Powdermonkey Alchemy

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https://www.smh.com.au/national/hsc-advanced-maths-exodus-adds-up-but-it-points-to-another-problem-20260421-p5zprd.html

HSC advanced maths exodus adds up. But it points to another problem If one in three students start a course and do not continue, it is a signal that something is not working as well as it should.

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For more than a decade, a seventh-grade math teacher used technology in his classroom. This year, he took the Chromebooks away—and quickly learned how the computers were holding his students back, Jenny Anderson writes. https://theatln.tc/zPFMakfa

🎨: The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

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Back to books - Sweden's schools cutting back on digital learning — BBC News Swedish classrooms swap laptops for books, pens and paper, raising concerns from the tech sector.

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The bag rule failed, so this school said no to phones, no to watches – and no to exceptions — The Age A hardline ban on mobile devices for students at an outer-suburban independent school is showing remarkable results.

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The five-letter formula that saw this school’s HSC English marks soar North Sydney Girls deputy principal said the perfect-scoring essays turned in by the school’s year 12 cohort shared a common structure.

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How the top VCE performers found the formula for success — The Age What students learnt about their strengths and weaknesses as they strived for top marks.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-09/teenagers-who-support-social-media-ban/106095948

The teenagers who support the social media ban Patrick, 15, does not use social media and hopes he never does. Nick, 15, had a flip phone for the first few years of high school. Here is why they support the social media ban.

Just over a year ago, girls’ private boarding school Frensham decided to ban smartphones in its junior high school, mandating the use of basic, old-school Nokia “brick” phones.
The switch was not without its teething problems as students, especially those in years 8 and 9, struggled for weeks to adjust to life without social media. For year 8 student Lorelai Del Tufo, the biggest shift was losing daily access to Instagram messages and being unable to use FaceTime to call home. “Texting takes a lot longer on a Nokia. I also miss having that downtime of listening to music, or watching a movie on my phone.”

A year ago, this girls’ school swapped smartphones for Nokias. Here’s what happened — The Sydney Morning Herald The private boarding school radically overhauled its smartphone policy last year after noticing a decline in the school’s sense of community.

That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. -Doris Lessing, novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel laureate (22 Oct 1919-2013)

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