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Excelsior Academic Program

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​EXCELSIOR
Excelsior (Latin adverb) Ex•cel•si•or. Onwards and upwards.

Sandgate District State High School offers a number of signature programs which allow suitably talented and motivated students to extend their learning in their chosen field.

Application for these programs start with the Expression of Interest to Enrol form together with the specific application for that program. These forms are contained within the enrolment packs collected from Open Day, on our school website, or by collecting from ou​r school office. ​

Sandgate District State High School is proud to offer the Excelsior Academic Program from 2023. This innovative and exciting program allows students from year 7-10 to tailor their learning experiences in an environment specifically targeted towards enrichment (onwards) and extension (upwards).

Based on the Australian Curriculum, the Excelsior Academic Program offers students the opportunity to develop:
  • Higher order thinking skills
  • Creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills
  • Global citizenship, team building, collaborative and communication skills
  • Competitions, excursions and unique learning opportunities
  • Industry, business or university partnerships
  • Students who are members of the Excelsior program classes are offered flexibility to enrich, extend, compress or accelerate their learning in individual subject areas via an application process.

Subject Cost: Students enrolled in the Excelsior subjects will incur a subject fee to allow for the enrichment opportunities (eg competitions, materials and events)

How to Apply
Applications for membership of an Excelsior program class are required each year during the subject selection process. Students will be required to maintain a level of achievement, effort, behaviour, collaboration and creativity to remain in each Excelsior program class each year.

Students wishing to apply to enrol in the Excelsior Academic Program must meet a number of requirements including an entrance exam. 

Excelsior program classes will be offered for English, Mathematics, Science and Humanities in years 7 through to 10.
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Excelsior English
Excelsior English offers students numerous opportunities for enrichment and extension. The mandatory and assessable aspects of the curriculum are compressed within Excelsior English to provide students with the opportunity to work on an enrichment portfolio for a portion of each week. These enrichment portfolios culminate in the creation of artefacts and/or projects that extend upon the knowledge and skills of the core curriculum, allowing participants to pursue relevant interests and further develop their strengths in English. Additionally, in Excelsior English, text selection is designed to be challenging and will feature
interaction with texts typically ‘above’ year level.

Excelsior Mathematics
Students in Excelsior Mathematics will study the Australian Curriculum at year level and concurrently with their peers. By compressing the curriculum and guided by the elements of creative and critical thinking, students will be provided with opportunities to think, work and report like a mathematician developing their problem solving and mathematical modelling skills in a term-long task shared with the wider school community at completion. Where available, students will be offered additional opportunities to extend their mathematical thinking in competitions and enhance understanding through external presentations.

Excelsior Science
Students in the Excelsior program will engage in Science learning at level with their peers. By compressing the curriculum, opportunities will be provided each week to students in order to enrich their science critical and creative thinking skills, personal and social capability, and provide avenues for students to pursue unit related topics that are of personal interest to them. Students will work towards presenting their findings and ideas to other members of the schooling community. Additionally, students will be provided opportunities to engage in science activities external to the school throughout the year.

Excelsior Humanities
Excelsior Humanities is an enrichment course that complements the core humanities program based on the Australian Curriculum. This course suits students who have a desire to delve into topics in greater scope and detail actively engaging in History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business. The focus of enrichment occurs through active citizenship to stimulate change on a global issue in an ever-changing world. Extending and enhancing the skills of inquiry through participation in deeper learning, using a critical lens, students further develop analytical, evaluative and social-emotional skills that are at the heart of humanities. Students will have opportunity to nominate and engage in activities such as competitions, forums, and public speaking (fees may apply).


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Last reviewed 10 September 2024
Last updated 10 September 2024