Junior School Students Battle It Out at Tournament of Minds Competition

Our talented Howard Springs Junior School students recently participated in the Tournament of Minds (TOM).

TOM is a program in which students are put into teams and presented with the opportunity to solve open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking.

Thank you to the fabulous College staff that attended on the day and worked closely with the students leading up to it. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

As usual, our students did the College proud. Here are some of the things they had to say about their TOM experience.

"I liked TOM because I could do teamwork and make friends that I wouldn’t usually talk to. What we got out of TOM was that we improved on our teamwork, cooperation, public speaking and trying new things. My favourite thing about TOM is when I got to get with my team mates and figure out the different challenges and make all our costumes and props for the play."

“In TOM I enjoyed having a team with people who I didn’t really know but who are now good friends. I loved making the costumes and paper mâché masks over balloons. I also learnt a lot, and now I know what anagnorisis means.”

 “I enjoyed TOM as a team and the new friends I made. We tried our best and enjoyed it so much. I got confidence, teamwork, cooperation and better at presenting to an audience. Most of all we had fun! What I enjoyed the most is the friendships I made and the teamwork. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and now I’m not shy. It felt so good to perform on a stage. I joined TOM to help with my shyness and I’ll be back next year!”

"I loved TOM because I made a lot of new friends. I enjoyed writing a script and making costumes and props. It was so much fun on the competition day. We tried our hardest and enjoyed ourselves. It was a lot of hard work and took a lot of extra time after school and weekends. I will definitely do TOM again."

"What I enjoyed most about TOM was that I got a good opportunity to make new friends and BFF’s. TOM was not just about making friends, I enjoyed everything that put a smile on my face. I loved making props, costumes, writing the script and even practicing! I know that TOM is my happy place and I would most definitely do it again. I loved the team because we were always happy and smiley. When our script was just not working we still had faith that it would lead to success and that is how we got our amazing script and props done. I can never take back how good it all was, working together like a family. I also want to say a BIG thank you to our facilitator for guiding us through our confusion. I am really proud of myself and our team, giving up time and working up to what our end result was on Saturday. I really hope I can feel, what I felt over the last 6-8 weeks of practicing and performing again. It really pushed me through my limits, like nerves and comfort zone. I do need to wrap this up but if I could say a billion more words to describe how much I loved TOM I would."

More photos are available on our Facebook page here.