Minister's Awards 2023

About the Minister's Awards

The Minister's Awards and certificates for students who are highly commended and commended, are presented at a special awards ceremony.

Your community language school can nominate one student only for each category (junior and senior). If more than one nomination per category is received, your school will not be considered.

Organisations who are applying for an Establishment grant are not eligible to nominate students for an award.

Students who have previously received a Minister's Award are not eligible for any additional award.

The judges consider a student's:

• proficiency and level of achievement in their community language (see the Community languages schools proficiency descriptors
• commitment to their community language study
• participation in language and cultural activities.

Important dates

Applications for the Minister's Awards open on 1 May and close on 31 May.

The presentation ceremony will take place at the University of New South Wales on Monday 2 September, 2024.

Awards categories

There are two categories of awards. Please note - your community language school can nominate one student only for each category (junior and senior). If more than one nomination per category is received, your school will not be considered.

Junior category

Students who attend mainstream school classes from Years 3 to 6 may be nominated for an award in the junior category.

Senior category

Students who attend mainstream school classes from Years 7 to 12 may be nominated for an award in the senior category.

How to nominate a student

We recommend that your school creates a committee to select which student/s should be nominated. The committee should select the most suitable student for each category.

It is the responsibility of your organisation and management committee to make sure teachers and students are told about the awards and to make sure nominations are made through a fair, transparent and appropriate process.

Assessing students for nomination

When assessing students for language proficiency, the school selection committee should refer to the Community languages schools proficiency descriptors taking into consideration:

Reading and listening tasks

• understanding the broad context of the text
• understanding specific details of the text
• extracting the main points from the text
• using appropriate strategies for deducing information.

Speaking tasks

• establishing and maintaining a conversation appropriately
• using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures to express ideas clearly and appropriately
• demonstrating fluency and proficiency appropriate to the age and length of time that the student has been studying the language
• using correct pronunciation and intonation.

Writing tasks

• organising and expressing ideas clearly and accurately using a range of vocabulary and language structures
• demonstrating accurate use of writing system, including correct grammar in a range of text types.

How nominations are assessed

The Awards Selection Committee is made up of a panel of languages experts and staff from the Community Languages Schools Program. This committee assesses nominations for the awards and decides on the category winners.

In making their decisions, the selection committee only assesses information provided in the online nomination form.

Examples of student work or of certificates previously awarded are not to be included with the nomination form.

Please note the decisions of the committee are final. The committee and program officers will not enter into discussion or correspondence on this matter.