Australia
Aaron Herrman from McLaren Vale finishes second in World Maths Day (14-18yr category)
Monday, 27 May 2013 | 
Author 
MCLAREN Vale teenager Aaron Herrman, 15, has defeated more than one million teenagers worldwide to finish second in an online maths competition.
The Seaford 6-12 School student, 15, who has autism, is now busy fine-tuning his skills for a national competition later this year after taking second place in UNICEF’s (the UN Children’s Fund’s) World Education Games.
Aaron’s mother Melinda said she and her husband Nigel were “literally bursting at the seams with pride”.
“We could not be more proud of him … it’s just amazing,” she said. “There is talent in every special-needs child.”
Aaron, who has limited speech, came second in the 14-18 age group in the March world championships. The winner, Ali Husnain, from Pakistan, defeated 1,168,237 contestants from 226 countries. Mrs Herrmann said her son, who can solve a complicated maths equation before most adults have finished reading the question, had always been “obsessed” with numbers. “When he was young, he was always carrying around something with numbers on it,” she said. “Maths is his comfort.”
Aaron entered the World Education Games this year after finishing first in the Commonwealth Bank Australian Maths Challenge last year, ahead of 449,315 primary and high school students across the country.
He will now turn his focus to the next national games in September, where he hopes to hold on to his top spot.
(Courtesy of The Australian, Lia Harris Southern Times Messenger, The Advertiser).
Comments Closed
UNICEF School-in-a-Box Prize Draw 2013 Announcement!
The World Education Games team and UNICEF are delighted to announce that Oak House School (Barcelona, Spain) is the prize-draw winning school for this year’s UNICEF School in a Box Program.
CONGRATULATIONS OAK HOUSE SCHOOL!
We also need to commend Oak House School for their amazing donation to this initiative of €10,328 … OR 60 SCHOOL-IN-A-BOX KITS! Each kit gives 80 children in poverty/emergency stricken regions the opportunity to receive an education. This means that Oak House School’s donations have impacted 4,800 children.
Two lucky students, two parents and a teacher from the school will go on the field trip to UNICEF’s projects in Laos in November 2013. They will see first hand how all the donations are making a difference in the lives of the student communities who receive these School-in-a-Boxes. Check out last year’s field trip video, for an idea of the kind of experience these lucky students will have! We look forward to sharing images and videos from this trip with you all, so that you too can see the fantastic opportunities your efforts and donations have afforded the children of Laos. Thank you to all of the students, schools and teachers around the world who participated in this Program. We look forward to seeing you all again for the World Education Games 2014!
“We were amazed and shocked to hear that we had won the WEG/UNICEF school-in-a-box competition. All of the staff, pupils, governors and parents are very excited about the trip to Laos and the great experience it will be for everyone who is going. All of the children from Year 2 – Year 7 took part in the World Maths Day challenge by completing a specially made booklet with a range of Maths questions in (maximum 200). They then all asked their friends and family to sponsor them to complete as many questions as possible within 30 minutes. The children loved the challenge and competition within each class/year group. Children from Nursery 1 to Year 1 also took part by completing set Maths games or challenges in class and again asking friends and relatives for sponsors. This year all of the pupils also wore a special t-shirt for the day with a number on. This ranged from football shirts, basketball shirts to handmade specially created World Maths Day t-shirts.”
~ Andrew Richards, Teacher at Oak House School.
Comments Closed
Education Minister Peter Garrett competes in Mathletics and Spellodrome challenges!
Australian Education Minister, Peter Garrett, is a long-time supporter of the World Education Games.
After he attended the Sydney WEG 2013 Awards ceremony a few weeks ago, he was eager to compete against the Mathletics champion from Brighton-Le-Sands Public School, Tabby Juncal (11 years old and pictured below).
The pair competed in Mathletics (what World Maths Day is based around) and Spellodrome (what World Literacy Day is based around). Take a look at who the winner was….!
Comments Closed
World Education Games 2013 winners announced!
The World Education Games team is delighted to announce that the process of verifying all prospective winners from the events is now complete.
Congratulations to the winning countries, schools and students! Take a look at all of the student and class winners from around the world here.
You can also check out the website for updated Halls of Fame here.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE MILLIONS OF STUDENTS AROUND THE WORLD WHO TOOK PART…
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AGAIN NEXT YEAR!
Comments Closed
Congratulations from Panayioti
Hey everyone,
As the 2013 WEG have come to an end, I’d like to congratulate all of you who participated in this year’s events. I had an extremely enjoyable and fun time and I’m sure the other 6 million students around the world did too! For everyone who was on the Hall of Fame for Literacy, Maths or Science across all age groups, I commend you for your efforts for doing so well. For those that didn’t make it, it really doesn’t matter because it’s all about learning and having LOADS of fun which I’m 100% sure that you did. And there’s always next year!
On Tuesday the 26th March, top ranked students from around the world will get the opportunity to come to my hometown here in Sydney, Australia at the Opera House to receive awards as part of the WEG Ceremony for 2013. I will be there that day and am really excited to be meeting my fellow competitors and other students from all parts of the world, whether it be Malaysia, Pakistan, England, USA and so on. WEG this year has certainly united the world in words, numbers and science and I’m proud to have been a part of it.
As my Ambassador role closes, I’d like to thank Samsung and 3P Learning for everything they have done for me and am very grateful for the opportunity that was given to me this year. It’s been a very memorable and enjoyable experience.
Lastly, I look forward to next year’s competition and I hope you can all join me too.
Comments Closed
Thanks for WEG2013 everyone, from Anand in Australia!
I hope all of you had loads of fun playing the World Education Games. I know that my friends and other fellow students at Trinity really enjoyed participating in the WEG. Congratulations to everyone who participated and to those who made it to the hall of fame.
I would also like to convey my special thanks to 3P Learning and Samsung for giving this unique opportunity to so many students around the world to participate in WEG and have fun learning.
I hope to see all of you competing again in the coming years.
Anand, WEG2013 Australian Ambassador.
Comments Closed
Congratulations Everyone!
Hi Everyone,
Congratulations on doing so well in the World Education Games this year, Australia! At my school, the library and computer labs were abuzz with students trying to get the maximum amount of points on the three consecutive days. On World Literacy Day, over 45 million questions were answered, on World Maths Day over 290 million questions were answered and on World Science Day almost 9 million questions were answered. Overall, around 345 million questions! What an effort!
Congratulations should go to all those who were in the top 100 in their age group and made it to the Hall of Fame. Special congratulations should also go to Gurtek G, the only Australian to make it to the top of the Hall of Fame! Great Work. 
Even if you didn’t make it to the Hall of Fame, you did a great job. Keep trying and maybe you’ll get there next year.
I can’t wait to compete in the games next year and I look forward to testing my Literacy, Maths and Science skills again.
From,
Georgia
Comments Closed
FREE Visual Literacy Teacher Resources from the creators of World Literacy Day… Spellodrome!
We are delighted to report that Spellodrome (the creators behind World Literacy Day) have recently launched a set of groundbreaking FREE Visual Literacy Teacher Resources. These resources have been designed to cover all age-groups between 4-18yrs and are intended for use all around the world. They have included images and themes from our charity partner, UNICEF, to bridge the subjects of literacy, visual literacy and values education.
As technology advances and society becomes more digital, children are getting exposed more and more frequently (and at younger ages) to images, making the need for visual literacy more and more important as time goes on. In turn, these children are also exposed to these increased images in a less controlled manner than before.
Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading. (Source: Wikipedia)
To accompany these resources, Spellodrome is also offering a special FREE TRIAL offer.. click here to sign up for this free trial today!
See below a sneak peek:
Comments Closed
How do YOU feel about cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is when people bully others online. Everyone has experienced bullying or cyberbullying at some point in their lives and we all agree that it’s negative and damaging behaviour that should be stopped. Last year in the WEG survey, many of you mentioned that cyberbullying awareness is very important to you… and we listened!
So this year, we are undertaking an anti-cyberbullying campaign… BUT WE NEED YOUR OPINIONS!
This is TOTALLY ANONYMOUS… we just want to know how you all feel!
Just click here and answer the questions- two minutes of your time will make a HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Comments Closed
Wahroonga Preparatory School has a blast at Australian Technology Park for World Literacy Day.
Have a read of this great Principal’s Report from Margaret Mead from Wahroonga Preparatory School:
“What a fantastic week many of our students have had this week. On Tuesday, students in Years 2-6 attended World Literacy Day (part of the World Education Games) at Australian Technology Park in Sydney. The students not only had a brilliant day but also found themselves on the ABC news. And didn’t they make us proud? They all spoke well and looked fantastic in their uniforms. Well done to the students interviewed.”
Comments Closed