General News

Brain Olympia

On Wednesday August 28, a team of 8 students travelled to St Edwards Primary School, Tamworth  to compete in the Diocesan Brain Olympia Competition.  The team included Jack Aurisch, Alice Coombes, Michael Maughan, Susie Davidson, Molly Gallagher, Tommy Taber and Tobie Weekes.  It consisted of 4 areas; General Knowledge, Mathematics, Public Speaking and Drama.  There were 11 teams in attendance - 5 in the small school category (including St Michael's) and 6 in the large school category. 

We started with General Knowledge, which consisted of 5 rounds of 10 questions with a different topic for each round - English, Science, HSIE, Famous People/Places/Events and Current Affairs.  St Michael's ended this section with the highest overall score of 43/50. We then moved onto Mathematics, where the team needed to solve 5 problems in 30 minutes. The questions were quite tricky, involving all aspects of maths and thinking outside the box.  Our students persevered and were rewarded with a great score. Public Speaking involved the team collaboratively writing a speech on the topic 'If you had 3 wishes, how would you change the world?' and Susie was selected for the nerve-wracking job of presenting to the audience.  Well done Susie! The day finished with Drama, requiring the team to create a short skit with the final line "We should have listened!".  Our students developed and confidently presented a wonderful performance involving a hike gone wrong.

The students should be very proud of their collaboration and persistence throughout the day. They did incredibly well and ended the day in 3rd place in their category, just missing out on progression to the final.