From a six-storey vertical school in the heart of Melbourne to a converted dumpsite in rural Morocco ­– the 10 shortlisted school designs up for this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) award have a whole host of unique features that make them stand out above the rest. Here’s a snapshot of the shortlisted projects.

Miss Chen shares some of the F-2 resources she’s been using in her classroom. In today’s activity, the Foundation students learn more about the ocean in their Science lessons by visiting the local beach.

Discussions and debate around the education of refugee students can often focus on the challenges and difficulties. Finnish researcher Mervi Kaukko has come to Australia to explore the other side of the story – how are teachers helping students to be successful at school?

Many schools are beginning to think ‘vertically’ to overcome density and population pressures in urban areas. Here we speak to the architect behind two new schools in Melbourne about both the challenges and the opportunities that arise when designing a vertical school.

On the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, 300 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, sits Wodonga Senior Secondary College – home to 900 Year 10-12 students, 100 staff and a community hub for the sharing of STEM expertise.

In this episode we visit Western Port Secondary College – one of 21 government schools involved in the Australian initiative The Paradigm Shifters: Entrepreneurial learning in schools – to talk to assistant principal Hannah Lewis and student Harry Hainsworth.

New research has found learning in nature has a significant positive impact on engagement back in the classroom, with educators able to teach for almost twice as long without having to pause and redirect students’ attention.

These high school educators have developed an intervention program for disengaged male students that mixes weekly lessons with intensive physical training sessions and challenges.

Thinking about how to engage, motivate and challenge students is all part of good lesson planning. Moving beyond the classroom, the same considerations can apply when creating and updating outdoor spaces for recreation and physical education.

From Japanese origami to Nordic winters, the movement of flocking birds to messages in binary code, treehouses to terracotta – the shortlisted school designs in this year’s World Architecture Festival award have been inspired by a range of influences.