Gifted & Talented
Craig Moss – HSIE Teacher, Coordinator of Gifted & Talented 7-12
Well done to all the students that have participated in the wide range of extracurricular opportunities provided by the Gifted and Talented Department this year.
Here are some of the highlights of the year:
Australian National Virtual Debating Competition Champions
Congratulations to the Year 10 Debating team who won the Australian National Virtual Debating Competition. They progressed significantly throughout the year, entering a number of competitions and attending a debating day at the University of New South Wales. The team has developed into a group of accomplished and skillful debaters. Well done to Jaime Keyser, Jayden Segal, Elias Davis, Ariel Bloom, Liberty Waldner, Jordan Pal and Sarah Manoy. Thanks also to Lara Fosbery and Julia Tritsch who coached and co-ordinated the team respectively.
Year 9 Chess Team Division Winners and Grand Finalists
The Year 9 Chess Team A became the Division winners and qualified for the Secondary Schools Chess Competition finals for the 5 years in a row. They progressed one step further than last year, beating the previous winners and archrivals Sydney Boys in the Semi-Final. Although they fell short in the Grand Final it is still an amazing achievement. Well done to Josh Barnett, Daniel Zipser, Oscar Salek, Max Tsipris and Dylan Vitek.
More success in the Future Problem Solving Competitions
Emanuel School continues to excel in competitions provided in the Future Problem Solving Program. This year Leah Joshua qualified for the National Final and came 4th out of 70 students nationwide. This is an excellent achievement. One of the evaluators commented, ‘congratulations on creating an engaging character and futuristic story. Well done Leah!
Qualification for the Quest National Final
Congratulations to Tennyson Wheeler, Hannah Fekete and Max Elias for qualifying for the Quest National Final. The Quest is one of the most anticipated academic competitions and provides opportunities for creativity, problem solving and teamwork, offering the level of challenge that fosters outstanding achievement. With this year’s overarching theme ‘a never ending tale’, the Quest incorporates the main disciplines of Mathematics, Sciences and Humanities in a journey of discovery.
Mock Mediation Team progressed to Quarter Final
Congratulations to the Mock Mediation Team for reaching the Quarter Final this year. Mock Mediation is an initiative of The Law Society of New South Wales. Students identify the issue in dispute, consider options and work towards an agreement that will meet the needs of all parties. Well done to Joshua Barnett, Dylan Vitek, Akeisha Kantor, Jessica Hart, Ezra Glover-Sanders, Daniel Zipser, Max Tsipris and Oscar Salek. They have developed their active listening, self awareness, questioning, analysing, empathising, speaking clearly and logically and creative thinking.
Success in the NSW da Vinci Decathlon 2023
As every year, five teams from Year 7 to 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.
Well done in particular to the Year 7 Team: Reuben Durbach, Tamar Granot, Ethan Ickowicz, Theodore Salek, Zachary Salamon, Jake Vitek, Alexander Yu, Leah Zipser, who came 1st in Art & Poetry, 2nd in Creative Producers, 8th in Code Breaking, 14th in Engineering and 10th overall, out of 72 teams.
Increased opportunities in the area of Philosophy
We expanded the academic extra-curricular opportunities even further this year, especially in the area of philosophy, such as the Ethics Exploration Day, Free Thinkers Forum, Meeting of minds, Philosophy Club and Stretch and Challenge Day.
Philosophical thinking is a great way for students to develop the skills to think deeply and formulate sound arguments. It also encourages an open-minded disposition, challenges assumptions and beliefs and builds their capacity for critical reasoning and ethical decision making. Philosophy as an elective subject will begin for Year 9 in 2024.