Extension Programs

The Extension Programs, designed to challenge, extend, and inspire our students, continued to be one of the heartbeats of the school. Highly able students entered creative and complex problem-solving tasks and external competitions, participating in a wide range of multi-disciplinary endeavours, to enrich and extend their critical thinking.

A major highlight for the faculty was winning Gold at the Accelium International Olympics. Eighteen Dunhelen students took out the major prize and were crowned 2021 Global Champions in Thinking! The students competed against 157 schools from around the world, to become the inaugural winners. 

 Other highlights for our students included participation in: 

Maths Games Day

Our Year 5/6 teams produced outstanding results, finishing 1st and 3rd with one team scoring the highest points across all categories.

Maths Challenge Program

Selected Year 4 students took part in the Maths Challenge organised by the Australian Maths Trust and four students were awarded Credit certificates. 

Chess Tournaments

Both Primary and Secondary students participated in online tournaments. Our Primary students placed 9th overall. 

Maths Enrichment

The Euler Stage of the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT) Enrichment Program was undertaken by the Year 6 Extension Maths class this year. Two students completed the program with perfect scores and High Distinctions. This was an outstanding achievement which demonstrated their impressive ability to solve very challenging mathematical problems from a range of contexts.

Tournament of Minds

Students collaborated on Zoom in two small teams of seven, extending their lateral-thinking and devising unique solutions through video, scripts and other formats. The judges were impressed by Team One’s movie trailer, particularly the promotional material and music, and Team Two’s development of historical characters.

Ethics Olympiad

Our first Brookhill team engaged via Zoom, with other schools around Victoria addressing eight complex cases using ethical theories. The judges were impressed by the creativity and intellectual rigour evident in their responses.

University of Melbourne- Research Project

The students in our Year 8 Intermediate team received certificates of High Commendation, and our team of  Year 6 students received certificates of Distinction in their category. In fact, our Junior team project got all the way to the very last short list for the finals.

Young Writer’s Contest

Six students across Years 4 to 9 entered the NaNoWriMo 2021 (National Novels Writers Month) submitting their Now What? pieces. This gave them the chance to dive back into their novel and revise their excerpt of up to 400 words.

Extension Art Primary Program

This program, in conjunction with our 2021 Artist in Residence Program, offered selected Year 4 and 5 students the opportunity to enhance their artistic and creative skills in small group settings. We hope to extend the program and increase opportunities in 2022.