DesignTECH: Letters have been sent to all nominated students and their schools. Nominated students must login to the Students Online website to submit an online nomination form and digital images of their project by Thursday 19 November. Students will be advised of the outcome after 25 November.

OnSTAGE: Selection letters will be sent to all nominated individual and group performers and to students whose projects have been selected for exhibition in the week beginning 16 November. Schools will also receive written notification.

ENCORE: Nominations will close on Friday 20 November. Selection letters will be sent to students and schools in early December.

ARTEXPRESS: Nomination letters will be sent to students and schools in the week beginning 16 November. Nominated students must login to the Students Online website to submit an online nomination form by Monday 23 November. Final selection letters will be sent in early December.

Young Writers Showcase: Nominated students will be advised in the week beginning 21 December.

Texstyle: Final selection letters were sent out to students and schools on 13 November.

Callback: Nomination letters were issued in September. Students and schools will be advised of final selections in early December.

Students, parents and school staff are reminded that nomination for an HSC showcase does not indicate a particular mark for the student's major work or performance. There are many factors involved in final selection for a showcase event or exhibition, for example: the ability to transport a major project; the suitability of a performance for a particular kind of stage; the need to show a mix of performances or projects that demonstrate the scope of the relevant syllabus; the inclusion of students from locations around NSW. Most importantly, there are limits on the number of performances or works that can be included in any one year. Inevitably, there are many outstanding students who are not nominated or, having been nominated, are not selected for the final showcase.

Preparations are beginning for the annual HSC showcases and soon the Board and Department of Education will be asking schools/students to submit DVDs and photographs of nominated works.

Encore, OnStage and Callback Nominated students need to submit a DVD of their performance. Many schools already film HSC performances as a record of students' work and to keep as a backup in case anything goes wrong. If your school already has a suitable recording, you don't need to film a new version for the nomination process. If your school doesn't have a recording of students' work, it's probably a good idea to try to film performances while students are still at school, prior to the start of written HSC exams.

The Board has extended the period for ENCORE submissions until 20 November 2009. This will allow schools that have not had an opportunity to film their nominated Music students before the exams to do so after marking is completed.

DesignTECH Nominated students will need to provide digital photographs of their major design project. Again, many schools and students already photograph major works to document achievement and as a useful record in case of misadventure.

English Extension 2 students are also reminded to keep a copy of their major work as the Board will need electronic copies if the works are nominated for the Young Writers Showcase. Journals are not part of the selection process.

Finally, students, parents and school staff are reminded that nomination for an HSC showcase does not indicate a particular mark for the student's major work or performance.

There are many factors involved in the final selection for a showcase event or exhibition, for example: the ability to transport a major project; the suitability of a performance for a particular kind of stage; the need to show a mix of performances or projects that demonstrate the scope of the relevant syllabus; the inclusion of students from locations around NSW.

Most importantly, there are limits on the number of performances or works that can be included in any one year. Inevitably, there are many outstanding students who are not nominated or, having been nominated, are not selected for the final showcase.

Additional advice about procedures and submission dates will be listed on the Board's Showcases and Exhibitions website as the information becomes available.

Subscribe to the Board's newsfeed and bookmark the showcases you're interested in to make sure you receive the latest information as soon as it's available.

Don't miss out! Get your Board news fast and from the source with our easy email news alerts. Simply enter your address in the box to the right of this article and remember to verify when you get our confirmation message.

'Australian Aesthetics: Symbols of Identity', by Mikolaj Falicz, part of the ARTEXPRESS Grafton Regional Gallery exhibition

ARTEXPRESS opens at Grafton Regional Gallery from 19 August to 20 September 2009.

The Gallery Guide for Grafton ARTEXPRESS is available now for preview, or for teachers to print and use as excursion notes with visiting students.

ARTEXPRESS is an annual exhibition of exemplary artworks created by students for the NSW Higher School Certificate Examination in Visual Arts.

The works represent a broad range of subject matter, approaches, styles and media, which may include painting, photomedia, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, documented forms, textiles and fibre, ceramics, time-based forms and collections of works.

For enquiries please contact ARTEXPRESS Coordinator Susanne Jones, (02) 9550 9121 or email artexpress@det.nsw.edu.au.

Don't miss out! Get your Board news fast and from the source with our easy email news alerts. Simply enter your address in the box to the right of this article and remember to verify when you get our confirmation message.

View the PRIME Tamworth video news story about the DesignTECH opening and the regional award winner, Daniel Brown.

View the Northern Daily Leader newspaper article.

A 2008 Higher School Certificate student from Carinya Christian School, Tamworth, has been named a regional award winner for his design of a compost tea brewer. Daniel Brown, a 2008 HSC Design and Technology student, is among students from the North Western region chosen to exhibit their major works in the regional exhibition of the HSC showcase, DesignTECH, at Ray Walsh House from 17 to 30 June 2009.

Daniel was today (17 June 2009) named the recipient of the UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment DesignTECH Regional Tour Award for the North Western region.

The Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, congratulated Daniel on receiving the Regional Tour Award for his project.

"As part of his HSC Design and Technology course, Daniel created an innovative system, called Microbe Magic. This is a compost tea brewer which pumps air through compost, depositing organisms into water to create an organic fertiliser.

"Air is pumped through a cylinder covered at the end with a mesh bag holding compost, known as a compost basket. The basket is suspended in a large container of water. Air is pumped through the cylinder for six or seven hours, forcing fungi, bacteria and other organisms into the water, creating a weak 'tea' solution.

"The compost basket is then removed from the container. Molasses, fish and other foods are added to the solution and air is pumped directly into it for 48 hours to enable the organisms to multiply.

"The final product is further diluted to create an organic fertiliser, which can be sprayed on foliage and builds up the micro-organisms in the soil.

"It is an outstanding project, and we wish Daniel well in his future studies and career," Ms Firth said.

The UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment sponsors the Regional Tour Award in recognition of talented young designers from regional NSW who 'play a future role in designing for a sustainable future'.

Ms Firth said some of the State's best young designers were on show at the Tamworth DesignTECH exhibition.

"Outstanding works by four students from the North Western region, including Daniel Brown, were specially chosen for the local version of the DesignTECH exhibition," she said.

"They include decorative French doors created by Kellie Smith, of Carinya Christian School, Tamworth, and a luggage set by Stephanie Brummell, of PLC Armidale. The luggage was included in the Grafton DesignTECH exhibition because Stephanie lives at Glen Innes.

"A two-in-one chair design by Amanda Scott, of Tamworth, who completed the course with Dubbo School of Distance Education, was also chosen for exhibition but was not available for display.

"A fifth local student, Andrew van Baal (O'Connor Catholic College), whose work was exhibited at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, is part of the regional tour. His device which locks brakes safely is also on show at Ray Walsh House along with 14 other projects on tour."

The Board of Studies NSW runs DesignTECH in association with the Department of Education and Training to highlight the talent and skills demonstrated by HSC Design and Technology students. Ms Firth encouraged students and residents of Tamworth and the North Western region to visit the exhibition.

"DesignTECH gives the community the chance to see the innovative work and technological applications emerging from the Design and Technology curriculum in NSW," she said.

"The projects, which meet an identified need in the community, are immensely creative, innovative and practical."

The DesignTECH exhibition will be open in Ray Walsh House, 437 Peel Street, Tamworth, until 30 June 2009.

See the DesignTECH gallery guides and the remaining exhibition dates for Wagga Wagga and Southern Highlands.

Don't miss out! Get your Board news fast and from the source with our easy email news alerts. Simply enter your address in the box to the right of this article and remember to verify when you get our confirmation message.

Media are invited to the opening of an exhibition of outstanding major design projects from the 2008 Higher School Certificate Design and Technology course at Tamworth on 17 June 2009.

The DesignTECH exhibition showcases outstanding works by students from across NSW, including four students from North Western NSW.

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Almost 10 000 students, parents and teachers attended the inaugural Sydney Morning Herald HSC and Careers Expo.

The Board of Studies played a major role in the Expo. Between 15 and 17 May 2009 an estimated 7000 students attended 18 Board seminars on Higher School Certificate courses and general topics, including exams and assessments, major works and projects and extended responses in English.

Several thousand students and their parents visited the Board's stand as well as hundreds of teachers.

Visitors to the stand talked to Board staff about the HSC exams and assessments, watched demonstrations of Students Online and received copies of the 2009 HSC exam timetable.

Watch the video featuring HSC students and the Board of Studies at the Expo

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Media are invited to the opening of an exhibition of outstanding major design projects from the 2008 Higher School Certificate Design and Technology course on 2 June 2009.

The exhibition showcases outstanding works by students from across NSW, including four students from Western NSW.

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The ARTEXPRESS gallery guide for the exhibition at the Wollongong City Gallery is now available to download.

The guide includes details of exhibiting students and their artworks and also space for student notes, making it suitable for teachers to print and distribute to their classes prior to visiting the exhibition. Similar guides will be available from the Board's website for all ARTEXPRESS exhibitions in 2009.

The exhibition at Wollongong runs from 2 May-2 August 2009.

Kiah Lawford, recipient of the UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment DesignTECH Regional Tour Award, with Jodi McKay, Minister for the Hunter, at the opening of DesignTECH in Newcastle

The designs of seven Central Coast and Hunter students are among the 22 projects featured in the DesignTECH exhibition, a showcase of HSC Design and Technology student works, at Newcastle Region Library.

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