​​ST Oliver Plunkett School at Cannon Hill​ is in celebration mode after scoring a massive win at this year's Australasian Pacific Tournament of Minds (ToM) competition.  

One of the school's four ToM teams was crowned champions in the language and literature category at the international finals held virtually.  

Team member Lilly said being named an international winner really made all their hard work worth it.   

“I really enjoyed working with the other team members to create a solution good enough to impress the judges and win the tournament for our school," Lily said.   

"I loved making all the props and costumes for our entry and performing was one of the greatest feelings."  

ToM provides an opportunity for students in both primary and secondary schools, to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative and divergent thinking.  

Challenges are set in the arts, language and literature, social sciences and STEM with a focus on teamwork, thinking processes and creative problem solving.  

Two of the school's four teams made it to the finals which are opened internationally, with this year's entries including schools from across Australia.   

For the International Final Challenge, teams were required to research three people related to their discipline.   

They were given a challenge to come up with a reason why those three people met in a cabin on a dark and stormy night, and what happened next.   

Teams had 15 minutes to work together, via Zoom, to solve the problem as creatively as they could, and present their solution to the judges in a three-minute timeframe.   

St Oliver Plunkett's winning team of Lilly Black, Chloe Min, Nova Schader-Mitchell, Mia Llort, Olivia Cabral Gomes, Lola Johnston, and Mahli Catlin-Gibson chose a poet, author and translator for their winning entry.  

ToM team facilitator Sheridan Ball said “the competition not only requires the students to think outside the box, but put many other skills into practice including teamwork, collaboration, time management, the use of technology as well as building on their self-confident".