Craig Moss – HSIE Teacher, Coordinator of Gifted & Talented 7-12

Success in the NSW da Vinci Decathlon 2023

Like every year, five teams from Years 7 – 11 were sent to compete in the da Vinci Decathlon at Knox Grammar. This academic competition is designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students and celebrate the academic gifts of Australian youth.  

Again, all the teams performed extremely well, placing in the Top 3 in a number of disciplines.  This is very impressive since each team in each Year Group was competing against over 70 of the best schools in NSW.

On the day, they receive a challenge in each of 10 disciplines engineering, mathematics, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy. Students have to work as a team to complete each one the best they can. They are up against the clock so there is always a lot of energy and excitement in the Grand Hall at Knox Grammar. 

Below is a summary of the results for each team: 

Year 11
Jesse Barel, Joshua Frazer, Willow Gelin, Dean Klugman, Gabriel Lee, Sophie Masnick, Alice Milner, Salamon Halmagyi:

• 3rd Creative Producers
• 7th Cartography
• 7th Code Breaking

Out of 63 teams

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Year 10
Ariel Bloom, Ashley Cohn, Elias Davis, Violet Nathanson, Daniel Newfield, Daliah Smagarinsky, Gabriella Solomon and Liberty Waldner:

• 2nd Legacy
• 14th Maths

Out of 73 teams

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Year 9
Jessica Hart, Akeisha Kantor, Kira Levin-Kahn, Hannah Rembach, Noa Rosenzveig, Jessica Smith, Dylan Vitek, Daniel Zipser:

• 1st Creative Producers
• 12th Code Breaking

Out of 74 teams

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Year 8
Gil Banna, Hannah Fekete, Summer Glass,  Elise Goldberg, Leah Joshua, Noah Revelman, Emily Seemann, Tennyson Wheeler:

• 4th Ideation
• 15th Art & Poetry

Out of 81 teams

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Year 7
Reuben Durbach, Tamar Granot, Ethan Ickowicz, Theodore Salek, Zachary Salamon, Jake Vitek, Alexander Yu, Leah Zipser:

• 10th Overall
• 1st Art & Poetry
• 2nd Creative Producers
• 8th Code Breaking
• 14th Engineering

Out of 72 teams

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Student reflections

Leah: Two weeks ago, teams of eight from each year group went to Knox Grammar School to compete in the da Vinci Decathlon, which is an inter-school competition that tests students across the 10 subjects Arts and Poetry, Cartography, Creative Producers, Engineering, English, Science, Maths, Ideation, Legacy, and Code Breaking.

Reuben: In Creative Producers, Tamar and I were given eight minutes to create an out of the box, creative act. The topic this year was about the Olympic torch. We decided to use the torch as inspiration and used it as symbolism for friendship and loyalty to each other throughout a difficult long winter. At first we were rude to each other, causing the torch to go dimmer, but then when we were kind, and showing the qualities of friendship loyalty the torch got brighter. Tamar and I placed 2^nd overall.

Tamar: In Art & Poetry, Leah and I were given one hour to create a poem and art piece, based on the prompt of ‘two things that do not go together’. We decided to pick Animals and Garbage, based on the current climate crisis. We had to write a poem, as well as create a full-fledged 3D art piece to pair with it, not to mention, a two page justification. We created a staircase-esc structure, of which had animals attempting to escape the trash-covered world and flee to the skies. We worked very hard in the time presented, and Leah and I placed 1^st overall with our piece. (Tamar Durbach, Year 7)

Leah: The Year 7 team also placed 8^th in Code Breaking and 14^th in Engineering, and came 10^th overall out of 72 schools from around the state.

Reuben: We would like to give kudos to all the Emanuel da Vinci teams, they all worked incredibly hard and executed amazing things, as you have seen in the awards ceremony.

Tamar: On behalf of every Emanuel student that went to the da Vinci Decathlon, we would like to give a huge thank you to Mr. Moss for organising and facilitating the day for us. Da Vinci was a truly incredible experience and we look forward to next year!

By Leah Zipser, Reuben Durbach and Tamar Durbach – Year 7

Metropolitan Secondary Schools Chess Teams Competition

Congratulations to The Year 9 Emanuel Chess Team A for qualifying for the Grand Final after beating Sydney Boys High School in the semi final. Well done Joshua Barnett, Daniel Zipser, Max Tsipris and Dylan Vitek.

Gifted and Talented Extra-curricular activities – Term 3

Term 3 Weekly Lunchtime Sessions 

Additional support for those involved in other extracurricular activities is available at Recess, Monday to Thursday, in B12. 

Term 3 Events