Gifted and Talented News

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Awards for completing the Premier of Queensland Reading Challenge were presented to the following boys, who managed to read at least fifteen books in the allocated time period. Well done to: Mitchell Stacey, in Year 7; Sam Caffin-Smith, Archie Engstrom, Jakub Falcnik, Jack Northcote, Xavier Peatey, Jimmy Starrenburg and Alex Thornhill, in Year 8 and Hudson O’Neill, in Year 9.

Short Story Forum

The Short Story Forum continued to meet this term and members enjoyed discussing a diverse range of stories including ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ by Poe, ‘A Hunger Artist’ by Kafka; ‘The First Law’ by Isaac Asimov; ‘The Chosen Vessel’ by Barbara Baynton and a collection containing ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O Henry, ‘The Necklace’ by Guy de Maupassant and ‘To Build a Fire’ by Jack London.

Cyber Taipan

On Saturday 16 October I joined Ben Hartfiel, James Larme, Max Gallagher, Cullen Fitzgerald and Dean Graham, all in Year 10, for the National finals of this year’s Cyber Taipan competition. Assisted by their excellent coach, industry professional Adam Graham, the boys grappled admirably with cyber security problems over a four-hour period. Ms Franklin, who has been a brilliant facilitator for the Cyber Club this year, reports that the boys placed sixth out of 163 teams and I would like both to thank Ms Franklin and join her in congratulating them.

Future Problem Solvers

It was my special pleasure to watch our boys receive a first-place award at the National Future Problem Solvers finals award ceremony on Sunday 17 October. Mr O’Brien, who has adeptly coached the team (Harrison Dyer, Max Batthersby, Remy Versace and Alex Apelt, all in Year 11) throughout the year can be thanked for accompanying and facilitating National Finals in Brisbane, which lasted the entire weekend of Friday 15 to Sunday 17 October. Mr O’Brien had this to say:

“As part of the weekend, teams in the GIPS Division were required to plan and present their Action Plan to an audience of judges and participants from other schools.  Teams were expected to make use of a variety of dramatic forms, make simple props from a list of allowed objects, and include the use of two mystery props and one mystery quotation.  Although the boys did not receive an invitation to the Internationals, their Action Plan Presentation was awarded 1st place in the Senior Division, GIPS Competition.  For this, they received medals, a trophy as well as certificates celebrating their participation in the Nationals, and their Presentation Award. 

At the conclusion of the hard-fought season, Harrison, Max, Remy, and Alex should be congratulated on their efforts.  They represented the College in style and gave their best in everything they were asked to do.  It has been a pleasure to work with them throughout the season, and I look forward to 2024.”

Mathematics Competition Certificates

Awards from the Australian Mathematics Competition were presented in Assembly, and it was good to congratulate the following students for attaining Distinction. In Year 5: Cooper Williams, Harry McConnell, Lucas Crowley, Maxwell King and Roman Krutil. In Year 6: Cooper Chaseling, Hamish Pope, Will Hutchinson, Xavier Hill, Nicolas Cienfuegos and Percy Hede.

And in the Secondary division, In Year 7: Aarav Patel and Eddie Thompson, by special invitation. In Year 8: Ben Flanagan, Ike Rowland, Jeremy Harvey, Joseph Niere and Tom Bartlett.  In Year 9: Aiden Lau, Alessander Javier, Baxter Thompson, Cade Kelly, Jack Purcell, Lachlan Pawsey, Leo McKenna, Tyson Cooper and Will Lambley. Finally in Year 10: Benjamin Mead, Cooper McGinn, Kian Dickman, Micah Netzler and Andrew Woodward.

Special congratulations go to Ethan Yi in Year 5, who achieved a High Distinction and Best in School for the Primary School and to Blake Guest in Year 8 who also achieved a High Distinction. Thomas Masel in Year 8 attained a High Distinction and the honor of being Best in School in the Secondary school.

Middle-School Ethics Olympiad

Thursday 16 November saw our inaugural participation in the Middle-School Ethics Olympiad, Queensland Heat, involving 22 schools. In this live, online competition Teams take part in four heats where they alternate between Team A and Team B roles. Team A responds to a case study and proposition (For example “Is it ever right to lie?”). Team B offers a counterargument and devises questions and then Team A has seven minutes of questions from the judge to contend with. The competition organisers proffered a panel of international judges, and our boys were both challenged and edified by a judge from Canterbury University in New Zealand. Many thanks go to Ms Lucy Naughton, who prepared the students admirably and lent them encouragement for the whole-day event. Although the team did not qualify for the national final, they put up a strong performance, especially considering they were pitted against the eventual overall Queensland winners in their very first round. The judges highly commended the team and I congratulate Thomas Davis, in Year 7 and Archie Engstrom and Felix Woolmer, who are both in Year 8. May this begin a long tradition of philosophical reasoning for our younger boys! 

Farewell 2023!

It remains for me to sign off on this year and my time at Marist College Ashgrove. I would like to thank the amazing facilitators of the Academic Co-curricular Program. It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with so many committed and accomplished young men. I have learnt so much and enjoyed many aspects of my role as Program leader for Gifted and Talented and I wish much success to the students, staff and wider College community for 2024 and beyond.