Senior School Thank you to Mrs Burton, Mrs I’Ons and Mrs Dubowski for their training and support of all these students. They have helped to produce some formidable debaters.
Greg Lanyon Head of Senior School Last week I wrote about the benefits of a rich co-curricular programme for the wellbeing of students by providing multiple points of connection for students in a school environment. I highlighted some of the extraordinary things many of our students were doing in the Wizard of Oz, Community Problem Solving and girls football. This week I wanted to let you know about a number of other areas where students have been successfully engaged in activities beyond the classroom. In debating, the Middle, Senior and Open Division teams have successfully progressed past Round 4 in the HICES Debating Competition over the first two school terms. The results so far are shown in the table below.
TIGS Senior School hosted the 2016 Illawarra Regional da Vinci Decathlon, Years 7 – 10 which proved to be a very popular event, attracting teams of academically gifted students from as many as fifteen regional, local and selective high schools in each division. The decathlon is an annual academic gala day, where students pitch their intellectual abilities against very challenging academic problems in ten disciplines and congratulations were extended to all participating students for the way in which they engaged so wholeheartedly with the rigorous nature of the tasks. It was very exciting to learn at the end of the day that our TIGS teams had done particularly well, with Year 7 placing 1st and Year 10 placing 2nd in their respective divisions. Following their regional success, our Year 7 team progressed to the NSW da Vinci Decathlon at Knox Grammar School and in a field of over 60 NSW regional, metropolitan, private and selective schools, were awarded 4th place overall. Congratulations on this outstanding result go to: Shin Yi Au Yeong, Aria Bacic-Johnston, Xavier Do (Illawarra Regional), Annabel HicklingSmith, Daniel Michelmore, Isobel Kinnear, Alana Newhouse, Xia Lian
Wilson and Mackinly Zecevic (NSW). The effectiveness of their collaborative intellectual skills were clearly evident in this special outcome. Special congratulations is also extended to our Year 11 students James Cooper, George Moustoukis and Mia Whitehall, who placed 1st in the Creative Producers category at the NSW da Vinci Decathlon on the following day. Also thanks to Mrs Dubowski particularly for her work in organising the regional event at TIGS. The event was a great success due to her wonderful co-ordination. A significant number of our students have also been competing this term in the Evatt Trophy, which is a Model United Nations Security Council diplomacy competition for students in Years 9-12. More than 2,000 students compete in Evatt each year. It aims to educate young people about Australia’s place in the world and empower them as active citizens by developing public speaking, negotiation, teamwork, research, and diplomatic skills. The competition takes the form of a mock session of the UN Security Council. Teams of two students debate, amend, and vote on a prepared resolution from the perspective of their assigned nation. The students judged the most effective diplomats proceed to the next round. From our school in the Regional Round Marie and
Team Members
Sam Aubin, Aria BacicJohnston, Daniel Michelmore, Ella De Graaf-Clark, Nick Seal, Sally Gyngell, Xia Lian Wilson, Sophia Santos, Zara Eggers, Zaynub Panju, Tiger Miles, Maya Middleton
Daniel Dragutinovich, Zara Winters, Jana Massingham, Robert Turney, Malachi Sigmund, Risini Gamage, Erynne Stone, Nicole Russo, Noah Koder
Robert Martin, Himali Wijesinghe, Ben Woodard, Angus Day, Matt O’Hanlon, Marie Russo, James Cooper, Florencia Di Martino and Joe Daly
Round
Middle Division
Senior Division
Open Division
1
Chevalier (win)
Oxley College (loss)
Shellharbour Anglican (win)
2
Broughton (loss)
Chevalier (win)
Wollondilly (loss)
3
Shellharbour Anglican (win)
Oxley College (win)
Oxley College (loss)
4
Wollondilly (win)
Chevalier (win)
Forfeit (win friendly)