STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

DYNAMIC DEBATING DUO EARN STATE SELECTION

In April, Year 11 students Anya Chen and Jaime Leivers earned an opportunity to test themselves against Australia’s most articulate school-aged debaters by winning a place on the Western Australian Debating Team. The dynamic debating duo endured a gruelling series of trials to make the team, starting with a two-day event involving six debates just to make the initial state squad of 13. They later survived two rounds of cuts to secure their place on the four-person team alongside two students from Perth Modern School and Shenton College. We are also thrilled to announce that Anya was selected to captain the representative team. At the time of print, Anya and Jaime were representing Western Australia at the 2022 National School’s Debating Championships in Canberra.

LINGUISTICS WHIZZES CROWNED STATE CHAMPIONS

St Mary’s Year 11 Linguistics Team defeated more than 100 teams en route to winning the state component of this year’s 2022 Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad in March. The team, made up of Anya Chen, Misree Trivedi, Katrina Ailakis and Mae Siah, were given a series of decoding tasks set in several languages, including Waanyi, which is spoken by the Indigenous people of the Gulf of Carpentaria; Austronesian, a native language of the South Pacific Islands; and Arhuaco, which is spoken in areas of Northern Colombia. Following their victory in the state event, the talented group contested the national finals, which were held at the University of Western Australia on 6 March. The girls acquitted themselves with distinction, placing 15th out of the 66 teams vying to earn their way through to the International Linguistics Olympiad.

A RADIO STAR IS BORN

Congratulations to Year 12 boarding student Jade Wallwork, who was one of 35 winners of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Heywire Competition earlier this year. Heywire encourages young people from the regions to tell stories about life outside Australia’s major cities. Each year, every ABC regional station selects a winning Heywire entry to represent their part of Australia. The young winners work with ABC staff to produce their stories, which are later broadcast on ABC Radio and featured on abc.net.au. Jade caught her local station’s attention with an inspiring tale about her beloved Corrigin Hockey Club. “One of my personal highlights from 2021 was playing for my hometown hockey club, so when I was thinking about my entry, they just sprang to mind,” Jade said. “I wrote my story, workshopped it with an ABC producer to turn it into a radio script and later visited the ABC Radio studios in Perth to record it. “I was interviewed the morning that it was played on the radio and when I heard it for the first time it was so cool.” To listen to Jade’s Heywire entry, visit https://ab.co/3vhbaVI

ST MARY’S SECURES DIVING TITLE

Our Senior School Diving Team were the toast of the town after taking out the Overall Champion School title at the 2022 School Sport WA Interschool Diving Championships, which were held at HBF Stadium on 16 March. All 21 members of the team dived with precision and style to help St Mary's edge out its nearest competitor, Shenton College, during a thrilling day of competition. While the consistency of the whole team propelled the school to an overall victory, two students also achieved individual success at the event. Year 7 student Amity Cullen placed third in the Juniors category and Year 11 student Kate Russell claimed a bronze medal in the Seniors competition, following a series of magnificent dives.

ST MARY’S STUDENTS CONQUER THE CHANNEL

Well done to all the inspirational members of our St Mary’s community who participated in this year’s Rottnest Channel Swim. Year 11 student Freya Weston steered her team to an incredible 18th place finish with a pacey 5:23:38.50 swim, while Year 12s Saskia Pope, Kate Seymour, Caitlin McIlveen and Grace Morgan joined forces to conquer the channel in 5:27:07.72 to finish 21st . They were closely followed by a team headlined by Year 10 girls, Lucy Stout and Olivia Haynes, who finished the swim in 5:45:20.08, and another four-person outfit led by Year 11 student Madeleine Gillmore (5:59:32.74). Year 10s Emily Garnett and Emily Taylor helped their team complete the 19.7km swim in 6:18:12.30, and Year 9 student Vienna Watt helped her team onto Rottnest’s shores in 6:57:11.84.

A PODIUM FINISH AND TWO PENNANTS

Congratulations to our Senior School girls, who placed third at this year’s IGSSA Swimming Carnival on 3 March. Our Year 7 team was a force to be reckoned with at HBF Stadium and proved too strong for their competition en route to winning their year group pennant, while our Year 9 girls did everything in their power to follow suit. After much toing and froing, the girls ended up sharing the Year 9 pennant with Iona Presentation College. Overall, it was an outstanding performance from the entire team and, as always, our students demonstrated fantastic school spirit and were among the loudest in the stands.

JIGSSA SWIMMING SUCCESS

St Mary’s upheld its history of success at the annual JIGSSA Twilight Swim Meet by claiming two pennants at this year’s event, which was held on 11 March. Our Years 4 and 5 girls were too quick for their rivals and left HBF Stadium with two pennants in hand. The School’s Year 6 team also performed well, placing fifth against some stiff competition.