A team of Year 8 students from Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC) have been named the official International da Vinci Decathlon champions after beating some of the very best from across the globe.
The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic enrichment competition that started in 2002 at Knox Grammar School in Sydney to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students.
Run in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon, teams of eight compete across 10 disciplines: Creative Producers, Mathematics, English, Art and Poetry, Science, Engineering, Ideation, Legacy, Cartography, and Code Breaking.
What began as a local competition now involves thousands of students from Years 5 to 11 from around the world, with this year’s International competition held at Trinity College in Oxford, United Kingdom.
The MLC team placed in every one of the 10 disciplines, achieving first place in Creative Producers, English, Mathematics, Ideation, Art and Poetry, Engineering, and Cartography; second place in Science and Code Breaking; and third place in Legacy.
Team members Eliza Singam and Fiona Hao described how it felt to have MLC’s name called as they were declared the international champions:
“I was shocked because up until that point it hadn’t sunk in that it was internationals,” Eliza said.
“I felt so incredibly proud of our entire team and it made all those tough training sessions and practice papers worth it,” Fiona added.
MLC Director of College Operations Mrs Vanessa Smith said the Decathlon is the ultimate test of not only academic ability, but teamwork and collaboration.
“Each paper is very challenging, requiring students to work together to develop their responses,” Mrs Smith said.
“It highlights the importance of holistic education, developing well-rounded young people with a highly nuanced understanding of the world around them.
“This is the heart of learning and teaching at MLC: we want our students to be creative, curious and engaged participants in their learning.”
Vivian Gardiner has participated in the competition since Year 5 and saw the international event as a major highlight from the last four years.
“The competition was an opportunity to try something new and push ourselves out of our comfort zones,” Vivian said.
“It was also a great atmosphere for team bonding and getting to know people from other schools.”
Acacia Ingram echoed this sentiment saying it was “an amazing opportunity to get to know other people who have similar interests to [herself] and celebrate the life of an amazing polymath whose contributions have shaped our current society in ways we cannot imagine.”
Training takes place all year long and team member Grace Lewis summed up the event perfectly: “It is such an exhilarating experience, a testament to our work as a team and to all the help from our amazing teachers throughout this experience.”
To find out more about how MLC are driving innovation and growing future-ready students, email our Admissions team at admissions@mlc.wa.edu.au.