A National Thinking Event

Years 1 to 9| 26–28 October 2026

The Australian Smart Moves

Tournament

A journey of thinking, play and challenge for students right across the country. Weeks of practice where you and your students set the pace, three days of competition, and one national trophy up for grabs for the first time.

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More Than a Competition. A Chance to Make Thinking Visible.

A national challenge where students build strategy, problem-solving and persistence while contributing to their school’s success.

Why This, Why Now: For several years, primary and middle school students from schools across Australia have taken part in the Accelium International Olympics, alongside students in more than thirty countries around the world. This year that event is on hold, due to instability in the Middle East.

Rather than let the moment pass, we're running an Australian version instead. The Smart Moves Tournament asks the same question the international event always has: what happens when you give students a real reason to think hard, together, for their school. Digital strategy games, personal and school-wide challenges, and a national scoreboard that turns everyday thinking practice into something worth showing up for.
Every student who takes part gets to test themselves against real thinking challenges, knowing every game they play counts toward their school's score, not only their own. Every school gets a coordinated national event that puts thinking skills at the centre of something every student can contribute to.

How It Works:
1. Register - The moment your school signs up and pays, your coordinator and teachers will have full access to the member area: game videos, thinking strategies, training activities and the complete schedule.

2. Practise - Once registered to the portal - Students build the habit at their own pace, at school or at home, from the day you register them to the platform through to Sunday 25 October.

3. Compete - Three consecutive days, Monday 26 to Wednesday 28 October. A new game opens each morning, the platform stays open day and night, and students log in whenever suits, contributing to both their own score and their school's.

What Students Actually Experience: The games carry the thinking. Three age-adapted strategy games run across the three competition days, each one built around real problem-solving, not luck, teaching students what it feels like to plan a move, change strategy when the first attempt doesn't work, and keep going when a level pushes back.

The platform rewards the right thing too. A student who solves a challenge in fewer moves, with a cleaner strategy, will outscore one who simply finishes it. But the encouragement throughout is to keep trying, revisit challenges to improve, find flow and not to race to the end.
For a lot of students, that's a different kind of spotlight. Students often find a place in this kind of work that they don't always find in the classroom, and teachers get to see thinking made visible in a way that's hard to engineer inside a typical lesson.

What's At Stake: Every student who takes part receives a digital certificate at the end of the three days, recognising the effort of everyone who showed up and tried, not only the students at the top of the board.

Beyond that, the top three students in each age group nationally (Years 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6, and 7 to 9) receive a printed certificate and ongoing access to the Accelium thinking games platform. The top school in each age group takes home a trophy. And the highest-scoring school overall becomes the first to hold the Australian Smart Moves Tournament trophy.

That could be you.

What Your School Needs: The setup is straightforward. You'll need stable internet and enough devices for participating students to potentially be online at the same time across the three competition days, and a nominated staff coordinator to manage the process at your end.

Two things worth flagging with your IT team early. The platform needs an up-to-date browser, Chrome, Edge, Firefox or similar, and network access to the platform domains, which sometimes means whitelisting at the school or system level.

Investment:
Individual entry - a single student, $25 + GST
Class entry - up to thirty students, $280 + GST
School entry - up to three hundred students, $590 + GST

Whichever level you choose, the inclusion is the same: full platform access, the member area, instructional videos, scoring and progress tracking, digital certificates for every student, prizes for top performers nationally, trophies for top schools, and pedagogical and technical support from us throughout. Schools needing more than three hundred places can extend by arrangement.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Do students need to play during school hours?

No. The platform stays open day and night across the three competition days, so students can keep practising and competing from home if that suits your school better.

What if a student can't make one of the three competition days?

That's fine. The platform is open the whole three days and nights, so there's flexibility in when a student logs in and plays.

What if our school's internet blocks the game domains?

This sometimes needs whitelisting at the school or system level. Flag it with your IT team early, well before the competition days, and get in touch if you need the specific domains to pass on.

Can we enter just one class, rather than the whole school?

Yes. The class entry option is built for schools that want to start with a single class or a specific cohort, such as a learning enrichment group.

What if we need more than three hundred students?

We can extend the school entry by arrangement. Get in touch and we'll sort out what your school needs.

Who do we contact with questions during the lead-up or the competition itself?

Your coordinator has a direct line to us by email and phone for the whole programme, for both pedagogical and technical questions.