Gifted & Talented “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” This sentiment, so wonderfully expressed by Socrates, reminds us that education is not just about content, standardised testing and tertiary entrance ranks. It should embark the learner on a lifelong process to discover new skills, wisdoms and the understandings that we don’t know, what we don’t know. The College’s Gifted & Talented program aims to inspire young learners to take the reins in their own education and by doing so, engage in passions and challenges not available in the traditional school curriculum. This year, not only have we offered our students a diverse range of cocurricular academic opportunities, we also implemented our new in-school elective program available to students in Years 8–10. FLEXIBLE LEARNING ENHANCEMENT (FLEX) FLEX serves as a sequenced, flexible and cross-curricular learning opportunity for small groups of students who demonstrate academic talents or giftedness. Boys from the aforementioned year levels are invited to participate based on outstanding potential, achievements or contributions demonstrated through their studies. With the aim of developing our students’ cognitive abilities, the themes for each respective year are Futuristic Thinking (Year 8), Critical Thinking (Year 9) and Philosophical Thinking (Year 10). I thank Ms Lissa Coleman and Ms Donette Firkins for their support in the coordination and running of this new program.
Mr Richard Herrmann Gifted & Talented Coordinator
THE DA VINCI DECATHLON This year, the College fielded four teams across Years 7–10 in the da Vinci Decathlon, a prestigious academic gala day hosted annually at Wesley College. This highly competitive inter-school event operates in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon, with a variety of team challenges including categories varying from Engineering to Cartography. The decathlon serves as an exciting opportunity for some of our highest-achieving students to be challenged in a rewarding and dynamic team environment. Our Year 10 team executed our strongest performance, achieving equal first in the Art and Poetry section, second in Code Breaking and third in English, frustratingly being only one point away from first place in this category. They were placed fifth among sixteen schools. LIONS YOUTH OF THE YEAR This year, four students across Years 11 and 12 were selected to compete in the prestigious Lions Youth of the Year competition. Although Zachary Hooper (11.6) and Houston Jennings (11.5) were not able to progress beyond
The World Scholar's Cup
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