Best of The Age’s education coverage

• Exclusive

Six years ago, this was ‘Australia’s worst school’. Here’s how it turned around

Teachers had been physically assaulted by students when A Current Affair aired its notorious story. Here’s what happened since.

• Nicole Precel

Melbourne’s wealthiest schools raise fees well above inflation

A year 12 student will cost parents $42,831 on average in Victoria’s top-fee-paying schools next year.

• Alex Crowe

• Exclusive

University of Melbourne ordered to reinstate academic sacked for sexual harassment

A Melbourne academic sacked for sexually harassing a female colleague was described as a “disaster waiting to happen” because he romanticised relationships.

• Caroline Schelle

Carey Grammar teacher’s 35,000 messages to student before romantic pursuit

A Carey Grammar School teacher began a romantic relationship with one of her former students after they graduated from the school in 2020.

• Caroline Schelle

Troubled history remains, but Deakin University will not change its name

The university will keep its name despite concerns from some students and faculty about the legacy of Australia’s second prime minister, Alfred Deakin.

• Caroline Schelle

Car, two trains and a bus: Schoolgirl’s gruelling 15-hour weekly commute to class

Many families in Melbourne’s west place a high premium on their children’s education. For some students, that can mean a daily trek to the other side of town.

• Bridie Smith

The exclusive schools where high-earning parents send their children

See the list of Victoria’s most exclusive and expensive schools favoured by top-earning parents.

• Caroline Schelle

‘Training at insane levels’: Inside the brutal, elite world of private school rowing

The death of a year 12 Melbourne Grammar student rower raised questions about the intensity of training demands at some prestigious private schools.

• Alex Crowe and Bridie Smith

• Exclusive

Teachers exploiting loophole to work in classrooms without minimum qualifications

A Western Australian decision to lower its teaching qualification standard and mutual recognition agreements allowed unqualified teachers to work in Victoria and NSW.

• Grant McArthur and Kieran Rooney

• Exclusive

Low-fee private schools are booming in these Melbourne suburbs

Private school enrolments grew at three times the rate of those at state and Catholic schools over the last year.

• Caroline Schelle

• Opinion

My daughter’s school is a CBD office building. Most kids don’t get outside all day

This “campus” is actually the 6th and 7th floor of an office building in Lonsdale Street, and has no open-air spaces, no canteen, no windows that open. The nearest safe outdoor space is three blocks away. It’s absurd.

• Nick Feik

The university degrees most likely to land graduates a job

Not all undergraduate degrees are equal when it comes to finding work after university.

• Bridie Smith

Milla was due to win a basketball award this weekend. She never made it home from school

Christian College Geelong student Milla Killeen is being remembered as a “beautiful soul”.

• Noel Towell, Caroline Schelle, Bridie Smith and Gemma Grant

No guarantees, no refunds: The cost to get on top private school waiting lists

It costs at least $200 just to get on the waiting list for many of Victoria’s most expensive private schools – though one of the most sought-after has dropped its price.

• Caroline Schelle

Melbourne Uni professor sacked over ‘mawkish’ romantic messages wins his job back

Professor Stephan Matthai was dismissed for inappropriate behaviour towards a female PhD student seven years earlier.

• Nicole Precel

Annie was 17 when she slept on a park bench. All she cared about was school the next day

School was tough the day after Annie Leutenmayr slept on a park bench in Melbourne’s CBD. But the 17-year-old wasn’t going to miss it.

• Nicole Precel

• Exclusive

These parents say their crumbling state school isn’t being fixed because of who they vote for

Long-running maintenance issues at the 150-year-old Brighton Primary School came to a head when the floors of classrooms and a bathroom were eaten by termites.

• Noel Towell and Gemma Grant

Copy, paste: What we know about the VCE exam fiasco

Thousands of VCE students could have taken their exams with a hidden advantage over their peers, after some questions were accidentally revealed online in advance.

• Bridie Smith, Caroline Schelle and Alex Crowe

• Exclusive

Anti-vax parents share tips online on how to flout no jab, no play childcare laws

Experts have raised the alarm about anti-vaccine networks sharing tactics for skirting Victoria’s no jab, no play laws, while immunisation rates among children continue to decline.

• Nicole Precel and Henrietta Cook

‘Damn, is this my kid?’: The unique snow campus that costs a lot less than Timbertop

The prestigious Timbertop program costs $22,125 a term. At this alpine campus, parents pay $800.

• Nicole Precel

‘It was a very brutal five years’: A private school scandal decades in the making

Mistreatment by seniors at Ballarat Grammar dating back decades has come to light as the school grapples with a punishment culture not confined to just one prestigious boarding school.

• Noel Towell and Caroline Schelle

How ‘Australia’s worst school’ transformed after public low point

Two determined principals dramatically turned around the culture of a school where student and educators’ physical and mental health, plus academic records, had been plummeting.

• Nicole Precel

The tiny Victorian schools where every voice is heard and excursions fit in a car

Some Victorian parents worry about bulging class sizes, but that’s not an issue at these schools.

• Nicole Precel

This boys’ school is known for its AFL draft successes. Now it’s taking on dance

This boys’ school, known for being a feeder to the AFL draft, has added dance to its repertoire. And the results are starting to show.

• Bridie Smith