Senior School
Chess is a game that promotes patience as well as creative and strategic thinking. The Senior School group meets weekly at lunchtime to practise their skills. Students have the opportunity to represent the College at the annual Inter-Schools Chess Competition and other various round robin competitions.
The Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians is an annual initiative run by the Australian Mathematics Trust to foster an interest and greater appreciation of the uses of Mathematics in problem-solving scenarios. It is a competition whereby selected students work individually and in pairs to produce solutions to six challenging and novel mathematical problems. Students from all over Australia enter the challenge each year.
The challenge is designed specifically for students in Years 7-10 who enjoy Mathematics and have a keen interest in further developing their understanding and application of Mathematics. Students nominate their interest through their classroom teacher in the latter part of Term 1 and there is no limit to the number of eligible participants.
The challenge is organised through the Australian Mathematics Trust over a three week period early in Term 2. Students receive their challenge booklet and work at home and after school one day a week to produce their solutions.
All students from Years 7-12 are required to complete a unit of work on Public Speaking in their English curriculum and present a prepared speech. The skills students learn in the classroom are developed and utilised in the Public Speaking Group, the runs from time to time, and tested in a competitive environment within interschool competitions. Students are invited to participate in the Rostrum ‘Voice of Youth’ competition and the Speakersbank competition, as well as other events during the year.
For these competitions, participants prepare a speech, usually on a set topic and may also be required to deliver an impromptu speech as well. Competitions are open to students in Years 7-12.
Events take place after school or on Saturdays and usually require students to make their own way to the venue. Competitions begin with heats and then proceed to finals over a period of time.
All School
The Debating teams at Rouse Hill Anglican College are comprised of students from Stage 2 onwards with a passion for debating. The teams meet regularly during the debating season to strategise and research to prepare topics. The College participates in the HICES competition and students on the Debating teams have the privilege of travelling to other schools to represent the College. In Senior School our debaters also have the opportunity to attend training days at Macquarie University before the official season begins, to learn and revise the basic skills of effective debating.
GATEway 8 is an academic enrichment activity that Rouse Hill Anglican College supports, entering teams of high achieving students from Year 5 through to Year 10. The program is an interschool competition that has an academic focus with activities that have been devised using multiple intelligences, requiring each team to work together to find solutions or respond to the material presented. Teams of eight students from each Year Group collaborate to think through various tasks designed to stimulate the multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner).
Maths Olympiad is a competition for selected students in Years 5 and 6 with an aim to introduce students to important mathematical concepts including:
* Teaching major strategies and developing flexibility for problem-solving
* Fostering creativity and ingenuity and strengthening intuition
* Stimulating enthusiasm and enjoyment of mathematics
* Providing the satisfaction, joy and thrill of meeting challenges
Students meet weekly to practice before participating in the competition which is run over five weeks from May to September.
RHAC Parent Handbook 