School improvement frameworks and their associated reform efforts often have limited durability and are frequently not fully implemented. Improving their viability, requires a more realistic understanding of contextual organisational structures and the school culture in which the reform is to be implemented. Internationally, and in Australia specifically, education research has informed policy heavily promoting collaboration as a school improvement strategy, with the aim of building teacher capability and student achievement. Consequently, secondary school leaders are charged with promoting the need for teachers to collaborate meaningfully with hundreds of students, carers, parents and colleagues each week across the ‘silos’ of subject departments and grade levels in their school. Social Brain Theory suggests that there are cognitive limits on the number of natural face-to-face social interactions that one can have and maintain. Relationships require significant investment in time and frequency. Additionally, sociality is much more cognitively demanding than at first thought, having unforeseen influence on improvement efforts. The number of interactions required in a collaborative environment, an individual’s likely cognitive overload and the ‘silo’ nature of the school’s organisational structure must all be considered. This paper offers an alternative theoretical framework to support policy makers and leaders in optimising school improvement efforts.

Attracting high quality teachers to regional, rural, and remote locations has been an issue for school communities in Australia. Research has illustrated that innovative initiatives and experiences can change pre-service teachers’ attitudes, perspectives and perceptions about regional, rural and remote schools. What is less understood is the contribution of school leaders foregrounding a place consciousness approach to spark pre-service teacher interest in undertaking professional experience placements and possible employment in their RRR schools. This paper shares research findings that identified how Far North Queensland school leaders showcased “their place” with key stakeholders and in particular with pre-service teachers. The findings affirmed notions that school leaders understand the valuable connections between rural, regional and remote pre-service professional experiences and the potentiality for high quality teachers for the long-term. Implications are drawn in relation to how school leaders create partnerships and promote their school place intentionally.

The management of diabetic foot osteomyelitis (DFO) is extremely challenging with high amputation rates reported alongside a five-year mortality risk of more than fifty percent. We describe our experience in using adjuvant antibiotic-loaded bio-composite material (Cerament) in the surgical management of DFO and infected Charcot foot reconstruction. We undertook a retrospective evaluation of 53 consecutive patients (54 feet) who underwent Gentamicin or Vancomycin-loaded Cerament application during surgery. The feet were categorised into two groups: Group 1, with infected ulcer and DFO, managed with radical debridement only (n = 17), and Group 2, requiring reconstruction surgery for infected and deformed Charcot foot. Group 2 was further subdivided into 2a, with feet previously cleared of infection and undergoing a single-stage reconstruction (n = 19), and 2b, with feet having an active infection managed with a two-stage reconstruction (n = 18). The mean age was 56 years (27–83) and 59% (31/53) were males. The mean BMI was 30.2 kg/m2 (20.8–45.5). Foot ulcers were present in 69% (37/54) feet. At a mean follow-up of 30 months (12–98), there were two patients lost to follow up and the mortality rate was 11% (n = 5). The mean duration of post-operative systemic antibiotic administration was 20 days (4–42). Thirteen out of fifteen feet (87%) in group 1 achieved complete eradication of infection. There was a 100% primary ulcer resolution, 100% limb salvage and 76% bony union rate within Group 2. However, five patients, all in group 2, required reoperations due to problems with bone union. The use of antibiotic-loaded Cerament resulted in a high proportion of patients achieving infection clearance, functional limb salvage and decrease in the duration of postoperative antibiotic therapy. Larger, preferably randomised, studies are required to further validate these observations.

No abstract