On the 29th and 30th of March, three teams from the Academic Excellence Program competed in the Da Vinci Decathlon, a test which combines intellectual prowess with problem solving and creativity.

In the Year 8 category, the students consisted of:

Amelie Butler, Chris Dass, Alexander Dempsey, Gabriella Grima, Dorothy Lai, Dylan Romeo, Maureen Sherry and Rafaela Thomson.

In the Year 9 and 10 categories, the students competing were:

Jessica Davey, Joshua Diaz, Leon Du Toit, Declan Kartadinata, Ramielle Lazar, Michael McFerran, Christopher Ng, Joshua O’Brien, Hannah Oversby, Nathan Rodrigues, Diya Tiwari, Naomi Videmanis, Veronica Vincent, Mia Watanabe and Joshua Zhou.

The competition revolves around the following ten disciplines:

• Cartography

• Creative Producers (acting)

• Ideation (problem solving)

• Code breaking

• Engineering

• Poetry and Art

• Mathematics

• English

• Legacy (general knowledge)

• Science

Held in Winthrop Hall at UWA and competing against hundreds of students from other colleges, the finely tuned minds of the AvÐÔ°® students were put to the test and they conducted themselves with the utmost class and sophistication. Not only did they embrace each other’s particular skill sets but also demonstrated an outstanding level of maturity when it came to peer support and communication.

While the AvÐÔ°® teams did not place on the podium in the final standings, a massive congratulations must go to the Year 9 Team of Hannah, Christopher, Leon, Mia, Diya, Ramielle, Ruth and Aldrich which came second in Code Breaking and third in Creative Producers and the Year 8 Team who came first in English!

It has been an absolute pleasure working with three Da Vinci Decathlon teams, and I am very much looking forward to their continued participation in 2022.

 Adrian Richmond

Coordinator of Academic Excellence