On Thursday afternoon, the crowd gathered on the sidelines of Frances Newson Oval to cheer on the Year 6 students as they raced around the track.
Now in its 11th year, the Derby was initially introduced as part of the Year 6 ‘transdisciplinary investigation into complex machines’. Over the years the Derby has become a whole School celebration which helps to signify the end of Primary School for our Year 6 cohort.
This year, for the first time, the racetrack was designed by the students themselves.
Year 6 student Cam worked on the track design and said everyone in the class put forward ideas which they merged together to create the final design.
“We presented the ideas to our class and ran a ballot where everyone chose their preferences for the track,” said Cam.
Year 6 student and fellow track designer Akira said the students used their iPads to help create the track.
“Once we decided on the design we used the trundle wheel to measure out the track and put down the checkpoints where each team needed to switch drivers,” said Akira.
The students worked in teams of five or six and each student was given the chance to drive the cart.
All teams put in a fantastic effort on the day and coming in first place was team Mario Party.
In addition to the award for First Place, the competition also presented awards for Best Costume and Best Cart.
The award for Best Costume was presented to team Class of 2018, who was inspired by the Year 12 class and their final day of School costumes.
Class of 2018 team member, Tilda, said making the costumes was their favourite part of the Derby.
“Our first idea was to dress silly, but then when we were working on our cart we came up with this idea. We thought it would be fun because we are graduating from Year 6,” said Tilda.
The award for the Best Cart was presented to The Badgers, who were inspired by the 2018 Bachelor, the Honeybadger.
Topping off the race day fun, was the always entertaining staff race, where St Michael’s staff members volunteer to dress up and compete in the Billy Cart Derby.