Learning Enrichment Students from Year 5 to Year 10 participated in the da Vinci Decathlon held at Knox Grammar over three days from 28 to 30 May. The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic interschool gala day operated in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon, with a variety of events of an academic nature. Students participate in a number of activities including Mathematics, English, Science, Code Breaking, Engineering, Philosophy, Poetry, Ideation, Cartography, Creative Dramatic Performance and General Knowledge. The Decathlon Competition places a particular emphasis on higher order thinking skills, problem solving and creativity. The schools that we compete with at Da Vinci include the most competitive, high achieving schools in Sydney and the State.
Large numbers of students attended over the three days with different Year Groups on each day. There were 1,600 students participating on the Years 9 to 11 day. The competition is developing internationally and growing as an authentic form to build time-trailed highly competitive critical creative thinking skills in students from Year 5 to Year 11. The Decathlon requires students to work as a team to solve the academic challenges from 10 different assessment topics.
St Augustine’s College students achieved an outstanding result this year. Year 10 students achieved a second place in Engineering and Year 8 students achieved a second place in Code Breaking These results are outstanding, considering the calibre of the students they were competing against from both Independent and Selective Schools. Our other Year Groups competed commendably with all students enjoying the challenge and the competition.
Year 10: Jesse Amoah, Izaak Cerneaz, Rohan Cook, James Hocking, Finlay Hogan, Alexander Gale, Tom Gerrans and Aiden Sloots.
Year 9: Luke Bolton, Joseph Gay, Samuel Giddy, Alex Greig, Ethan Holst, Taj Livingston, Fynn Mallon, Joseph Oates.
Year 8 Luke Berry, Hugh Brogden, Isaac, Coghlan, Jackson Gourlay, Charlie Last, Daniel Mills, Taylor Schramm, Harvey Shuttleworth.
Year 7: Jasper Astill, Aron Brennan, Matthew Cerneaz, Micah Jones, Jake Robinson, Benjamin Schaafsma, Thomas Shugg and Harry Whitelaw.
Year 5: Tobias Birett, Nicholas Christou, Owen Mann, Benjamin Robertson, Bryon Sergeant, Manu Elliott, Benjamin Murray and Jasper Pinnuck.
Special thanks to Kim Gray, Leah Crowley and Rosa Papalia who helped in the supervision and marking of the tasks during the different days of the competition.
Graham Bruce
Assistant Learning Enrichment and Support Coordinator