Every child attending James Ruse is gifted and talented. They will do well and achieve high UAIs but it is the school's responsibility to do more than this. One aspect of this responsibility is to recognise each student's interests lie in different areas; all are mathematicians to varying degrees. Some have extra talent and more importantly, interest and love for Mathematics while others' interests lie in different areas. The aim is to encourage students to explore their own interest areas and to enrich and extend themselves through a challenging and engaging curriculum programmes. We encourage the students to enhance their higher order thinking by exposing them to lateral as well as extension topic areas that are not incorporated in the regular syllabii and for Mathematics in particular, we do encourage competition and the pursuit of excellence.

The staff of the Mathematics faculty is a group of very experienced teachers with a great depth of knowledge, understanding and skill level. They have a proven record of achievements not only in HSC performances but also in external examinations and competitions.

The teachers of the faculty teach the DET courses of NSW for Stage 4, 5 and 6, where for Stage 5 we complete to the level of 5.3. Our programs follow Gagne's theory on gifted and talented students using the Maker Model for Years 7-10 and we also go to a greater depth (higher order thinking style) in the many BOS topic areas as well as incorporating additional topics that are appropriate.

In Y10 we grade the five classes. In Stage 6 Year 11 there is one 2U Mathematics class and seven Mathematics Extension 1 classes. In Year 12, there is one 2U Mathematics class and up to four Mathematics Extension 2 classes.

The extra-curricular activities we offer are intended to assist the students to:

• Develop their problem solving skills while working mathematically
• Improve their communication through their setting out or their working mathematically
• Formally extend their mathematical knowledge and understanding
• Extend their fundamental concepts, by building on their manipulative skills, in Algebra and Geometry
• Use neat or enlightened solutions rather than achieve results through lengthy or awkward method of exhaustion approaches
• To meet the challenge of a number of in-depth yet accessible problems while developing their problem solving skills.

The Mathematics faculty selects students into:

• Year 7: Approximately 30 students for the Mathematics Challenge (Junior) and the EULER Series
• Year 8: Approximately 30 students for the Mathematics Challenge (Junior) and the GAUSS Series
• Year 9: Approximately 30 students for the Mathematics Challenge (Intermediate) and the NOETHER Series
• Year 10: Approximately 50 students for the Mathematics Challenge (Intermediate) and 30 students for the POLYA Series

There are fees associated with these activities and classes are held one morning each week in Terms 2 and 3. The programmes are greatly assisted by the University of Canberra's activities from the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT).

There are a number of other competitions which the students of James Ruse can enter:

• Australian Mathematics Competition - compulsory for Junior (Years 7-8), Intermediate (Years 9-10) and Senior (Years 11-12)
• UNSW Mathematics Competition - for Years 8-12 and exceptional Year 7s
• Mathsearch (MANSW) - mainly for Year 11
• Intermediate Australian Mathematics Olympiad (AIMOC) - Years 8-12
• Australian Problem Solving Mathematics Olympiad - all Year 7
• Maths Club - Maths Olympic Enrichment Class for interested advanced students in Year 8-12. The content covers the fringe of the syllabii and Olympic style questions as taught by a mentor/tutor.

From these competitions, students are then invited and or selected to participate in:

• Correspondence extension programs - Years 8-10
• Senior Australian Mathematics Olympiad (Senior AMOC)
• Australian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad (APMO)
• Summer School of Excellence (NMSS)
• Australian International Mathematics Olympiad team

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