Academic Enrichment

Artwork: 'Isometric City'

Ethan Zhang, Year 8, Ridgeway Campus 

Riley Tyebji, Year 10, Ridgeway Campus

On the first of May, a group of fellow students and I had the amazing opportunity to represent Ivanhoe Grammar School in the first Victorian round of the 2025 Senior Ethics Olympiad, held via Zoom. It was a full day of engaging discussions where our teams tackled challenging ethical dilemmas alongside students from across the state. 

Unlike traditional debating, the Ethics Olympiad focuses on respectful and thoughtful dialogue. We were not trying to "win" an argument. Instead, Ethics Olympiads promote respectful, persuasive conversations where everyone's views are acknowledged. The cases covered a wide variety of topics, such as artificial intelligence, environmental responsibility, and social justice. Through this experience, students enhance their critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and public speaking skills. It also deepens their understanding of moral issues while learning to respect different viewpoints and encourage empathy and thoughtful dialogue. 

In the lead-up to the event, we spent weeks preparing for the competition with the support of Dr Waese and the Ethics Olympiad resources provided. We attended an in-person training session prior to the competition with ethics experts, who taught us how to present our ideas clearly and respectfully. On the competition day, the conversations were intense but incredibly rewarding. All the IGS teams demonstrated strong reasoning, teamwork, and ethical insight, each receiving praise from the judging panel. It was such a valuable experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of something that celebrates ethical thinking and collaboration.   

We finished the Ethics Olympiad feeling proud of our efforts and the way we represented our school with integrity and maturity. I would encourage other students to get involved next year. It is challenging, but totally worth it! 

Riley Tyebji, Year 10, Ridgeway Campus

The Smith Family’s student2student buddy program is a dynamic literacy support initiative that pairs older student volunteers, known as “Buddies,” with younger students, referred to as “Readers,” to help improve their reading abilities and foster self-confidence. Over 18 weeks, Buddy-Reader pairs meet twice a week for 20-minute reading sessions, working with the same set of books to ensure they are progressing at a similar pace. 

At Ivanhoe Grammar School, we are fortunate to have the incredible opportunity to participate in this program. As Buddies, we are trained in the Pause, Prompt, Praise strategy, a proven method that enables us to guide Readers effectively, helping them overcome challenges and celebrate their successes. As a Buddy, I am responsible for supporting my Reader through their reading journey, offering encouragement and guidance every step of the way. Knowing that my Reader is relying on me motivates me to approach each session with focus and care. 

This program offers significant benefits not only for the younger students, who improve their reading abilities, but also for the older students, who gain valuable leadership, communication and mentoring skills. 

I am excited to continue and complete this program successfully. It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of something that allows me to make a positive impact on someone else’s life, while also growing personally and professionally. This experience is one I will cherish and carry with me into the future. 

Zaynab Syed, Year 11, Ridgeway Campus

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for schools and universities across the globe to encourage their students to get involved in debating. Known to improve public speaking and quick-thinking skills, it is now one of the most popular extracurriculars in the world, giving rise to the running of global tournaments such as the World Universities Debating Championships, the Harvard World Schools ANZ Round, the Model United Nations and so many more.  

Debating in some form or another has a long running history, tracing all the way back to Ancient Greece, when philosophical and political public debates were considered a form of entertainment for the common people and a chance to display intelligence for the competitors. Nowadays, debating looks rather different, a debate now defined as ‘an organised argument or contest of ideas in which participants discuss a topic – usually philosophical, social, and/or political in nature’.  

At Ivanhoe Grammar School, the Debating and Public Speaking Society is very popular, with 64 members participating in the Senior Years alone. In fact, so many people expressed their interest in joining debating for 2025 that at the start of the year, a Selection Tournament was held to better organise this year’s debating team. We debated many topics that the DAV (Debaters Association of Victoria) put forth last year, such as ‘That Australians should mourn January 26th as Invasion Day’, ‘That Australia should embrace nuclear energy’, and ‘That we should all become vegan’. Everyone had great arguments and rebuttals, and many of the debates were only won by a small margin.  

The 2025 Debating season has now kicked off, and Ivanhoe Grammar School is off to a good start, each debater scoring well. The next round of debates starts in just three weeks, and we cannot wait to see where the remainder of this season will take us.