Z-Block · SCU Lismore
IB World School
First IB Diploma school · North Coast NSW
Living Academy
Change your mind — a purposefully designed Year 9–13 pathway with international mindedness, on a university campus.
NESA registered
Accredited high school. Living Academy is a NESA-registered Year 9–13 programme — serious schooling, progressive design.
IB World School
First IB Diploma on the North Coast. A global qualification with local roots — universities worldwide, and a mind that travels.
Campus in a university
Southern Cross University. Adolescents learn inside a tertiary precinct — outlook, maturity, and belonging beyond the school gate.
Official IB World School · Diploma Programme pathway · Scholarships close 28 August 2026
Limited places · Years 9–12 · IB scholarships
Academy Scholarships — a school for bigger futures
Full tuition remission for the two-year IB Diploma. We seek exceptional young people in Mathematics, Science or Creative Arts — curious, courageous, kind, and ready to grow.
Mathematics
Reasoning, problem-solving and intellectual curiosity at the edge of what you already know.
Science
Inquiry, experimentation and a drive to understand the world deeply.
Creative Arts
Visual arts, music, theatre, design or performance — craft with courage.
For parents & students
A small school for adolescents who want more than a corridor of classrooms
Living Academy is Living School’s Year 9–13 programme: expeditionary Stage 5 years that seed curiosity and character, then an International Baccalaureate Diploma built for international mindedness — or clear pathways into trades and training.
We are deliberately small. Students are known. Learning is for life, not only for marks. Our three cultural garden beds — Care, Curriculum, and Citizenship — hold academic rigour beside community, service, and sustainability.
If the HSC is not your pathway after Year 11 — or you want a global option from the start of senior school — IB One at Living Academy opens universities around the world, with a rich core of philosophy, research, and service.
Challenge that grows you
Stage 5 · Thriver DNA
Years 9 and 10 carry Living School’s expeditionary culture forward — learn in context, adventure away from home, and meet personal challenge as a rite of passage. Same Challenge by Choice ethic: stretch, never despair.
A mind that travels
IB Diploma · Years 11–13
International mindedness is not a slogan. Students learn to hold multiple perspectives, languages, and knowledge systems — Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity, Service at the centre.
Many good futures
University · trades · training
IB for global tertiary access. HSC subjects available via distance education where needed. Vocational and apprenticeship pathways for students whose hands and craft are their calling.
One Academy · two clear stages
From Stage 5 expeditions to the IB Diploma
Parents need a simple map. Students need a story they can belong to. Here is both.
Years 9 & 10
Stage 5 · Expeditions & seeding
Expeditions across Australia. Seeding for IB habits of mind. Pathways toward trades. Challenge, engagement, understanding — the Thriver arc at Academy scale.
Explore Stage 5 Expeditions
Years 11, 12 & 13
IB Diploma Programme
Six subject groups. Theory of Knowledge. Extended Essay. CAS. Respect, curiosity, relationships — and a qualification recognised by universities worldwide.
Learn about the IB DiplomaIB World School · International mindedness
Why families choose the IB — not only “another certificate”
Founded in 1968, the International Baccalaureate Diploma develops the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalising world.
On the North Coast of NSW, Living Academy is the first IB World School to offer a dedicated Diploma pathway. Students study six subjects, complete independent research, question how knowledge works, and serve community — concurrency of learning, not siloed subjects alone.
Teaching is inquiry-based, conceptual, local and global, collaborative, differentiated, and informed by assessment — the six IB pedagogical principles, aligned with Living School’s vision.
Theory of Knowledge
Ask how we know what we claim to know — across disciplines, cultures, and lived experience.
Extended Essay
Independent research and writing on a question that matters to the student — university-ready stamina.
Creativity, Activity, Service
Experiential learning beyond the timetable — creative practice, physical challenge, and citizenship in action.
“What matters is not the absorption and regurgitation of fact, but the development of powers of the mind which can be applied to new situations as they arise.”A.D.C. Peterson — on the founding spirit of the Diploma Programme
Living School culture · Academy years
Care. Curriculum. Citizenship.
Three garden beds — not marketing pillars. Everything we plant for adolescents grows in one of these.
Care
Relationships first. A School Advocate, learning support, and adults who know when challenge becomes overwhelm. Challenge by Choice holds the line.
Curriculum
IB Diploma depth, conceptual understanding, Toddle as the learning portal — and creative, expressive, and design pathways that keep the whole person awake.
Citizenship
Community, service, sustainability, and international mindedness — students practise belonging to something larger than themselves.
IB Learner Profile · Living School VAST
Who we are growing — not only what we teach
The IB educates the whole person for lifelong learning and responsible citizenship. Living Academy holds the same aim through Living School’s HOLO lens and VAST qualities for success.
We strive for the IB Learner Profile across the Academy community — attributes practised in subjects, the Core (TOK, Extended Essay, CAS), expeditions, and daily relationships.
VAST — Values, Attitudes and Skills — is Living School’s language for universal qualities of success. It sits alongside the Learner Profile: not a second checklist, but how we name growth in school life and beyond the gate.
Place
Embedded in Southern Cross University
Our campus sits in the heart of SCU — Z-Block, Military Drive, East Lismore — with the outlook and atmosphere of a tertiary precinct.
Adolescents deserve a setting that signals the next chapter. Living Academy launches the IB Diploma inside this facility — close to university life, still held inside Living School’s culture of care.
“There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”Kurt Hahn — spirit behind expeditionary learning and Outward Bound
People who hold the programme
Academy leadership
A full teaching team stands behind every class — here are the three leads parents meet first. Ask the office for the complete staff directory.
Jake Parmenter
Director of Academy
Experienced History and TAS teacher with Deputy Principal experience — culture, operations, and student belonging.
Sara Correia
IB Coordinator
Experienced IB Coordinator — design and visual arts — holding Diploma integrity, subject pathways, and international standards.
Rebecca Balfour
NESA · English & Drama
Experienced HSC English and Drama teacher — registration, literacy, and expressive pathways across the Academy.
Next step
Come and see Living Academy for yourself
Scholarships close 28 August 2026. Or start enrolment, book a campus visit, or talk with us about Stage 5 or the IB Diploma.
(02) 5632 1218 · office@living.school · Brochure · IB policies · living.school · Z-Block, Southern Cross University, East Lismore 2480