Designing high school outdoor spaces that support student wellbeing
How can schoolyards be designed to improve adolescents’ wellbeing?
What evidence and guidance do designers and school leaders in Australia need to improve schoolyard design?
These questions are the focus of a two-year research project led by Dr Gweneth Leigh, AILA/RLA. Gweneth is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Mental Health Policy Unit at the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute.
As she notes: “Little is known about the effect of schoolyard design in shaping student behaviour and wellbeing. Adolescents have specific physical, social and psychological needs, but, currently, there are no national guidelines for how to design schoolyards to meet these needs.”
This project aims to fill this gap through:
generating a body of evidence to document the impact of schoolyard design on student wellbeing and outcomes, and
creating a Schoolyard Greenprint Guide for design professionals that articulates and illustrates design proposals for outdoor school spaces that foster student wellbeing; to be launched in late 2026 at a “Greening the Schoolyard Summit.”
The project is funded through Hort Innovations’ Frontiers program, with co-investment from the Landscape Foundation Australia (LFA), and contributions from the Australian Government.
When adults look at the grounds of a high school like the one shown above, they tend to focus on well-tended and spacious green space.
When students describe how they experience the same space, their responses provide this kind of information.
Two LFA directors—Linda Corkery and Noel Corkery — work closely with the research team on its Working Group. Miriam Shevland, FRLA, represents AILA on the project’s Reference Group of some 25 organisations which meets quarterly to give feedback on emerging findings.
Most importantly, Youth Voices are represented by a diverse group of young people who are co-researchers on the project, providing valuable commentary and feedback.
The project commenced in August 2024 and to date has completed a range of activities, including:
a ‘Schoolyard Infrastructure Inventory’ using MetroMap to analyze geospatial data for 108 randomly selected secondary schools from across Australia
a scoping review of secondary schoolyard design guidelines and standards
a ‘listening and learning tour’ comprising online stakeholder workshops, covering aspects of health and wellbeing, schoolyard needs and strengths, gender and inclusivity, governance and design excellence
a series of virtual youth stakeholder workshops
presentations to various audiences, eg. the Learning Environments Australasia conference, NSW Government Architect’s office, Illawarra Region Principals’ Association.
The Schoolyard Greenprint research team will engage with stakeholders and collect data throughout the rest of 2025 and into 2026. They are eager to hear from anyone involved with the design, management, and/or administration of schoolyards—particularly high schools and/or secondary colleges, and they invite people to:
nominate and send photos of an excellent schoolyard design
respond to the 3-question survey on the Project’s website.
Find out more and stay informed about emerging findings at the
Schoolyard Greenprint project website.
You can also contact the research team directly via email.