Across two days and ten disciplines, this year’s theme, ‘machines and mechanics’, threaded from Science, Engineering and Mathematics through to English, Art and Poetry, and Creative Producers (Drama).
Across the disciplines, our students performed strongly against teams selected for their high potential. Roughly 190 teams competed on the Tuesday for Years 7 and 8, and 180 teams on the Wednesday for Years 9 to 11.
The Year 11 team posted Wenona’s strongest result, placing 11th overall in the state. Within individual disciplines, they finished fourth in English, seventh in Cartography (Geography), eighth in Legacy, and tenth in Creative Producers (Drama), with further top 20 placings in Mathematics (13th) and Science (14th).
The Year 9 team also turned in a remarkable set of results, fifth in Science, equal ninth in Legacy (a discipline focused on Leonardo da Vinci’s legacy), equal 11th in Ideation, and 12th in Mathematics. The Year 10 team placed fourth in Creative Producers (Drama) and 16th in Cartography. Year 8 came fourth in Art and Poetry, tenth in Code Breaking, and 16th in Creative Producers. The Year 7 team placed equal 11th in Mathematics and 14th in English.
What these results reflect, beyond individual aptitude, is the ability of Wenona students to transfer their classroom learning to unfamiliar problems, under time pressure, and as a team.
The students themselves were quick to point this out. “Working in a team at the da Vinci Decathlon was genuinely exciting and overall extremely fun!” said Year 8 student, Ivy. “Even when the timer was about to run out and we were scrambling for answers, throwing paper and stationery around, we kept going and laughing through the chaos.”
For Year 9 student, Lexi, the social dimension was just as memorable as the intellectual one. “I enjoyed working with my friends and also engaging with students from other schools during breaks, which made the whole experience even more exciting.”
The creative streams drew particular enthusiasm. Year 10 student, Lucinda, reflected on the satisfaction of producing artwork and poetry collaboratively under exam conditions: “Working together to produce a cohesive artwork and poem proved challenging but the overall result of our hard work was very rewarding to see.”
Year 11 student, Sophie, a da Vinci veteran, summed up the day’s enduring appeal: “da Vinci is an experience I look forward to each year as it allows me to use my problem-solving skills to work on difficult papers with people I would not usually work with.”
Wenona congratulates all of our team members and reserves for the way they prepared, collaborated, and represented the School.
