Queenscliff students put school on the map

A TEAM of Queenscliff students will take on some of the world’s best primary school-level literature minds next month, after claiming top honours at a recent state-wide academic competition.

Grade 5/6 Queenscliff Primary School students Harry Wake, Beau Mieszkowski, Tilly Fitzgerald, Jemma Sheridan, Elli Smith, Ava Greensmith Bound, and Scarlet Zahra secured first place at the Victorian Branch Final of Tournament of Minds on September 10 in Melbourne.

The team will now take part in Tournament of Minds’ International Final on Saturday, October 21 in Melbourne against competitors from all over the world.

School principal Mat McRae said the school is extremely proud of the students’ achievement.

“We’re really proud of the group, they’ve worked extremely hard for the last seven weeks and I think it’s a great opportunity for them to show creativity and problem solving and develop those skills through teamwork,” Mr McRae said.

“It’s really nice to see a small school coming up against those big independent schools and larger public schools, I think it’s put the school on the map a bit which is great.”

 

 

The students competed in the Literature Language section of the state final at La Trobe University in Bundoora.

As part of the challenge, the group was required to read Margery Williams’ book ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ and restructure the story’s meaning.

Team member Ava Greensmith Bound said the group restructured the book retaining the theme of ‘love’ to the storyline, as it was a key element of the novel.

“We wanted to restructure the story to be not only meaningful, but powerful as well,” Ms Greensmith Bound said.

“We had a narrator to bring the story to life, we used good language, and we had good presentation skills which we specialise in as a group using various props.

“Every time we thought we were struggling during the three-hour period, we regrouped and went back to our team-first approach, which really worked for us.”

Teammate Tilly Fitzgerald said the work is not finished, as the group now prepares for the International Final back at La Trobe University.

“We’ll put our collaboration and teamwork skills to the test and hopefully come out with the win,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

“We’ll most likely be working until the final seconds but we’re really looking forward to it.”