More than 600 bright young minds from across the state will be gathering in Armidale later this week to compete at one of the largest and most prestigious academic inter-school gala days in regional NSW.
The sixth Northern NSW da Vinci Decathlon, to be hosted by The Armidale School, will bring together more gifted and talented students from state and independent schools than ever before, and challenge them in a range of stimulating and engaging activities.
Developed by Knox Grammar School and now held in regional venues across Australia, students compete in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: Mathematics; English; Science; Code Breaking; Engineering Challenge; Ideation; Creative Producer; Art and Poetry; Cartography; General Knowledge. The overarching theme this year is ‘Memories’ which will form a core of several of the challenges.
Fifteen schools will send Year 7 and 8 teams on Wednesday 29 August, nine schools will compete in the Years 5 and 6 challenges on Thursday 30 August and 15 schools will have teams from Years 9 and 10 on Friday 31 August. Years 5 and 6 on Friday 26 August. Schools from Wee Waa, Armidale, Inverell, Tamworth, Scone, Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Narrabri, Moree, Dubbo, and Glen Innes will be taking part in this year’s Decathlon.
“This is the largest Decathlon we have staged, and this year a noted new addition is Aurora College which is a virtual selective high school which teaches students from all across the state who will be coming to TAS with students from Years 9 and 10,” said TAS organiser Ms Catherine Boydell.
She said TAS was honoured to host the northern NSW championships for the sixth time, having regularly attended the state championships at Knox.
“It is a wonderful extension and enrichment opportunity that strengthens students’ skills in logic, team building and multi-tasking,” she said.
