Academic Enrichment

Newman College Forum Dinner

Newman College welcomed several regional Catholic schools to a forum dinner last Friday night. Year 12 students Kristopher Stephens, Tom O’Donohue, and Charlie Conroy enjoyed a tour led by Old Collegian Ben Mornane (SPC 2022) before attending dinner with two inspiring guest speakers. The speakers shared insights into life at Newman College and Melbourne University, as well as their own career journeys. The boys were captivated by the College’s striking architecture but were even more impressed by its academically focused culture and the warmth of its community.

Ethics Olympiad

Recently, two teams of 'ethletes' represented us in the Victorian Ethics Olympiad, a competition that fosters respectful, creative, and rigorous ethical discussions among students across school communities. Teams compete by tackling complex ethical dilemmas, demonstrating thoughtful analysis, reasoning, logic, and effective communication to impress the judges. Each heat is conducted and assessed by university-based academics and ethicists from around the world.

Our teams performed very well, competing against a diverse range of Melbourne schools throughout the day. Our team with Taj Bobrowski, Archer Mohr, Patrick Buttler and Finn Curran secured a top 10 placement—an impressive achievement for our first round—and our team consisting of George Charles, Garry Dhinni, Josh Hayes and Patrick Snowdon received an honourable mention. We eagerly anticipate seeing how our Year 7-9 teams will fare in Term 4.

Social Innovators Forum 

On 8-9 May, 45 Year 8 and 9 students from Mt Rowan Secondary College and St Patrick’s College joined the Social Innovators program, facilitated by Crazy Ideas College (CIC) and supported by Integra, Ballarat TECH School, and Ballarat Isuzu. 

Over two days, students formed teams around environmental and societal issues, brainstorming solutions, developing prototypes, and designing experiments to test their ideas. They then pitched their projects to a panel of 12 community partners, showcasing their passion and commitment to change. 

Notable ideas included A.N.A.T.O.R, a drone assisting farmers by analyzing air and soil quality, and Phastic Plastic, a recycled vacuum that filters microplastics for reuse. The program highlighted young innovators at their best—embracing possibilities, collaborating, and tackling global challenges with fresh perspectives. 

We had the following Year 9 boys participate: Abe Ronan, Ashton Caruana, Cooper Meagher, Edward Cummins, George Muller, Jackson Hood, Jagger Walters-Powell, Jake Arnold, Joe Corcoran, Kayde Price, Logan Vawdrey, Mitchell Shea, Oscar Dalrymple, Oscar Down, Venuk Gajanayake, William Eeles, Ujjwal Gambhir.

State da Vinci Decathlon

The da Vinci Decathlon is an action-packed day filled with problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking across 10 disciplines, including Science, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Ideation, and Cartography. 

Following their success in the regional da Vinci Decathlon, which we proudly hosted at SPC, our Year 7 and Year 10 teams advanced to the State competition at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. Competing against some of the state's strongest schools, the boys faced rigorous challenges and demonstrated perseverance throughout the event. 

Our Year 10 team consisted of Jackson Turner, Max Dorsett, Geetansh Saini, Paddy Casey, Jackson Goddard, Ethan McColl and Kingston Kydd. Our Year 7 team had Walter Fieger, Sean Robinson, Morgan Oates, Nathaniel Sablik Dixon, Asher Tuffnell, Harry Juniper-Eyles and Porus Gill.