Hyperboles and hypotheses may put some people’s mind to the test but, for the students of Our Lady of Grace primary school in North Beach, no pronunciation or puzzle is too problematic.
Two teams of seven students in Years 5 and 6 from the school participated in this year’s Tournament of Minds (TOM) national final.
Our Lady of Grace language literature team beat seven other schools in their category and were announced the Australasian Pacific winner – the only West Australian team to win a national prize.
School librarian Monica Mulcahy led the language literature team to victory and was joined by principal Chris Kenworthy and his maths engineering team at the nationals.
Ms Mulcahy has been the driving force behind the school’s participation in the TOM since she first entered a team in 2000.
More than 500 students from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong attended this year’s TOM national final, which was hosted at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle.
Students prepared for the tournament months in advance and had to complete an at-school challenge before advancing to the state championship where the national competitors were determined.
At the nationals, secondary and primary school teams are marked on different criteria but given the same question for their category and “locked-up” for three hours to create a short production to demonstrate their answer.
Mr Kenworthy said the questions in each stage of the tournament are very difficult and teamwork was essential for the teams’ success.
“I look at some of them and think what would you do, how would you respond to them because they are challenging,” he said.
“It’s just a very rich experience and if they get as far as Monica’s team has and the team for maths engineering, it’s extended so they’re all the richer for it.”
Ms Mulcahy said students did not have a lot of school time to prepare for the tournament and often met during their lunch times, after school and during holidays.
“We have good kids who are prepared to put in their time and work hard,” she said.
She said the supervising teachers do not provide any input into the answers – it is all the students’ own work.
“We have a belief they can do well and the kids know we believe in them.
“You can just see them blossoming because they’re in a group of like-minded kids and they just become much more confident.”
Mr Kensworthy said he hoped his team, and the recently added social science team, would be as successful as the language literature team at next year’s tournament.
“Certainly, winning trophies is an absolute thrill and a bonus but it’s not at the core of why you do it, you’re doing it for the incredibly rich learning experience it gives the kids,” he said.