What an incredible journey it has been for our Caningeraba Tournament of Minds teams in 2026! From the nerves and excitement of winning the Gold Coast Regional Finals and the State Finals in Brisbane, to the thrill of representing Queensland at the International Finals in Darwin, it has certainly been an experience to remember.
We could not be prouder of our Arts team and everything they have achieved. Their dedication, creativity, teamwork and determination throughout this journey have been truly inspiring. Making it all the way to the International Finals was an extraordinary achievement, and we hope the girls' stories give you a little insight into the excitement, challenges, laughter and unforgettable memories along the way!
A huge thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising efforts and helped make this incredible opportunity possible. It has been a privilege supporting and preparing the girls for Internationals. I would like to express endless gratitude to Mrs Christy and Mrs Sawley for accompanying the team to Darwin and ensuring the team feel supported to shine and making lasting memories.
Finally, a very special shout-out to all our wonderful Tournament of Minds helpers who supported not just the Arts team, but all of our Caningeraba teams throughout the year: Mrs Naughton, Ms Burke, Mr Jenkins, Mrs Hurford, Mrs Kinder, Mrs Quilter and Mrs Flynn. These opportunities simply would not be possible without such a fantastic team behind the scenes.
Enjoy the story from the girls' perspective…
The lead up to TOMs was scary, nervous and exciting!
All the teams were practising hard including spending lunch breaks, going to others houses and after school. Until the regional competition finally came up! All the teams did an amazing job presenting their long term and spontaneous challenges! Fortunately, every team won and made it to states in Brisbane! We all were practising our 3-hour challenges before school and in school! Some people went on the train and some in cars then we arrived! As we stepped in the icy cold room the panic started to creep in…3 2 1 and we were off. We were in small rooms blocked off from other teams! We then finished our challenges and had a spontaneous in the middle of it. As we were waiting patiently for our results, we were bored………but then it started! STEM and Social Science got honours and everyone was proud of them. Next, it was the arts turn and they said it… Caningeraba State School are the winners and off to Darwin! There were cheers from our family and friends! Back at school we felt like superheroes walking up to collect our awards at assembly. Then the arts team kept practising the 3- hour challenge until the day finally came. We had to do lots of fundraising like sausage sizzles and wearing the TOMS colours at school. We sat in the airport with tiny suitcases that were filled to the brim then the airport was calling 'flight to Darwin please go to your gate' and we were off in the air going like 3000km away from home. Then we landed and got waves of heat as soon as we stepped outside but then we went into the freezing cold party bus with blue and white lights!
Written by Angelina
When we were in Darwin, our hotel was called The O.A.K.
Mabel, Angelina, Stella and Mia were in room 1705. Nova, Hannah and Elsie were in room 1707. And last but not least Mrs Sawley and Mrs Christy were in room 1703.
On the last night we were in Darwin, everyone came into the year 6's room and watched a movie with lots of lollies. After a long day of competition and heads full of sugar, the year 6's almost pulled an all-nighter (the year 5's almost did) then woke up exhausted the next day. On the last day, in the morning we had breakfast, went to the pool, then walked around town in the heat to find a gift shop and some lunch. We were going to get sushi for lunch, but it was closed so we got McDonalds instead. We had to rush our way back to the hotel so that we didn't miss the bus to the airport.
This trip was the most fun experience that we have ever had together (and only one). Everything was much better when we did it with our friends.
Written by Hannah
One of our awesome activities we went to was the Crocosaurus cove!! We arrived at the cove on a air- conned bus with the art and stem disciplines. We walked through a moist dark tunnel to get to the crocodiles! There were big water tanks with crocodiles swimming around. They were huge and we could see them from different angles which was really cool. There was an extra activity tourists could pay to do which was really scary because they got trapped in a smaller plastic cylinder that got placed under water with people in it. The workers put a big chunk of meat on a stick and slapped on the water so the big crocodile would jump up and eat it and swim around the people!! There was a section in the attraction where reptiles live. There was a giant carpet python that the workers put on Stella and Nova's shoulders so they could hold it. It was REALLY scary because it slithered around us… most of the others held it in their hands because after how the others reacted with it around their shoulders, they got a bit scared. Another reptile the workers passed around was a blue tongue lizard. That one wasn't as scary, but it felt a bit weird… Sadly we didn't get to hold any other animals but there were a bunch of iguanas, turtles, snakes, frogs and more that we could look at through the glass windows. There was a rock painting station where we stopped and painted Aboriginal patterns and TOMs things. After an exhausting hot day looking at interesting animals, we stopped and got ice cream at the café in the cove! It was really refreshing and got us going to the souvenirs shop to get stuff for us! At the souvenir shop most of us got crocodile things like stuffed animals, magnets, keychains and badges!! This day was super dooper fun especially with all us together!!!!!!! 😊
Written by Nova
So, Darwin was really, really fun.
One of my favourite things were the pools, there were two pools, a wave pool near the hotel and a pool in the hotel.
We were meant to go to a museum after the crocs, but we were very tired, so we decided to go back to the hotel and got dressed into our swimmers and headed off to the wave pool called wave lagoon kiosk.
It was so fun as there were waves every 10 minutes [but it felt much longer] the waves stayed on for 10 minutes as well. Before the waves came on again Angelina, Stella, Mabel and I all tried to jump on the giant donut floaty so all of us would be rapidly floating above/on the big waves. After many attempts of trying but falling we finally all sat on the pool floaty and swiftly floated on the big waves. Although we kept falling off, we kept trying until we had to leave.
On the last day we woke up, had some breaky then went to the hotel pool and spent around an hour and a half playing, chicken fighting, Marco pollo and we made a synchronized swimming routine that involved flopping into the water and going on each other's shoulders.
Our favourite pools were= wave pool- Angelina, Hannah, Mabel, Nova, Stella, Elsie and Mia
Hotel pool = pretty fun, especially the chicken fighting, Marco polo and synchronized swimming.
We had the time of our lives just being with each other.
The day before the competition, we went to the NT netball stadium and did the badge swap with all the countries, states and territories'. Hong Kong and New Zealand's badges were really hard to get, however there was a teacher that was giving them away if you gave him compliments.
The challenge
Hiiiii so Darwin was really fun and I'm going to write about the challenge. The challenge was about Synesthesia . We were the Synesthesia Toms' team. We each had to have a Synesthesia so before I tell you our solution I'm going to tell you how we spent our 3 hours creating our solution. Mabel (me) Nova and Angelina were on making artworks, Mia and Hannah were on writing parody songs and Stella and Elsie were on script writing. We spent our first 20 minutes understanding the challenge, after that we split off into our groups. We spent 2 more hours making up our performance so we had 50 minutes to practice. After a while it all came together. We had mostly memorized our lines and polished our dances and songs - just after a few more practices we were ready. We had to clean up our room before we could exit.
THE PERFORMANCE
We were waiting and waiting and waiting. We were last out of all the primary arts toms' teams to perform, then finally we got up there so exited but also nervous to perform. We did some of the best acting we had ever done.
THE RESULTS
We were waiting in our seats; Arts were the last to be announced. We had watched the winners of Language Literature , Social Science, and STEM all being announced but now it was finally Arts 2 Honours and 1 winner. Unfortunately, we didn't place anything but we were already so proud that we had made it to Darwin
Thank you for reading!
Written by Mabel
What a journey and what memories! While the International Finals marked the end of our 2026 TOM adventure, the confidence, friendships, resilience and experiences gained along the way will stay with these students for a very long time.
From nervous beginnings and countless hours of preparation to performing on an international stage in Darwin, the students should be incredibly proud of themselves. Although they didn't bring home an award from the International Finals, simply earning the opportunity to represent Queensland and Caningeraba at this level is an achievement worth celebrating.
We are so proud of every member of this team and the way they embraced every challenge, supported one another and made the absolute most of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Congratulations, team! You have made Caningeraba incredibly proud. What an adventure!
Mrs Dlugosz