Associate Professor Brendon Hyndman is our guest today. If that name sounds familiar to you – Brendon was actually the guest in our first episode of The Research Files all the way back in 2014. After recently taking a pause from academics and spending time working back in the classroom, Brendon is now Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Charles Sturt University, where his main research interest is on the more informal learning and behavioural experiences of students at school. An obvious example of this is school playground experiences – and so our conversation today is all about setting up for healthy play spaces and behaviours in a school setting. 

As you’ll hear Brendon share in this episode, the impact of healthy play spaces can be profound on students’ feeling of belonging, physical activity opportunities, ability to take risks and intellectual stimulation, just to name a few examples there. He also shares plenty of practical considerations for teachers and school leaders this space. 
Host: Dominique Russell
Guest: Brendon Hyndman


Setting up for healthy play behaviours at school

It's Episode 64 of our series on School Improvement and the topic is something that we're really passionate about at Teacher – school libraries and encouraging students to read for pleasure. So, it could be the main library, classroom book collections and displays. It could be something like small reading corners and nooks around the school. How do you go about creating a fresh and welcoming space for all students? What kind of things inform your decision when it comes to new stock or just re-promoting existing titles that you’ve got? We've got 3 great guests for you – Mali Jorm, Madison Dearnaley and Tracy Kelly, who will be sharing their tips. We'll be chatting about what the latest research says about strategies to encourage reading for pleasure and of course the importance of student voice. And we'll be sharing personal and student book recommendations.
Host: Jo Earp
Guests: Mali Jorm, Madison Dearnaley, Tracy Kelly

School Improvement: Managing, restocking and refreshing library spaces

As we head into the last month of 2025, many of you might be starting to turn your mind towards the beginning of the next school year. A big part of getting ready for a new year is, of course, setting up your learning spaces. Whether it be how you’ll set up your own classroom, the school library space, or even outdoor areas, there’s plenty to consider. We’ve published a range of new content on the topic of learning spaces recently at Teacher. In this episode, we'll bring you up to speed on it all. Don’t forget, like all of our other episodes of Teacher Staffroom, we’ll be posing some questions for you throughout this podcast, so you can feel free to pause the audio as you go, gather some colleagues, and discuss together how these stories might be relevant to your school context. Host: Dominique Russell

Teacher Staffroom: Looking at learning spaces – playgrounds, libraries and tech hubs

In a Teacher exclusive, Minister of Education and Research for Estonia Dr Kristina Kallas joins editor Jo Earp for this special podcast to talk about setting teachers and students up for success, the early years foundations for its impressive PISA performance, and the next big challenge – AI in education. 
Host: Jo Earp
Guest: Dr Kristina Kallas

Exclusive: An interview with Estonian Education Minister Dr Kristina Kallas

It has been an exciting year of Teacher podcasts! In this annual wrap-up of highlights from 2025, the team at Teacher select their favourite episodes and discuss why the episodes resonated with them and Teacher listeners. They also chat about how they put the podcast together, how they select guests for each episode, and give a sneak peek of what’s to come in 2026.
Hosts: Jo Earp, Rebecca Vukovic, Dominique Russell

2025: Our year in podcasts

Happy New Year from the Teacher team! We hope you’re having a restful break these school holidays and that you can take some time to recharge for the new year. We’re dropping into your podcast feed to share a quick update for 2026.

Get ready for 2026 with Teacher

Late last year, the winners of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Excellence in Science Teaching were announced. Each year, the 2 prizes – one for a primary school educator and one for a secondary school educator – recognise achievements in STEM teaching. For 2025, the winner for primary school teaching is Paula Taylor, Executive Teacher in STEM at the Academy of Future Skills within the ACT Education Directorate. The secondary school educator recognised is Matt Dodds, Biology and Physics Teacher at Glen Innes High School in New South Wales. We sat down with both of them at the beginning of the 2026 school year to hear all about the work they were recognised for. It was such a delight to hear about the teachers that had an impact on them when they were younger, the lesson activities that are a hit in their science classrooms, and how they’re sharing their knowledge with other educators.
Host: Dominique Russell
Guests: Paula Taylor, Matt Dodds

Award-winning STEM teachers on lesson activities and sharing knowledge with colleagues

The winner of the 2026 Global Teacher Prize has just been announced. Rouble Nagi from India has been named winner and has taken home the US $1 million in prize money. Rouble was recognised for her work in transforming neglected walls in her community into hundreds of vibrant, open-air learning centres. The GEMS Education Global Teacher Prize is the largest of its kind and is a Varkey Foundation initiative organised in collaboration with UNESCO. It’s now in its 10th year and aims to shine a spotlight on the positive impact teachers make on society and recognise the exceptional educators who have made an outstanding contribution to the profession. 

One Australian teacher was a top 10 finalist this year – Colleen O’Rourke, Digital Technologies Educator from the Hills Christian Community School in Adelaide, South Australia. She’s been recognised for developing the Nature-Nurture-Network curriculum and for her work in supporting neurodivergent learners. Dominique Russell sat down with Colleen ahead of the announcement to hear all about this work and what it means to her to be recognised in the top 10 this year. 
Host: Dominique Russell
Guest: Colleen O'Rouke

An interview with Australian top 10 finalist of the Global Teacher Prize Colleen O’Rourke

We’re well and truly into the new school year here in Australia. In today’s episode, we run you through the highlights from this month, including our round up of some key events happening throughout the school year to help you with lesson planning, and an article that shares 4 design principles to help turn classrooms into spaces that support and celebrate student learning.
Host: Rebecca Vukovic

Teacher Staffroom: A strong start to a new school year

We're joined by St Columba Anglican School Principal Allan Guihot and Director of Professional Learning Chris Delaney. They’re in Port Macquarie, on the New South Wales North Coast, and the school is a member of the award-winning Teaching School Hubs program from Independent Schools New South Wales (ISNSW). The program brings together schools and partner universities to provide teacher trainees with regular, mentored experience while they complete their qualification. The aim is to increase their skills and their confidence in the classrooms, so they’re better prepared once they enter the workforce. It’s a paid placement – trainees get paid for one day per week for a year, which is co-funded by ISNSW and the school. And then, depending on the arrangement, the trainee could also be working additional days as a Teacher Aide (that might be a Teaching Assistant or Classroom Support Assistant where you are), and that additional work is funded by the school, so that is something that St Columba has chosen to do. In our chat, Allan and Chris explain more about the program model and how it works, the school’s participation, and the benefits for everyone involved – including those teachers doing the mentoring. 
Host: Jo Earp
Guests: Allan Guihot , Chris Delaney

Preparing trainees for the classroom – the Teaching School Hubs program

In this episode, we’re talking about a whole school approach to wellbeing. Our guest is Dr Alexandra Hennessey, from the Manchester Institute of Education at the University of Manchester in the UK. Dr Hennessey and colleagues have explored how different schools in the UK have adopted the Well Schools framework – now, that’s a project started by the Youth Sport Trust in 2020. The findings of the study have been published in the journal Frontiers in Education (Hennessey et al., 2025). The team has also published 2 short reads – some school case studies on how the 10 schools are supporting wellbeing in their community, which runs through things like intent, implementation and impact; and then there’s a Well Schools Final Report Executive Summary as well (Hennessey et al., 2023). You can find links to all those documents in the transcript of this podcast over at Teacher magazine. Our chat with Dr Hennessey includes how wellbeing and learning go hand-in-hand, and we’re going to focus on 2 aspects of the study in particular – the role of teacher wellbeing and, of course, the importance of that whole school approach. She also mentions at one stage INSET, and that in the UK, is staff PD, essentially, where the staff get in-service training and the pupils don’t attend on that day. 
Host: Jo Earp
Guest: Dr Alexandra Hennessey

Setting up for healthy play behaviours at school

Teacher Magazine (ACER)

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