Salvado Catholic College students have the creative edge
20 September 2024
Students from Salvado Catholic College have triumphed in the state finals of the Creative Edge Competition held at Curtin University on 14 September 2024.
Both the Year 7 and Year 9 teams showcased exceptional talent and innovation in their winning efforts, setting a high standard for future participants. Salvado’s Year 7 Team, comprising Jasmine Mosley-Smith, Makala Bruton, Aoibhe McCann, Alyssa Maisey, Adele Green, Eila Woods and Lilah Miles, won the Creativity Award for the highest score out of 70 teams for their Impromptu.
Meanwhile, the Year 9 Team, comprising Sienna Young, Sacha Chidoko, Xavia Mills, Shylee King, Makayla King and Cassandra Dela Rosa-Isaac, won the State Final, beating last year’s champions who competed as Year 10s!
The Creative Edge competition invites teams of 4 to 8 students to tackle open-ended challenges in disciplines such as Literature and Communication, Science Engineering, and Society and Environment. Over a period of up to six weeks, teams collaborate without external assistance, exploring and experimenting with various ideas to develop their most innovative solutions.
On the day of their Regional Final, teams also face an “Impromptu Creativity Challenge,” adding an exciting twist to the competition. This event not only hones participants’ critical and creative thinking skills but also encourages them to find unique ways to present their solutions to an audience.
Creativity Award recipient, Jasmine said:
“The Creative Edge impromptu task was certainly something that I never thought I’d do. For this task, we were shown a random picture of a door with the number 704. I have to admit that I was very shocked when we had to establish a creative backstory to the door.
“Our final idea was that it was a regular door although we were in the future. The door was the only one of its kind from our time and it was used as a time portal, and you could get to different years from the past but not from the future. In my case I was born 2011 so if I went to any year starting from 2011, I could see my past memories.
“Our idea was that there was one door that led to a hall with an infinite number of doors leading to different years of the past for us to visit.
“I was extremely happy when we were announced as the winners at the ceremony; I just froze in shock and tried to stay calm without screaming with joy. Overall, my experience was absolutely amazing, and I would love to do it again.”
Literature and Communications Division 2, First Place, Sienna said:
“We got into the State Final by doing really well in both our 6-week challenge and our impromptu challenge. In the final we were given 3 hours to create a performance based on the prompt. We also had to participate in another impromptu challenge in the State Final.
“My role in the final was to write the script, so the second we decided on our idea I started writing and didn’t stop for 2 and a half hours. During that time, I felt determined but little stressed, especially in the last hour when we still hadn’t come up with an adequate ending to our story.
“Our idea was vastly different to the other groups. We decided to use the term ‘characters’ creatively and went with letters instead of book characters. I think it was this unconventional approach that won us the final. When we were sitting at the ceremony, I was anxious but at the back of my mind I had a nervous feeling that we might have won.
“When our name was called, I was overjoyed. I felt so proud of myself and my group and I think the award reflected the hard work that we had put in to the Challenge. We are so excited to be the secondary school State champions for Literature and Communications.
“On reflection, Kathy Boyatzis, the Director of Creative, was right: at Creative Edge we learn skills we can’t learn anywhere else. Hopefully we will be able to take these skills to the workplace in years to come. During this year’s event, I think our chemistry as a team doubled and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.”
