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.

Mr Richard Herrmann Gifted & Talented Coordinator

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.

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 first round, Houston was recognised as the best speaker in his group of competitors. Trent Piccicacco (12.2) and Kayvan Gharbi (12.8) experienced even more success in the competition, and Kayvan was invited to participate in the district finals.

ROSTRUM VOICE OF YOUTH

Once again, Jeremy Hansen (10.4) progressed through to the State finals of Rostrum Voice of Youth, Australia’s premier public speaking competition for secondary school students. Jeremy secured his place in the final round in the semifinals after presenting a compelling speech on the topic of ‘Invisible Barriers’. Competing against students from around the State across Years 10 to 12, Jeremy spoke about the success we can achieve when we overcome our fear of failure. He was also required to present an impromptu speech, for which he explored the importance of remaining ‘Forever Young’. This is the second consecutive year that Jeremy has been invited to compete at the State finals, but his first time at the most senior division of the competition — this is an incredible achievement. Michael Tassone (8.3) and David Pham (10.8) presented wonderful speeches in the first round of the competition, but were not successful in progressing further. I applaud these students for their fantastic efforts and hope that they will use their experiences to perform even more effectively in next year’s competition.

THE WORLD SCHOLAR’S CUP

Select students from Years 7–9 competed in the Perth round of the 2016 World Scholar’s Cup — a quirky and joyful two-day event which was hosted by Scotch College. This year’s theme was ‘An Imperfect World’: a concept which encouraged students to tackle global challenges across a variety of individual and group tasks. Our teams performed well, with five of the seven spirited groups qualifying for the global round of the competition. Aside from the array of medals earned by our boys, each student was pleased to take home a ‘Jerry’, the fuzzy alpaca that forms the event mascot. I congratulate the boys for the fine way they represented our College.

THE PERTH PHILOSOTHON

I thank Michael Tassone (8.3), Ciarán McCarthy-Rymer (9.5), Joseph Pinto (10.8) and Aidan Mansfield (11.6) for their enthusiastic and mature involvement at this year’s Perth Philosothon, which was hosted by Perth College. The Philosothon is a prestigious academic competition for which students contemplate important philosophical questions in small-group discussions called Communities of Inquiry.

This year the topics were:

1. How can a benevolent and omnipotent God permit innocent suffering? 2. Can a robot be conscious? 3. Is there a right to be rescued? 4. Why are human beings so easily deceived?

The team of four spent many weeks engaged in reading, coaching and discussion during the lead-up to the event, which serves as a unique opportunity to explore fascinating topics with some of the finest student thinkers in the State. I commend the boys for their wonderful contributions and congratulate them for the skills they have developed through their involvement in the philosophical process.

Mr Richard Herrmann

Gifted & Talented Coordinator