Held in the heralded Winthrop Hall at UWA during the last week of Term 1, the 2021 Da Vinci Decathlon saw the PLC teams come away with some great success during this academic competition aimed to challenge and stimulate the mind.
The winning Year 5 team!
In the Junior School, 16 students from both Years 5 and 6 participated with our Year 5 team being named overall winners. This amazing Year 5 team placed highly across many disciplines including 1st in Art and Poetry and Cartography, 2nd in English and Maths, and 3rd in Ideation and Codebreaking!
Our Year 6 team also performed well placing 7th overall out of 19 teams and achieved some great results including placing 2nd in Creative Producers and Ideation. Both teams demonstrated attributes of the Learner Profile throughout the day and should be very proud of their achievements.
In the Senior School, PLC entered teams from Years 8, 9, and 10. All three of these teams represented PLC with pride and achieved some amazing results. Our Year 10 girls won the English division and our Year 8s achieved 1st place for Engineering and Creative Producers, and 2nd place for Science, resulting in this Year 8 team to come a mighty 2nd place overall!
The teaching staff who attended were ecstatic with their results and so proud of each girl and their efforts collectively as a team.
“They are an amazing bunch and it’s a pleasure to see them extend themselves academically in such a high-stakes competition,” Miss Michelle Clayton said. Michelle is the Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator in the Junior School.
Mr Guy Varndell, the Academic Extension Co-ordinator in the Senior School, was equally as impressed with the dedication, individual moments of brilliance, and awe-inspiring teamwork the girls exhibited.
The Year 8 team came 2nd overall!
“I take my hat off to each and every one of the girls who participated this week. It’s no easy feat and they conducted themselves with maturity beyond their years,” Guy said.
The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. The theme this year was ‘chance’ and teams of eight battle it out against other schools in disciplines including:
Engineering
Mathematics and chess
Code breaking
Art and poetry
Science
English
Ideation
Creative producers
Cartography; and
Legacy.
The Da Vinci 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.