蜜桃视频

21 November 2024

St Monica’s School, Footscray, has won the 2024 Victorian Science Talent Search, with the school’s science-wiz students taking out The Peter Craig School Award.

Principal Nathan Owen said ‘we are very proud of this amazing award. It is a tremendous recognition of what we are achieving with our curriculum and parent partnerships’.

St Monica's Catholic Primary School principal Nathan Owen, Nero, Missy and Science teacher Jodie Donaghey. Picture: Athos Sirianos

By Athos Sirianos

The next generation of Nobel Prize winners could come out of a ‘tiny’ school in Melbourne’s west that has defied the odds to take out one of Victoria’s most prestigious academic awards.

Despite only having about 90 students and ‘struggling for enrolment’, in Footscray came out on top against some of the state’s biggest schools to win the 2024 Victorian Science Talent Search, with the school’s science-wiz students taking out the Peter Craig School Award — the top prize given to just one school every year.

The school then came second in a national science competition.

School principal Nathan Owen said he ‘could not be prouder’ of his students.

‘It’s just an amazing achievement,’ Mr Owen said.

‘I am feeling very proud of our school ... it just goes to show what you can achieve if you have a crack at something.

‘We put on a science fair for our kids this year to build up the science curriculum and this came from it and it’s just so wonderful to see the students really flourish and take it on board.

‘We’re a school that fosters evidence based learning, particularly with English and mathematics and we’ve brought that into the science domain.’

After showing off their skills in the school’s inaugural science fair — driven by science teacher Jodie Donaghey — several students took their experiments to the state competition.

Ten of the projects entered by St Monica’s students received top prizes across a variety of categories, including an investigation into how the colour and material of banana packaging impacts the rate of ripening.

The school’s Grade 3 and 4 students also won their age group for a project on finding the best treatment for hydrophobic soil after they noticed a significant water run-off in one of the school’s kitchen garden beds.

This was the first time St Monica’s had ever entered the competition.

Mr Owen said the award shone a light on the school’s ability to punch above its weight.

‘We had a saying this year that ‘science is everywhere’ and I think we proved that with what we were able to achieve,’ he said.

‘We’re a beautiful small school that has a big heart in so many ways.’

A celebratory assembly was held for the students on Friday.

This is an extract of an that was originally published on the Herald Sun website on 15 November 2024.