Enrichment Opportunities at Kildare Catholic College
The da Vinci Decathlon 2022
At the commencement of 2022, Kildare has focused on providing additional enrichment opportunities for high achieving students from across the school.
The first opportunity involved an invitation to students who achieved in the top 10% across NAPLAN, PAT tests and school reports to participate in da Vinci Decathlon activities. It was an optional opportunity and 70 students attended the first session.
The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. Students compete in teams of 8
across 10 disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy.
The da Vinci Decathlon began in 2002 as an exciting offshoot of the very successful da Vinci Program for gifted and talented students at Knox Grammar. The Decathlon is designed to celebrate the academic gifts of Australian youth by providing a stimulating and challenging competition run in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon.
Lunchtime training sessions were held twice a week where critical thinking and problem solving skills were developed. The sessions also allowed for students to socialise with different groups who may have similar interests. The commitment of the students who participated was excellent and the skills they gained are transferable across the curriculum.
From the original group, four teams were chosen. 32 students attended the local level of the da Vinci Decathlon which was held at The Riverina Anglican College on the 4th and 5th of May. Our students competed against schools from across the Riverina, such as Leeton High School, Hennessey College, Young, Moama Anglican Grammar and Wagga High School.
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The 2022 da Vinci Decathlon teams who competed in the events were:
Year 7 | Logan Goetsch, Kobe Gustowski, Thomas Smythe, Benedict Byrne, Madeline McDonald, Hamish Crawford, Zara Egan, Sam Seghers |
Year 8 | Ned Mackay, Charlie Malone, Jamila Sawal, Safia Sawal, Mikaika Edullantes, Antonia Schmidtke, Saige Maidment- Clarke, Ava Sweeney |
Years 9-10 | Eleanor Crawford, Ruby McRae, Rhys Beer, Isobel Owen, Annalyse Gaiter,Layla Ellis, Madeleine Gaiter, Blake Karhu |
Year 11 | Lucy Mackay, Ella McCorry, Hamish McRae, Josie Crofts, Rohan Cummins, Bridget Stephens, Eamon Carter, TJ Vatabuli |
Our students performed extremely well with all four teams achieving numerous placings across the ten disciplines:
| Disciplines | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9/10 | Year 11 |
| Science | 3rd |
| 2nd | 1st |
| Creative Producers |
| 3rd |
| 3rd |
| English | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd |
| Ideation | 3rd |
|
| 1st |
| Art and Poetry | 1st |
|
| 3rd |
| Mathematics and Chess | 1st | 3rd |
|
|
| Cartography | 1st |
| 3rd |
|
| Engineering |
|
|
| 3rd |
| Code Breaking |
|
| 2nd |
|
| Legacy | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Overall | 3rd | 4th | 4th | 1st |
Congratulations to our Year 11 team who were the Overall Winners of their competition. They showed exemplary team work and attention to detail when addressing criteria for each section. They will be competing against the winners of the other regional events via a Zoom hosted by Knox Grammar on Wednesday 25th of May.
We wish them all the best for the next stage of the da Vinci Decathlon.
Jenny Stephens, Jacqueline Galvin, Clementine Patterson & Nicole Goggin | Organisors