Magis
Two John XXIII Year 7 teams competed in the Opti-MINDS regional championship at Curtin University last Saturday. Both the Language-Literature and Science Engineering teams worked hard to prepare for the event and performed well. We will not know until next week whether either team made the WA finals because country Opti-MINDS regionals including Bunbury are still to be completed. Special thanks to Mr Mazur for his excellent work with the science team. John XXIII also fielded one team, Science-Engineering, in Tournament of Minds last weekend and the team excelled to make the state finals. Congratulations to Mr Connellan for his great work with this team, and to all students who represented the College in Opti-MINDS or Tournament of Minds. Warmest thanks also to parents who supported all three teams. Tournament of Minds WA finals are on Sunday 15 September, and Opti-MINDS on Saturday 21 September.
It is hoped to send two teams to Yale, USA, for the 2019 World Scholar’s Cup Tournament of Champions after all three of our global round teams qualified in Sydney. Further details will be in subsequent newsletters. Parents of qualifying students are reminded that nomination forms must be returned by Monday.
Top gifted students and debaters in Years 10-12 have been informed of the opportunities to participate in the ECU Cyber Conference next Saturday, 14 November, or the WA Debating League’s British Parliamentary Debating on either 14 or 15 November. Further information is available from the Magis office.
This week has seen the commencement of the John XXIII Chess Championship run by Magis and final opportunities to take the Magis Creativity Challenge. Meanwhile Magis Year 7 Option students have produced some terrific performances with the Opti-MINDS Social Sciences Challenges on masks for their current assessment. The final Magis Academic Challenge for the year, the Academic Knowledge Challenge, will be held over the next fortnight for the different year levels.
Jim Miller
Gifted and Talented Program coordinator