Get involved

Volunteer

Are you interested in working with primary and high school students, learning from experienced educators and serving the community in UNSW’s own backyard? A variety of volunteer opportunities are available through the UNSW Matraville Education Partnership, working with students and teachers at Matraville Sports High School (MSHS) and its surrounding primary schools (the Little Bay Community of Schools, or LBCoS). While most of our volunteers are Education students, students from any discipline are welcome to apply.

Our volunteers have delivered afterschool workshops in drama and music, and regularly staff an afterschool homework and tuition centre for primary and high school students. They also assist teachers in implementing group work and project-based learning in their classrooms, working with Aboriginal students, English language learners, special needs students and gifted students.

Volunteers who complete 20 volunteer hours or more can have this experience credited on their transcript as part of the UNSW Advantage Program.

Complete a placement

Gaining hands-on experience in schools is an essential part of our teacher education courses at UNSW, and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is a key component of all programs of study. Through the Matraville Education Partnership, you can gain experience working in a diverse school environment early in your degree program. Many education students will receive a placement at MSHS as part of EDST2002 (second year), PE1 or PE2 (third or fourth year), the Master of Teaching INSTEP program, or as part of a specialised course. In 2022, the School of Built Environment offered a WIL placement at Matraville. If you would like to gain WIL experience and course credit while contributing to an initiative at Matraville, please contact us.

UNSW academic and professional staff contribute in many ways to the success of the Matraville Education Partnership.  In 2022 alone, dozens of staff got involved as part of the “Future Students Hub” initiative, and we are now accepting ideas on a rolling basis for outreach from any school, faculty, or team across UNSW.

Some ways that UNSW staff have contributed in the past:

• Offering one-off or series of engaging workshops for Matraville students in an area of interest or passion connected to the high school curriculum
• Designing Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences in conjunction with academic courses
• Volunteering in the afterschool homework centre (as an individual or organised as a team)
• Working on site at Matraville Sports High School at one of the hot desks in the UNSW Annexe – this is open to any staff and increases the visibility of UNSW among members of the Matraville community
• Involving Matraville or the surrounding schools/community as a site for research activities
• Assisting Matraville students with the UNSW application process or with mentoring opportunities
• Engaging Matraville students as performers at special events, or to deliver Acknowledgements of Country.

If you have an idea or question about how you might be able to get involved with the partnership, we’d love to hear from you! Please complete our Future Students Hub Expression of Interest form, or if you have a general question or idea please email mep@unsw.edu.au.

The MEP Program Manager regularly attends meetings of the local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group to report and consult on our activities involving Aboriginal education. If you are an Aboriginal community member who would like to learn more about our work, please get in touch.

UNSW offers parent and community workshops on a variety of topics, including supporting students’ motivation and resilience, advocating for children who are gifted or have special needs, and communicating with teachers. Recordings of some of our past events are available below:

• "What makes a good teacher" Parent lecture by Dr Tony Loughland
• Making connections advocate for you gifted child
• Surviving your child's adolescence
• Susen Smith parent lecture

We hope in the future to develop more parent programming. Please contact us if you have suggestions for what you would like to see.

Students at MSHS have access to free UNSW-led afterschool programs in music, drama and academic tuition, holiday programs, extra classroom support, and opportunities for excursions, guest speakers, and participation in other education programs and community organisations.

Matraville is also a Gateway school, so students receive extra support in preparing and applying for degrees at UNSW. 

Many of these opportunities are also available to primary school students from the LBCoS. Feel free to reach out to learn more about these activities – email mep@unsw.edu.au, or drop by the UNSW building at Matraville Sports High School on Mondays or Tuesdays.