The Government has announced details of legislation to be pushed through Parliament to help speed up the recovery process in quake-devastated Canterbury.

Several Christchurch hotels have slashed room rates in the wake of Christchurch's "horrendous" magnitude 7.1 quake, with one hotel chief saying everybody needed to "chip in".

Most Canterbury schools today reopened after the September 4 magnitude 7.1 earthquake, but aftershocks continue.

A legal loophole has allowed an unregistered teacher back in the classroom after having sex with a 16-year-old student.

A drunk Auckland high school pupil was taken to hospital after falling over and knocking his head in a physical education class.

Children try to come to terms with the fear as they return to school.

Some 1200 Canterbury school children will not be able to return to their schools for weeks.

Standing on snakes and having trees fall on him are all in a day's work for the archaeologist who's been called Auckland's Indiana Jones.

A school in Victoria has created controversy by banning the word gay from the classic Aussie song Kookaburra.

Secondary teachers' plans to go on strike next month show they disconnected from the real world, Prime Minister John Key says.