Tournament of Minds

Junior School

Two teams from BMGS Junior School recently competed at the Regional Tournament of Minds, showcasing their creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. On the day, teams had to present a 10-minute dramatic solution to a Long-Term Challenge that they had been working on for six weeks. They also contested a Spontaneous Challenge in which they had just 4 minutes to generate creative responses. We are incredibly proud to announce that both our Junior School teams won first place in their respective competitions, and are heading to UNSW this weekend to compete in the State Finals!

Our Social Sciences team consisted of Ella, Yui, Florencia, Skye, Alicia, Sophia and Niamh. They were required to find an ethical way of fundraising through selling T-shirts – no fast fashion waste! They researched different options and created a flow chart to model effective decision-making processes. The judges praised them on their “engaging and innovative presentation”, and their deep understanding of the environmental and ethical considerations.

Our Arts team included Margot, Dane, Luella, Poppy, Clementine, Lilly and Eve. For their challenge, they had to combine the artistic styles of Escher’s mind-bending optical illusion works with a non-visual artist who had become trapped inside one of his drawings. They chose Anna Pavlova, and choreographed a beautiful ballet embedded within their presentation to show the impacts of feeling constantly observed: ‘trapped by the eye of the observer’. The judges loved their use of metaphor and praised their communication and team work.

Thank you also to Abbey, Bronte and Simeon for serving as judges on the day (in separate categories from ours). ToM would not be possible without the effort of many volunteer judges and organisers.

Congratulations to both teams for their sustained efforts! Over the last two weeks, the work has continued as we prepare for the State Final. Teams have been practising a new-style ‘3 Hour Challenge’, and are excited (and a bit nervous) to show off their skills to teams from all over NSW. Good luck, everyone!

Laura Lysaght

Tournament of Minds

Senior School

The Senior School competed at the Tournament of Minds Regional Tournament at UNSW Penrith on Sunday 30th August. These teams demonstrated significant creative and critical thinking to come up with novel solutions to a challenge in only six weeks. They performed their solution on the day and also had to demonstrate teamwork and innovation in response to an additional unseen spontaneous challenge.

The Year 7 team, called the Brainanas, successfully completed their first ever ToM presentation with delightful enthusiasm. They produced a radio play designed to capture the attention of teens in a post-social media world.

The Year 8 team, the Astro Worms combined a vast array of technical flair (sewing, video editing, 3D printing, LEGO building, paper mache making and more) to produce a working miniature and film scene for a sci-fi film space film Worm Rider (loosely based on their study of Whale Rider, which even included some spot-on NZ accents).

The combined Year 8 & 9 team, TOMians Against the Machines achieved an Honours award for their STEM challenge response. This team created a short film, working animated hologram box and a moving miniature in support of their sci-fi film. The TOMians movie featured an AI monster set in a dystopian world devoid of natural artistic expression. This team’s dedication, depth of thinking and joyful personal investment was evident and their award is very well deserved.

Congratulations to all involved.

We look forward to TOM returning in Term 2 2027.

Catharine Tierney and Annaliese Stammer

Tournament of Minds