Student Achievements

Outstanding Achievement at SACLO: First Place in Senior Division!

We are proud to announce that one of our senior teams achieved first place in the South Australian Computational Linguistics Olympiad (SACLO) held at Prince Alfred College on Thursday, October 24. Competing against eight other well-trained schools, our winning team demonstrated exceptional problem-solving skills to secure this prestigious victory. The winning team members were: Isaac P, Josh C, Ilya S, and Werburg S.

SACLO presents participants with intriguing challenges involving real and constructed languages. This year’s senior round featured problems such as:

• Murrinhpatha: Analysing verbs from an Indigenous Australian language that condense entire sentences into single words.
• Xhosa: Deciphering linguistic patterns in this South African language, known for its click consonants.
• Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Interpreting ancient symbols that represent combinations of sounds, grammar, and meanings.

In addition to the senior team's incredible success, two junior teams of four students each participated in the competition. 

• Year 8 Junior Team: Winston F, Nate M, Iggy T, Jasper S
• Year 9 Junior Team: Jessica K, Annabelle P, Zoe C, Phoebe E

These students earned their place at SACLO after achieving a spot in the gold band during the OzCLO competition earlier this year—an impressive achievement in itself. While the junior teams did not place this time, they performed strongly and gained valuable experience for future events.

A special thank you to the parents and guardians who assisted with transportation and logistics, and congratulations to all our students for their dedication and effort.

Be sure to check out the photo of our senior team holding the trophy—a proud moment for our school community! We look forward to more success in future linguistics challenges.

Nick Rodda

Secondary Maths/Science Teacher

Gifted and Talented Programme Key Teacher