1330.0 - Education News, February 2014  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 19/02/2014   
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A word from the editor


Welcome to the Term 1 edition of Ed News!

The theme for this edition is Multiculturalism.

The 2014 CensusAtSchool Questionnaire is now open! Last year we had a fantastic response to the Questionnaire, with 23,745 students inputting their data. This outstanding result would not have been possible without your support, so I would like to thank all teachers who encouraged their students to participate. I would also like to encourage you to get your students involved once more and sign up for CensusAtSchool in 2014. For more information about CensusAtSchool, please read on in the 'CensusAtSchool News' section.

Speaking of CensusAtSchool, one of my favourite questions in the Questionnaire asks students what languages they speak at home. The rich diversity of the Australian community is reflected in this exciting data. The 2013 data is online and ready for you to explore. Some of the top languages spoken by students might surprise you! Read our article, 'CensusAtSchool: Languages Spoken by Students', to learn more about this fascinating data.

Continuing with our theme I have chosen to feature MAT 04 Country of Birth. In this lesson students use ABS data to investigate the main countries of birth of the population of Australia. Find out more in 'An Idea for the Classroom.'

The Education Services team had a very busy end to 2013, attending and presenting at conferences in both Western Australia and Victoria. To find out about the conferences we attended, refer to the 'Conferences' section.

And as if that wasn't enough to keep us busy, we also launched our new Education Services and CensusAtSchool web pages in late November. There are plenty of new exciting features for you to discover, so please be sure to read the 'Resources for Teachers' section for more details.

For additional ABS data, statistics and resources, check out our 'Interesting Publications' section. These publications offer a gateway into a range of recently published ABS products that I have found particularly interesting this month.

Finally, as I'm sure you've noticed, Education News has welcomed 2014 with a new 'e-mag' look. I would love to hear your thoughts about the new style, or any suggestions you may have about articles or activities, so please feel free to contact Education Services on 1800 623 273.

Emma Salik