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Extracurricular Opportunities There is a sophisticated network of activities, competitions and programs available across NSW, all designed to enhance and encourage your child’s skills and socialisation outside of the school environment. Whatever your child’s special interests, you are sure to find something to occupy and stimulate them.
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Performing arts
The Arts Unit within the NSW Department of Education and Training organises and delivers high profile public performances and activities involving more than 29,000 public school students. These include the Schools Spectacular, state drama and dance festivals, the Premier’s Debating Challenge and Premier’s Spelling Bee, public speaking competitions, choral and instrumental concerts and a variety of both departmental and corporate events.
In addition to this, the NSW Arts Unit:
• Develops resources and provides training for teachers across the state;
• Organises and delivers state camps in music dance and drama;
• Has developed regional initiatives in dance and music;
• Tours ensemble groups to country regions as well as interstate and internationally;
• Manages the Performances for Schools program;
• Provides opportunities through the ensembles program for gifted and talented students in choral and instrumental music, dance and drama.
In partnership with the NSW Board of Studies, the Arts Unit organises and manages exhibitions and performances related to the Higher School Certificate such as Artexpress (Visual Arts), Onstage (Drama) and Encore (Music). The Arts Unit also produces CallBack (HSC dance) and manages Operation Art in partnership with Children’s Hospital, Westmead and the Nagoya Art Exchange.
The Schools Spectacular is the highest profile DET event, attracting a live audience of 28,000 and a national ABC television audience of nearly one million.
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The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge®
Nearly 400 schools and 30,000 students will compete in 41 Rock Eisteddfod Challenge® shows in 15 regions across Australia in 2007. Teams as small as 10 or as large as 140 students plan an eight-minute performance around a theme of their choice, set to contemporary and commercially - available music.
The Rock ’n Roll Eisteddfod was born in 1980 as a NSW Arts Council sponsored event, featuring a handful of Sydney high schools at the Hordern Pavilion. It was an idea developed by Sydney radio station 2SM who, with corporate and NSW Arts Council sponsorship, promoted the event as an example of local youth culture in action. In 2003 the former US Ambassador for HIV-AIDS, Dr Jack Chow, asked the REC for assistance with the ongoing battle to prevent the transmission of HIV in South African schools. As a result, the Global Rock Challenge™ was launched in South Africa with the key messages “My Life — I Decide™” and “Be Your Best™”.
In 2004, as part of the 25-year anniversary celebrations, the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge® extended the event into Australian primary schools. J Rock™ launched with a bang, aimed at fighting the increase in childhood obesity by showing participants that getting active and adopting healthy lifestyles can be fun and rewarding.
The Croc Festival® was born out of the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge® in 1998 and has been successfully holding a series of three-day festivals in rural and remote areas of Australia for Indigenous and non-Indigenous primary and secondary school students ever since. The celebration embraces health, education, employment and performing arts in the spirit of reconciliation. In 2006, more than 17,000 students from some 431 schools participated in eight Croc Festival® events.
The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge® is open to all schools at all levels, across Australia, and is also open to community groups. You don’t have to be a dancer, performer or even to have participated before. You don’t even have to have an existing performing arts program or teacher in your school. If your school is low on resources and numbers, up to three schools can join forces to become a combined talent team.
More than one million young people aged six to 19 have performed on stage from Belfast to Albany, Johannesburg to Thursday Island, Dresden to Melbourne, Aberdeen to Auckland and everywhere in between.
The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge® goal
Health — Participants commit to being 100 per cent drug, alcohol and tobacco-free. Research has proven that the event builds resilience and raises awareness of the health problems associated with substance abuse.
Life skills — REC can be an innovative way to encourage students to represent their school outside the traditional sporting arenas, work collectively towards a positive goal and perform on stage in some of Australia’s biggest venues. Students can develop tangible social and management skills, teamwork, leadership and communication skills, acquire problem-solving abilities and see firsthand the rewards of commitment to a task. They also get vocational experience through the designing and building of sets and working with make-up, fundraising and budgeting, planning and scheduling, designing and sewing costumes and, of course, performing.
Creative thinking — Students, teachers, parents and communities work together helping to prepare the school’s performance. After many months of budgeting, design, construction and rehearsals, they present their performance in some of Australia’s premier venues. Show time is a night of true inspiration and entertainment. |
Sport
School sport allows students to apply the skills they have learnt in PE/Health/PD lessons to a variety of organised games and activities. Government primary schools are required to allocate at least 60 minutes per week for sport in Years 3 to 6. Government high schools must allocate 80 to 120 minutes each week to sport for students from Year 7 to Year 11.
Local school sport programs may include inter and intra-school competitive sport, outdoor recreational or adventure sports, fitness, sport development and physical recreation activities. The vast majority of schools take the opportunity to affiliate to their local sport zones in order to provide competition opportunities for their students in summer and winter sports.
In addition to schools providing opportunities for student representation in sport at school and zone levels, representative honours are also offered at region, state, national and international levels by region and state school sport associations.
Regional and state school sport associations offer representative opportunities in 21 sports at the primary level and 28 sports at secondary level. The school sport representative program comprises 800 selection events, championships and carnivals conducted across 10 regions. |
Mental skills
There are two ‘sub-sections’ within the mental skills spectrum. These encompass firstly computing, maths and science areas, and secondly debating, public speaking and ‘mental sports’ activities, such as chess and spelling bees.
If your child has an interest in computing and a talent for design, there is a wide variety of web design competitions held online that you can direct them towards.
Participation happens through the school but entrants are encouraged to form their own teams as well as “have the opportunity to express themselves and to receive positive recognition for their efforts”.
The Investigating: Mathematics Competition is open to all primary and secondary students in NSW. It aims to promote interest in mathematics and to foster positive attitudes towards maths amongst students, teachers and parents. The focus is on the process of mathematical investigations.
The competition aims to capture the imagination of both teachers and students by “looking at real-life situations and finding that mathematics is everywhere”. Students investigate mathematics on an individual, group or class basis with the chance to have fun and see mathematics in real-life situations (and receive some recognition in the process). The work involved can assist students with the Working Mathematically component of the NSW Board syllabus.
All entrants receive certificates of participation and first, second and merit awards are given at each level. There is an awards ceremony early in September. The best entries at state level are entered into the National Maths Talent Quest.
CSIRO’s Double Helix Science Club aims to help children have fun exploring science. It has been running since 1985 and has more than 17,000 current members, with overseas membership options available. It has inspired hundreds of thousands of young Australians to “smile while stretching their minds”.
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Debating & Public Speaking For children who possess a talent and passion for arguing, or just talking, you may want to consider one of the following programs to help direct their enthusiasm in a more productive way! Government-developed and privately run activities such as Mock Trial, debating and public speaking competitions and Tournament of Minds offer a forum for developing children’s confidence, articulation and strategic thinking abilities, as well as their sociability and interactive skills.
Public speaking competitions
All competitions require students to deliver a prepared speech and an impromptu one. Each school may enter a maximum of two students in each division. Students compete in Regional Finals and winners progress to the State Finals.
The Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking Award is open to senior students, aged 15 years and older, from government and non-government schools state-wide. Students deliver an eight-minute prepared speech and a three-minute impromptu speech.
The Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award is open to junior students, aged 12 to 14 years, from government and non-government schools state-wide. Students deliver a five-minute prepared speech and a two-minute impromptu speech.
Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition has two divisions: one for Years 3 and 4, the other for Years 5 and 6. The competition is open to all government primary school students state-wide. Year 3 and 4 students present a three-minute prepared and a one-minute impromptu speech. Year 5 and 6 students present a four-minute prepared and a two-minute impromptu speech.
The Premier’s Spelling Bee features two divisions in this competition: one for Years 3 and 4, the other for Years 5 and 6. Schools may enter up to two students in each division. Students compete in a Regional Final. Winners progress to the State Final. All schools entering receive word lists and support activities.
Mock Trial
The Mock Trial Competition is conducted by the Events Management Department of the Law Society. The competition aims to introduce Year 10 and 11 students to the law and to give them an understanding of the legal system that governs the society in which they live. Here’s how it works:
• The Law Society provides the teams with coaches and magistrates, together with a complete set of the case materials and competition manual.
• Coaches teach the students about court procedure and advocacy techniques. It is anticipated that only two to three hours of coaching will be needed before each trial, although it is up to each coach to decide the level of individual participation.
• The cases are confined to simple criminal and civil matters heard in the Local or District Court.
• The first four rounds of the competition are run on a regional round robin basis and the rounds are held in each of the 10 regions, from February to June. The top 64 scoring teams across the State and the ACT then compete on a knockout basis until two schools are left to meet for the State Grand Final in early December.
• The judging of the trials is less time consuming and usually takes between two to three hours. ‘Magistrates’ are provided with case materials, instructions and a Magistrate’s Manual. Ideally ‘Magistrates’ will judge one to two trials per competition (subject to availability).
All material needed to run the competition is available on the website including the comprehensive Mock Trial Competition manual that details the rules and procedures and the skills that are assessed in each mock trial, a roster for each round and a list of participating schools with the names and telephone numbers of the co-ordinating teachers and coaches. Script material is password protected.
Tournament of Minds
Tournament of Minds is a problem-solving program for teams of students from both primary and secondary years. Teams are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines: Language Literature, Maths Engineering, Social Sciences and new in 2007, Applied Technology.
Tournament of Minds has been one of the fastest-growing, national interschool programs to challenge the youth of Australia and has also expanded into New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The aim is “to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management and the discipline to work collaboratively within a challenging and competitive environment”.
• Teams are required to work together on a Long-Term Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents or peers. They are encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour to produce their best possible solution. The aim for teams is to develop a creative and original way to communicate this solution to others, working within predefined parameters such as limited materials, complex challenge criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day.
• Students present the product of their ideas — their Challenge solution to a panel of judges and an audience on Tournament Day. They have 10 minutes in which to present and must do so within a 3m x 3m area.
• The teams must also participate in an unseen Spontaneous Challenge on Tournament Day. This challenge requires the rapid interchange of ideas, the ability to think creatively, along with well-developed group co-operation skills.
• Judges for both the Long Term and the Spontaneous Challenges are professionals chosen from all areas of education, the arts and industry.
• Teams of seven students, from school entry age to 16 years of age, are invited to participate within two divisions:
The Primary Division must be a mix of students from at least two year levels with a maximum of four students from any one year.
The Secondary Division must be a mix of students from at least two year levels (up to and including 16 years of age) with a minimum of two students from the year of entry to secondary school in your state, and a maximum of four students from any one year.
Premier’s Debating Challenge
• Teams consist of three speakers and a team adviser.
• All five levels of the competition are open to government schools throughout NSW.
• All teams compete at a round robin level. Winners progress to Regional and State Finals.
• All secondary debates are conducted with one hour preparation. Primary debates involve one-and-a-half hour’s preparation.
• Year 12 Hume Barbour Trophy — students speak for 10 minutes, in the Year 11 Karl Cramp Trophy they speak for 10 minutes, in the Years 9 and 10 Teasdale Cup students speak for eight minutes, in Years 7 and 8 for six minutes and in the Years 5 and 6 Hunter Challenge Trophy, for four minutes.
Representative debating
Combined High Schools Debating is open to Year 11 and 12 students. Junior State Debating Championships are open
to Regional Year 9 and 10 teams and Primary Schools State Debating Championships are open to Regional Year 5 and 6 teams. |
| | | | | | | | | | | | More Information Mock Trials - Contact the Mock Trial Co-ordinator at the Law Society of NSW on (61 2) 9926 0253 or email rnc@lawsocnsw.asn.au, or visit the website www.lawsociety.com.au Tournament of Minds - Contact the NSW Director on (02) 4952 2698, email nsw-director@tom.edu.au or visit www.tom.edu.au
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Outdoor education and leadership activities
Millions of Australians participate in outdoor recreation activities including bushwalking, abseiling, climbing, canoeing, camping and rescue, on a regular basis. Outdoor education and adventure training are designed to provide personal, social, environmental, community and educational benefits to participants. While the benefits of working outdoors are well-known, the number of participants involved in outdoor recreation activities has grown considerably in recent years. Outdoor recreation contributes to people’s overall wellbeing and good health. Whether young or old, recreation provides a wide array of opportunities for physical fitness, stress reduction, learning new skills and raising self-esteem.
The Pittwater House Outdoor Education Unit aims to conduct courses that provide graduates with qualities that employers are commonly looking for in today’s workplace. These include responsibility, management, leadership and risk analysis, as well as maturity and reliability. More importantly, it provides graduates with vital hands-on experience in a variety of outdoor adventurous skills and settings.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | More Information Please contact Harriet Gall on (02) 9981 4400 or email Outdoored@tphs.nsw.edu.au | | | | | | | | | | | | |
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is an international ‘leadership in action’ program, available to all young people aged between 14 and 25. Being voluntary, flexible, non-competitive, balanced, progressive, challenging and most of all enjoyable, it provides an opportunity for young people to achieve personal excellence and build self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-motivation and respect for others via their involvement in service, skill, physical recreation and expedition activities.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was introduced in Australia in 1962 to encourage and motivate young people to become involved in a balanced program of voluntary self-development activities.
Over the past 50 years, the Award has developed and grown, touching the lives of young people in more than 110 countries. The program is continually updated and modified to suit the changing demands of modern society and the current needs of young people.
Since the Award program began in Australia, more than 400,000 young people have commenced an award with approximately 250,000 completing an award. More than 15,000 young people have achieved the prestigious Gold Award.
The Award program is designed to introduce young people to adventurous activities and to instil in them a sense of community responsibility, while learning new skills and becoming more physically active. Award participants have contributed more than six million hours of community service.
Award holders are keenly sought as employees, providing potential employers with young people who are motivated, committed and achievement-oriented. Registered Operators of the Award program are supported by State Award Authorities with comprehensive administrative and field support staff, training programs for coordinators and Award presentations.
Young people involved in the Award are covered by personal accident and public liability insurance.
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