16 awards in this Competition. A Year 8 student secured
our 17th award this year. Ruyton girls have also taken out
30 distinctions and 15 high distinctions in this year’s
Challenge Stage of the Mathematics Challenge for Young
Australians, and 32 distinctions and 10 high distinctions
in the Enrichment Stage of the Challenge. In this year’s
Australian Mathematics Competition, Ruyton girls won
35 distinctions, 6 high distinctions and 2 prizes. This year’s
Competition clashed with the Year 9 Camp and Year 10
Work Experience, which is why no Year 9 or Year 10 Ruyton
girls participated in the 2013 Competition. The Mathematics
Challenge for Young Australians and the Australian
Mathematics Competition are both run under the auspices
of the Australian Mathematics Trust and the University
of Canberra.
One of Ruyton’s Year 8 Mathematics Games Day teams
secured second place in the Year 8 state-wide Mathematics
Games Day at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School on
29 July 2013.Well done girls! This is the fourth successive
year that Ruyton has won an award in the Victorian
Mathematics Games Day competitions.
As part of the implementation of the strategic plan, the
Mathematics Department had a learning and teaching
review in the second semester of 2012. As a high performing
faculty, it is imperative that we constantly review our
procedures and programmes in order to maintain academic
excellence and to challenge our girls appropriately. This has
resulted in three main changes to our programmes for
2014. There will be no change, however, to the high level
of curriculum differentiation and excellence within
the faculty.
From the commencement of 2014, Year 10 girls will elect to
study either Mathematics or Mathematics A. Mathematics
A is the prerequisite study for VCE Mathematics Methods
and Specialist Mathematics. Girls who aspire to study one
or both of these subjects must elect to study Mathematics
A in Year 10. The Mathematics course prepares girls for
VCE Further Mathematics but is not an adequate
preparation for Mathematical Methods and Specialist
Mathematics in VCE.
Year 7 Mathematics in 2014 will incorporate a pre-testing
format for each unit of work. This will enable girls to be
best grouped according to their learning needs, while still
maintaining a variety of learning abilities in each group.
It will also provide each girl with an appropriate level of
challenge and success in Mathematics.
From the commencement of next year, Year 6 Mathematics
groups will be determined by pre-testing.We will continue
to provide extension and enrichment to girls within and
across the Year 6 Mathematics groups to ensure
personalised learning with appropriate levels of challenge
and success is achieved for all girls.
I would like to express my thanks to all members of the
Mathematics Department for their willingness to engage
in discourse, discussion and debate during our teaching
and learning review. Their professionalism, hard work,
talent and support have been of great assistance to me
in putting together our Three-Year Implementation Plan.
Mr Russell Boyle,
Dean of Mathematics
Performing Arts
2013 was another very successful and creative year within
the Performing Arts, with wonderful achievements both
within the classroom and as part of the CCA programme.
Music continued to thrive and grow throughout 2013, with
record numbers of girls involved in the instrumental and
ensemble programmes. Classroommusic was a big part
of this, with an emphasis on bringing all different aspects
of music together, as one homogenous department.
Over 400 lessons took place on a weekly basis in the
Instrumental Music Programme, with increased enrolments
in the brass programme. This will allow the orchestra and
bands to have a more balanced sound in the future.
Approximately 400 girls participated in at least one
ensemble, with many involved in up to four different
groups. Concerts hosted by Ruyton included regular events,
such as the Summer Concert, Contemporary Music Night,
Jazz Night and the Piano Festival, and two of the highlights
were the first-ever Large Ensembles Concert at Xavier
College and the Vocal Concert in Royce Theatre that
showcased our vocalists. There were also a number of after
school soirées and assembly performances. Many of the
ensembles took part in eisteddfods and festivals. The
Annual Music Camp witnessed a record number of girls
attending. There were 22 girls who performed 11 times
across Europe on the Music Tour, in such countries as the
United Kingdom, France, Austria and Italy.
In Year 7 the girls spent a majority of their time honing
their aural comprehension skills and theoretical
understanding, supplemented with the study of Indonesian
Gamelan Music. Girls also looked at the music of a well-
known art composer and created a radio advertisement.
In Year 8 the girls developed their listening and musicality
through aspects of the Kodaly method. They also created
an original short song, learnt how to play chords on the
ukulele, composed a backing track and recorded
Annual Report 2013
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