Magis
John XXIII College had a mixed night in round one WADL Debating at Christchurch this week with some good wins, three narrow one point losses, and problems with late topic changes for two of the teams, both of which rose to the occasion and still performed superbly. All teams are reminded again to check the website for changes to fixtures. It is also vital that teams which cannot practice on Monday after school organise an alternative training time, as at least two of our teams were under-prepared for the first round. There were many fine performances on the night and we look forward to all teams working hard to develop their skills and learning from the Adjudicator and team manager feedback. Special thanks to team managers Ms Dawson, Ms Lumley, Ms Needham, Ms Devanand and Mr Peters for their commitment to the students, and to the wonderful group of parents who supported the teams.
Practice for the Da Vinci Decathlon continues, with all five teams organised into specialist areas for each of the ten sections. Teachers are doing a great job preparing the students, and special thanks go to Ms McLoughlin and Ms Devanand (Maths), Mr Cotter (Science), Ms Ball (Cartography), Mr Carello (Engineering) and Ms Davies (Coding) for their excellent work with the teams. Most teams have reserves, and final decisions on team composition will be confirmed early next week. All students should now have returned their permission forms.
The Space Camp 2020 participant lists for the combined Corpus Christi and John XXIII College teams have now been finalised, and all families should now have received a confirmation letter. Deposits are due by 31 March. A total of 23 students from the two colleges will be attending this exciting program.
There are many outstanding gifted and talented student opportunities available beyond the wide range of team events that the Magis program focuses on. Two excellent examples of students who have shown the initiative recently, are Year 12 Magis Committee member Charlie Richards who has been selected to go to Canberra for the National Schools Constitutional Convention, and Year 9 writer Alice O’Sullivan who already has an entry in The Golden Pen Writing Competition. Other students are encouraged to participate in this excellent Scribblers event, or some of the other great programs including the Brainways’ Academius Program at UWA during the April holidays, the Big Science Competition in May, the Catholic Schools Public speaking competition in June., and the Perkins Institute Immersion program which is for top Year 10-12 Science students and is held in holidays breaks at the end of each term Details of some of these programs are in the Magis folder, or please come to the Magis office for further details. Good luck to students involved in the Have Sum Fun Mathematics competition on Friday night, and warmest thanks to the Mathematics department staff involved.
Jim Miller
Gifted and Talented Coordinator
Magis & Altiora Calendar
Term One
- March 30 - Creative Edge at Curtin Uni
- April 2-3 - Da Vinci Decathlon at UWA
- April 9 - Short Story Entries due
Term Two
- May 1 - Magis Public Speaking Breakfast
- May 6 - Magis Public Speaking Heats
- May 10 - Julie Arliss G/T at St Hilda’s
- May 14 - Magis Public Speaking Final (GBLT)
- May 17-18 - World Scholar’s Cup Camp
- May 23 - Mental Maths Challenge
- May 31 - J1 World Scholar’s regionals SHC
- June 12 - Magis Academic Knowledge
- June 26 - Magis Awards & Personal Project Breakfast