Mathematics

Students

have made a very busy start to the year in Mathematics and a number of changes are taking place in the way your son accesses his learning.  The growing pace of technological change has impacted us for a number of years and the sheer number of resources that are available through technology can be staggering.  The conflict between using the technology to complete the work and yet still being able to display mastery of the working is felt by students and staff alike.  It is seeking the balance for each individual and their future needs and directions that is a growing concern for all of us. The change to online books through Jacaranda in Years 7 to 10 and Cambridge for the VCE levels has meant tweaking the courses as well as full changes to the mathematics curriculum at the VCE level. Rest assured that staff are on top of these and most of the alterations seem to be for the better.

To help students with the challenge they face confronting their mathematics learning, staff are still running maths help session this year.  They run every Tuesday lunchtime and Thursdays after school in a venue all students should know.  They are staffed by mathematics teachers and it is a way of getting that extra assistance required to solve those small problems. Students can come for the entire time or for however long they need to address their concerns.  It is a voluntary session and certainly not designed to take the place of their classroom instruction.  So the next time your son indicates that they are having problems, a simple “Have you been to maths help” is a very good question to ask.

As we all know this year is an Olympic year – easy to remember as the year is divisible by 4 but that might just be me – and as such it can be a great focus for a number of learning activities.  Our Year 8s have recently completed an analysis of past results for selected countries and made their decisions as to which countries are doing well statistically.  It was interesting to read the direction that a number of the students took in analysing past results with issues such as drug taking, wealth of countries, altitude and thus gravitational and resistance factors, home country advantage and new sports added. This is but a few and the presentations were of a very high standard. I have added a few submissions as well as the actual project for your interest should you care to take a look.  There are a few sports administrators and future politicians in the making from the selection that we have seen.