We had a very successful Y10 achievement regarding achieving numeracy this year. Additionally, about half of the Y10 cohort achieved a Merit or Excellence endorsement in Mathematics Level 1.

The Y10 Achievement standard course has been divided into two cohorts, a larger class and a smaller one. The rationale was that students who needed more help and teacher attention would be in the smaller class. However, due to an intake of students during the year this strategy could be only partially achieved. The maximum amount of credits a student could earn using the Y10 Achievement standard course was 17. Seven credits were optional; students could opt to sit the exam at the end of the topic taught. 100% of students opted to sit the MCAT exam, while all but one student opted to sit the internally assessed Linear Algebra exam. It has been also encouraging to see that all students opted to sit the MCAT exam despite the fact that a significant part of the topic (38%) have been taught during lockdown. These facts support the statement that all students of this course strived to achieve to their ability in Mathematics. Despite the limitations on learning effectively due to the lockdown, 83% of Y0 students passed the MCAT exam.

As expected a higher percentage of students gained 17 credits in Mathematics in the larger class (74% compared to 60%) and all but 3 students did gain Numeracy. These three students enrolled at St Catherine’s College towards the end of term 2 or in term 3, which meant that most internals have already been written and the option to gain Numeracy through achievement standards was not possible for them.

Finally, the following chart shows the extraordinary achievement of our Y10 students overall compared with other year 11 decile six schools and the national average.