Independent Schools Guide 2024: Building body parts (and future CEOS)

Schools are increasingly forming partnerships with outside organisations to extend their students’ learning beyond the classroom, and the results can be astonishing.

At Wesley College, students have entered the cutting-edge world of biomedical engineering by creating prosthetic body parts in partnership with Anatomics, a Melbourne company that makes and supplies surgical implants globally.

Wesley Head of Design and Technology Christine Dostie says Year 10 students are making human cranial and sternum implants under Anatomics’ guidance, based on patient profiles supplied by the company.

“We worked with Anatomics to develop patient case studies,” she says.

“Not real patients … but from their experience, we developed studies that students can develop empathy maps from, to understand a patient’s lifestyle.

“From there, they decide what kind of material and design best suits that individual patient.

“Different clay models are their first point of iteration, then we 3D-scan their models into a CAD [computer-aided design] software called Fusion 360, which students can further modify based on Anatomics’ data. Then it gets 3D printed.”

Dostie says Wesley’s “build a body part” subject blends design and innovation with knowledge of advanced software, biology, technology and maths.

“Anatomics were completely blown away by our students’ ability to think critically and problem-solve at such a young age,” she says.

Elsewhere, all-girls school Toorak College, in Mount Eliza, has seven partnerships with local, national and international organisations that offer a large range of learning possibilities from IT to finance and construction, to better prepare its students for high profile careers in the future.

“We consult with industry partners to develop a curriculum across our Senior School,” says Deputy Head of Senior School for Academic Growth Kate Brown.

One example is the school’s Year 8 partnership with engineering company Seymour Whyte.

“The collaborations provide authentic learning experiences that challenge our students to critically think from a variety of lenses, such as legal, environmental, social and technical,” Brown says.

“At Year 8, representatives from industry act as mentors [to] our students as they complete a project called Mornington 2036.

“The project is completed in a unique Toorak College compulsory subject called Agile Learning.

“The students examine what needs to happen below the earth, at ground level and above, with a focus on sustainability and the future needs of
the Mornington Peninsula community.”

Principal Kristy Kendall says the school’s partnership program opens students up to the world around them and the exciting range of possibilities that it contains.

“There’s an enormous gap now in females taking on leadership, CEO positions and board positions,” she says. “In fact, recent data shows the trend is going backwards, so we’re  looking to address that.”