Iona Presentation Primary School students obtained an extraordinary double victory on October 13, with success in National Creative and Critical Thinking Competitions located on opposing sides of Australia.
The school entered teams into two competitions; Opti-MINDS, the creative and critical thinking challenge program that develops team skills and personal growth, and Future Problem Solving Program, an international educational program for students of all ages that focuses on the development of creative thinking skills and aims to give young people the skills to design and promote positive futures for their society.
Iona entered three teams in the Opti-MINDS regional finals. The language literature team received State honours, the social sciences and science engineering teams were State finalists and the teams’ facilitator, Rebecca Neesham, was awarded the State Opti-MINDS Facilitator of the Year Award.
The science engineering division one team was also selected to represent WA at the Opti-MINDS Queensland State/National Final in Brisbane.
The students, aged between 10 and 12, competed against 12 teams and were chosen to represent Australia in the Opti-MINDS intercultural exchange to be held in New Zealand in November.
On the same weekend in Perth, two Iona Future Problem Solving Teams, also coached by Ms Neesham, competed in the National Global Issues Problem Solving Booklet Junior Division.
Only 16 teams (comprised of four students) from over 70 entries are invited to the National Finals.
At the finals, the students were required to complete a two-hour examination paper on the global issue of plastic pollution in our oceans.
One of Iona’s teams placed seventh and the other team became national champions.
They have been invited to represent Australia at the International Future Problem Solving event in Iowa, USA, in June next year.
School principal Christine Walsh was ecstatic at the success of both teams, declaring it wonderful news for the school and that she was immensely proud of the hard work, determination and dedication demonstrated by the students and staff involved.
Ms Walsh also said the outstanding results reflect the quality of programs in place at the school.
Fundraising was held by the school community in order to send the Opti-MINDS team to Brisbane and planning will commence on fundraising to enable the Future Problem Solving team to attend the International Final in Iowa in 2014.