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.

Innovative library designs were celebrated this evening when St Joseph’s Nudgee College was named the inaugural winner in the schools category of the Library Design Awards 2017.

In this extract from Early Childhood Playgrounds: Planning an outside learning environment, Prue Walsh discusses why outside play is important for children with special needs.

In this month’s Research Files we discuss the findings of a three-year project in New Zealand that included analysis of pretend play – where students give voices to toys, objects and digital characters – and early literacy practices.

The German School was named the winner of the World Architecture Festival in the Schools – Completed Buildings category. Here, we take a closer look at the innovative project.