All Saints Juniors win Da Vinci Decathlon

Hundreds of entrants, 44 schools, one day and ten gruelling academic challenges; the Da Vinci Decathlon is certainly not for the faint hearted.

Notorious for its difficult problems that are designed to test the limits of high achieving students, the Da Vinci Decathlon is often enough to make adults scratch their heads. The ten disciplines tested during the competition are engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy. All Saints fielded two teams of eight students, one from Year 5 and one from Year 6, all of whom are participants in the school’s Infinity Program. The Year 6 team took out first prize overall, also placing first in the art and poetry field, and third in both the English and mathematics fields. Year 6 captain Liev Tuckwell was proud of his team for winning despite stiff competition and mind-boggling challenges. “It was a bit overwhelming to go up against schools from all over Queensland, but we were really happy to find out that we won,” says Liev.

“This competition is a celebration of Leonardo da Vinci himself, in that he wasn’t just a painter – he was a writer, an engineer, a poet and much more”

— Bridget Allars, Infinity Coordinator

Although the Year 5 team didn’t take out the top gong, they did perform extremely well, winning the legacy and mathematics categories, placing second in cartography and ideation and third in English.

The Year 5s were captained by Ronan Walker, who says all participants learned some vital life lessons on the day.

“If you just put your heart and soul into what you do, you will come out with a very good result,” says Ronan. “Some tasks I felt were going to be impossible to figure out… but it shows what happens when everyone chips in.”

Infinity Program Coordinator Bridget Allars is extremely proud of the way in which her students problem-solved collaboratively and believes they truly embodied the Decathlon's namesake.

“This competition is a celebration of Leonardo da Vinci himself, in that he wasn’t just a painter – he was a writer, an engineer, a poet and much more,” says Mrs Allars.

"The take-home message was for students to remember the interconnected nature of knowledge and realise that possibilities are endless if you embrace learning with a lifelong passion".

“I’m so proud of their motivation, their level of task commitment and perseverance. Even before they walked into that competition, they were champions in our eyes.”