Nearly 400,000 NSW and ACT high school children have been invited to help the Royal Australian Navy celebrate its 100th birthday.

For 250 of them it will mean becoming an 'Admiral for a Day', spending a day at sea in a warship and having a front row seat to the show of the year, the Navy's Centenary Naval Review.

The children are being invited to take part in the Centenary Naval Review High School Student Diverse Media Competition.

The competition was formally announced in HMAS BRISBANE last month and officially launched by the Maritime Commander, RADM Geoff Smith and the Director General of the NSW Department of Education, Dr Ken Boston.

More than 80 people attended the function supported by the RAN Band, commanding officers of ships then alongside and high school singing groups.

The competition involves all State, Catholic and Association of Independent Schools and invites students from years 8 to 12 to form teams of four students.

The teams will examine the contribution of sailors to the growth and development of Australia from her early beginnings to the present.

The teams are invited to speculate on the Navy of the future. The students' entries can take a multitude of forms, hence the term 'diverse-media competition'.

The entries could be an essay of 800 to 1000 words, photographs, posters, graphics, collages, poetry, artworks, interpretive dance, sounds or a combination of any or all of these.

School judging panels will select the winning entries from each area and that team of four students, accompanied by their teacher, will be the Navy's guest during the Centenary Naval Review in October.

The winning entries will be displayed on the Centenary Naval Review website, where visitors to the site from around the world can review the creative efforts of Australian youth.

Each winning team, along with the teacher, will be invited to join the RAN as its guests on the afternoon of Sunday, October 7.

The winners will attend a reception in their honour hosted by the Chief of Navy, VADM David Shackleton in the amphibious ships HMAS MANOORA and HMAS KANIMBLA.

Following the reception, the students and teachers will spend the night aboard one of the Navy's warships, upon which they will sail the next morning to take part in exercises off the NSW coast.

Each student will be paired with a member of the Australian Naval Cadets (aged from 14 to 18 years).

The cadet will act as an escort and 'sea buddy' during the visit.

This will help the students in getting maximum enjoyment from their experience and provide each student with a point of contact.

A task force of more than 20 ships and submarines will sail from Sydney Harbour on the morning of Monday, October 8.

They will carry more than 750 young people including the winning students and the cadets.

The ships will take part in multi-faceted exercises including surface, air and sub-surface operations.

Close manoeuvring, defending against air and submarine attacks, naval gunfire shoots, practising replenishment operations at sea and helicopter operations will be among the evolutions which should keep the teenagers excited.

The ships will return to Sydney on the afternoon of October 8 with those students who have come from the country offered a second night's accommodation if required.

This is the first time the Navy has undertaken such a competition and is pleased that all three education systems, State, Catholic and Association of Independent Schools in both NSW and the ACT will take part.

If successful, it is hoped to extend the competition format to other states in the future.

The commanding officer of HMAS BRISBANE, CAPT Cam Darby welcomed the VIPs and guests to his ship.

In launching the competition, RADM Smith assured those gathered that this should not be viewed as a recruiting drive.

However, he did point out that those joining the RAN were provided with life skills and self reliance.

"There is a saying...'join the Navy and see the world'.

"It is not a cliché...it's a fact," RADM Smith said.

He said the RAN has members serving in East Timor, the Solomons and Bougainville.

"We were the first into East Timor," he said.

Of the children who will win, RADM Smith said, "They will have front row seats for the show of the year".

Dr Boston said, "This is a wonderful project.

"It will give 250 young people the chance to join the Navy for a day.

"I think there's a bit of Hornblower in us all.

"It will do a power of good for our young people," he said.

Dr Boston told Navy News the competition had the potential of bringing in entries from the 300,000 students in the NSW and ACT public education system and a further 60,000 to 70,000 entries from the Catholic and independent school systems.