Future Ready Schools: A Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Learning Hubs

South Australia's public schools sit on some of the most valuable and underused infrastructure in the state — hundreds of sites, rooftops, and grounds embedded in every community. What if they were more than places to learn?

Future Ready Schools reimagines public schools as high-quality learning environments that also work as community energy generators and climate resilience hubs — solar-powered, storm-ready, and open to the neighbourhoods around them.

This session brings together interested people to map both the risks facing SA schools in a changing climate — extreme heat, disrupted learning days, aging facilities — and the opportunities on the other side of that challenge: lower operating costs, cleaner energy, and schools that double as refuges and assets when the community and needs them most.

Presented and facilitated by Beth Mitchell, founder of Future Ready Schools. With more than 20 years experience in asset management, climate and energy policy and strategic leadership, Beth has held strategic roles with universities, the ACT Government and Beyond Zero Emissions, working across government, industry and the community sector to deliver practical, place based solutions for Australia's clean energy transition.

Join us to explore what a future-ready school looks like in South Australia — and what it would take to build one.

You'll leave with:

• A clear picture of the climate risks facing SA school infrastructure

• Examples of schools already generating energy and building resilience

• The funding, policy, and partnership levers that make it possible

• Practical entry points for schools, councils, and community groups to get involved