The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition that was established in 2002, and 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” (Knox Grammar, 2024). St Peter’s Girls is the chapter school for South Australia, and this week has hosted the State Competition. The Year 5/6 competition was on Tuesday, the Year 7 competition on Wednesday, and the Year 9 competition on Thursday – our School has been a hive of activity with 72 teams from 37 different South Australian schools competing across the 3 days!
The State Competition theme was ‘Light’, with students competing in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography, and Legacy. (Knox Grammar, 2024). All students were challenged to creatively tackle the rigorous tasks prepared by teachers and University academics from across the country. Each team had to collaborate effectively to determine how they would complete all tasks to the best of their abilities.
For the Saints Girls teams, competing in the da Vinci Decathlon this week is the culmination of months of preparation and training. Supported by the coaching expertise and enthusiasm of Becca Burton-Howard and Cindy Pitkin, the girls engaged with a team of staff specialising in many of the decathlon disciplines to extend their thinking, challenge their creativity, and test their critical application of their learning in the classroom.
Our teams placed in multiple disciplines:
Year 5/6
- 2nd Place – Art and Poetry
- 1st Place – Ideation
- 1st Place – English
- 1st Place – Code Breaking
Year 7
- 1st Place – Ideation
- 2nd Place – English
Year 9
- 1st Place – Code Breaking
- 1st Place – Ideation
- 1st Place – Art and Poetry
- 1st Place – Creative Producers
- Equal 2nd Place – English
- Equal 3rd Place – Cartography
Congratulations to the Years 5/6 team and the Year 9 team, who both placed 2nd overall.