St Andrew’s Catholic Primary school Malabar has drawn from the playbook of an education system ranked among the world’s best to shake up their school day. The school has trialled a timetable modelled on Finland’s approach, which provides regular breaks between shorter lessons to help boost students’ wellbeing and academic performance. Instead of two-hour lesson blocks with long recess and lunch breaks, the students now have an extra two 10-minute breaks in the day and shorter meal breaks so they have time outside for every hour of study. Principal Leonie Burfield said feedback on the new timetable had been...

Fairytales have become the unlikely catalyst for STEM learning at St Anthony of Padua Catholic College Austral. Students in Year 2 have used their mathematics and engineering skills to design a trap for the gingerbread man, build a new chair for baby bear after Goldilocks broke it, and found a way for the Three Billy Goats Gruff to cross mountains without being attacked by a troll. They also built and tested contraptions that allowed Jack – who was substituted for a boiled egg – to come down from the clouds when his beanstalk was cut down, trapping him there....

St Martha’s Catholic Primary School Strathfield ended the school term on a high – and scientific – note with their first whole school STEM Day. At a morning parade, students celebrated the theme dressed as scientists, aviators, solar systems, robots, a storm cloud, Rubik’s cube, and NASA workers and astronauts. Year 6 students then led mixed-grade groups through engineering and other challenges. They made wands out of coloured pipe cleaners to blow square bubbles, built bridges, and crafted musical instruments. Parents donated equipment from home to aid the experiments. The day ended with a whole-school plane challenge. ...