SPECIAL PROGRAMS

  • Gifted & Talented
  • BEST
  • VASP
  • Shedworks

Gifted & Talented Program

Our unique academic face-to-face program provides a challenging curriculum designed to support the growth of individual students to their full potential. Students will have the opportunity to develop as self-motivated, independent learners and community leaders. Only available regionally at Bunbury Senior High School, your child will learn alongside like-minded peers and will be taught by teachers with expert skills and knowledge. Applications close 12 months in advance of the school entry year (for example, January of Year 6 for Year 7 entry). You can apply for the program regardless of where you live in Western Australia and, if successful, your child is guaranteed a place at our school.

ORGANISATION
Students within each cohort are grouped together for the learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science and Humanities. This allows lesson material to be targeted towards the needs of gifted students and allows students to be accelerated and/or to explore learning in more detail. Grouping gifted students together also allows them to work with like-minded others in a learning environment which is rigorous and intellectually stimulating. Collectively, students are challenged by an accelerated and differentiated curriculum that values higher order thinking and critical literacy in a student-centred environment.

THEMATIC ARRANGEMENT
Aspects of study and the complementary activities within our program are organised with a specific theme in each year. This thematic approach describes a learning journey for each student:
  • Year 7 - Discovery
  • Year 8 - Community
  • Year 9 - Diversity
  • Year 10 - Opportunity
The academically focused learning environment is intellectually challenging. It is designed to motivate students and to enhance learning skills for a lifetime of personal progress.

ENRICHMENT
In addition to enrichment in the classroom, students within the program participate in a range of incursions, excursions and competitions. The activities are chosen to challenge students' thinking, expose them to new ideas and to showcase possible career options.

STUDENT SUPPORT
A range of committed staff take responsibility for ensuring each student's learning needs are met and that they are supported emotionally and socially.

COST
Fees for classes are normally the same as those for mainstream students. A wide range of extracurricular activities, including camps, are utilised within the program to support learning, extension and enrichment. Some of these are subsidised. Full details of anticipated program costs for parents are outlined in the Financial Information for Parents document.

TESTING
Selective entry testing is conducted by the Department of Education. Registrations for testing can be accessed through our school website. Note: Applications close a full 12 months in advance of the student's entry year.

Parents can find out how to apply for the program Here

BEST

The Bunbury Elite Sports Training (BEST) Program is an endorsed Department of Education Specialist Program only available at Bunbury Senior High School. The program has been developed to help maximise the potential of talented students in the areas of sport and sport science.

BEST students participate in a 6 year program based on contemporary sport science training principles for talented junior athletes. Our commitment is to support your child to be a self-managing athlete with outstanding age-related levels of fitness and sport science knowledge.

BACKGROUND
Community sport provides excellent opportunities for children to develop their individual skills, particularly as they move into representative squads and teams. The BEST Program value-adds to this by focusing strongly on student's conditioning. Specifically, this includes development of the following aspects of performance:
  • Cardio-respiratory endurance
  • Speed (including skill and power aspects)
  • Power
  • Strength
  • Agility
  • Flexibility
  • Core Stability

In addition to this, students will develop their understanding of recovery procedures, nutrition planning, specific injury management, generic tactics and strategies, sport psychology, coaching and officiating.

The BEST Program won't develop students' skills in one particular sport exclusively; students will have the opportunity to work in a range of sporting contexts while in the program to develop their physical literacy. BEST involves demanding activity programs, sport and classroom lessons. While sports-minded students will find many aspects fun, the program is not designed to be fun! Our aim is ensure each student maximises their athletic potential, thereby providing them with the BEST opportunity to succeed in their sport of choice.

PATHWAYS
In addition to any sport-related outcomes, BEST students have the opportunity to participate in Senior School courses leading to University programs or to TAFE. Our cutting edge Physical Education Studies program, the availability of in-house Certificate II courses and our established links with TAFE ensure all students are given the best opportunity to succeed, whatever their chosen vocation.

EXTRAS
Bunbury SHS is a registered Coaching and Officiating Agency through the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Australian Sports Commission, enabling us to train and accredit students in umpiring and coaching. In each year BEST students will have the opportunity to participate in camps and/or excursions designed to support their learning, performance and awareness of future sport-related opportunities.

TIME ALLOCATION
Students will spend four hours per week of curriculum time in the program in Years 7-10. Currently this results in the completion of one less Arts and Technologies subject in Years 7-9. Students involved in BEST will not be able to participate in the school's Specialist Visual Arts Program. In Years 11-12, the course will be up to 4 hours per week which is dependant on each student's course selections.

COST
There is a cost associated with particpating in this program. Upon enrolment, students are also required to purchase specialised clothing and replace them as necessary thereafter. Year 10 students will be offered the opportunity to travel to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for a live-in camp. This is non-compulsory (but highly recommended). Please see the current Contributions & Charges handbook for more information on costs for the BEST Program.

APPLICATION
Most students will enter the program in Year 7. A small number of vacancies may occur in other year groups. A selection process will be used to identify suitable students. Consideration will be given to each student's history of sports achievement, perceived athletic ability, focus on learning and potential for positive role-modelling. Additionally, each student's current school will be asked to provide a reference. All students moving from primary school will be invited to a fitness evaluation. Upon completion of the application process a class of 25 students will be selected.

FURTHER QUESTIONS
Please do not hesitate to contact the school to clarify any aspects of the program. Direct your inquiries to Program Coordinator of Health & Physical Education, on 9781 2500 or by email at: bunbury.shs@education.wa.edu.au

APPLICATIONS FOR 2019 ARE NOW OPEN. APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE HERE

VASP

The Bunbury Senior High School Visual Arts Specialist Program (VASP) has been developed to help maximise the potential of talented students in the area of Visual Arts.

Students will have access to a unique, specialist program delivered by highly qualified staff throughout Years 7 - 12. In the Visual Arts Specialist Program students will learn through engagement in two-dimensional, three-dimensional and four-dimensional art and design practice, concept, theory, history and technique based on traditional, contemporary and commercial Visual Arts practice. To this end the program will facilitate four weekly contact hours. Two hours will be in Visual Arts, one hour in English and one hour in ICT throughout Year 7, expanding commitment and specialisation in Years 8, 9 and 10. Senior school students can study the Certificate ll CUV 20111 as part of their program. Students will also be expected to attend Bunbury Regional Art Galleries for exhibitions and artist floor talks as well as other scheduled excursions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
The Visual Arts have direct relationships with other subjects and these relationships are a key aspect of this program: Visual Literacy and critical literacy skills will enable students to access knowledge, make meaning, express thoughts, emotions and ideas, interact with others and participate in a range of communication activities, using a range of printed, audio, visual and digital materials. Numeracy will be an implicit component of the program as students are asked to learn, design, make, create, evaluate and complete activities that require significant numeracy skills.
Throughout the program students will develop and use advanced information communication technology (ICT) skills through forming ideas, processes and solutions to challenges or tasks. In addition to this, students will:
  • recognise the shaping role of arts in their immediate family and environment,
  • understand how different cultures and groups use arts, and how arts reinforces social diversity,
  • understand how arts confirm and change values,
  • recognise the economic significance of arts, and the environmental impact that some arts forms can have,
  • use the process of 'design, make, appraise' in the development of arts works and documentation of art making process,
  • design web sites and art works using desktop publishing and computers,
  • use language comprehensively to engage with arts experiences.

TIME ALLOCATION
Students will spend four hours each week of curriculum time in the program in Years 7-10. In Years 11-12, the allocation will be a minimum 4 hours depending on student's course selections.

COST
There is a cost associated with participating in this program. In Year 10 VASP students will have the opportunity to participate in a week-long excursion to Melbourne designed to support learning and awareness of future educational and vocational arts-related activities. Participation is non-compulsory (but highly recommended). Please see current Contributions & Charges handbook for more information on costs for the VASP Program.

APPLICATION
Most students will enter the Program in Year 7. A small number of vacancies may occur in other year groups. A selection process will be used to identify suitable students. Consideration will be given to each student’s focus on learning, perceived artistic ability and potential for role-modelling. The student’s current school may be asked to provide a reference. All students moving from primary school will be invited to a testing session held at Bunbury Senior High School.

FURTHER QUESTIONS
Please do not hesitate to contact the school to clarify any aspects of the program. Direct your enquiries to Head of the Arts on 97812500 or by email at: bunbury.shs@education.wa.edu.au

APPLICATIONS FOR 2019 ARE NOW OPEN. APPLICATIONS ARE AVAILABLE HERE

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Shedworks

Shedworks is an off-site school program that is highly practical and targeted to suit students who are challenged by the traditional academic setting. It is essentially a school for students for whom "normal school is not making sense anymore"

The program commenced in 2009 and was a success story since its inception. While the curriculum has always varied to meet the needs of individual students, in recent years staff have added to the complexity of the program, bringing entrepreneurial aspects that have increased the relevance of the student's work and linked the outcomes more explicitly to the world of work outside the Shedworks setting. The products of that work, furniture, decorator and other items - are all around the school and in many peoples' homes and gardens throughout the South West.

The Shedworks Program focuses on employability skills and making students future ready. It provides students with life skills beyond the traditional curriculum content, including developing collaboration, problem solving and analytical skills, all underpinned by literacy and numeracy development. The program is a 'living version' of both curriculum innovation and differentiation in education.

Selection to the Shedworks Program is limited and is by application.

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