2014 School Magazine

THE DA VINCI DECATHLON AMY DURSUN (8M) AND AMRUTHA MURALI (8B) ‘The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.’ — Leonardo da Vinci. The da Vinci Decathlon is an annual competition for students from Years 8 to 10. The representatives from our School in Year 8 were Amrutha Murali (B), Amy Dursun (M), Isobella Hindman (M), Angela Zhang (W), Aprajita Bhasin (L), Georgia Perry (G), Grace Choo (M) and Rebecca Haley (M). The Year 9 team comprised Hillary Bui (E), Anastasia Georgiou (O), Helen Yesberg (G), Emmy Hoang (G), Julia Shield (R), Abirami Somasundaram (M), Lauren Gorringe (W) and Isobel Peters (M). In the Year 10 team were Elizabeth Chai (E), Ciaran Greig (B), Garima Sree Krishna (H), Katrina Xiao (W), Lucinda Conwell (L), Julia Storor (B), Adete Bhasin (L) and Bridget Hopsick (B).

Year 8 were overall place winners coming third out of sixteen teams. They also achieved first in Philosophy, and second in Science. The Year 9s came second in Maths and third in Science and Code Breaking. The Year 10s were first in Maths, second in Engineering and Art and Poetry and third in Code Breaking. We had an exciting day, were faced with many new challenges and expanded our knowledge in areas outside of school subjects. For example, the Year 8 team had to create an artwork and poem based on the theme colour which gave us the opportunity to open our minds to creativity. We created a looking glass based on Alice in Wonderland . Although, it took time and effort, we were proud of the final piece which was full of crafty ideas and additions. Another of the ten events was the General Knowledge section. The questions consisted of anything and everything from ‘Geronimo’ to what was the colour of the ‘black box’ in Australian aircraft. ■

These girls competed in ten different areas: Maths, English, Creative Producers, Code Breaking, General Knowledge, Science, Philosophy, Art and Poetry, Games of Strategy and Engineering.

JUNIOR AND SENIOR MERLE WEAVER PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITIONS

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Merle Weaver competitions. Ms Merle Weaver was a teacher at BGGS on three different occasions between 1918 and 1951. She was the first woman and only the third student to be granted Honours in English from the University of Tasmania (1913). Ms Weaver very kindly made a bequest to the School in 1954 for both competitions. She was a passionate advocate of girls’ education and in particular, encouraged girls to be independent, autonomous and empowered by their ability to speak to an audience. The Junior Merle Weaver Public Speaking competition is held every year and is open to Year 10 students, one representing each House. Each student’s speech is based on a proverb or wise saying. The Senior Merle Weaver is open to Year 12 students, one representing each House. This competition involves both a prepared speech and an impromptu with ten minutes preparation. For the impromptu, students can choose one of three unseen proverbs to address.

This year’s winner of the Junior Merle Weaver competition was Madeleine Goss (10H) for her insightful response to the proverb ‘You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs’. Sara Burke (12E) was awarded the Senior Merle Weaver Prize for her passionate speech advocating that ‘Developing countries should not host international sporting events’. ■

Former Merle Weaver winners Mrs Margaret Clancy (Parker, 1962), Dr Janice Kelly (Pollard, 1956) and Dr Ruth Blair (1960) joined Principal Ms Euler to celebrate sixty years of the competition.

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