All Professional Learning

Date: Monday 24 February 2025

Time: 9.00 am - 3.00 pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 20/02/2025

In this workshop we will look at more advanced topics of pedagogical and staff leadership. This day builds on the Leading in Science workshop but is not required. This will be useful for anyone hoping to work with or lead teachers in areas of curriculum.

Presenter: Jason Greenslade, Curriculum Leader Science, Westminster School

In this workshop we will look at more advanced topics of pedagogical and staff leadership. This day builds on the Leading in Science workshop but is not required. This will be useful for anyone hoping to work with or lead teachers in areas of curriculum. 

This session will include:

• Curriculum planning for 2025 – where do you want to go? What needs to be done and how to do it
• Targeted action planning – goal setting for you and your staff
• Staff management – goal setting, performance, planning for success
• Meetings and data management

Please come prepared to contribute your visions to help others and bring all your plans and dreams so we can document them – bring your laptop, planners and curriculum documentation!

Date: Monday 3 March 2025

Time: 9.00 am - 3.00 pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 27/02/2025

Presenter: Jason Greenslade, Curriculum Leader Science, Westminster School

This workshop is aimed at people who want to further their skills in setting, assessment and providing feedback on the SHE task. It also will cover the writing and marking of SHE questions for tests and examinations. There will be time to examine your own student work and participate in some cross-moderation and marking of work/drafts.

Morning Sessions: The SHE Task

• Performance Standards
• Introducing + structuring the task
• Providing guidance to students (drafting)
• Marking and moderation

Afternoon Session: SHE Questions in SATs/Exams

• Types of questions
• Guiding students to answer these questions
• Writing SHE questions – how to effectively use articles + how to structure them

Date: Wednesday 5 March 2025

Time: 4.00pm - 5.00pm

Venue: Online

Bookings close: 05/03/2025

Presenter: Sarah Todd, Coromandel Valley Primary School

Transform your science teaching with innovative, hands-on approaches from Coromandel Valley Primary School. Learn how to bring science to life by exploring the school environment—whether it’s using pulleys on the playground, engaging students in citizen science with binoculars and ID charts, or embedding Indigenous perspectives into a nature play space. This session is packed with practical ideas to create meaningful, real-world learning experiences for your students.

About the Presenter

Sarah Todd
2023 Credit Union SA / SASTA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Award Winner, Sarah Todd, brings her passion for the natural world into the classroom. With a background in animal care, she is dedicated to sparking curiosity and inspiring students through hands-on science and real-world connections. An active member of the Mitcham Hills Science Hub, Sarah thrives on collaboration and innovative teaching. Guided by her philosophy to "stay curious and love learning," she creates meaningful, engaging experiences for her students.

Date: Friday 14 March 2025

Time: 10.00 am - 3.00 pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 12/03/2025

Presenter: Chris Bush, Leading Teacher at University High School

AI in Education: A Practical One-Day Workshop for South Australian Science Teachers

Revolutionise your teaching with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this hands-on, one-day workshop designed for educators of all levels. Discover how AI tools can streamline your lesson planning, support differentiated learning, and help you design rigorous assessments and feedback systems. Whether you're new to AI or already familiar with its potential, this workshop will equip you with the skills to effectively integrate AI into your teaching practice.

Throughout the day, you’ll collaborate with peers to design AI-powered tools for creating personalised learning tasks, rubrics, and assessments. You’ll also learn how to use AI to mark student work and provide detailed feedback, significantly reducing your workload while maintaining high academic standards. Ethical considerations and responsible use of AI will be addressed to ensure thoughtful integration in your classroom.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have the tools and confidence to use AI for unit planning, marking student work, and designing differentiated assessments, preparing your students for the future while making your teaching more efficient.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand AI fundamentals and their applications in education.
• Use AI tools to plan units of work, create rubrics, and mark student work.
• Build AI chatbots to provide personalised support for students (tutoring, Q&A) and teachers (task automation).
• Collaborate with peers to design AI-powered lessons and assessments, including differentiated tasks.
• Explore ethical considerations of AI in education, ensuring responsible and thoughtful use.
• Equip yourself with future-ready skills to stay ahead of AI-driven changes in education.

About the presenter
Christopher Bush, Head of Student Voice and Leadership at University
High School, is an AI for education expert who helps teachers unlock
the full potential of AI. He guides educators in creating engaging,
student-centered experiences while streamlining work and maximising
their impact. With his expertise, you'll discover how AI can transform
your school.

Date: Monday 24 March 2025

Time: 9.00 am - 3.00 pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 20/03/2025

Presenter: Jason Greenslade, Westminster School

Often teachers are given middle school classes which includes a range of topics and often these include those which we are not specialists in!

This workshop is designed for those teachers who want to get better at biology content and practical delivery in the middle school.

We will cover:

• Potential sequences for Biology topics in AC9 years 7-10
• How to structure lessons and deliver content in a pedagogically appropriate way for Biology and middle school students 
• Student learning tasks in Biology units – assignments, tests and practicals
• Practical delivery in Biology + ideas, tips and tricks
• This will include use and manipulation of equipment
• It will also include design practicals in the biological sciences for years 7-10
• If we have time we will also spend some time discussing transition of students from 10 in 11 and some of the ways that you might go about Stage I Biology teaching too!

A range of resources will be given to assist teaching in being the best they can be when teaching Biology to their classes!

Date: Friday 28 March 2025

Time: 4.30pm-6.00pm

Venue: Brickmakers Arms, 36 Chief St, Brompton, SA, 5007

Bookings close: 26/03/2025

We are excited to invite you to an exclusive afternoon of great conversation, networking, and refreshments.

What to Expect:

Connect: Whether you're a seasoned member or new to the community, this event is the perfect chance to expand your network and enrich your professional journey.

Indulge: Indulge in a selection of snacks and your first drink is on us!

Your Feedback Matters: We value your input and insights! Take this opportunity to weigh in with your feedback and suggestions. Is there anything our association can be doing better? Your opinions shape the future of our community.

We can't wait to celebrate with you and express our gratitude for your continued support and contributions to our science community. See you at the Members Networking and Nibbles event!

Date: Monday 14 to Tuesday 15 April 2025

Time: 8.30am - 5.30pm

Venue: Glenunga International High School

Earlybird cutoff: 15/03/2025

Bookings close: 10/04/2025

• 1 day events
• 2 day events

The 2025 SASTA Annual Conference theme, "Decoding Science," builds on the National Science Week focus by opening the door to diverse explorations in quantum science, genetics, environmental studies, and beyond. "Decoding Science" invites educators to uncover the tools and techniques that make scientific principles accessible, understandable, and engaging for students at all levels.

Date: Wednesday 7 May 2025

Time: 4.00pm - 5.00pm

Venue: Online

Bookings close: 06/05/2025

 Presenter: Amanda Salha, Westminster School

In a field where Artificial Intelligence is interjecting in a range of teaching and learning spaces, it helps to have a better understanding of how it’s being used. More importantly, strategies to not only manage challenges in AI but to get ahead of the game and use it to our advantage as educators. This workshop will focus on ways teachers can use AI to save time, plan, report and differentiate for learning.

About the Presenter

Amanda is a secondary Science teacher at Westminster School. She is passionate about teaching Psychology, student relationships and making life as a teacher more enjoyable.

Date: Friday 16 May 2025

Time: 9.00am - 3.00pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 14/05/2025

Presenter: Jason Greenslade, Westminster School

AC 9.0 has been released and with that the need to make changes to our sequences/rubrics and curriculum documentation to fit with the new descriptors. This session will take a practical approach and show implementation (which we have done this year) and also cover (more briefly): task design, assessment types and rubrics. 

Implementing changes due to AC 9.0

• What are the changes
• How can they work with what you currently have
• Moving topics between year levels
• Curriculum documentation
• Leading teams in a time of change – driving buy in
• Auditing

Assessing accurately and meaningfully

• Example assessments
• What needs to be added to what you might already have
• Meaningful assessment of soft skills in the age of AI (a discussion of what this means for your existing assessment tasks that are not tests)
• Integration of cross curricular priorities and the general capabilities

Rubrics

• Changes in AC 9.0
• Reports and investigations
• Tests
• Assessing against rubrics
• Moderation/benchmarking activities

Date: Wednesday 21 May 2025

Time: 4.00pm - 5.00pm

Venue: Online

Bookings close: 23/05/2025

 Presenter: Michael Lincoln, CESA

This workshop will explore some of the reasons children and young people disengage from learning and become disruptive in the classroom. With an understanding of these in mind, the workshop will explain a series of teacher-centred strategies that can be put in place to encourage engagement in learning and minimise the potential for disruptive and anti-social behaviour.

About the Presenter

Michael Lincoln is a teacher with over 30 years of experience. As a classroom practitioner, he taught predominantly senior secondary. Michael has held a variety of roles that have focused on engagement and wellbeing. For the last 14 years Michael has worked as a consultant supporting individual teachers, small groups of teachers and school communities to understand child and adolescent disengagement and disruptive behaviour and implement strategies to maximise pro-social behaviour and engagement in learning. Michael has a particular interest in childhood and adolescent adversity and trauma responsive practices in education. He is trainer in Restorative Practices and is passionate about their ability to transform conflict and create harmonious learning communities.

Date: Friday 27 June 2025

Time: 9.00 am - 3.00 pm

Venue: Education Development Centre

Bookings close: 25/06/2025

Presenter: Jason Greenslade, Curriculum Leader Science, Westminster School

This workshop is aimed at people who want to further their skills in setting, assessment and providing feedback on the D&D + practical report task. It also will cover the writing and marking of practical questions for tests and exams as well. There will be time to examine your own student work and participate in some cross-moderation and marking of work/drafts.

Program: 

Morning Session: The D&D Reporting Task

• Performance Standards
• Introducing + structuring the task (inc. ideas for D&Ds + tasks sheets + resources to help)
• Providing guidance to students (drafting)
• Marking and moderation

Afternoon Session: The task continued + experimental questions in tests/exams

• Marking and moderation (cont.)
• Types of experimental questions
• Guiding students to answer these questions
• Writing experimental questions –how to structure them

Date: Wednesday 10 September 2025

Time: 4.00pm - 5.30pm

Venue: Online

Bookings close: 09/09/2025

Presenter: Chris Bush, Leading Teacher at University High School

In this webinar, AI expert and Leading Teacher Chris Bush will teach you how to harness ChatGPT and AI for revolutionary results. You’ll learn how to use AI for planning, assessment, marking, and more. Join us to discover the power of AI to transform your classroom and school so you can work smarter, not harder. Click here to download the flyer.

What you'll learn:

• Transform planning: Craft compelling, AI-generated term outlines, lesson plans and assessments in seconds, complete with activities, solutions and rubrics.
• Personalise every path: Quickly design differentiated, tailored learning journeys that are adapted to individual student needs and strengths.
• Maximise your time: Streamline feedback and grading using AI, freeing teachers for deeper student interactions.
• Introduce and embed AI: Develop guidelines around the safe and appropriate use of AI in your context, bringing along all community members.

What you’ll leave with:

• Expert mentoring: Receive personalised support and strategies from a Leading Teacher and AI specialist.
• Ready-to-use prompts: Explore a curated library of classroom-tested prompts to spark immediate AI integration.
• Prompt mastery: Learn the techniques to craft your own powerful AI prompts with an easy-to-follow guide.
• Discover the best AI tools and policies: Access handpicked resources and policies that will lead to the most impactful AI integration for your classroom and school setting.

About the Presenter

Chrisopher Bush, Head of Student Voice and Leadership at University High School, is an AI for education expert who helps teachers unlock the full potential of AI. He guides aducators in creating engaging, student-centered experiences while streamlining work and mazimising their impact. With his expertise, you'll discover how AI can transform you school. 

Date: Wednesday 22 October 2025

Time: 4.00pm - 5.30pm

Venue: Online

Bookings close: 21/10/2025

Ross Riach, STEM Innovator & Laboratory Coordinator, Gleeson College

This course is designed for all teachers to provide the tools and strategies to promote and harness the benefits of engagement, embed immersive, gamified and storytelling strategies to your lessons and create a love of science through innovative practices. This course is a modified version of the full day PD offered, focusing more on the benefits, approaches and examples of engaging science lessons without the hands-on, directed coaching on the skills to build / collaboration with peers to develop your own work.

This professional development journey will equip you with both the 'why' and the 'how,' providing a wealth of resources and collaborative opportunities to enhance your teaching skills alongside fellow forward-thinking educators. You’ll discover the science behind engagement in learning and how it will make your students retain information longer, be more present and unleash a renewed love for science. From tips to avoid the dreaded Death by PowerPoint to embedding gamification, effective check-ins, lesson design and integrating storytelling into your practices, you’ll walk away with a plethora of ideas, inspiration and resources to transform the science classroom.