Woollahra Public School has been crowned International Champions at the Tournament of Minds final in Darwin, capping off a six-month journey that began with a regional challenge and ended on the international stage against teams from across Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Tournament of Minds is an international problem-solving competition that challenges students to think creatively, critically and collaboratively, developing original solutions to complex, open-ended challenges as a team.

Both of Woollahra’s Years 5 and 6 teams, Arts and Language and Literature, won their categories at the Sydney East Regional Final before being crowned NSW State Champions, qualifying both to represent the state in Darwin. There, the Arts team went on to win their category outright, while the Language and Literature team was awarded Honours.

At each stage of the competition, students were locked away for three hours to devise and perform an unscripted, ten-minute response to a complex, real-world problem, with no input from coaches or teachers once the challenge began.

The Arts team was presented with an unseen challenge requiring them to create an original dramatic performance within a strict time limit.

The challenge involved developing a narrative about a Tournament of Minds team whose members experienced synaesthesia, a phenomenon in which different senses become interconnected, such as seeing colours when hearing sounds.

The students had just three hours to interpret the challenge, brainstorm ideas, develop their storyline, create their performance and rehearse before presenting a ten-minute production to the judges.

Meanwhile, the Language and Literature team was given three images - a desert, a cityscape and a futuristic scene - along with a set of words they had to weave into a single narrative. The six-student team linked the images through the theme of pollution, delivering their entire performance in verse.

Assistant Principal and Opportunity Class teacher Anna Hayward, who facilitated both teams throughout their Tournament of Minds journey, said the competition stood apart from anything else she’d seen in education.

“As a facilitator, I can’t tell them what to do. I can only teach them how to collaborate and manage their time and brainstorm. They have to solve it all themselves,” she said.

“I very rarely see the kind of growth in confidence and maturity that I see with Tournament of Minds.”

Ms Hayward said both teams were outstanding, giving credit to both of them for being brave enough to deliver the entire piece in verse.

“It gave them a real flow, and they still got the meaning of the story across. It was very clever,” she said.

Woollahra’s success was one of three wins for NSW public schools this year.

In the secondary division, Smith’s Hill High School won the Social Sciences category, while Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts took out the Arts division meaning NSW public schools claimed three of the eight divisional titles on offer at this year’s competition.