Building Community Resilience Through Partnership

At MLC School, partnerships play an important role in extending learning beyond the classroom and connecting students and teachers with leading researchers, industry experts and community organisations. These collaborations create opportunities for authentic learning while enabling staff and students to contribute meaningfully to projects that address real world challenges.

One such partnership has developed through MLC School’s ongoing collaboration with the University of Sydney Heat and Health Research Centre. What began in 2025 as a Geography initiative involving Year 9 students creating heat health resources for younger learners has since evolved into a larger co-design project focused on preparing young people for the challenges of extreme heat.

Led at MLC School by Cathryn Moore, Strategic Projects Leader, the partnership has grown through ongoing collaboration with researchers and community organisations. In 2026, the Australian Red Cross joined the initiative, bringing expertise in community preparedness, resilience education and human centred design. Together with the University of Sydney Heat and Health Research Centre, the project is developing an innovative learning program for Stage 3 students aimed at building practical heat preparedness and resilience.

During Term 3, an MLC School innovation team comprising Cathryn Moore, Strategic Projects Leader, and Stage 3 teachers Jan Falls, Melanie Thierjung and Anne Abbott, participated in planning and consultation online meetings and surveys with the University of Sydney Heat and Health Research Centre and Australian Red Cross. Together, we explored how schools can help young people develop practical preparedness and resilience in response to increasing heat-related challenges.

This collaboration culminated in a recent Ideation Day, where educators, researchers, designers and partner schools came together at Sydney University to explore how children can become active contributors to community resilience. Drawing on extensive research and discovery work, participants considered how schools can move beyond simply teaching about heat to empowering students to investigate real world challenges, develop decision making skills and take meaningful action within their communities.

Throughout the day, teams worked through a structured design process, exploring ideas such as citizen science, place-based investigations, family preparedness activities and community engagement projects. By the conclusion of the workshop, two promising prototype concepts had emerged and were selected for further development and testing. These prototypes will move into classroom trials during Term 4, where students and teachers will help shape the next phase of the project.

While the immediate focus is on the development of resources for Year 5 and Year 6 students, MLC School sees broader possibilities. The partnership aligns strongly with the School’s commitment to community engagement, student agency and interdisciplinary learning. Looking ahead, MLC School hopes to explore ways of embedding this work across the wider school community through storytelling, community conversations, family learning opportunities and initiatives that strengthen resilience beyond the classroom.

This evolving partnership demonstrates the value of bringing together schools, universities and community organisations to address complex challenges. By contributing to the co-design and testing of innovative learning experiences, MLC School is helping shape an initiative that has the potential to strengthen preparedness, learning and resilience for young people, families and communities well beyond our own campus.

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– Cathryn Moore
Strategic Projects Leader