STUDENTS'

ACHIEVEMENTS 

Saints Outstanding Success at the DATTA Awards

The Business Liaison Association together with DATTA (the Design and Technology Teachers' Association) Queensland hosted their annual Design and Technologies Awards at the Pullman International on 20 October. Our boys were very successful, taking home seven awards and a school certificate of recognition for first-place winners. Liam Dash won first prize for his Year 8 dragster project and design folio. 

In the category of Year 12 Industrial Graphic Skills Building and Construction Drafting, William Barmettler came third, Liam Prestipino second and Darcy Little first.

In the category of Year 12 Industrial Graphic Skills Engineering Drafting, Liam Prestipino and Darcy Little came third and William Barmettler second. Huge congratulations to all winners.

Our Students Obtain Impressive Results in the UQ & QETA Economics Competition 

By Jon Sorensen - Head of Humanities

Last term, the Year 11 and Year 12 Economics classes participated in the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Queensland Economics Teachers' Association (QETA) Competition with some pleasing results. Darcy Oates, in Year 11, obtained joint second in the Queensland prize. This is an outstanding result. UQ will present Darcy with his prize in the near future. The competition consisted of 20 multiple choice questions from the QCAA Economics Syllabus, and the College obtained the following results:

Keith Goodwin Scholarships

At the end of Term 3, Declan McAlister and Riley Jackson of Year 12 applied for the inaugural Keith Goodwin Scholarship for Accounting and Business which is run by the Business Liaison Association (BLA). Both students participated in a rigorous interview process and have won scholarships.  They'll be presented with them at BLA's annual Aspire Awards evening at the Pullman International Hotel on Thursday 1 December. Well done to Riley and Declan! 

Australian Geography and History Competition

The Australian Geography Competition and the Australian History Competition are well-known in secondary schools. Partnered with the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales, the Australian Geography Competition assesses geographical knowledge and skills. All Years 7, 8 and 9 students were invited to participate.

The Australian History Competition assesses historical interpretation and analytical skills and all Year 9s took part together with the Semester 1, Year 10 History classes. We had some pleasing results in both competitions.

In the Geography Competition, the students named below achieved the following excellent results:

In the Australian History Competition, again, St Augustine’s achieved some pleasing

results:

Patrick Maher of Year 9, not only achieved a High Distinction for the Australian History Competition but also obtained the best result in Queensland. This is a fantastic achievement. Well done, Patrick.

St Augustine's Debaters Declared Champions   

                                       By Tina Nguyen-Hales - Head of English

Saints hosted the finals of the inaugural Cairns Catholic Schools’ Debating Cup on Tuesday 18 October. This competition has been running since July and has included schools from all over the diocese in a knockout competition.

Our boys were strong competitors throughout the heats and semi-finals, and we made it to the finals for the Junior and the Senior Division. Our Junior team consisted of Kaleb Howard, Matthew Williams and Patrick Maher. They competed against St Monica's, arguing the negative of Social media has had a detrimental impact on humanity. Matthew outlined the benefits of social media for small businesses and communication, Kaleb argued that social media actually brings humanity together, and Patrick successfully rebutted the affirmative team’s arguments with great success. It was a very close competition, but the judges noted that it was the Saints team’s rebuttals and continuity of argument that cinched the win.

Our senior team of Riley O’Sullivan, Daniel Leibinger, and Darcy Oates competed against a strong St Andrew's side and argued the negative that Same-sex education is an anachronism. The first port of call was for everyone to look up the word "anachronism". The boys argued that while same-sex education is not a choice that everyone may make, it must still be an option. Riley O’Sullivan was speaker of the night, with flawless scores. Daniel Leibinger’s suave rhetoric solidified their arguments and Darcy Oates’ five minutes of fiery rebuttal secured the victory.

The buzz of debating is back in the air, and I thank all students who participated in the heats to get us this far. A special thanks as well to all Saints teachers who helped with hosting the debates by providing their time and expertise as adjudicators. This competition wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration and time commitment from the other schools in the diocese who also provided adjudicators and parent volunteers. Finally, thank you to Catholic Education Services for sponsoring the competition and supporting such an important endeavour.