Students from Willetton Senior High School and Perth Modern School have taken out the top individual and team prizes in WA’s Maths Olympiad hosted by The University of Western Australia.
The prizes were awarded on the weekend following the competition, which involved 472 individual competitors and 115 teams from 25 schools.
Students competed individually and in teams to tackle mathematical problems they wouldn’t normally encounter in the regular school curriculum and without the use of calculators.
At the prize ceremony, guests enjoyed an inspiring speech delivered by special guest Donna Buckley, recipient of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary School and a mathematics and cybersecurity teacher at John Curtin College of the Arts.
Rayden Oliveiro, from Perth Modern School, and Ryan Toor, Willetton Senior High School, both in year nine, tied for the top individual award, achieving a perfect score.
Image: Overall individual winners Ryan Toor (eft) and Rayden Oliveiro, with UWA Head of School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing Professor Mark Reynolds.
The Jack Bana Award for the Most Outstanding team performance was won by four year nine students from Perth Modern School – Rayden Oliveiro, Ethan Yap, Jayden Yip and Caiyan Yu.
Perth Modern School’s Cassie Lee, Mark Lee, Angela Huang and Tiger Varol won the David McDougall Award of Excellence for the most outstanding year eight team, while Ethan Ang, Ashvin Balavignan, Victor Chen and Menagan Manoharan won the Optiver Award of Excellence for the most outstanding year seven team.
A full list of winners and the answers to the questions can be found .
Prizes were donated by the UWA Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Curtin University Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Mathematical Association of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University School of Science, Murdoch University, The Gifted and Talented Unit of the Department of Education, New Edition Bookshop, Data Analysis Australia, Optiver and Casio Education gifted calculators and classpads.
Image: (left to right) Recipient of the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary School Donna Buckley with Caiyan Yu, Rayden Oliveiro, Jayden Yip, Ethan Yap and Jack Bana..
Other sponsors include the UWA’s School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, the Vice Chancellor of The University of Western Australia and the Australian Maths Trust.
