Year 8 student Katherine holds a cupcake. 70543 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Charlene Gatt
CAROLINE Chisholm Catholic College is going for the three-peat at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show.
The school has taken out the Janice Grey Memorial Trophy for Most Successful School for the past two years, and will be submitting more than 210 entries across a range of categories in a bid to snare the title for the third year running.
Students across all year levels are submitting works across 40 categories, including paintings, drawings, ceramics, textiles, media, jewellery making and cooking. Last year, the school received 17 firsts, 12 seconds, 15 thirds, three very highly commended, seven highly commended and 27 commended to claim Most Successful School.
“It’s a really good competition to enter – there are students that aren’t necessarily sporty or academic, but this is something that they’re good at,” teacher Katrina Wheaton-Penniall said.
Ms Wheaton-Penniall used to enter the show herself as a student and got Caroline Chisholm involved when she started at the school five years ago.
She entered four students in the first year and came back with two seconds.
Ms Wheaton-Penniall soon noticed that one school, Genazzano College in Kew, had won the award 10 years in a row.
She dug a bit further to find out how many entries the Gennazzano put in, and enlisted fellow teachers and parents to ramp up Caroline Chisholm’s efforts.
“I was quite strategic about it,” she laughed.
“It had been won by schools in the East for years and years. It was quite emotional for some people to see the cup come back to the West,” she said.
