Student achievements

Australian Mathematics Competition

We are delighted to announce that the following students were awarded impressive Distinctions in the 2021 Australian Mathematics Competition which took place in Term 3:

Year 9 – Chloe Brittain, Mykala Mastrocola and Anna Fracalossi.

Year 7 – Ava Baker, Alet Le Grange, Lyanne Princess Olesco, Clare Wanandy.

Pictured L-R: Chloe (Year 9), Lyanne, Ava, Clare, Alet (Year 7) and Mykala (Year 9). Absent: Anna (Year 9).

Open to students in Years 3 to 12, the AMC is an engaging 30-problem competition that demonstrates the importance and relevance of mathematics in students' everyday lives. Congratulations, girls, and well done to all St Mary's College students who participated!

National History Challenge

Congratulations are also in order for the following students who achieved success in the National History Challenge:

Eliza McCullough (Year 4): Year 4 State prize winner – Gold

Jasmine Williams (Year 6): History of Sport (State finalist/top 3) – Silver

Abigail Creese (Year 6): Indigenous History (State finalist/top 3) – Silver

Clare Wanandy (Year 7): History of Sport State prize winner – Gold; History of Sport National prize winner – Platinum.

Kasota Clayton (Year 10): Australian Women’s History State Prize winner – Gold; Barry MacFarlane Award for the best Tasmanian essay.

Representing the College with pride at the awards ceremony on Friday 5 November.

Eliza receiving her award from Premier Peter Gutwein.

Kasota pictured with Premier Gutwein and Alison Grant, founder of the National History Challenge and Tasmanian History Teachers' Association life member.

Clare pictured alongside other national winners and Premier Gutwein at the award ceremony.

This year's theme was Significance: History Matters, with students presented with their certificates an award ceremony hosted by the Premier, Peter Gutwein on Friday 5 November.

Unfortunately, Clare—as a national awardee—was unable to travel to Canberra as part of her prize due to the COVID-19 border restrictions.

Well done to all the teachers who have contributed to our students achieving these fabulous results and in particular, Gill Goldsworthy and Jenny Noble, for your hard work and dedication. Thank you for always going above and beyond what is expected of you.

Congratulations to the following students:

Madeleine Grubb and Emma Grubb (Year 9), who won the state award for the 'Best use of technology' in the Catholic Education Tasmanian STEM MAD competition.

Designed to acknowledge and promote STEM learning initiatives, STEM MAD seeks to address real-world problems and demonstrate how students in Catholic schools take action that matters. Student teams are invited to design a product, service or innovation to 'Make A Difference' (MAD) to others or the environment.

For their independent science investigation, Emma and Madeleine designed a device to determine the effect that sodium chloride has on the conductivity of water, while also analysing how temperature affects conductivity. The pair created a video showcasing their project, which was later entered into the STEM MAD competition. The College will receive $100-worth of LEGO promo gear and Microbit by KittenBot. Thank you to the sponsors, Paktronics, Moore Educational and Bitlink.

Madeleine also claimed first prize in the recent Royal Hobart Show Art Competition in the Year 9–11 category. Her winning piece, pictured below, was a spectacular painting of Taroona Beach, where the Year 9 Art class visited during an excursion in Term 2.

Arts Minister, Elise Archer presented Madeleine with her prize.

Freya Shanny (Year 8), who took out second place of the Island Quilts 2021 textiles exhibition in the secondary student category with her quilt, pictured right.

This is an amazing result for Freya, who has worked extremely hard on her submission. The final product is the result of many hours of research, design, planning, production and finishing.

Freya's quilt uses traditional quilting techniques including strip piecing and machine quilting. Freya explored alternate colour palettes and different layouts for the traditional herringbone design and showcased diverse machine stiches in her quilting.

Laine Debnam (Year 7), who has been named in the U16 Tasmanian Water Polo team which will compete in Brisbane in January 2022.

Laine's commitment and passion for the sport has seen her rise through the ranks from her humble beginnings as a flippa ball player for the College to earning the title of state representative. What an incredible achievement. Go Laine!

Nate Debnam (Year 2), who was announced as the winner of the Student Resource Centre (SRC) whole-school Bookflix competition.

Students recently had the opportunity to share their all-time favourite book in SRC, with Nate's being Robot, Meet the Machines of the Future. Well done, Nate and happy reading!

Macey Hayes, James Gittus (Year 2) and Paige Gittus (Prep), who competed in the Seishin Open on Sunday 31 October with excellent results and a swag of medals between them.

James won gold in both of his divisions (junior boys under-34 kilograms and nine to 11-year-old 'no limits'). Macey took out gold in the eight years and under division, and Paige won gold in the six years and under division, and silver in the five to six year-old No Limits. Such an amazing achievement by all three students!

If you have a student achievement to share, please get in touch by emailing stmarys@smc.tas.edu.au.