If the talented student has the support of parents and teachers, the school itself doesn�t matter in this digital age. Here in the Oz state with the highest number of selective schools and private schools, DS (15) attends a public high school in a non affluent area, where many of the students are aiming to be tradespersons and have little or no interest in academia. However, like Cranberry, I was very good at maths in my youth (sadly, hardly utilised in my profession) & had been invited to sit the AMO twice. All three of my kids have an aptitude for maths and DS shares my passion for the subject. The Maths HoD had also previously taught at our state�s top selective school, so she brought great knowledge & experience to our school. She purchased Maths Pathway software which enables all students to work at their individual pace. Hence DS, who had already taught himself a large portion of junior high maths in primary, was able to formally complete the Yr 7-10 maths curriculum in six months. She then purchased Maths Online for him to complete the rest of the high school curriculum over the next 18 months, sitting alongside his age peers in a regular classroom. Last year, he achieved 98 in the HSC maths exam which is usually sat in Yr 12, so now he has plenty of time to pursue extracurricular maths. He became the first student at his school to win AMT prizes, came third in the AIMO last year (AIME equivalent) and is awaiting AMO results. He was recently invited to the AMT Selection School (cancelled due to COVID-19) and has already met many students from the top schools nationally, at last year�s AMT School of Excellence, who were surprised he attended a school with no academic reputation.
He has been incredibly fortunate that the school�s maths HoD has the expertise and enthusiasm to enable him (so these are as much her achievements as they are his) and I think all this would have been very difficult before digital technology, but they�ve demonstrated that it is possible to achieve in maths in a �non-academic� school as long as both the student(s) & teacher(s) have the ability & motivation.
