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Balgowlah Boys, Fairvale High and Killarney Heights High recorded the highest average marks in advanced mathematics of any non-selective public schools in last year’s Higher School Certificate.
A Herald analysis of average marks in the subject shows the 43 students at Balgowlah Boys who enrolled in the advanced course achieved an average mark of 90.3 – stronger than all but four selective schools.
For the Mathematics Standard 2 course, fully selective school Merewether High in Newcastle had the best average marks, followed by Manly selective and then Balgowlah Boys.
Balgowlah’s head of mathematics, Chris Hickford, traces its HSC success back to year 7 and teachers’ focus on building strong algebra skills, an ability to think formulaically and interpret critical information in written questions.
“We do have, I suppose, a traditional approach to maths teaching here at the school,” he said.
A typical lesson contains teacher-led examples, student questioning, followed by a “gradual release” for the students to work independently. Or, in teacher parlance, it is an “I do, we do, you do” approach.
Many students took up mathematics because they aspired to work in a trade and could see the value of numeracy skills to real life, he said, while other students wanted to take mathematics-based university courses. Others simply enjoy the subject because they’re good at it.
“The explicit nature of the subject appeals to the boys … seeing a clear result and an answer that very rarely can be ambiguous or misinterpreted. I think that clarity of it really appeals to the boys,” Hickford said.
It is easy to slip behind during the fast-paced year 11 and 12 courses, so the teachers focus on “ensuring the students are actually doing the work” with rigorous checks.
“We find just keeping the students to account for actually getting their work done makes a huge difference,” he said.
Eddie Woo, Professor of Practice at the University of Sydney, said there was no single method to improve mathematics results but successful schools often closely analyse results data provided by the NSW Education Standards Authority.
“It gives super granular data. We can drill down to individual classes and items in an exam,” he said.
Schools could detect areas of weakness and learn from their teachers whose classes had produced excellent results in certain topics, such as discrete random variables.
Another key to success was structured mentoring and purposeful skill development for teachers, which included pairing new teachers with experienced ones so they could see how they approached teaching the mathematics course.
“Some schools do it extremely well and other schools have constraining factors, so that means it doesn’t happen as much,” Wu said.
“Just because you can do the content yourself is not the same as being able to teach it … anyone who has taught someone how to drive can attest to this. It’s a whole different set of skills.”
Most private schools do not publish subject averages, though the high-ranking selective Sydney Grammar School reported an average of 87.7 for advanced maths. Girls school Roseville College reported a mean of 83.2.
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