Magis

Magis report

The Year 11 and 12 section of the House Championship in Mental  Mathematics  was held this week. There was an outstanding response with over 60 senior students competing.  Koolyangarra House won the Year 12 section ahead of  Ward and Campion, whilst St louis were successful in Year 11 ahead of Loreto and Loyola. Daniel Poland gained the top result in Year 12 and  Joel Khoo in Year 11 ahead of some very fine mathematicians. Full results will be attached with next week’s newsletter. Nominations for the Years 7-10 sections will be called for in homeroom this coming week.

The John XXIII Creative Writing competition (short stories) closes this coming week.  It is open to all students from Years 7-12, and counts for House points.  Students may write on any topic of their choice.

The  link to the competition flyer is attached with this newsletter.

Next week  our gifted students will have the chance to participate in an exciting new on-line gifted and talented program run by Academy Conferences.  This group runs programs around the world and have had to cancel the event which was to be held at St Hilda’s next week.  The director is Julie Arliss who has direct association with several major academic groups in England including Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Julie gave me significant assistance with development of our Magis Program when I met with her at Oxford University last December.

Over the next few weeks we should gain clarification of plans for some of the major gifted student team competitions postponed because of the coronavirus.  In the meantime Magis and Altiora students are encouraged to participate in one or more of the of the gifted students opportunities listed in Set 3 and 4 of the best external competitions flyers sent out recently. These are all events that are not effected by the COVID-19 situation.

Two major Magis-associated competitions that will proceed in third term albeit with changed arrangements and no WA or National finals at this stage  are Tournament of Minds and Opti-MINDS.  Tournament of Minds nominations should be made via Mr Stuart Massey as usual, and Opti-MINDS directly via Magis.  Opti-MINDS will only be available to students doing semester two Year 7 or 8 Magis options, or other students who have previously competed in Opti-MINDS.

Jim Miller

Magis Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator