The Academy Triumphs in Central West da Vinci Decathlon
The Central West Leadership Academy’s Year 9 da Vinci Decathlon team took first place in the Central West Region da Vinci Decathlon held in Bathurst last week and will compete in the state finals in May.
The da Vinci Decathlon is a national academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. Students compete in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and general knowledge.
The regional qualifying competition was held 3-4 April between schools from all around the Central West including Kinross Wolaroi, Scots All Saints, Macquarie Anglican Grammar School and St John’s College among others.
The Academy’s Captain of Academics Noah Randell described the experience; “The atmosphere in the room was intense. Every single task was a challenge in its own way and while we were intimidated in the beginning, we pushed through our fears and excelled as a team.”
Excel they did; the Academy’s Year 9 students have brought home 8 of 10 strong placings.
1st: Ideation, Engineering, Math, Science, English
2nd: Cartography, Art and Poetry
3rd: Code Breaking
The Academy’s Year 8 team came second overall and was the top placing Dubbo team in the Year 8 Division. They came within a few points of equal first with Kinross. The Year 8 team results included:
1st: Ideation
2nd: English, Math, Art and Poetry, Legacy
3rd Code Breaking
Ms Mandi Randell, Principal of the Academy added “The Academy loves to challenge our students to push themselves in a well rounded academic setting. The da Vinci Decathlon is a great way to showcase the broad range of high ability in our students and teaches them to work together as a team to harness each individual’s strengths.”
Since 2013, there have only been three high school teams west of the Blue Mountains to make the top 10 at the state level of da Vinci Decathlon. All three have been from the Academy, Year 7 2019, 8th in the state, Year 9 2021 2nd in the state and Year 8 2021 finished 10th in the state.
Ms Randell commented, “I could not be more proud of our students for their hard work and success. We will show the state that academic excellence is in Dubbo!”