What if our obsession with grades is getting in the way of education itself?

Join Melbourne secondary teacher and Chesterton Academy co-founder Conor Ross as we escape the “Industrial-Assessment-Grading-Complex” and explore a more authentically human approach to assessment.

Drawing on classical education—ancient and modern—this highly practical workshop will explore:

• what our assessment systems assume about education
• classical approaches inspired by the concept of leisure
• recognised alternatives such as the Classical Learning Test
• designing meaningful assessment in the age of AI

Philosophical enough to challenge your assumptions. Practical enough to take back to your classroom.

Come and rethink the purpose and means for assessment that blesses.

What is worthy of our students’ attention?

We are living through an attention crisis. Distraction is increasingly shaping not only how young people spend their time, but how they read, learn, think and encounter the world.

In Scholé & Attention, teacher and school leader Chris McCumstie explores the classical ideal of scholé—not simply as “leisure”, but as an atmosphere, disposition and way of approaching education.

What might change if our schools were deliberately ordered towards attention?

Chris will explore practical choices in school structures, classroom environments, curriculum and pedagogy that can help students encounter things genuinely worthy of their attention—and form them as deep readers, thoughtful responders and people capable of contemplation.

Chris has worked in Catholic and independent schools across Victoria and Queensland and has been involved in Classical Education initiatives for a number of years. He is a sessional lecturer in Religious Education at Campion College and, in 2026, launched Southern Light, providing community, formation and resources for parents and educators.

What does a hand-crafted wooden bucket have in common with an autonomous search-and-rescue drone?

Perhaps more than we might think.

The high school Technologies classroom may seem an unlikely place to encounter the Liberal Arts tradition. Yet look more closely and we find extraordinary opportunities for students to experience the true, the good and the beautiful through making.

Consider the patience and quiet satisfaction of a Year 10 student crafting a traditional wooden bucket with 200-year-old hand tools. Or the growing love of geometry and logic as another watches an autonomous search-and-rescue drone successfully deliver a care package—knowing the mathematical reasoning that made its flight possible.

Can the Technologies classroom participate fully in Liberal Arts renewal?

This presentation explores how thoughtful curriculum selection and pedagogy can transform Technologies from a merely utilitarian subject into a place of craftsmanship, intellectual formation, embodied knowledge and genuine human flourishing.

Learn how the Technologies classroom might contribute to cultural renewal in our schools.