Balancing competition and philosophy – our Senior students shine at the Senior Ethics Olympiads

The recent Senior Ethics Olympiad was a fantastic experience for the 10 competing students. It was great to see them put into practice everything they had been preparing for in their weekly practice sessions. Many students who competed this May have been participating in the Ethics Olympiad since their earliest years at Santa Sabina. It is very rewarding to see a nervous Year 7 student grow into a confident and eloquent senior speaker. Students really enjoyed talking to other teams and hearing their opinions on the sometimes controversial ethical dilemmas. 

‘I believe that the Olympiad’s focus on finding common ground between different (and sometimes opposing) perspectives through respectful ethical discussion in order to strengthen a common understanding of an issue and work towards meaningful solutions is so important, especially in a context where there is increasing social division and a lack of respectful discourse on many topics.‘
Kate Pitman-Fernandez
Year 12

Students not only get the opportunity to speak to students from other Australian schools, they are also meeting with academics from universities across the world who provide useful feedback, whilst retaining a casual and conversational tone with the students.

‘Everyone is really light-hearted, so if you make a mistake, you don’t feel embarrassed, you feel supported and can laugh it off.’
Davina Rajkumar
Year 10

The Olympiad offers a unique balance between competition and philosophy. Students are simultaneously struggling with time limitations and the feeling of not being listened to or understood whilst trying to deliver polite, academic arguments about their way of thinking.

‘Sometimes the opposition did not fully listen to our points, which was kind of frustrating. Personally, I found it challenging to develop and present my ideas in a sophisticated manner with a time constraint. The event itself was both fun and stressful because of its competitive nature.’
Gaby Indra
Year 11

Both teams performed remarkably well, pleasingly, the Purple team made up of Eve Ardagna, Mia Bek, Angelina Filipovski, Allegra Musca and Kate Pitman-Fernandez placed second and have been invited to compete in the finals in June. 

Matthew Mountford
Dean of Gifted Education