Mathematics
MATHS REPORT 2011
The staff complement of the Maths Department this year remains the same as 2010. This is a healthy position to be in, as teachers can become more experienced and grow in their teaching. They also know their students better. Generally a 2010 Grade 11 pupil will be taught by the same teacher this year, and this also occurs most times with Grade 8s moving up to Grade 9. Thus teachers started teaching sooner as they know their classes’, and their strengths and weaknesses sooner.
The support classes in Grades 8, 9 and 10 are proving to be very successful. These are for those students that are really struggling with Mathematics. They benefit from these classes because they are smaller and the class is thus able to move at a pace that can accommodate all in the class. It is pleasing to see the return of these students to the heterogeneous classes. Another purpose of these support classes is to prevent students from moving to Maths Literacy. It is both positive and pleasing to report that there is only one person in the Grade 10 Maths Literacy class this year.
The 2010 Matric Mathematics results were excellent. 97 students wrote Mathematics. Out of these 50 students (52% of the class) achieved an ‘A’ symbol result (above 80%) and a further 18 obtained a ‘B’ result. Thus 70% of the Matric students achieved a ‘B’ or higher in Mathematics. The school’s average was 76,5%.
There were only 10 Matric students in the whole of the Western Cape that achieved 100% for Mathematics. Two of these were SACS boys – Gareth Schumann and Lance Li. Both Daniel Geldenhuys and Fergus Wegener achieved 99% (2nd in the province) with Neil Du Toit, David Heany and Michael Nel achieving 3rd place with a mark of 98%. Well done to all!
In the Mathematics Probability & Data exam (the optional Paper III) 29 students wrote and 14 achieved an ‘A’.
Maths Literacy students also did well with all 19 students passing; 10 obtaining ‘A’s and 7 obtaining ‘B’s. An average of 80% was achieved.
Well done to all these students and to their respective teachers for an outstanding effort.
In closing, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Mathematics Department for their continued support and hard work. May the Department continue to grow and provide continuing excellence in Maths Education.
Have a good year.