HUNTER School of the Performing Arts is offering students new pathways to careers in production, with support from its specialist staff and facilities.
Up until now the Broadmeadow school has required students who wanted to join to audition in either dance, drama or music.
It is now inviting year 10 students to apply with a portfolio and interview to join the school in year 11 and pick subjects for their Higher School Certificate from its production technology pattern of study or pathway.
As well as Dance, Drama and Music 1, 2 and Extension this includes Industrial Technology, Multimedia, VET Entertainment Industry, VET Music Industry and Design and Technology.
Deputy principal Darren Ponman said the school had some unique strengths when offering these subjects.
"The distinction here from other schools is we have the theatre and the broadcast studio and the recording studios and all of the technology and infrastructure, as well as Jim our theatre manager who has years and years and years of industry experience and works with the students," Mr Ponman said.
"So the students, as well as doing the curriculum based subjects, they also work in the tech crew here, so they work behind the scenes on all the many many shows we put on here through drama, music and dance in the theatre.
"In a lot of cases [students] might go out for two weeks out of the two years [for work placement], whereas here it's the whole two years every week, they're immersed in it for the whole two years those opportunities... you're working alongside like-minded students heading on the same path and along with that we do have great ties with local industry and tertiary [institutions] as far as recognition of the students we turn out.
"Historically, local industry call us for recommendations of students if they're after a sound tech or a lighting tech."
Mr Ponman said 24 students are in the first cohort this year, including three who have joined from other schools.
This includes Bailey Stone, 16, who was the first student that HSPA staff interviewed and accepted.
He joined the school at the end of term three last year, earlier than he originally expected, to get to know his peers.
"I realised at my previous school that I was trying to learn all this audio and lighting and video stuff and it just didn't have the technology and the staff to do that," he said.
"I thought [this pathway] was a good opportunity to try and learn the ropes and level up my ability to do different shows."
He has experience in photography and audio for shows and is interested in further developing his skills in video and in camera operation.
Bailey will study Entertainment Industry - and earn a Certificate III in Live Production and Services, which he had originally planned to study at TAFE after year 12 - and Multimedia.
"It gives me a bit of a head start if I do want to go further," he said.
"At my previous school I was getting that feeling of 'I just need to fill the timetable and get the right amount to do my HSC and ATAR' whereas now I don't have to worry about 'I'm doing art when I don't want to do art'."
Mr Ponman said interest in production technology was growing - "it's a way to stay involved in the performing arts while setting yourself up for a reliable and consistent career" - and the school now had three tech crews, up from just one a few years ago.
"It's not really been set up as an option in other schools just because the infrastructure has not been there, it's very skill specific and equipment specific... [previously] you'd have to leave school and go to TAFE or head into the university sector so it was not until you got to the tertiary level that you got those opportunities," he said.
"We're introducing those opportunities now from year seven... it's not pretend, it's the real deal, they're getting real life experience running real life shows with industry aligned equipment."
He said it was "hard to overstate" the quality facilities at the school.
"We're talking literally millions of dollars worth of infrastructure has been designed and brought into the school over the last few years just to facilitate this for the kids and it's working really well, the students that are here are really jumping on board.
"Over COVID we turned the theatre into a broadcast studio and were livestreaming eight camera shots live for our musical and all that kind of thing.
"It's head and shoulders above what you'd be used to seeing at a school normally."
He said HSPA was working with industry to develop production technology "digital badges" or credentials for students to receive after meeting criteria including doing sound for a certain number of shows.
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