Language students conquer the world

by Scott Haddrell Head of Languages

Penrhos College Language students brought great honour to the College this year, thanks to their global success in the 2020 Education Perfect (EP) Languages Championship.

More than 1.1 million questions later, the annual EP Languages Championship culminated in our best results yet, in the history of this international, week-long online competition.

Through the Championship’s online platform, students listen to or read questions in another language and respond in either their chosen language or in English. There are numerous language categories, for both students and their school to enter. Traditionally, Penrhos College has achieved excellent results, being the number one school in WA overall, as well as placing in the top three for each language offered (French/Italian/Japanese) for the past nine years.

This year, being number one in WA alone wasn’t satisfying enough for our Language students — they not only took on the rest of Australia, but also the world!

With the impact of COVID-19 and schools’ shift to online learning, a greater number of schools and students than ever enrolled in this year’s competition. Although Penrhos had fewer Language students than many ‘super schools’ (some of which have more than 1,000 Language students), our team of 389 girls achieved results that will be difficult to match in future years.

Despite a frantic and nerve-racking comeback by an ACT ‘super school’ on the very last day of the competition, Penrhos Language students stepped up to the challenge and eventually defeated even the fiercest opposition to achieve number one school in the 251-500 Language students’ category in the world, as well as number three school overall in the world — our best result to date!

Penrhos’ achievements

251-500 language students’ category 1st Overall globally – out of 462 schools 1st Overall in Australia – out of 332 schools

Open category 3rd Overall globally – out of 2,155 schools 3rd Overall in Australia – out of 1,454 schools 1st Overall in WA – out of 211 schools

Language achievements

1st for Japanese in WA – out of 154 schools 2nd for French in WA – out of 146 schools 3rd for Italian in WA – out of 151 schools

Open category 3rd for Japanese in Australia – out of 1,040 schools 7th for French in Australia – out of 1,072 schools 8th for Italian in Australia – out 952 schools

Student achievements

191 students achieved an Award (out of 389 students)

8 students achieved an Elite Award (>10,000 points) • Aleta Houden (Year 11 – Japanese) • Dora Wan (Year 11 – Japanese) • Rebecca Rudianto (Year 10 – Japanese – top

Penrhos College student) • Kimberly Oey (Year 10 – Japanese) • Audrey Raess (Year 10 – Japanese) • Eleanor Jones (Year 9 – Japanese) • Jasmine Alderson (Year 9 – Japanese) • Liyanka Cutinha (Year 9 – Japanese)

Well done, Language students! Your dedication, commitment and passion for languages is inspirational. Thank you to Madame Sue Hampson, Madame Jane Bechard, Professor Marisa Ravi and Professor Antonella Smethurst of the Language Department also, for your incredible support of the girls during the competition. 2021… look out, here we come!