Magis report

John XXIII College fielded a Years 8 and 10 team in the WADL’s British Parliamentary Debating Competition at Shenton College last week. Congratulations to Genevieve Fergusson-Allen, Tim Gardner, Meg Derbyshire and Asha Paton who performed very well against older opponents. Special thanks to Ms Kirralee Dawson for her assistance for the junior team all day on Saturday. This Sunday we have three senior teams competing at Bob Hawke College on Sunday.  The John XXIII Mock trials team had a great first round win last week. Congratulations to all team members and to Ms Daisy Farley and Ms Morgan Ball for their wonderful work with the students.

The Magis House Academic Challenge series continued with Years 7-10 competing in the STEM Challenge.  Again the numbers were outstanding with over 70 students competing in each section. A summary of the results will be included in next week's newsletter. Next week the final Academic Challenge for 2020, Language & Literature begins with Years 11 and 12 on Wednesday, and all others the following week.

Year 7 Magis and other gifted students have been invited to participate in the 2020 Curtin University Innovative learning Global Goals Challenge to be held at Servite College from 8-10 September during these  school days. It is intended to take a group of eight to working collaboration  with other schools exploring a range of diverse issues including climate change, poverty, inequality and other pertinent issues.  Information is on the nomination forms distributed to students. These must be returned by 27 August. A decision on which students are selected to attend will be made this week.

The WA  Creative Edge Thinking (Opti-MINDS) Challenge Teams will have their long-term and impromptu challenges filmed in the GBLT next Friday. We have a Year 7 and a Year 8 team doing the Charles Dickens Challenge in Language & Literature, and a Year 7 Science-Engineering team designing a Trebuchet.  Because of COVID-19  the event cannot be held at Curtin University – hence the filming. Special  thanks to Mr Damien Connellan for his excellent work with the Science-Engineering team, and to Mr Sam Tout and Ms Lisa Martella who will produce the video entries for the competition.  Good luck to all three teams and congratulations on  your hard work, creativity, talent and initiative.

Jim Miller

Magis Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator