Welcome to the March edition of succeed. How quickly this term has flown by! Many of you are no doubt wading through assessment and reporting, so we wish you well. Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel.

If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to consider submitting an abstract to present at the 2nd Asia Pacific Conference Adolescent Success (APCAS) in Singapore from the 10th-11th September. This will be a wonderful PD opportunity so check out the link below. 

In this edition there are a number of articles on student well-being, one of the themes of our APCAS event. Hopefully these will encourage further reading. We also revisit Pendergast et al's 2005 research paper on developing 'lifelong learners' in the middle years. Eleven years on, how are we faring?

Best wishes for the remainder of the term.

Matt Atkinson - Vice President

The management committee welcomed in the new year with our first meeting held at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 27th of February. We welcomed Dr Anne Coffey from Notre Dame University in WA onto the committee in the role of Journal Editor. We are thrilled to be working with her in this capacity. 

I'm very pleased to bring to you our Singapore Conference this year from the 10-11th September at the Australian International School. The call for abstracts closes on the 28th May and I encourage all educators to submit to present; we'd love to see you there. The theme is "Innovation in Wellbeing, Leadership, Pedagogy". Why not register a team to attend this quality professional development.  

We also have an exciting new one day event on the Gold Coast on Tuesday 24th May 2016. At only $70 per person this is amazing value for money. It is a one day professional development opportunity called "Heart to Mind" and features sessions from Donna Pendergast, Dr Tom Nehmy, Dr Katherine Main and Dr Jill Margieson. This is designed for all educators of young adolescents so come and join us on the Gold Coast! You can click here to register your team.

We have an exciting year planned and we hope you engage with us through our events and also through social media and our membership website. The members only area offers you the opportunity to post on the forum and recieve answers from other middle level educators. It is your best way to engage directly with other members and we encourage you to join in.  

April will see us launch Australia's first middle years specific education chat. Join us at #MYEdOz every Thursday evening from 8-9pm. The first one is on the 14th of April. Jump on board and join the fun... not to mention the amazing free professional development.

Thank you for supporting our Association; we are where middle level educators belong.

Angela White, Executive Officer

Pendergast et al, (2005) suggested that in order to participate effectively and with satisfaction in 21st Century societies, an individual '...needs to be better informed, to have greater thinking and problem-solving abilities and to be more self-motivated' among other attributes.

Has anything changed since then? As Middle Years educators in 2016, what do we believe? Is this still a focus? Do the recommendations of this report resonate or have the ensuing years forced a rethink such that we are heading in a different direction? Perhaps this report is worth revisiting in your school.

Remember you can see Donna Pendergast speaking at the Gold Coast one day event 24 May 2016.

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Looking at collaboration through the lens of 'thinking' rather than simply 'doing' can offer greater insight into the workings and capabilities of an organisation. This article from the Harvard Business Review suggests that it is not a matter of organisations out-competing each other, but out-thinking each other. But what sort of people make up your organisation? How do they operate? And how do they think?

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Professor David Lynch discusses the value of leadership, teaming and using data in developing new capacities for pedagogical improvement. 

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The Australian Child and Wellbeing Project (ACWP) suggests in its research that young people are the experts on their lives and, as such, should be 'the key informants on policies affecting them.' Click to read more.

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We're facing a slow decline in most educational standards, and few are aware just how bad the situation is getting, according to the authors of this article. They argue for a long-term plan across education sectors, and further lobbying about how we value and invest in our children. Read more below. 

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Boston educator, John Cutler, ponders nine years of classroom teaching which included 'numerous failures'. Read more below.

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...what would it look like? What would it sound and feel like? What experiences would students have? Each of us has imagined a 'better way' to achieve aims and goals and to cater for individual student needs. 

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In support of Pendergast et al's (2005) article above, this article suggests a widening gap between the skills people learn and the skills people need in order to thrive in today's world. Social and emotional learning (SEL) will also play a vital role in equipping our students for their future success.

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We would love to showcase your school/students in the June publication of the Australian Journal of Middle Schooling.

If you have any photos of your school, students or events which you'd like to submit please click here for the copyright release form.

This is a great way to showcase your school and students.

Many thanks for your support; it's shaping up to be a great publication!

Please email either our journal editor Anne Coffey at ann.coffey@nd.edu.au or executive officer Angela White at angela@adolescentsuccess.org.au.

The latest Exploring Teens magazine has been published and, again, it is filled with excellent content for parents and teachers.  Subscription is free.

Adolescent Success is pleased to partner with this incredibly valuable publication.

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Pindex, "Pinterest for Education", launched by Stephen Fry

Radical Student Choice: Student designed and demonstrated projects

Build someone up. Put their insecurities to sleep. Remind them they're worthy. Encourage them to be magical. Be a light in a too often dim world.

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