SMH Schools Summit 2026 LIVE updates: Prue Car, Sydney university academics, principals speak at annual conference

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 2026 Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit today.

A team of reporters is on the ground to bring you all the news, discussion and debate from the state’s school leaders, principals and teachers.

One of the highlights today will be NSW Education Minister Prue Car’s speech regarding the rollout of gifted education in NSW public schools, a policy she first flagged at the Herald’s summit in 2024. She will be joined on stage by Herald editor Jordan Baker.

We will also hear from the Department of Education secretary Murat Dizdar.

Other education leaders speaking include Stephen Gniel, chief executive of Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. He will speak about changes to how maths is taught in the early years.

We will also hear from NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive Paul Martin and Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney in a panel discussion about assessment.

It’s going to be an exciting day ahead – let’s get started!

Continuing on from NSW Education secretary Murat Dizdar’s address, where he has touched on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the education sector.

Dizdar said discussions should not revolve around whether AI should be used, but that the question was: “What problem are we trying to solve, and what must never be automated?”

“Our task is not to decide whether it was in education. It’s clear that it’s here and it does. Our task is to ensure that it operates in the service of learning,” he said.

“Never can it substitute for learning. It’ll never replace the judgment of a teacher, the relationships that underpin learning, the daily observations, and the deep human nature of education itself.”

Dizdar said in the age of AI, “knowledge is going to matter even more”, and highlighted the importance of students learning how to critically think about AI outputs, asking better questions, detecting errors, and creating original ideas.

NSW Education secretary Murat Dizdar says there is one central question facing the future of education in Australia – that is, how do we deliver an equitable education grounded in excellence?

He said he had a simple premise.

“The future of schooling will not be built on more initiatives, it’ll be built on those that can drive coherence. Improvement doesn’t come from volume. It comes from focus, sequencing, and execution,” Dizdar said.

“It isn’t adding more to schools – the system has to do better.

“We cannot, as a society, ask schools to sprint a marathon. We must be patient and get in there with what works.”

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has voiced strong concerns about the rapid expansion of university early entry schemes, warning they risk undermining the principles of the state’s ATAR system.

Speaking with Herald editor Jordan Baker, Car said she was troubled by reports that as many as 30 per cent of students are now securing university places without relying on their final ATAR result, instead gaining admission through early offers and extracurricular achievements.

“I’m really concerned about this,” Car said. “It concerns me because fundamentally, it’s an equity issue.”

Early offer programs allow universities to make offers before students complete their HSC. While universities argue the schemes reduce stress and provide certainty, critics say they are reshaping the senior secondary years.

Car warned that not all students have equal access to extracurricular activities that can strengthen an early application.

“There are just some students, in some communities, that do not have the opportunity to go out and do extracurricular activities to build up their CV, to build themselves an unconditional early offer,” she said.

“To me, that is just not a level playing field. The whole idea of the ATAR is that it’s supposed to be a level playing field. When you’re sitting the same exam, that’s equitable. That’s not necessarily the case with early offers.”

Car also expressed concern about shifting academic pressure onto Year 11 students and confirmed she has asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to continue strengthening the HSC as the state rolls out a new curriculum.

“Good on the university sector for wanting to get enrolments. But it doesn’t seem right that the university sector is determining what’s happening in the HSC. Should it not be the other way around?”

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has declared that “postcode should never determine a child’s opportunity” as she unveiled a sweeping expansion of high potential and gifted education programs across the state.

Addressing educators and families in her first major speech since returning from leave following breast cancer treatment, Car acknowledged the long-standing popularity of selective schooling in NSW, noting the state has more selective schools than almost any other jurisdiction in the world.

However, she said that concentration has historically narrowed access to advanced learning opportunities for many students.

“For a long time, high potential and gifted education was focused on incredibly popular, selective settings,” Car said. “But we know that limiting that gift of education to certain schools in certain areas impacts the broader education system. Many families feel they aren’t able to access the best public education for their child.”

Car said demand for enriched learning pathways continued to grow across both metropolitan and regional communities.

“More parents, families and students want access to high potential and gifted education,” she said. “My focus has been on expanding those opportunities to more schools and more communities.”

At the centre of the reforms is a new statewide initiative known as the Inspire program. Under the plan, every public school in NSW will provide structured extension opportunities spanning academics, leadership, sport, and the creative and performing arts.

Car stressed that selective schools and opportunity classes would no longer be the only routes for gifted students seeking to pursue excellence.

“Selective school applicants will now have more options to access extension classes, whether or not they receive a place in an opportunity class or selective school,” she said.

Herald editor Jordan Baker has just addressed the summit, driving home the power of education to transform lives and highlighting the importance of policies that allow every child to put their best foot forward.

Here is an excerpt of her speech below:

“School choice is no longer a debate.

It’s a reality, and with that choice comes a whole lot of confusion from parents about how to make a good choice and how to support their children through their school career.

From when to start kindergarten to what subjects to choose for the HSC, parents rely on the Herald for information to help them make those decisions.

Now, of course, choice is only available to those with sufficient resources, and that is why the Herald always has, and always will advocate for policies that ensure every child in NSW has access to high-quality schooling.

We understand, like every single person in this room does, the power of education to transform.”

One of the key issues to be explored at today’s summit will revolve around expanding gifted education programs for public school students.

As Herald education editor Christopher Harris reports, more than 750,000 students in comprehensive public schools will be able to access specialist gifted programs this year.

It is part of a major overhaul designed to ensure the needs of high-potential students are being met beyond prestigious selective options.

The shake-up comes amid intensifying competition for selective places while over the past five years, 37,000 parents rejected their local public comprehensive school in favour of Catholic and private schools.

Education Minister Prue Car first revealed the plans for universal gifted education in public schools two years ago and will at Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit detail how the new program called Inspire will deliver enrichment streams, extension classes and STEM programs.

Read the full story here.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 2026 Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit today.

A team of reporters is on the ground to bring you all the news, discussion and debate from the state’s school leaders, principals and teachers.

One of the highlights today will be NSW Education Minister Prue Car’s speech regarding the rollout of gifted education in NSW public schools, a policy she first flagged at the Herald’s summit in 2024. She will be joined on stage by Herald editor Jordan Baker.

We will also hear from the Department of Education secretary Murat Dizdar.

Other education leaders speaking include Stephen Gniel, chief executive of Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. He will speak about changes to how maths is taught in the early years.

We will also hear from NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive Paul Martin and Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney in a panel discussion about assessment.

It’s going to be an exciting day ahead – let’s get started!