Two Teams Came second at Nationals and one is off to Darwin for the Internationals in 3 weeks!

Recently, 21 students represented Raroa at the Wellington Regional 'Tournament of Minds'. The three teams were given a complex challenge to solve over the 6 weeks before the Tournament, and they had to present their solutions to the judges and an audience on Tournament Day in a dramatic form. In addition, they were given a Spontaneous Challenge on the day to solve on the spot in 5 minutes. All of this had to be done WITHOUT any advice, feedback or direction from parents, teachers, friends, etc. More details about the programme are below.

We are so proud of all these students, as each team demonstrated outstanding teamwork, problem-solving, risk-taking and creative & critical thinking. 

 Special mention goes to the Language Literature Team and the STEM Team who won their sections and went on to compete at the National Tournament last weekend. Both the STEM and Language Literature team came second in their divisions!

The Language Literature team is now off to represent NZ at the Internationals in Darwin, Australia, 11-14 October 2018.

This is an outstanding achievement as only four Year 5-8 teams from New Zealand are selected to attend. We wish them all the very best. We know they will do Raroa, Wellington and New Zealand proud. Kia kaha Matthew, Louis, Izzi, Tuhina, Daniel, Richie and Alex!

Tournament of Minds is a very dynamic, exciting programme with many challenges for the students, including:

• Unpacking a very complex challenge and criteria, creating a variety of solutions, and taking one of them to presentation level
• Working in a team of 7 (even adults can find this challenging!)
• No advice, feedback or assistance in the 6 week prep period from any adults or other students (including teachers!)
• A limited list of allowable, recyclable materials for sets, props and costumes
• A virtual budget limit
• Production of a script
• the identification of 2 presentation skills for additional consideration by judges

And all in 6 weeks... for the Regionals And all in 3 hours... for the Nationals
Congratulations to all students involved:

Louis Oliver, Matthew Wallis, Richie Man, Izzi Anderson, James Lee-Guard, Daniel Soh, Tom Jacobsen, Guy Curry Stanton, Cameron Pryde, Sebastian Pratt, Tait Keller, Alex Hay, Nathan Stacey, Daniel Astwood, Tom Robinson, Milly Mathews, Simon Burrows, John Hyatt, Sophie Buick, Tuhina Sambhus and Ben Adamson.