Wesley College’s Elsternwick Campus will host two leading educators from Australia and the United States on Saturday 17 October for the Project Zero Australia Network conference, Navigating Creativity: From Slow Looking to Bold Thinking.
Part of the 2026 ReimaginED Festival of Learning, the free conference is open to educators from schools across all sectors and will explore how creativity, curiosity and deeper thinking can become part of everyday learning.
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.
Wesley’s second keynote speaker, Andrew Pennay, Director of Creative Arts at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, will explore how creative thinking can move from an occasional spark to a daily culture, creating space for transformative learning and challenging convention.
Andrew 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 Project Zero ideas including:
Wesley’s 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,” Cameron says.
“We’re particularly pleased to be able to open the conversation beyond Wesley and bring educators together around ideas that have influenced our own practice.”
The Project Zero Australia Network is a community of educators inspired by ideas from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including Visible Thinking and Teaching for Understanding. The network was co-founded by Cameron Paterson and, while independent of Harvard, shares its ideas through free professional learning grounded in research and practice.
Date: Saturday 17 OctoberTime: 8.30am–1pmVenue: Wesley College Elsternwick Campus, 5 Gladstone Parade, ElsternwickRegistrations: Project Zero Australia Network
Wesley College is a coeducational, open-entry IB World School with a history spanning more than 160 years. Its three metropolitan campuses are located at Elsternwick, Glen Waverley and St Kilda Road.
Wesley College Melbourne, Registered School No 1, is a coeducational, open-entry school of the Uniting Church with a rich tradition […]