As schools face growing pressure around curriculum coverage and outcomes, a free conference at Wesley College’s Elsternwick Campus is inviting educators and school leaders to rethink what teaching and learning can be.
On Saturday 17 October, Wesley College will host the Project Zero Australia Network’s Navigating Creativity: From Slow Looking to Bold Thinking, from 8.30am to 1pm. The conference is part of the 2026 ReimaginED Festival of Learning and is open to educators and leaders from schools across all sectors.
The program will explore how creativity, curiosity and deeper thinking can become part of everyday teaching, drawing on ideas from Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero.
Keynote speaker Nathalie A. Ryan, Senior Educator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and an instructor at Harvard’s Project Zero, will explore why students need more moments of awe and how these experiences can enhance academic learning, deepen empathy and creativity, and support wellbeing.
Her research, undertaken with a team at the University of California, Berkeley, examines the intersection of awe, creativity and wellbeing in art museums.
Andrew Pennay, Director of Creative Arts at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, will examine how creative thinking can move from an occasional spark to a daily culture, creating space for transformative learning and challenging convention.
Mr Pennay will draw on his doctoral research in music pedagogy and Harvard Project Zero’s Cultures of Thinking framework.
The conference will also feature practical workshops exploring:
- Slow Looking and Deep Learning
- Cultures of Thinking
- Agency and creativity
- Teaching for Understanding
- Thinking, Playing and Being
- Slow Looking at Leadership
Wesley College Director of Learning Cameron Paterson will lead a Teaching for Understanding workshop, exploring what it means to teach for genuine understanding rather than simply covering content. Participants will consider practical ways to make student thinking more visible and meaningful in their classrooms.
“We’re delighted to host Navigating Creativity at Wesley’s Elsternwick Campus. It’s a chance for educators from across the sector to come together, share ideas and think about what creativity, curiosity and deeper thinking can look like in everyday classrooms,” Mr Paterson says.
The Project Zero Australia Network is a community of educators inspired by ideas from Project Zero, including Visible Thinking and Teaching for Understanding. The network was co-founded by Mr Paterson and, while independent of Harvard, shares its ideas through free professional learning grounded in research and practice.
Event details
Date: Saturday 17 October
Time: 8.30am–1pm
Venue: Wesley College Elsternwick Campus, 5 Gladstone Parade, Elsternwick
Registrations: Project Zero Australia Network