The Starting Line
Over the past two years, 7,589 students in 91 Australian schools told us how confident they are in the capabilities that shape how they learn and live — curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, communication, action and agility.
Now, we're building Australia's first national snapshot.
Same finish line.
Very different starting line.
Over the past five years, we've been building our research-backed approach to explicitly teaching, and measuring capabilities in the classroom. You might know these as the General Capabilities, 'soft' skills, 21st Century Skills, employability skills, enterprise skills or future skills in your context.
Yet, while reading, writing and numeracy are measured, almost no school has data on its students' capabilities.
We've started to build this story (see more on this data in Nic Dyson's latest blog here), but we need your help.
We're opening up The Starting Line. A national benchmark of student capabilities, open to every Australian school for the first time in Term 4 2026.
Taking part is easy and free.
Step 1: Fill in a short EOI (below) to register your school's interest to participate and find out more.
Step 2: Stay tuned for an implementation guide stepping you through how to participate in The Starting Line.
Step 3: During the survey period (Term 4) your students will complete a short (7–10 minutes) anonymous survey during a time of your choosing. See more on the survey and what we collect in the FAQs below.
Step 4: You receive a detailed report of your students' capability profile giving your school evidence for planning, teaching and school improvement conversations.
But, perhaps more importantly, for the first time in Australia, your students' responses will strengthen a national picture published in The Starting Line Report, to be released in early 2027.
Register your school's interest
Registering your interest takes two minutes and commits your school to nothing. Full registration follows in late September with the Implementation Guide. The Starting Line survey runs at a time of your choosing during the first four weeks of Term 4. Registrations for participation in The Starting Line close Friday 2 October.
We think every question is important. Here are the most frequently asked.
If you can't find the answer you're looking for, please reach out to our friendly team.
Who takes the survey, and how long does it take?
Students in Years 5–12, at any Australian school. Bring a single class, a year-level cohort, or your whole school - whatever is manageable for you. A teacher runs a short online survey within a class of your choosing during the first four weeks of Term 4. Students access the online survey and answer individually and anonymously, in one sitting of about 7–10 minutes. There's nothing to prepare beforehand and nothing to mark afterwards - it's easy for any class teacher to run, at any time, and designed to borrow a short amount of class time for completion.
Is it a test? What are the questions like?
Not at all. The survey simply asks students how they see themselves - it's a self-report measure of capability confidence, so there's no such thing as a wrong answer. And because it measures confidence rather than performance, nothing is scored, ranked or turned into a league table. Every question starts with "I can" - for example: "I can ask questions when I don't understand something or feel stuck" - answered on a five-point scale from "I don't know what this is or how to do this" through to "I can do this so well that I can teach others to do it." For each of the six capabilities within The Future Anything Capability Framework, students answer one quick understanding question and a short set of these "I can" statements - six questions per capability for secondary students (Years 7–12), three questions per capability in the primary version of the survey (Years 5–6).
What does it cost, and what does our school get?
Participation is free. Each school receives a snapshot of its data soon after the survey window closes - an early capture of your school's results - with a more detailed report disseminated alongside the national report in early 2027. Your snapshot will show the capability profile of each registered cohort separately, so a school that surveys several year levels sees these results side by side, year level by year level: whether capability confidence climbs in a straight line, dips into a U-shape, or does something else entirely. All participating schools also receive a detailed implementation guide to support The Starting Line process, from registration through to survey day, and there's no obligation to purchase anything from Future Anything - your school's voice strengthens the national picture and that's the exchange.
How do we run the survey?
Everything you need arrives in your implementation guide - a step-by-step guide to the whole process, from registration through to survey day. On the day itself, a teacher simply shares an online survey link and your school's access code, and students complete the survey online in class. Students will need their own device, and access to WiFi. If you'd like to sense-check any blockers or barriers (including tech access!) before registering your interest, feel welcome to reach out - hello@futureanything.com. For school settings where tech access may prove a barrier, we can work with you to find an analogue solution.
What data is collected, and how is privacy protected?
Less than you might expect. When your school registers, we issue your school with a unique access code - students enter this code when they begin, so every response arrives against a code rather than your school's name. From students, we collect their survey answers, their year level, and two optional questions (gender, and whether they identify as Aboriginal and/orTorres Strait Islander, each with a "prefer not to say" option) - nothing more. No student names, emails, dates of birth, logins or free-text fields, and no academic results, attendance or behaviour records. Like-school comparisons are constructed from publicly accessible, school-level information published by ACARA - including your school's ICSEA value, sector, geographic location classification, and state or territory. Results can't point back to any individual student - your school's report is cohort-level only, and individual responses are never reported. No school will be identifiable in public reporting. Your implementation guide includes a detailed overview of all of this, and we're super happy to troubleshoot any barriers, blockers or questions. Just reach out to us at hello@futureanything.com
Have a question we haven't answered?
Get in touch! Email hello@futureanything.com - we'll be glad to talk these questions through before you register.