Gifted Education Program News

Tournament of Minds

Five of our TOM teams made their way to the Gold Coast over the weekend for an early start to their Saturday. Needing to be there by 7:45am, some made the trip down on Friday evening, while others of us made a very early start and headed down on Saturday morning. The Southport School was hosting the TOM Qld State Finals and we had prepared well, so we were confident we could get at least one team through to the International Final. Our teams outdid themselves, achieving four 1st placings and one 2nd placing – an OUTSTANDING result. The four 1st placed teams have been invited to represent Qld at the International Final to be held in Canberra on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th of October. 

Congratulations to the following teams:

Secondary ARTS – James Allpass, Aidan Briza, Lewis Atzeni, Jesse Pattel-Brown, George Bishop, Ben Allpass and Daniel O’Keeffe + Facilitators – Mrs Bonita Gerry and Matthew O’Keeffe.

Primary ARTS – J-D Cootes, Kayden Kyoung, Henry Walker, Lucas Weigl, Olivier Canning and Callum Nowers + Facilitators – Mrs Rhonda Carson and Tomas Ruiz.

Secondary Language and Literature – Daniel Cusack, Ashleigh Bishop, Gian Netzler, Henry Purcell, Sammy Plumb, Connor Campbell and Harry Cootes + Facilitator – Mrs Lucy Naughton. 

Secondary Social Sciences – Ben Hartfiel, Luke Rabie, Tim Bennett, George Pollard, Rafael Berkovich-Robles, Matthew Alvarez and Joshua Jones + Facilitator – Mr William Burkett. 

Our success on the day was not due to any individuals, or even one particular team. We had prepared as a group, sharing experience and expertise across the year levels. Our Year 11 and 12 mentors critiqued presentations and judged practices. Our experienced TOM team members led from the front, helping with processes and creative responses. The College’s success on Saturday was a result of five teams working together to be the best we could be. Regardless of the placing, everyone should be very proud of their contributions and their efforts.

We’re trying to put together a collection of photos and videos from the day, so if any of our parents have some to share, please send them through to me. 

CyberTaipan

Following a very long day on Saturday, a couple of us backed up again on Sunday. This time we only had to travel to Ashgrove, so a somewhat shorter trip. 

The CyberTAIPAN competition this year is a lot stronger than it has been with points being much more difficult to achieve. Over four hours, teams have to find as many vulnerabilities in systems as they can. With a possible 200 points available, no team has achieved more than around 130 this year. 

Our two teams have different levels of experience and expertise, but both have, once again, pushed themselves to achieve very good results. The predominantly Year 12 team – Zac Apelt, Luke Nisbett, Michael Nolan and Will Johnson, along with Ben Hartfiel (9G) again performed very well, finishing in the top 10 at the end of the weekend’s round. Not to be outshone, our predominantly Year 10 team – Max Bathersby, Harrison Dyer, Harry Lee, Remy Versace, Alex Apelt – added Kieran Eades (12E) to their group this year and have continued to improve with each round of competition. While probably not finishing in the top ten this year, they will have the opportunity to continue in 2023 and try to work their way up the leaderboard to gain that elusive invitation to the National Final of Cyber. 

Good luck to our Year 12 team whose participation in the Final will depend on the demands of the External Exams. Regardless, we wish all of the boys the best of luck in the next round.

Academic Co-curricular Programs

Maths/Science Club 

Year Levels: Years 5-10

Meetings:  Term 4 – Thursday 20 October (Week 3).

Location: Room 401 or Science Centre from 3:20pm-4:30pm

Topic: to be advised

Cybert – Cyber Security Club

Year Levels: Years 7-12

Meetings: Weekly – 7:30am each Friday. Next meeting is Friday 7 October (Week 1)

Location: Room 403 (CLE)

Roly Sussex Short Story Competition