After two weeks of 'holiday', I am almost looking forward to getting back to the office. So far I have had almost an interview or story to chase up every day - there has been no lying on the beach, sleeping in or long lunches.

Interestingly while the commercialisation of educational services, particularly in the government funded sector is a less developed market in Australia, independent schools are a bigger and far more competitive market.

One private school in Melbourne has been in the news after giving 200 scholarships to build students numbers at one of its new campuses - included recruiting the whole of the most successful state-school volleyball team! Another is also offering a loyalty marketing bonus to parents who keep their children enrolled for 12 years!

While education is a significant political and social issue the debate tends to focus on things like exam standards and skilled migration, rather than whether private schools should have charitable status (they do) or whether government secondary schools should have specialisms (all states have a small number of specialist academic and vocational schools and have had for over fifty years).

I will be covering these and several other interesting international stories at the end of the month - that is if the security measures for international aviation don't get any more onerous. If it does I can see a renaissance in business travel by ship (provided they have decent food and broadband internet access)!