On the 30th of April, 2025, 8 students proudly represented our school at the Year 5 & 6 da Vinci Decathlon, held at Canberra Grammar School. The da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students across Australia. The theme for this year was ‘Sustainability’.

Our students were selected due to their interest in challenging their minds and by participating in the practice sessions held since the beginning of the year. They all had to work as a team, so they needed to have skills across 10 different areas - Engineering, Mathematics and Chess, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography, and Legacy.

While we did not place in the top 3 teams, our St Thomas Aquinas PS team came 4th in Ideation and Engineering, as well as 6th in English and Code Breaking. This was out of 15 Year 6 teams competing on the day from the ACT and surrounds, which was an amazing achievement. It was the first time many of these students participated in this type of competition and they all represented the school with diligence, creativity and determination. Congratulations to these 8 students and to all of those who came to try out da Vinci activities during break times. We look forward to the competition again in 2026.

“The day was great! It was inclusive to our strengths and we supported each other’s weaknesses to work as a team. I really, really, really did enjoy being challenged!” - Beau (Yr 6)

“da VInci was an opportunity to work your brain. It was challenging and we were able to do our favourite subject, but also help each other out. My favourite part was working as a team in Code Breaking. If you want to try out next year, you will enjoy it and make new friends.” - Frankie (Yr 5)

Kathryn Smart (CST & Diverse Learning)