Story Hubs

Story Hubs is a school and community program aimed at developing curious, confident and engaged learners. We work with a school to develop a unique co-designed Story Hub - a wondrous and imaginative new space built within the school, providing an opportunity for students and teachers to step outside the boundaries of their classrooms.

In their Story Hub students collaborate and take creative risks in their learning and teachers use the space as a tool to transform their practice and support creativity.

What’s a Story Hub? Find out in this video!

Find out more about Story Hubs by downloading our program prospectus for 2024, or the “What, Why, How?” information package for the 2024-2026 intake. You can also read about our outcomes, including independent evaluation reports for the program, in the “Want to Know More?” section on this page.

We’re looking for new Story Hub schools!

Three young people in school uniforms share and write ideas during a Story Hubs co-design workshop in Geelong.

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are currently open for schools wishing to join the Story Hubs program in 2024 and 2025!

Check out the Story Hubs Prospectus for all the details and requirements, then fill out the online EOI form. Story Hubs Manager Jessica Tran will be touch! If you have specific questions, you can also email Jess.

100 Story Building will have 1-on-1 discussions with Principals before finalising our new Story Hubs schools and scheduling the first activities for 2024.

The First Three Years of a Story Hub

  • An illustration of students and teachers talking and drawing ideas on a large sheet of paper with "What If..." written in its centre.

    Year 1: Sparking Creativity

    We guide you to build and launch your Story Hub through co-design sessions and a whole-school consultation. We also spark creativity in students and teachers through classroom workshops, professional learning, coaching and reflection.

  • Year 2: Nurturing Creativity

    We support ongoing use of the Hub through responsive professional learning, plus coaching and classroom observation for individual teachers. We’ll also help you establish either a Writer’s Notebook program, or a lunchtime or after-school Creative Writing program.

  • An illustration of an octopus engaged in various creative activities with its arms, including drawing, painting, writing, rolling dice and playing with a small octopus puppet.

    Year 3: Sustaining Creativity

    We support teachers to create resources, build capacity and use what they’ve learned in yearly plans and curriculum units. This is alongside ongoing coaching, and the sharing of resources with the Story Hubs network.

Case Studies

Two children in high-visibility vests, one wearing gloves, glasses and a hard hat, point devices at a wall made of phones, televisions, switches, dials and other old technology.

Meadows Primary

An inter-dimensional traffic control room.

A photo of the a classroom, with students at desks with pencils and paper. The walls are painted in swirls of two shades of leafy green. In the centre of frame an old, gnarled tree erupts from the floor, hung with small colourful birdhouses.

Copperfield College

A gateway to a dragon’s den.

Geelong Story Hub

Portal-pipes link Whittington and St Leonards Primary Schools to a strange underworld.

A photo of a classroom in which students sit with pencil and paper at a large desk next to a big window. The walls are decorated in different colours, and a transparent box containing a magic wand hangs from the ceiling.

Sunshine Primary

A place of light and dark magic.

Want to Know More?

  • An evaluation of the Story Hubs pilot program by Clear Horizon showed improved student and teacher outcomes.

    • Students showed higher engagement, idea generation, agency and improved attitudes towards writing.

    • Students were excited about their work and displayed agency and ownership over their writing.

    • They enjoyed slowing down, using their imaginations and being more creative.

    Teachers improved their capacity to support student learning and creativity:

    • Teachers improved their own confidence and enjoyment of teaching.

    • Applied various methods to support student idea generation and writing engagement.

    • Integrated what they learnt into curriculum units and lesson plans.

  • The outcomes for children and young people are guided by the Story Hubs Theory of Change which focuses on:

    • Engagement in learning

    • Confidence

    • Literacy and critical thinking

    The Theory of Change was developed alongside the Story Hubs Pilot program, with support from our evaluation partner Clear Horizon.

  • You can read more about the pilot program and its impact in the final evaluation prepared by Clear Horizon:

  • Since 2023 we’ve worked with five new schools to create three new Story Hubs. Below are the evaluations of this program so far, prepared by Clear Horizon.

  • Learn more about the original three-year pilot in these reports:

Story Hub Media Coverage

29 April 2020: Space of Wonder, KOS Magazine

19 February 2020: Interview in Backstory, Triple R Radio

10 February 2020: Getting the creative juices flowing, and helping a community, Probono Australia

30 September 2019: Story hub helps build creativity at Meadows Primary School, Star Weekly

August 2019: ABC Radio Melbourne, Afternoons with Richelle Hunt, Interview about creativity in schools

Current Story Hub Partners

Geelong East Primary School
South Geelong Primary School
Carlton Primary School
Sunshine College
Sunshine North Primary School
Dinjerra Primary School

Story Hub Pilot Partners (2018-2021)

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Supporters

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Victorian State Government - Department of Education
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Story Hubs is supported by the Ian Potter Foundation, Brian M. Davis Charitable Foundation, the Ian & Shirley Norman Foundation, the Ross Trust, the Anthony Costa Foundation, the Bank of Melbourne Foundation, and the Victorian Department of Education.

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