Sheldon College has earned a place on The Educator’s national 5-Star Innovative Schools list of 2025, recognised for a whole-college approach to artificial intelligence in teaching and learning that spans early primary through to Year 12.
The accolade, awarded by The Educator, Australia’s leading education news publication, places Sheldon College among a select group of Australian schools at the recognised frontier of educational practice. For families in Brisbane’s bayside, it adds another national credential to a college that has quietly built one of the most decorated profiles of any independent school in Queensland.
An AI Framework Built From the Ground Up
The recognition centres on Sheldon College’s AI Implementation Framework, a structured, college-wide strategy that treats artificial intelligence not as a bolt-on tool but as a subject of critical inquiry woven into everyday teaching. At the core of this framework sits the AI Champions Team, a group of staff drawn from across the college, tasked with evaluating emerging technologies, supporting teachers in designing innovative approaches and establishing consistent guidelines for the ethical and effective use of AI in classrooms.
That team approach matters because it distributes expertise rather than concentrating it. A program of professional learning has run alongside the framework, designed to demystify AI for staff and enable them to apply it confidently in lesson design, assessment and student engagement. The result, according to the college’s head of digital pedagogy and innovation Adam Moss, is an approach grounded in evidence-based practice rather than novelty.
The numbers support that claim. In both 2024 and 2025, Sheldon College surveyed students in Years 7 to 12 asking whether they felt engaged in their lessons. The proportion responding “always” rose from 39 per cent in 2024 to 44 per cent in 2025, a measurable shift the college attributes to its innovation-driven teaching and learning programs. A separate snapshot survey of 50 teachers in early 2025 found that 70 per cent had moved beyond initial exploration of AI tools into meaningful integration in their classrooms.
From Prep to Year 12: Technology Embedded at Every Level
The framework reaches into the earliest years of learning as well as the senior college. In the junior college, Apple Classroom has been introduced from Prep to Year 3, giving teachers the ability to guide learning in real time, view student screens, share resources and lock devices when needed, creating a more structured and distraction-free learning environment.
Further up the school, Year 5 to 12 students work with generative AI tools designed to function as on-demand tutors, while a pilot using NotebookLM as an independent learning tool for Year 8 students is planned for 2026, enabling students to set learning goals, identify areas for improvement and direct their own inquiry into areas of personal interest.
The college also plans to launch an entrepreneurship and incubation hub, connecting students with local business mentors and start-up leaders to tackle real-world challenges. For a school already running an Aviation and Space Academy in partnership with Australian Wings Academy and a performing arts programme with more than 1,000 students enrolled, the hub would extend an already distinctive co-curricular offering.
A College With a Track Record of National Recognition
The 5-Star Innovative Schools listing is the latest in a consistent run of national recognition for Sheldon College. The college holds excellence awardee status for Primary School of the Year in the non-government category at the 2025 Australian Education Awards, a parallel excellence awardee recognition for Best School Strategic Plan, and a 5-Star Employers of Choice designation from The Educator for 2025. It also received the Performing Arts School of the Year Award from the Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association in 2025.
Founded in 1997 by Lyn Bishop, previously a principal at Alexandra Hills State High School, Sheldon College opened with around 100 students and has since grown to become one of the largest schools in Redland City. Today it runs from 15 months of age through to Year 12, encompassing early learning, a junior college, a middle and senior college, the Australian School of the Arts, and the Aviation and Space Academy.
Sheldon College is also one of only three school-based Tennis Australia National Talent Hubs in the country and the only one in Greater Brisbane. The breadth of that recognition across academics, arts, sport and now innovation technology reflects a college that has built deliberately across multiple pillars rather than betting on a single point of difference.
Open Day and Enrolment Information
Families interested in seeing the college’s programmes firsthand can attend the Open Day on Saturday 7 March 2026. Sheldon College accepts enrolments from 15 months through to Year 12 and offers private bus routes in addition to Transdev Queensland services. Bookings for tours, enrolment applications and full programme details are available at sheldoncollege.com or by calling (07) 3206 5555.
Published 2-March-2026.
