Mathematics
The mean-scaled study scores for Ruyton’s 2011 VCE
mathematics students were 50.3 out of 50 in Specialist
Mathematics Units 3 and 4, 39.9 out of 50 in Mathematical
Methods CAS Units 3 and 4, and 35.5 out of 50 in Further
Mathematics Units 3 and 4. A highlight of last year’s results
was that two of our Further Mathematics students received
perfect scores of 50. During 2012 we have had one Specialist
Mathematics, two Mathematical Methods CAS and two
Further Mathematics classes.
The University of Melbourne School Mathematics
Competition is the most difficult of all Mathematics
competitions which are available to Victorian students.
It is done under examination conditions. In securing our
16
th award this year, Jemma Billinghurst becomes the
first Ruyton girl to win three University of Melbourne
Mathematics Competition awards.We congratulate Jemma
on this outstanding achievement. Ruyton girls have also
taken out 18 Distinctions and six High Distinctions in this
year’s Challenge Stage of the Mathematics Challenge
for Young Australians, and 17 distinctions and three high
distinctions in the Enrichment Stage of the Challenge. In
this year’s Australian Mathematics Competition, Ruyton
girls won 33 Distinctions and five High Distinctions.
In 2012 Ruyton had its first-ever Mathematics Extended
class at Year 10 and we trialled Mangahigh.com. The latter
is a new online mathematics games learning community.
Sarah Cheang, Yiying Fang, Roshica Ponnampalam (Team
Captain) and Angela Yan secured second place in a closely-
fought Year 7 statewide Mathematics Games Day at
Overnewton College on 3 September 2012.Well done girls!
This is the third successive year that Ruyton has won an
award in this Victorian competition.
None of the above student success would have been
possible without the hard work and dedication of
the Ruyton Mathematics staff. I would like to express
my thanks to each and every one of them for their
professionalism and support during 2012.
The Maths Faculty had an in-house one day professional
development and learning activity facilitated by maths’
luminary Charles Lovitt. It was a most successful day with
staff learning about the many and varied possibilities of
using Maths 300 activities within the curriculum.
I would like to conclude my report with the following
quote from Old Ruytonian Felicity Reynolds. Felicity was a
member of the 2006 Year 12 Specialist Mathematics class.
She graduated earlier this year with First Class Honours in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western
Australia.
‘
As a female engineer, I’m constantly being asked why more
girls don’t choose to do engineering at university, and my
main answer is that it’s not seen as an option in high school.
I find this absurd, as I’ve yet to meet an incompetent female
engineer. I hate classing things in gender terms as I feel it
contributes to the issue, but my experience is that women
in engineering bring differing and highly useful viewpoints
to the industry. Particularly these days, women are sought
after for graduate positions, with many companies seeking
to employ as high as 50% female engineers in each intake.
Given that the pool they’re drawing from is rarely higher
than 15%, this bodes well for any woman undertaking
engineering at present and in the future.’
Mr Russell Boyle,
Dean of Mathematics
Annual Report 2012
18