Magis Report 

Academic Challenge

Our Magis Academic Challenge this week tested students’ knowledge of music theory, classical music, musicals, retro music and current hits. This was our seventh Academic House Challenge for the year. Each Homeroom nominates up to 10 students who take part in a quiz testing student’s knowledge across a number of disciplines. Students receive valuable House points for participating, and points for place positions. These points go towards awarding not only the Magis Academic Cup, for the highest achieving House, but also the overall College House Shield. Students from Years 9 through to Year 12 took part in the Music Challenge this week and we congratulate the following Year group winners:

• Year 9: Jonah Liew (Loyola)
• Year 10: Grace Nicol (Campion)
• Year 11: Poppy Hartfield (Loreto)
• Year 12: Hannah Dale (St Louis) and Sophie Dartnell (Ward)

Pictured is Mr Peter Mazur’s Homeroom, Year 10 St Louis, celebrating their win – as the top performing Year 10 Homeroom. Our Years 7 and 8 student representatives will participate in the Music Challenge next week, and we look forward to announcing which House has won the overall challenge. Stay tuned!

British Parliamentary Debating

We congratulate the students who took part in the British Parliamentary Debating Competition held at St Stephen's School last Saturday and Hale School last Sunday. Unlike the School’s Debating Competition, the British Parliamentary Tournament requires that teams participate in three debates over the course of one day in a distinct style of parliamentary-based debating. The adjudicators noted they were really impressed at the standard of debating throughout the regional rounds. We are excited to announce that Zachary Sartorello and Luke Nicol (both Year 8), have been selected for the State-Semi Finals, which will take place on Monday, 14 October (Term 4, Week 12), with John XXIII College hosting this event. This is an outstanding achievement, and we wish them all the best in the next round.

Snapshot: Year 8 Magis Elective Course

Our Year 8 Magis elective students have been busy exploring metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of reality, over the past few weeks. They have examined the first principle of Rene Descartes’s philosophy - 'Cogito, ergo sum - I think, therefore I am' - Cartesian Scepticism and how Descartes’s ideas influenced other key figures of the Enlightenment period and Scientific Revolution, John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton. They have also studied Thomas Aquinas’s cosmological argument, which Descartes considered when forming his own opinion on the existence of God. Pictured are our Year 8s getting into the headspace of Descartes (pun intended). 

Magis Community Mass

This morning’s Community Mass was prepared by Magis students, and was a wonderful way for us to come together, in celebration and support of our Gifted and Talented Program.  Many thanks to Ms Lumley and our students who assisted in the beautiful liturgy, to our Chapel singers, and to the staff, students, and parents who attended. Father Mark’s homily really resonated with our Magis students, particularly as they strive for excellence. Knowing that God is with us when things don’t work out the way we hoped, and to know it's ok not to get things right or perfect all the time, were comforting and wise words indeed. It was a lovely way to finish Wellness Week and celebrate RUOK? Day.

Mock Trials Season Wrap-Up

Our Mock Trials Team came together at recess today for morning tea and to reflect upon the 2024 Mock Trials season. There was a lot of joy and camaraderie shared between our Year 11 and 12 students, reminiscing on their two criminal trials and one civil trial that they competed in over the course of Terms 1 to 3. The Mock Trials Competition is an educational programme run by the Law Society for secondary school students. The competition is a role-playing activity in which teams of school students take on the roles of barristers, instructing solicitors, witnesses and court staff to present both sides of the fictitious case before a trial judge in a real courtroom at the WA Supreme Court. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Year 12 Team members, who have delivered exceptional performances over the past two years and have been outstanding role models for our younger students.

Our Year 12 team members are:

• Meg Cleary: Witness and Solicitor
• Noah Dale: Solicitor
• Jacob Davila: Solicitor and Junior Barrister
• Meg Derbyshire: Solicitor, Junior and Senior Barrister
• Henry Elkington: Solicitor
• Felix Frichot: Solicitor, Witness and Court Orderly
• Lucy Galvin: Solicitor and Judges Associate
• Hannah Johnson: Solicitor, Witness and Judges Associate
• Asha Paton: Solicitor, Witness and Junior Barrister
• Sky Pineda Beasley: Solicitor
• Jacinta Sturley: Solicitor
• Thomas Syminton: Solicitor, Witness and Senior Barrister

We look forward to welcoming a new cohort of Mock Trials students in 2025.

What’s happening next week?

Tomorrow our STEM team will be competing in the State Final of Tournament of Minds, and we wish these students all the best. Our Years 7 and 8 student representatives will take part in the Magis Music Challenge, and we look forward to announcing the winners of this challenge, along with the winners of our College Creative Writing Competition, in next week’s College Newsletter.

MAGIS: OPPORTUNITIES TO DO MORE!

TEDxYouth

Win your own TEDx talk! If you’re a West Australian aged 14 to 21 with an idea for change, TEDx Kings Park, in partnership with Curtin University, can help. Your idea could be small and handy, or big and world-changing, for people, for the environment, maybe for the world. If you’re one of the five selected finalists, you’ll share your idea on the main stage of the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia at the TEDx Kings Park Youth Event. The winning idea will also be turned into a six-minute TEDx talk, and be published on the official TEDx YouTube Channel! 

Entry is easy: Simply upload a 30 second video of yourself, explain your idea, by 1 September 2024.  

For more information, visit 30-Second Ideas - TEDxKings Park) or speak with the Head of Magis. We will be taking a group of students to the TEDx Kings Park Youth Event to watch the finalists – with further details, including how to reserve your seat in the audience, to be released closer to the date.

Chevron Nature in Focus Photography Competition 

Entries are now open for the 2024 Chevron Nature in Focus Photography Competition – so grab a camera, get outdoors, and start photographing Australia’s natural wonders and unique biodiversity. It could be as simple as some spring wildflowers or capturing a native lizard having a crawl. Include a short caption with your photo and submit it online – under one of the following categories: Oceans, Wetlands and Rivers; Sustainability; or Species and Habitats. For further details please visit Chevron Nature in Focus Photography Competition! - Conservation Volunteers Australia. 

Photographs must be submitted in digital format and should not be digitally altered beyond standard optimisation (e.g., colour correction, cropping). The competition closes at midnight on 1 November 2024, AEST. There’s over $10,000 worth of prizes up for grabs across five age categories – head to the website for details of prizes on offer for students and their schools. 

Ethics Olympiad Case Writing Competition

 Ethics Olympiad are holding a case writing competition with prize money to be won. Submissions should follow the general format for Ethics Olympiad cases: a scenario, between 400 and 800 words long, which highlights a clear moral issue and is appropriate for middle or high-school students and is written in a way that encourages civil discourse. The scenario should be framed so the central issue is clearly moral and not simply or primarily legal or professional. Knowledge of the structure of the Ethics Olympiad competition is important, and it is for that reason that we would recommend the case writing competition to students who have previously participated in an Ethics Olympiad. For more information, please click on the link here or view the flyer below.

Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Crimson Global Essay Competition provides a platform for young, ambitious high school students to exercise their writing skills and compete with students from all over the world. This competition encourages students to challenge themselves and explore different writing styles to ultimately strengthen their writing skills. The competition features two key rounds, the regional qualifiers held throughout five regions, followed by the global finals. To compete in the global round, participants must go head-to-head with local participants and place in the top 15 of the regional qualifiers. The top 12 submissions of the final 75, will be recognised in the global final and will win awesome prizes. As Harvard registration opens 1 October 2024 and closes 31 January 2025, we asked that students (aged 13-18) submit their expression of interest to the Head of Magis by Monday, 9 September 2024. This will be followed by a series of meetings and training seminars in preparation for the competition. Regional qualifiers will be held in February 2025, with Globals held in March 2025. For more information, please click the link below or speak with the Head of Magis. 

Daisy Farley

Head of Learning Areas – HASS & Magis