News College
13 August 2021
Congratulations to our Year 5 to Year 9 students who are selected for Tournament of Minds (TOM) Challenge Competition this year. This is our 3rd year of participation in TOM and we are delighted to see the enthusiasm and passion that students display throughout the 6 weeks working with their long term challenge.
Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a problem solving program for teams of students to demonstrate their problem solving skills and talents in an exciting, vibrant and public way. The tournament also aims to enhance time management, enterprise, working as a team, thinking outside the square, utilising technology, working within a competitive environment and promote knowledge and appreciation of self and others. It also provides a platform for excellence and equips participants with twenty-first century skills and strategies.
Students are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines:
The Arts, STEM, Language Literature, Social Sciences
Teams are required to work together on a Long Term Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents or peers. They are encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour to produce their best possible solution. They develop a creative and original way to communicate this solution to others, working within predefined parameters such as limited materials, complex challenge criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day. The teams have 10 minutes to present their Long Term Challenge to an audienceand panel of judges on Tournament Day. There are many rules and requirements that teams need to follow for their Challenge.
Due to the current Victorian COVID-19 restrictions and the uncertainty of whether it will be possible to run live events in the next few weeks, particularly in universities, TOM Victoria has decided to move the Regional Tournaments to an online format for all regions. Our TOM teams have been working extremely hard with their facilitators via zoom meetings due to current restrictions.
Teams will be required to upload a link to their video, together with any accompanying paperwork or other Challenge requirements by 6pm Wednesday, 25th August 2021. Judging will be done on a regional basis, completed online, over the weekend of 28th/29th August 2021. Regional winners will be announced Monday, 30th August and will be invited to participate at the Victorian Final on Sunday 12th September. At this time, TOM is planning a live event, with restrictions, but of course this may change.
We are pleased to announce the four teams that are ready to take TOM Challenge Competition 2021 representing our College and wish them the best for embarking on this exciting and challenging experience.
Team 1 (Year 5-6) – Seven Wonders (Language Literature Challenge)
Facilitator : Ms Elif Sele
Team 2 (Year 5-6) – Supernova (STEM Challenge)
Facilitator: Ms Aliya Sultana
Team 3 (Year 8-9) – Morally Grey Book Club (Language Literature Challenge)
Facilitator : Ms Ayesha Mubarak
Team 4 (Year 7-8) – Frogs in Space (STEM Challenge)
Facilitator : Ms Amy Wennan
We would also like to thank all parents for their support, students for their enthusiastic participation in taking the challenge and TOM Facilitators for their relentless efforts to motivate their teams.
BEST WISHES to ALL TOM TEAMS and HAVE FUN!!!!!
BECS (Melbourne), Post DEd Primary (Melbourne), MEd (IB), (Melbourne), Cert in IE Feuerstein (FIE) – Std & Basic
Shahidah was a key staff member of Al Siraat College when it was first established in 2009. With her passion and enthusiasm, she hoped to be an effective and inspirational leader for Al Siraat College, a school that has the potential for providing opportunities for high academic achievement and personal growth for all of its student population.
Shahidah has accomplished 16 years of teaching and administrative experiences in a variety of school settings in Singapore and Australia. These opportunities have enabled her to develop strong communication, interpersonal, organisational and leadership skills that have allowed her to cultivate a supportive learning environment at Al Siraat.
In a management role in Singapore as the Education Director of Al Khair Education Centre, Shahidah was involved in setting up the centre, and contributed to the successful planning, and management of curriculum program for 600 students aged 3-6 years. This experience also involved facilitating and supervising 35 staff to create a flourishing learning and working environment. From 2006 - 2008 she taught at Australian International Academy, which was her first introduction to the International Baccalaureate program and inspired her to further her studies in teaching.
Shahidah graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Early Childhood Studies as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Primary Teaching. In 2013 she completed a Master of Education (International Baccalaureate), and is fully trained through the Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment Program in developing cognitive strategies in children.