look like everyone else's. It does not have to. You are not behind. You are building.

Grammar is one of the most important and least understood areas of primary teaching. Many educators entered the profession with little formal grammar training, only to find themselves navigating a curriculum that draws on two distinct and sometimes confusing approaches. Teaching Grammar F–6: A Year-by-Year Resource for Building Teacher Knowledge cuts through that confusion with clarity, warmth and practical purpose. Written by a curriculum expert with decades of experience supporting classroom teachers, this book builds confident, working knowledge of both traditional and functional grammar so that teachers can teach it meaningfully rather than simply manage it. Structured year by year from Foundation to Year 6 and aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English Version 9.0, the book gives teachers exactly the grammatical knowledge they need for their year level, without unnecessary complexity. Each chapter unpacks the relevant content descriptions and elaborations, explains the key concepts in plain language, and shows what this looks like in real classroom practice. Whether you are new to grammar or returning to it after years of uncertainty, this book offers the confidence and clarity to make grammar a genuinely powerful part of your students' learning.

In the two years since the publication of Practical AI Strategies, generative AI has changed beyond recognition. Chatbots still dominate everyday use, but the industry has moved on to agents and complex systems with AI at the centre. Our questions have changed, too. It is no longer about which tool to use or how to write a better prompt. It is about hallucinations and bias, environmental cost and deepfakes, the human labour hidden behind AI systems, and how to redesign assessment so that students are actually learning. This book is the critical guide educators need for this next phase. Dr Leon Furze returns with his trademark blend of practical advice and unflinching honesty, drawing on his PhD research and years of work alongside classroom teachers. He covers how generative AI actually works, how to choose and evaluate platforms wisely, how to rethink curriculum and assessment, and how to build genuine critical AI literacy in students and staff. Practical AI Strategies 2 is essential reading for educators looking to move beyond chatbots and prepare both themselves and their students for the near future of AI.

Some days you really are fine. And some days you say you're fine because it's easier than explaining what's actually going on. This book is for those other days. You already know how to be a good friend. When someone you care about is having a hard time, you know how to listen, how to be kind, how not to make things worse. Hey. How Are You, Actually? is about turning that same kindness toward yourself – because you deserve it just as much as they do. Inside are twenty small things you can do, most of them only a few minutes long, for the moments that really happen. When your brain won't switch off at night. When you're waiting outside the exam room feeling sick. When a friendship fades and nobody says why. When everyone else seems fine and you're not so sure you are. Nothing you have to believe in. Nothing you have to be good at. Just small, real things that help. One gentle question runs through all of it: what would you say to yourself if you talked to yourself the way you talk to your best friend? Whatever you're carrying right now, you don't have to carry it alone. You can just start here. ________________________________________ For the grown-up holding this book Written straight to teenagers, grounded in real research, and small enough to use on an ordinary day. No pressure. You might find a few of the practices are exactly what you needed too.

When challenging behaviour appears in a classroom, an early years setting, or a care environment, it draws immediate attention. But what is visible on the surface is rarely the whole story. Behaviour Is Not the Whole Story is a practical, grounded guide for educators, leaders, and teams who want to move beyond reactive responses and build behaviour support that is informed, consistent, and sustainable. Drawing on extensive field-based experience across early years, schools, and OSHC settings, Kelly Oldfield offers a wider lens on behaviour – one that looks beyond the visible act to the regulation, communication, environment, adult responses, and systems that shape it. Packed with practical tools including reflection prompts, practice scenarios, and ready-to-use frameworks, this book helps educators and leaders ask better questions, build stronger systems, and create settings where young people can genuinely thrive. This is not a book of quick fixes or one-size-fits-all strategies. It is a thoughtful, realistic guide for people who understand that stronger outcomes for young people come from strengthening the adults, environments, and systems around them.

What does it take to build a school that forms good men? Building Schools for Boys offers a compelling and practical framework for educators committed to this question. Drawing on decades of global research and real-world school leadership, Dr Phil Cummins and David Atkinson argue that character is not an add-on to a boy’s education – it is the whole work. Grounded in the conviction that boys thrive when they belong, fulfil their potential and learn to do good in the world, this book challenges schools to move beyond narrow academic measures and build cultures of intentional character formation. Spanning six key dimensions of school life – contribution, hope, intention, expectation, value and experience – the book weaves together research, practical frameworks and rich case studies from outstanding schools across Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Whether you teach or lead in a boys’ school, a co-educational school or are interested in what education for young men can and should be, Building Schools for Boys offers both the rationale and the roadmap for schools where boys become the good men the world needs.

Middle leaders are the engine room of school improvement – yet they are too often underprepared, overstretched and under-supported. Stretch: Navigating Pressure and Impact in Middle Leadership is a practical guide for middle leaders navigating the demanding space between classroom and boardroom, between doing and leading. Drawing on decades of real-world leadership experience, Steven Trotter offers honest, research-informed insights into the pressures that define middle leadership, and the strategies that make those pressures manageable, meaningful and ultimately transformative. Structured across three parts, Stretch moves from the lived realities of middle leadership – cognitive load, time pressure, emotional intelligence and role ambiguity – through to six concrete levers for elevating leadership practice, and finally to a set of reflections for leaders building toward the future. This is not a book of tidy answers or one-size-fits-all solutions. It is a guide for leaders willing to pause, reflect and grow – because when the stretch is understood and embraced, it becomes the very engine of lasting impact.

What kind of leader are you when no one is watching? The Virtuous Leader makes a compelling case that effective leadership is, first and foremost, a moral activity, and that competence without character is never enough. Drawing on decades of experience leading some of Australia’s most respected independent schools, Dr Timothy Wright and Clive Logan argue that the leaders who earn lasting trust and create genuinely thriving organisations are those who do not merely hold good values, but who live them, consistently and habitually, until virtue becomes reflex. Grounded in the rich tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas and brought to life through honest reflection and real-world experience, The Virtuous Leader explores the virtues that matter most for leaders navigating the complexity of schools and organisations today: practical wisdom, love, courage, truthfulness, justice, humility and hope. This is not a book of quick fixes or leadership slogans. It is a thoughtful, searching guide for leaders willing to examine their own motivations, confront their blind spots and commit to the slow, worthwhile work of becoming the kind of leader others are proud to follow.

Every generation of Christian school leader stands in the quarry, chisel in hand, cutting stone for something far greater than themselves. Grand Designs: Building Faithful Christian Schools That Endure is a compelling guide for leaders committed to building Christian schools that endure as living communities of faith, formation, and purpose. Dr Darren Iselin and Dr Daniel Pampuch argue that the greatest risk facing Christian schools today is not external pressure but internal drift. When foundational vision fades, a once vibrant community becomes an impressive but empty monument. Structured around four foundation stones of Alignment, Belonging, Excellence, and Imagination, and four dimensions of formation for the next generation, Grand Designs offers both a framework and a call to action for Christian school leaders, educators, and board members. Rich with research, theological grounding, and honest reflection from the field, this is a book for those who understand that Christian schooling is an intergenerational project, one that demands clarity of purpose, courage of conviction, and the wisdom to prepare those who will continue building long after we are gone.

You invest hours crafting thoughtful feedback. Students spend seconds looking at it. They skim comments, correct surface details, or ask “Is this good?”—not because your feedback lacks quality, but because they haven't yet learned how to identify what they need or seek the right help. Guidance that should accelerate learning stalls, through no fault of teacher expertise. This isn’t a feedback problem. It's a learner capability problem. From Feedback to Advice shows how to develop students who actively seek the help they need and act on it with purpose. By making your thinking visible—revealing the feedback process you’ve always managed internally—you help students understand how improvement actually works. Through six progressive stages, James Anderson presents a practical pathway for developing students’ capacity to direct their own improvement. You'll learn how to cultivate students who: Shift from “Is this good?” to “Here's what I've tried, and here's where I need help” Understand and navigate the improvement process themselves  Identify their learning gaps and present evidence of their attempts  Request specific, purposeful advice rather than waiting for evaluation  Take increasing ownership of their learning—lesson by lesson, year by year This isn't a book about writing better comments. It's a book about developing the learner capability that makes feedback matter. With practical strategies for primary and secondary classrooms, and a clear progression leaders can implement school-wide, this book offers a systematic approach to strengthening learner expertise. When students develop the capability to seek the help they need—and act on it—feedback finally works as intended. Learning accelerates. And the improvement process you once carried alone becomes a genuine partnership.

Driving School Improvement: Practical strategies and tools is designed to support school leaders in practical, adaptable and context-specific ways to advance their school’s improvement journey. The focus of the book is implementation. A broad collection of tools, activities and pro formas are provided, which have been used successfully in a range of schools. School leaders can begin at their school’s point of need and select the path that is most valuable to their setting. This second edition builds on the success of the original resource and, with extensive feedback from the field, delivers significantly expanded, refined and updated research, case studies and techniques to help schools meet the implementation challenge. With the help of Driving School Improvement, whole-school improvement can be embedded so that it becomes truly sustainable, resulting in measurable long-term progress in learning outcomes for schools, teachers and students.

Kit goes to school with her friends Harley and Vanya, and always tries her best at everything she does. Arlo is too loud, too close, just too... much. But when a moving van pulls up next to Kit’s house one weekend, Kit and Arlo find out they have a lot more in common than they thought. Join Kit, Arlo and their friends as they navigate school, home life and friendships, and learn more than a few things about how to get along. Kit and Arlo Find a Way: Stories about consent for 8–12 year olds is a much-needed consent teaching resource for Grades 3 to 6. An action-packed and relatable fictional chapter book, Kit and Arlo is a page-turning journey of upper primary school kids – Kit, Arlo, Harley and Vanya – developing and exploring friendships with plenty of ups and downs. Entertaining and compelling as a standalone narrative, Kit and Arlo’s secret weapon is that it contains all of the complex components of consent and includes respectful relationships education in an age-appropriate format. Teachers and parents can read the story, chapter by chapter, and then use the discussion points and ‘read and respond’ notes to facilitate conversations around consent in child-friendly ways. For schools and families needing a more in-depth consent and respectful relationships curriculum, a dedicated Kit and Arlo resources platform houses evidence-based teaching activities, videos, webinars, podcasts, resource links and lesson plans designed to tie in with the story. Kit and Arlo Find a Way is a vital resource for schools and families doing the essential work of empowering kids with decision-making skills that will carry through to their interactions and relationships later on in life. The Educational Publishing Awards Australia (EPAA) also recognised the importance and quality of this resource, awarding Kit and Arlo Find a Way wins for both the Educational Chapter Book and Outstanding Primary Resource categories.  NSW government schools should navigate to the NSW Department of Education’s Student Wellbeing external programs catalogue here to learn more about accessing this resource.  Key topics include: body boundaries and safety verbal and non-verbal cues developing a sense of self, personal strength and self-determination understanding that the responsibly of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ should be shared understanding that shared activities should have enthusiastic, affirmative and ongoing consent having the courage to withdraw consent understanding gendered stereotypes, coercion and power imbalances learning to have empathy for others managing disappointment when someone changes their mind how to be an upstander when someone is being harmed the keys to respectful relationships and better friendships. Teaching consent to children For schools and families needing a more in-depth consent and respectful relationships curriculum, a dedicated Kit and Arlo resources platform houses evidence-based teaching activities, videos, webinars, podcasts, resource links and lesson plans designed to tie in with the story. Consent is integral to human relationships throughout our whole lives. It is complex and also surprisingly simple. The basic principles of consent must always apply to all of our connections, including with family, friends, work and play.  However, people are complex. In different situations, we can experience a range of different feelings, thoughts and emotions. In order to be sure that someone wants to share an experience with us equally, and that they are giving affirmative permission. We need to make important choices and decisions to ensure we always have and give consent.  Download the resources here.

Play-based learning has long been a means of facilitating teaching and learning in the early childhood years. The Walker Learning Approach, an Australian-designed, evidence-based play pedagogy, provides a solid base and foundation for intentional and responsive teaching in the early years. The program's systems and practices support teams of early childhood educators in a consistent approach that ensures continuity and predictability for children, educators and families. Early Childhood Play Matters provides guidance and many practical ideas on implementing the Walker Learning Approach within early childhood learning practices. Topics include: Intentional teaching How to minimise time spent on planning and documentation while producing clinical and professional records How to set up open-ended play learning experiences to promote skills How to scaffold with intention and purpose for learning How to communicate effectively as an educator How to honour and build relationships with children and families. It also includes organisational ideas and resources, a full-colour section of photographs, templates for planning, assessment and reporting activities, and a bibliography for further reference. Early Childhood Play Matters concentrates on the most formative years of education (birth to six years of age), with intentional, rich and rigorous play-based opportunities for young children. It builds upon the successful work that Shona Bass and Kathy Walker have achieved in play-based curriculum in the early and primary years nationally and internationally. Early Childhood Play Matters Resources Daily/Weekly Record Sheet Individual observation and planning record (IOPR) Statement of intent: Early Childhood Education generic planning indicator

Following the success of Play Matters 2nd ed., Engagement Matters is the next stage of the Walker Learning Approach for implementation with primary students in Grades 3-6. Engagement Matters provides a step-by-step, practical guide for teachers, emphasising student engagement, empowerment and achievement, and importantly, personalised learning. The transition from Grade 2 into the middle and upper primary years is made seamless through the provision of tips, activities and explanatory theory. Engagement Matters will equip schools with the capacity to actively engage students in their learning across all subject areas and diverse contexts. In doing so, Engagement Maters effectively lays the foundations for ongoing engagement and successful learning throughout the school life. The book contains a full colour section of photographs to highlight key themes. Download the Appendices documents for planning, assessment and reporting activities here: Planning Materials Editable Templates

In this highly successful resource, Kathy Walker demonstrates the key principles of the Walker Learning Approach that she has developed over 15 years of observation, participation and presentation in schools and child care centres across Australia. Play Matters provides practical guidance and innovative strategies for teachers working with young children from preschool to Grade 2, through a unique balance of explicit instruction in literacy and numeracy skills and personalised, explorative learning. The book promotes the active engagement of all young children, with an enhanced focus on children from diverse backgrounds as well as children with specific needs. Play Matters is packed with pedagogical features to support implementation in any educational setting. It contains a full colour section of photographs. Organisational ideas and resources are provided, along with a comprehensive bibliography for further reference and advice. Download the Appendices documents for planning, assessment and reporting activities in Word or PDF.    

This book is both a permission slip and a challenge. Permission to refuse the disconnection that has become normalised in schools, and a challenge to actually do something about it. Drawing on four classic works — The Outsiders, The Metamorphosis, The Odyssey and The Tempest — Matt Pitman explores how schools can reconnect with their students, their staff, their families and their wider communities. The third book in his acclaimed connection series argues that the crisis facing schools today is not simply a workload or wellbeing problem. It is a disconnection problem, and it requires a different kind of response. Teachers are leaving in record numbers, student attendance has fallen well below pre-pandemic levels, and the gap between people and the institutions meant to serve them keeps widening. The Connection Commitment is not about adding another program or initiative to an already exhausted system. It is about rethinking the conditions under which learning, professionalism and human connection become possible, and committing to building them deliberately. For anyone who works in a school, whatever their role, this book is an invitation to help write a better story.

In an age of artificial intelligence, standardised testing and information overload, the ability to truly think has never been more important or more neglected. Dare to Think! is a passionate, practical inquiry into what thinking actually is, why it matters and how educators can deliberately create the conditions for it in their classrooms. Drawing on nearly three decades in the classroom and a rich tradition of philosophical inquiry from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, Andrew Rogers argues that too many students have been trained to remember and reproduce rather than question, wonder and reason, and that this is a problem educators have both the power and the responsibility to address. Structured as a genuine inquiry rather than a prescriptive manual, the book uses philosophy as both its method and its message. Andrew defines what thinking actually is, exposes the imposters that masquerade as it and makes the case for dialogue, curiosity and reasoning as the foundations of transformative education. He writes as a co-inquirer alongside the reader, sharing what has worked and inviting educators to reflect on their own practice. For any teacher who has glimpsed that rare moment when students are genuinely alive with ideas, this book offers a clear path to making it happen every day.

Leading school improvement means navigating long stretches of uncertainty between launching a strategy and seeing results. Too often, school leaders find themselves in what Dr Simon Breakspear calls the messy middle: too far in to stop, but too far from the end to know if they are on track. Lean Monitoring: Knowing Where You Are and What to Do Next is a practical guide to closing that gap, helping school leaders build simple, sustainable habits for tracking progress during improvement work rather than waiting for end-of-year data that arrives too late to act on. The first book in the Agile School Improvement Series, Lean Monitoring introduces one of three core practices at the heart of Simon's approach to leading change in schools: staying oriented during the journey rather than hoping things are heading in the right direction. Drawing on a decade of work alongside more than 5,000 school leaders across multiple countries, Simon offers clear frameworks and ready-to-use tools including the Impact Canvas, Data Capture Card and Insight Protocol, giving leaders the confidence to make better decisions mid-course and keep improvement moving forward.

Every teenager has done something so bewildering that the adults around them find themselves asking the same question: ‘Why on earth would you do that?’ In The Livewired Teen, renowned educator and neuroscience researcher Dr Michael C. Nagel takes parents and educators on a fascinating journey through the adolescent brain, from the onset of puberty through to early adulthood. Drawing on the latest neuroscientific, educational and psychological research, Dr Nagel reveals how the experiences we provide teenagers in these pivotal years don’t just shape who they are, they quite literally wire the architecture of their brains. Written in an accessible and engaging style, The Livewired Teen bridges the gap between cutting-edge brain science and the everyday realities of raising and educating adolescents. Covering everything from risk-taking and reward to identity, social connection and the challenges young people face when wiring goes wrong, Dr Nagel offers practical insights to help parents, teachers and caregivers make the decisions that matter most, because understanding how a teenager’s brain is wired is the first step to supporting it well.

Too many teachers are giving everything they have, and running out. Too many schools treat wellbeing as an add-on rather than the foundation everything else depends on. The Wellbeing Ecosystem: How Thriving Teachers and Students Transform Schools Together makes the case that this needs to change, and offers a clear, practical framework for making it happen. Drawing on more than two decades of working alongside schools across Australia, Tony Cox argues that when we take care of the people who teach, we take care of the people who learn, and that thriving in schools should be structural, not accidental. At the heart of the book is the FIFTHER framework, built on seven core values: Family, Integrity, Fun, Tenacity, Health, Education and Respect. These values power five gears of growth and a six-domain Wellbeing Wheel that together form a living, interconnected system for whole-school flourishing. Grounded in honest stories from the field and ending each chapter with practical reflection and action tools, this is a book for teachers who still want to make a difference, leaders who want to create conditions for others to thrive, and schools ready to become more human again.