Lesson 0 is online now.(Please see the video at the bottom of the page.)
Lesson 0 is the preparation session — what the pathway is, what the first term covers, and what a student should be comfortable with before they begin. No prior programming or AI experience is required to start.
Eight sessions, one holiday intensive, entirely online.
8 sessions a term
One to one and a half hours each week, live and online, with problem sets between sessions.
2‑hour intensive
A concentrated holiday support session so momentum carries across the break rather than restarting each term.
Fully online
Regional and remote students sit in the same room as metropolitan ones. Distance is not a filter.
Twenty minutes of teaching. Forty of thinking.
Most AI courses for this age are a lecture with exercises attached. We invert the ratio deliberately — the part that builds a competitor is the part where nobody is talking at them.
Three groups, and age is not the only factor.
The standard core AI curriculum runs in three groups. Students are placed on readiness rather than birthday, and placement is reviewed as they progress — a student who moves quickly moves up.
Primary
The earliest entry point, for primary students who are ready for structured computational thinking.
Junior
The main pathway into the National Olympiad in AI, and where most middle‑school entrants begin.
Senior
Olympiad depth, with the optional term project attached to every session block.
A$60 for everyone’s first term. After that, your school’s ICSEA sets the price.
Comparable AI programmes in North America run around USD 1,500–1,800 per term. AUScholarship is not priced against them, because it is not funded the same way — our sponsors carry most of the cost so that families do not.
| Who | Per term | How it is decided |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone — first term The taster term |
A$60 | No conditions and no application for financial support. Every student who joins starts at the same price. |
| School ICSEA 1000 or below | A$260 | From the second term onwards. |
| School ICSEA above 1000 | A$460 | From the second term onwards. The difference is what keeps the lower band low. |
And that figure is the whole figure.
Many commercial programmes quote tuition and leave the running costs to the family. Ours are already inside the price.
AI tool tokens
The model access students use during sessions and on their own work. Metered, real, and not billed to you.
Software subscriptions
The tooling the curriculum depends on, licensed for every student on the programme.
GPU access for projects
Competitive AI work typically needs around 20 GB of video memory. This is the single largest hidden cost in AI education, and the one most programmes quietly exclude. We do not charge for it.
One place per school, held for two terms, then earned again.
Funding is finite, so for now each school holds a single scholarship place. As sponsorship grows, so does the number of places — that is the only thing standing between this and a larger intake.
| One place per school | In principle, one student per school, so that two hundred schools are reached rather than twenty. |
| A two‑term safety period | Every scholarship holder is secure for two full terms, including the A$60 taster term. Nobody is competing for their place in week one. |
| Then reviewed, on the whole picture | Places are re‑allocated on a rounded assessment — progress, persistence and the quality of a student’s questions, not a single score. |
| Open to challenge | Other students at the same school may join without a scholarship and can challenge for the place at review. The pathway is never closed to a student whose school seat is taken. |
| Three terms and beyond | A student who holds the place for more than three terms receives the Annual AI Scholarship Scholar certificate. |
Workshops, and the people you meet.
In‑person workshops
Our first IMC sponsorship in 2025 let us begin running workshops in Melbourne, Brisbane and elsewhere. From August 2026 we plan considerably more, in more places, so that where a student lives matters less.
Scholars are invited first
Where a city event has limited seats, AUScholarship students are invited ahead of general registration.
International exchange
We are building exchanges between Australian students and their counterparts overseas — the fastest way to raise a young person’s sense of what is possible is to put them next to someone doing it.
Into the national team
The curriculum leads into the National Olympiad in AI and, for those who go the distance, Australian selection for the international round.
We are not selecting for the fastest right answer.
A student who asks a better question each week will go further than one who scores well and stops wondering. That is not a philosophy we put on a page and forget — it is how sessions are structured, how progress is reviewed, and how scholarship places are decided.
If that describes a student at your school, we would like to meet them.
Application open on 1st of August 2026.
AUScholarship is application‑based and, in principle, one student per school. Registrations are made by a teacher or school contact rather than by students themselves.
- Registrations are submitted by a teacher or school contact. We do not ask students to submit personal details directly.
- We collect only what is needed to place a student: school, year level, and a teacher contact.
- Schools already invited to the programme should use the link in their invitation.
- If your school has not been contacted and you would like it to be, write to noai@oztry.org.