Launch of the National History Challenge 2010

Elisabeth Sandbach, Camberwell Girls Grammar & Martin Green, NT Learning Mgr	The National Trust was proud to play host to the launch of the National History Challenge for 2010 on Sunday 30 April in the magnificent ballroom of Como House and Garden. Chair of the NHC, Richard Smith and NHC State Coordinator Jo Clyne were able to formally open the new competition for the year and encourage students and teachers to get cracking on their projects. This year's theme is "Celebrations, memories and history" and the launch provided all of these things.
Elisabeth Sandbach from Camberwell Girls Grammar School gave a presentation on her winning entry from last year's competition in the Museum Display section and past winners from St Monicas also made presentations.

How to enter the National History Challenge 2010

The National Trust is a proud sponsor of the National History Challenge and invites students from years 5 to 12 to enter this research based competition.

It gives students a chance to be an historian, investigating their community and exploring their own past and heritage. It emphasises and rewards quality research, the use of community resources and effective presentation. Entrants can progress through regional, state/territory and national finals. Students can present their work in one of four formats:

• a research paper (individual entry only);
• a three dimensional museum display;
• a multimedia format (audio/video/website); or
• a performance.

	The theme for this year's competition is Celebrations, memories and history. All students receive a Certificate of participation and winners compete in State and National finals. The closing date for entries is Friday, 27 August 2010. Visit the new National History Challenge website to register.

About the challenge sponsors

The Australian Council of National Trusts is a sponsor of The National History Challenge, a program run by the History Teachers’ Association of Australia and supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Winners for 2009 in the National History Challenge

The National Trust of Victoria is proud to be a sponsor of the National History Challenge competition for schools.

We sponsor the Heritage section of the competition.The full details are available on the NHC website. http://www.historychallenge.com.au/

St Monica's Primary School (Footscray)- Winners for 2009 Heritage section

Congratulations to Johnson Tiev, Andrew Bui and Andrew Le of St. Monica's Primary School in Footscray who won the Heritage of the National History Challenge for 2009 with their entry about Ash Wednesday.

The theme for the National History Challenge 2009 was 'Triumph over adversity'. When the group decided to research the Ash Wednesday Bushfires of Feb 16th 1983. They discovered that the land had regenerated and although people suffered terrible losses many had rebuilt their lives.

The boys comments were :- 'We read stories of amazing courage, community spirit and people helping each other. We also found that most of the people interviewed knew that family and friends were more important than possessions. Also Mr Medwin said 'No matter how low, you can survive and can come up and lead a happy life again later'.