Magis report

Congratulations to all students who will compete in the grand final of the John XXIII Public Speaking competition to be held in the GBLT on Tuesday at 6:30pm.  We have an exceptional judging panel of outstanding Alumni, Tom Paparo, Rory Hewson, Kinia O’Brien and Charlie Richards.  Speeches are of three minutes’ duration and may be on any topic. The top three students from the heats for each year group from Years 7 to 12 will compete. Special thanks to Mr Green, Ms Dawson and the student leaders who assisted with judging the heats. Full results will be in next week’s newsletter.

There are still a few places left for the Magis Years 7/8 camp to be held at Point Walter Camp on 7-8 August.  Highlights will include major workshop sessions from David Castellani from Alpha Motivation, and the WA Director of Opti-MINDS and Creative Edge, Kathy Boyatzis. There will also be keynote addresses from senior students. The students leave school at 3:25pm on Friday 7 August and return at 3:00pm on Saturday 8 August. Point Walter is a  superb campsite, and nominations will remain open until the end of this week.

The academic section of the House Championship, run by Magis, continues this term with the competition of the Public Speaking, the STEM Challenge and House Chess. Koolyangarra House currently leads overall from strong rivals Loreto, St Louis and Campion, and all houses have achieved success in various section of the new program.  So far the Academic Challenges, held in the GBLT during homeroom, have averaged over 165 competitors for each challenge. The Year 12’s have had the greatest number of competitors ahead of Year 11 and Year 8, whilst Ms Ball’s Campion Year 10 homeroom have had the highest number of participants (24), just ahead of  Koolyangarra Year 7 and 12, and Ward Year 11. Congratulations to all participants and warmest thanks to House coordinators and homeroom teachers for their splendid work with their teams.

A number of interschool gifted and talented competitions commence this term, with Opti-MINDS, Tournament of Minds and Interschool debating all commencing. Currently we have four Opti-MINDS and one Tournament of Minds teams, and are waiting for details of the debating from the Western Australia Debating League (WADL). COVID-19 has meant the cancellation of the Jesuit National Debating championships due to be held in Sydney, but we look forward to the WADL opportunities.

Jim Miller

Magis Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator