Mathematics

Academic

This year, we farewelled Mrs Hird (on maternity leave) and Mrs Kahunan who joined her husband in the eastern states for the rest of the year. This resulted in Mr Geagea and Mr Ludera joining us for remainder of the year and we thank them both sincerely for their services and wish them both the very best in their future schools. In addition, we were fortunate to recruit Mr Vaswani (who replaced Mrs Machin – who is also on maternity leave) onto our learning area team from the start of the year. In addition to the annual after school professional development activities run by the Mathematical Association of WA (MAWA) this year, Trinity College was the venue for the lower school "Have Sum Fun" competition, also run by the (MAWA). I want to thank Mrs Wilson and Mr Vaswani for their help and support in helping me to host these activities. Semester one was particularly busy this year with our involvement in the Quality Teacher Program on Numeracy, our adoption of the Curriculum Council Progress Maps instead of the Student Outcome Statements as our guides for assessment in Years Eight and Nine, and the adoption of a new computerised marks record system (Graduate). In August, I was pleased to be able to attend (along with Mr Vaswani, Mrs Wilson and Mr Duffy) the annual weekend conference for mathematics teachers held in Bunbury so we could be better informed for the benefit of the students of the college. Not only was it an enjoyable experience, but also an opportunity to share with teachers from other schools on the current trends and issues relating to mathematics education. We were able to collect useful activities and ideas for use with our respective students (in addition to an injection of enthusiasm that such events always bring). As in previous years, Trinity students have been successfully involved in many extra curricular activities of a mathematical nature. Congratulations to all students for participating fully and giving of their best in each of the competitions. Irrespective of their success in winning awards or not, the learning that took place made each participant a winner. Well done boys! A special thankyou to all staff who provided the encouragement and support that enabled each competition to be such a success. Next year will see the upgrade of the HP39 G

Mr Rom Cirillo graphics calculator that we have been using for some Head of Mathematics years now, to the HP39G +. We hope that this will solve some of the model faults that have been a problem in recent years. Another advantage of the new model is that it comes with a USB connection port allowing uploading to a PC without the purchase of the connectivity kit. For the last two years we have been using the Nelson textbook series for Year Eight to Ten students. These books are based on Victorian courses and have had some disadvantages – especially for Year Eight students. Next year we will be adopting the revised series re-printed for WA schools that will be an improvement. In addition, the accompanying CD will have web-linked student (and teacher) support activities for those who have internet access. In conclusion, I am pleased to report that Mathematics Education at the college is in a healthy state as gauged by various measures of student performance (TEE results and various state and national competitions). I would like to thank all of the Mathematics staff, for their support, professionalism and dedication to the well-being of our students.

Rom Cirillo

Head of Mathematics.