ST MARY'S students were named South West Regional finalists in a recent creative thinking competition in Bridgetown.
Yr 6-7 students Millie Coole, Patrick Reilly, James Charteris, Blaine Murphy, Jack Wilson, Zoe North and Emily Hester formed the team which won the Optiminds South West Regional finals, competing against four other schools to solve open-ended problems in topics such as Language and Literature, Social Sciences, and Science and Engineering.
The Optiminds programme is run in Queensland and Western Australia and gives students the chance to take part in team-based, long term creative thinking challenges. Each team is given a scenario which they must endeavour to solve and then present their solution in a dramatic way.
They must also come up with spontaneous solutions to other problems presented to each team in a locked session.
St Mary's Optiminds facilitator Nicole Reilly said the team had been working hard on their challenge for about six weeks and they had come up with a very creative way of solving how worldwide telecommunications were lost and how this could be overcome.
"The students worked very well as a team and were able to use their dramatic skills to present a very entertaining and thoughtful dramatic piece," she said.
The students will now use the skills they have learned to help mentor other students at St Mary's in creative thinking challenges.
Also participating in the Optiminds Challenge was Boyup Brook DHS student Cameron Nield and former classmate, Sarah Flanagan, as part of the PEAC (Primary Extension and Challenge) program.
