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 one number — and you can change it.
A place on the programme is sold commercially at A$860 per term. Nobody on AUScholarship pays that. Sponsors carry the difference so that families do not.
| Who | Per term | How it is decided |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone — first term | A$60 | No conditions and no application for financial support. Every student who joins starts at the same price. |
| Course price — everyone, from Term 2 | A$260 | Sponsors cover the remaining A$600 of every place. |
| Schools with ICSEA above 1000 | +A$200 | A contribution to the sponsorship pool — not to your child’s place. Adjustable to $0 / $100 / $200 / $400 at any time, with no reason required. |
Eight sessions a term. At A$260 that is A$32 a session; at A$460, A$58. The commercial rate is A$108. Every band sits below the commercial rate. The contribution does not buy your child anything extra — it funds a place at another school. Last term it funded N places. We never publish who paid what.
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
AI tool tokens, software subscriptions, and GPU access for projects. Competitive AI work typically needs around 20 GB of video memory — the single largest hidden cost in AI education, and the one most programmes quietly exclude. Fair use applies within scheduled windows.
Why ICSEA, and not a means test. ICSEA is the Index of Community Socio‑Educational Advantage published for every Australian school. Using it means the price is already known the moment a school is named — no family has to explain their circumstances to anyone, and no student finds out they were the one who needed help. If your school’s index does not match its situation, change the contribution yourself — you do not need to tell us why.
Price protection. Your band price is held for as long as you hold the place. Prices are reviewed once a year and any change applies to new students from Term 1.
All prices in Australian dollars, inc GST. ABN [72 265 367 521]. Australia STEM and Robotics Advancement Association is a not-for-profit association; fees are set to recover part of the cost of delivery.
One scholarship place per school — and no limit on who else may join.
Funding is finite, so each school holds a single scholarship place: two hundred schools reached rather than twenty. That is a limit on the funded place, not a limit on participation. Any other student at the school is welcome at the same A$260 course price, and schools enrolling several students should write to us about a school block.
| 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.
Applications open 1 August 2026. In principle, one scholarship place per school.
① For a school. A principal, head of department or programme coordinator registers the school. The school holds the scholarship place and may enrol additional students at the same course price.
② For a teacher. A teacher who already has a student in mind registers directly. Your school does not need to have decided anything, and you are not committing your school to any payment.
If both arrive from the same school, the first registration holds the place and the second becomes a co-contact. We tell you both. Nobody at the same school is ever placed in competition for it.
- 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.