Exposure
Heat, solar radiation, shade, surfaces and regional conditions.
Current research program
Heat-Safe Schools
An Australian program with international relevance, researching how heat, solar exposure, shade, infrastructure, policy and local practice shape participation and safety at school.
The problem
How heat shapes the school day
Exposure is shaped by the interaction between local climate, the school grounds, available shade, schedules, activities, guidance and the decisions schools can realistically enact.
Heat-Safe Schools connects environmental evidence with the everyday realities of schools to identify where risk, guidance and capacity are unevenly distributed.
Current work brings together national exposure mapping across more than 11,000 Australian school locations, analysis of public guidance and research into what schools can enact in practice.
The initial school-focused program is based in New South Wales, while national mapping and international comparison provide the wider context.
Current program
From exposure to enactment
The program connects environmental measurement with school experience, policy guidance and local capacity.
Experience
How students and staff encounter, interpret and respond to heat.
Guidance
What policies and public resources ask schools to do, and what they leave unresolved.
Enactment
How infrastructure, staffing, routines and local capacity shape action.
Connected climate portfolio
Weather becomes educational through conditions.
Current analyses extend beyond temperature alone to examine how climate exposure, infrastructure, policy and local capacity combine across different school communities.
National school exposure
Spatial analysis across more than 11,000 Australian school locations provides a national foundation for examining unequal exposure.
Heat vulnerability
Current research examines which Australian schools and communities face the greatest combinations of heat exposure and contextual vulnerability.
Rainfall and outdoor participation
Accepted in the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, When the schoolyard gets wet maps rainfall exposure at 11,025 Australian schools in 2025. The 1,112 high-rainfall schools represent more than 440,000 student enrolments.
Read the findings and accepted abstractGuidance and enactment
Policy, public information and local practice are examined to identify what schools are asked to do and what implementation requires.
Evidence status
Published, accepted and ongoing research
Heat-Safe Schools includes work supported through an internal Charles Sturt University cross-disciplinary research funding initiative. Formal project governance, expenditure and research processes remain within the relevant University arrangements.
The established foundation includes prior peer-reviewed and public scholarship on weather, heat, school environments and policy. National heat-exposure and heat-vulnerability analyses described here remain current research.
The national rainfall study, When the schoolyard gets wet, was accepted for publication in the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education in October 2026. Its exposure findings and accepted abstract are available on the Research page.
Published foundation · 2021
Public perspectives on school heat protection
Brendon Hyndman and Lucie Zundans-Fraser examined public responses to a proposed national school heat-protection policy. The study considered implications for policy communication and implementation.
Read the researchCurrent research · September 2026
Protocols and open research
These public research plans document the questions, methods and scope of the current Heat-Safe studies. Findings will be reported separately as the research progresses.
Scoping review plan · Open Science Framework
School-level responses to extreme heat
This review will map real-world school heat-protection responses across countries, how they operate, and what is reported about their implementation and implications for student health, wellbeing and physical activity.
Study protocol · Open Science Framework
Heat-Safe Schooling in regional, rural and remote NSW
The NSW study combines an exposure-informed school website and document audit with an independently recruited workforce survey to examine how heat guidance is publicly communicated and reportedly enacted.
Project team
Education, health, climate and place.
The project combines expertise in schooling, physiology, adolescent wellbeing, rural public health, place-responsive research and implementation.
Founder and Chief Investigator
Associate Professor Brendon Hyndman
School of Education, Charles Sturt University
Brendon founded and leads the School Conditions Lab. His research connects play, movement, school environments, climate exposure, supervision and everyday routines with children’s and teachers’ wellbeing, belonging and learning.
Research lead profile
Co-investigator
Dr Shukla Sikder
Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Charles Sturt University
Shukla’s research spans STEAM education, cultural-historical theory, inclusive and play-based pedagogy, and digital video observation across early childhood, primary and higher education. She brings child rights, holistic development and culturally responsive play perspectives to both programs.
Research profile
Co-investigator
Dr Melissa Skein
Associate Head (Courses), School of Allied Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences, Charles Sturt University
Melissa is an exercise and sport scientist whose research examines exercise, sleep, performance, thermal stress, recovery and adaptation across adolescents, athletes, shift workers and people living with chronic conditions. She brings human physiology and heat-health expertise to Heat-Safe Schools.
Research profile
Co-investigator
Dr Holly Randell-Moon
Charles Sturt University
Holly’s research spans regional communities, First Nations issues, place-based methodologies and Indigenist climate-aware framing. She strengthens the program’s attention to non-metropolitan contexts and helps ensure research development is responsive to community and place.
Research profileCo-investigator
Dr Subash Thapa
Senior Research Fellow, Rural Health Research Institute, Charles Sturt University
Subash is a rural public-health epidemiologist researching how environmental, social and interpersonal adversities shape health across the life course, particularly for young people in rural and remote settings. His expertise spans social epidemiology, data linkage, mixed-methods implementation research and climate-related mental health.
Research profile
Research Assistant
Dr Kirstie Northfield
Researcher and educator
Kirstie researches adolescent mental health, wellbeing and supportive educational environments. Her doctoral research examined the accuracy of parent and teacher appraisals of adolescent wellbeing and the factors influencing those judgements. She contributes evidence synthesis and school-community insight to Heat-Safe Schools.
Professional profileResearch context
Connected to a growing international field.
Australian school heat policy argument HeatReady Schools international reference External references are provided for field context and do not imply project affiliation.