Extension Classes
The NSW HPGE policy promotes engagement and challenge for every student in every school across intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical domains of potential, while explicitly identifying and addressing the learning needs of high potential and gifted students.
Fundamental to the policy are issues of equity and excellence and here at Endeavour Sports High School we provide differentiated programs that enable our students to grow to their full potential in all subjects.
In addition to this, we provide extended learning opportunities through a rich and varied co-curricula program targeted specifically for students in the stage 4 and 5 Extension classes.
Below is a snapshot of the types of initiatives and programs we offer.
Science
Students in Years 7 and 8 program have the following opportunities:
STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics initiative where learning is project based and the classroom is student-centred as opposed to teacher-centred.
There is a significant emphasis on Problem solving and peer collaboration to find innovative solutions to real world problems. The teacher plays the role of guide and facilitator of the learning taking place. Activities involve problem-solving, discovery and exploratory learning.
STEM seeks to inspire students to become excited by what they are learning in the classroom and motivate today’s students to become the leaders and innovators of tomorrow:
- Big Science Competition
- Australian National Chemistry Quiz: The Australian National Chemistry Quiz aims to promote interest in and appreciation of the role of chemistry and chemists in our society, and engender a better understanding of the nature and relevance of chemistry amongst students. The Quiz is designed to promote chemistry,
Our students also participate in regional STEM competitions held at the ANSTO facility in Lucas Heights. In 2019, our extension group placed second in Sydney and first in the Sutherland Shire Schools Network. This success was publicised by the Leader on the 29th of March 2019. For the full article, view the link provided below under ‘Success in STEM’.
Mathematics
Students have the opportunities to participate in:
- Chess Club run in Lab E6 by Mr Aaron Donaghy
- Mathematics Tutorials and early morning Mathematic class for extension
- Australian Mathematics Competition and the ICAS Mathematics Competition
- Hotmaths is a new program has been implemented especially for the extension class. It is an interactive website where our staff can set tasks, homework and extension activities for the students. They can also monitor homework and completed tasks by logging in as the administrator. All of the content on the website is linked to the curriculum and they draw their questions from various textbooks and the syllabus.
- CHOOSEMATHS is a project-based initative for year 7 and 8 Students in the extension class. Awards provide the opportunity to acknowledge student achievement in communicating their love of mathematics. Students will collaborate in small teams to create videos around this year’s theme ‘MATHS IS OUR FUTURE’. Thirty winning teams will receive prizes ranging from $200 to $2000
- High Potential students in mathematics from years 7-10 participate in the interstate Mathematics Competition “ Have Sum Fun Online,” which is run over 3 separate hourly sessions on 3 different days. Teams of 4 are challenged to work collaboratively on solving very high order mathematical problems. Prize winnings are offered in this event.
- Incursions also provided are World of Maths and Inquisitive Minds where students undertake group-based projects to solve problems, patterns, pictures and puzzles. During this workshop, students participate in an interactive lesson on strategic problem solving. They then work on a series of original hands-on problems. Finally, students are given the opportunity to consolidate their learning with a take-home collection of Australian Mathematics Competition questions.
English
Students participate in:
- External narrative writing and poetry competitions held by the UNSW and GATSTA (Gifted and Talented Secondary Teachers Assoc),
- Involvement in short story competitions is highly encouraged. There are a number of initiatives available for students to enter. In Terms 2 or 3 the students have the opportunity to undertake either an incursion from the ‘Future Film Stars Cannes Program” or an external field trip to the AFTRS (Australian Film and Television Recording Studio) to learn about Film-making. Both workshops equip the students with the skills, knowledge and teamwork they need to make their own media projects through a combination of theory and hands-on learning.
- The writing competition ‘What Matters’ is a writing initiative run by the Whitlam institute. It provides an excellent incentive for students from 7-11 to think critically and creatively about issues facing our society today. Students create any form of writing they wish that addresses the question “What matters?” It encourages students to explore their sense of social justice and to look at issues today that concern them or inspire them.
- The ‘Principal’s Reading Challenge’ is to inspire our 7-10 students to read books that are of interest them and to be challenged with a quota per term, resulting in a recognition and excellence award from our Principal.
- Digital Stop Motion software featured within the Claymation Digi-Ed Workshop. This enables stage 4 students to create storyboards, animate clay figures, add titles, credits and sound. Uploaded movies are then showcased on our Facebook social media platform with blurbs from the students explaining plot, themes and characters.
- The Lune Spark Young Writers Short Story contest. This is run within the Stage 4 English classes as an extension item beyond the writing demands of the curriculum. Students are encouraged to showcase their stories and in some cases present them to a viewing audience.
- The ‘Dusty Swag’ awards which were established in 2002 to encourage local poets and storytellers to record the stories of Australia, its unique landscape and its unsung heroes. Students across stage 4 and 5 are given options to submit entries in Poetry and Storytelling based on the theme given for that year. Whole class entries may be incentivised by the teacher to extension classes in years 7-10.
Year 7-10 Geography
Classroom activities are augmented by presentations from guest speakers and external excursions. Year 7 Geographers in the Extension Classes engage in a heritage site visit to ‘Cockatoo Island’ where the students undertake a historic as well as contemporary tour of the site.
This program is designed with a comprehensive education and resource kit that encourages students to investigate the difference between and value of primary and secondary sources. It will equip students with skills in historical inquiry and encourage them to use historical language as well as locate, select and organise information all in the context of an engaging and vibrant site.
Students undertaking geographical inquiry in the Extension Classes are encouraged to propose explanations for significant patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies in geographical phenomena and to propose solutions potentially taking action to address contemporary geographical challenges. Students participate in relevant fieldwork to collect primary data and enhance their personal capabilities, ethical understanding and workplace skills.
Post-visit activities are designed to develop student’s inquiry and historical writing skills and engage with information and communication technologies.
Year 8 Students have the opportunity to visit Warragamba Dam enabling opportunity to explore aspects of modern water supply, and learn about water through participation in a series of hands-on activities. The excursion is linked to the requirements of the Australian Curriculum and is tailored in partnership with Water NSW to further enhance Endeavour Sports High Schools’ HPGE program by fostering individual capacity to apply investigation, find and solve problems.
Year 9 students have the opportunity to visit Minnamurra Rainforest 100km south Sydney to enhance their in-class investigation of challenges faced by biomes and sustainability strategies implemented in attempt to minimise environmental impacts. This excursion was developed to compliment both the rational and stage 5 learning outcomes of the NSW Geography K-10 syllabus and is implemented in partnership between Endeavour Sports High School and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Students are encouraged to put-forth critical discussion about sustainability strategies that minimise the environmental impacts in Minnamurra Rainforest.
Elective Commerce in Year 9 explore Consumer choices and financial decisions and devise, plan for and run a Market Stall.
Elective Commerce in Year 10 provides a Police talk incursion on Law and society.
Year 7-10 History
Explores workshops in class on fossils and forensics
A field trip called “Archaeology Underfoot,” run by Sydney Living Museums” in the Rocks, where the students complete a historical inquiry into the lives of different groups of people who lived at the Hyde Park Barracks, including male convicts and assisted female immigrants, and investigate the building’s layered history by combining pictorial and written sources with archaeological artefacts. Students apply the processes and methods of the historian and archaeologist in their exploration, and during a simulated archaeological dig they work in small groups to excavate, categorize, weigh, measure, sketch and interpret an artefact, helping them to better understand different approaches to historical investigation.
The History staff at Endeavour have enjoyed a rich working relationship with the staff at Macquarie University’s Museum of Ancient Cultures whereby workshops are provided by them here at the school to complement the students’ study of ‘Early Civilisations.’ Here the students are encouraged to draw inferences and make connections between events and motivations of people from past civilisations like the Romans and the Egyptians.
Year 7 Extension Classes in History engage in the “Solve it With Sources” interactive program provided by the Sydney Living Museums group. This incursion aligns with the Australian Curriculum for year 7 on Using sources to identify meaning, purpose and context of historical sources.
Year 8 Extension Classes engage in a cultural study of the artefacts and rock art of the Dharawal people on a fieldtrip into the Royal National Park. Here students are guided by our Strong Brother coordinator and Indigenous elder, Rick O’Brien, whom has extensive knowledge about the Dharawal’s long connection with this Country; the land and waterways, and the plants and animals that live in it featuring in all facets of Aboriginal culture and are associated with Dreaming stories and cultural learning that is passed on today.
Years 7-10 Extension classes sit The Australian History Competition which is presented as a multiple choice examination, testing Historical knowledge via sources, timelines, texts and images. All students have the opportunity to broaden their thinking on many aspects of History across cultures in ancient and modern societies.
Year 9 Elective History “Forensic Archaeology” gives students the opportunity to have hands-on experience in criminal investigations at a Fieldtrip to “The Justice and Police Museum” in Sydney. This excursion challenges students to work closely with sources to determine bias and propaganda in famous Australian criminal cases.
Year 10 History Extension class students are given the opportunity to plan and run the Anzac Day ceremony at the school. This requires critical and creative thinking as well as collaborative group work in ICT creation, public speaking, Historical knowledge and social justice.
Visual Arts
Students have the opportunity to learn about the best of Australian contemporary art through a series of units based on some of the most renowned Australian contemporary artists. They also have a number of excursions to external exhibitions to bring their classroom work to life.
All students are encouraged to use the art rooms at lunch time for extension tasks with art teacher supervision and guidance; Where possible small groups of students are taken on field trips with the indigenous coordinator to see artwork from indigenous Australians on the caves and rocks of the national park here at Cronulla.
High Potential Visual Arts students from years 7-11 are given the opportunity to enter the Illustration Challenge run by Wombat books. This requires students to create an illustrated page to accompany a text page of a children’s book. Students can select the section they illustrate and have to follow a specific guide to ensure accuracy of page layout, digital or no digital medium and submit by the due date. Prize winning is a feature of this challenge.
Debating and Performing Arts
The English staff currently offer student participation in the “Premier’s Debating Competition” and the “Premier’s public Speaking” competition to all age levels. Drama and theatre performance is offered from year 8 onwards and Dance is part of the elite TSP program also.
Innovative Design
There are extension opportunities in Woodwork and Food Technology in our TAS courses throughout the year.
Music
Opportunities exist for students to move beyond the fundamentals in Music by term 3, particularly in the areas of Music composition. Incursions from visiting percussionists are to supplement work in year 9’s study of Jamaican music and this experience is extended to include the year 7 extension cohort, allowing for a rich appreciation of different pitch, musical style and composition.
There is the school band and small singing ensemble group opportunities for students to be engaged in throughout the year, and performance opportunities are available at all presentation assemblies.
Selective HPGE Student initiatives
At Endeavour Sports High School we offer a number of initiatives to very high potential students in Mathematics, Science, English and Humanities in these 3 following High order challenges.
The Brainways Academic Quest Challenge for select students in 7-10.
This program incorporates information and learning from a great variety of international curricula, providing learning experiences that are advanced in content and process, challenging yet interesting, hands on learning; specifically designed to stimulate motivation and interest among gifted and talented students. It creates opportunities to engage with complex, abstract and multi-disciplinary problems, events or phenomena, meeting the fundamental principles of gifted education and stimulating higher order thinking, analysis and reflection.
'The Linguistics Olympiad'.
This is targeted to students of high potential in humanities and knowledge of how language is used. Students from years 7-11 are placed in groups to work through challenging and often cryptic questions that involve the application of and understanding of language across world cultures and societies. Students are under time limits to collaborate and problem solve. Prize winnings are available for this event.
'Experience it Engineers Australia'
Open to female school students from Years 7 – 10 from NSW and ACT. An invaluable day of workshops for our young female students where they are prompted to design solutions to problems, work on humanity issues that contribute to society and solve problems that would make a difference to the world. The students spend a full day exploring experiential engineering activities organised by Engineers Australia Sydney’s Women in Engineering Society and which feature inspiring collaborations between 6 universities and 6 engineering businesses.
Duke of Edinburgh Hike program.
The Award is a leading structured (non-formal education) youth development program, empowering all young Australians aged 14-24 to explore their full potential and find their purpose, passion and place in the world, regardless of their location or circumstance. The Award is a fully inclusive program and has no social, political, or religious affiliations. In our program we offer all 3 award challenges, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
Our program so far includes:-
- Duke of Edinburgh incursion and information sessions
- Duke of Edinburgh – Cockatoo Island Hike
- Duke of Edinburgh – Royal National Park Hike
- Duke of Edinburgh – prince Edward excursion