The Newcastle Basketball Association is running its Aussie Hoops program which teaches primary school children the fundamentals of the game.

Students will participate in a series of shooting and ball-handling drills as well as games of basketball during the five-week course.

Basketball development manager Trevor Gallacher said the program, which has already run at Irrawang Public, was part of a broader push to encourage children to embrace an active lifestyle.

"We come in and develop a targeted sports program that keeps them moving and hopefully gets them interested in a sport that they may not normally be exposed to," Gallacher said.

"The point is to encourage them to be active and if we get a few kids interested in basketball at the same time then all the better."